A Fiddler’s Tale – Louis Kaufman (with Annette Kaufman) How Hollywood and Vivaldi Discovered Me

Read by Annette Kaufman – Unabridged – 14 Compact Discs (Includes Bonus Disc of Musical Selections)

Louis Kaufman  (1905-1994) was probably the most recorded violinist in history, with more than one hundred major concert works and hundreds of film soundtracks to his credit. This fascinating memoir, by one of the greatest American violinist of the twentieth century, recounts an extraordinary life in musc. Once called by the New York Times “a violinist’s violinists and a musician’s musician,” Louis Kaufman born in 1905 in Portland, Oregon, studied violin with Franz Kneisl at New York’s Institute of Musical Art. He was the original violist of the Musical Art Quartet (1926-1933) and  won the Naumburg Award (1928), the same year as his American solo recital debut in New York’s Town Hall. During his youth he played chamber music with Pablo Casals, Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Gregor Piatigorsky, and Efrem Zimbalist, among others. After performing the violin solos for Ernst Lubitsch’s 1934 film The Merry Widow, Kaufman became the most sought after violin soloist in Hollywood, playing in some 500 films, including Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Diary of Anne Frank, Wuthering Heights, The Grapes of Wrath, and Spartacus. He worked closely with Robert Russell Bennett, Bernard Herrmann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Miklós Rózsa, Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, and Victor Young. Extraordinary as it seems today, Kaufman was largely responsible for bringing the once-forgotten music of Antonio Vivaldi to its current popularity worldwide among classical musicians and general music lovers.  Kaufman, something of a Renaissance man, was a keen eyed-art collector, stalwart advocate of modern music and even an accomplished memorist.

CD8900

Performed by Electro-Metamorphosis (Peter Terry -Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI) and Lucia Unrau (Midi keyboard Controller). Includes Cold River of Light, In Measures Being Kindled, Intrusions, Winter Music, In the Shadow of Passing Angels, Attractors, A Halo of Dark Stars. DDD

Introduction to the evening by Dick Powell — Louella Parsons chats with Tyrone Power, Jean Hersholt, James Stewart, Loretta Young, Michael Whelan, Dixie Dunbar and others — Raymond Paige and his Orchestra salute 20th Century Fox with a medley of Fox hits — Dick Powell guides a tour around the Fox lot and sings Pocketful of Sunshine and I’m Sitting High on a Hill Top — the guests drop in on the filming of Step Lively, Jeeves, starring Arthur Treacher, who joins Frances Langford in a song — Dick  Powell and his guest visit the set of On the Avenue to watch a dance rehearsal and Dick sings Believe Me If All Those Enderaing Young Charms —Jeannie Love sings One Fine Day— Igor Gorin sings a Russian folk song — Dick and Louella visit director Henry King on the set of Seventh Heaven as he talks to song writers Sidney Mitchell and Lew Pollack, and Tony Martin sings the title song &mdash Dick Powell introduces Darryl F. Zanuck — Dick Powell, Frances Langford, Tony Martin and Igor Gorin sing a medley of songs from Fox musicals  — Dick Powell and Louella Parsons go to the party on the sound stage to celebrate the introduction of Sonja Henie and her film One in a Million —Ken Niles narrates enacted scenes from the film, featuring Adolph Menjou, The Ritz Brothers, Arlene Judge, and others — Dick and Sonja do a scene from the film and Dick sings Who’s Afraid of Love? — Ken Niles introduces an actual scene from the film, projected on the sound stage for the guests —The Christmas party wrap up. Source material taken from optical film. The best surviving sound example of a network radio show from the 1930s.