Music Commons^™

Happy Encounters With The Björlings, Ray Harsant

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

In 2001, my wife Elizabeth and I attended the JBS-USA Conference in Minnesota. For the benefit of the Jussi Björling Appreciation Society in the UK, Anders Björling put up for sale a lovely picture of Jussi and Ann-Charlotte Björling at the piano together, along with the actual tie that Jussi is wearing in the photo. These items are now framed and are a key part of our sitting room. They serve to remind me of several very special Jussi-memories.

Remembering Torbjörn Lindqvist, Harald Henrysson

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Filmmaker Torbjörn Lindqvist died on November 2nd at 75. For JBS members in Sweden and the US, he is surely best known for his film issued during the Björling centenary, Jussi i Våra Hjärtan, which was also his last. The film was distributed in the US by Kultur as He Sang with a Tear in His Voice, and was well-reviewed by Opera News, among others, which said it was “well written and directed,” and “an endearing portrait of one of the very great singers.”

Record Time: Walter Price Traces The Background Of Rca’S Legendary 1956 Recording Of La Bohème, Walter Price

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

In the spring of 1956, Andrew Schulhof, Thomas Beecham’s manager, had an idea for which record aficionados must continually give thanks. The British conductor was scheduled to be in New York while his then favorite soprano, Victoria De Los Angeles, and Jussi Bjoerling were available. Why not put a cast together and record La Bohème for RCA Victor? Those were the days when sales domination of the international music market gave America unprecedented power.

A Voice Lesson With Jussi, Arthur H. Patrick Darrow

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

In 1950 I was standing on the corner of 11th and Walnut in Kansas City, Missouri, waiting for a streetcar and whistling “Questa o quella” from Rigoletto. I was approached by a man asking for directions to the Plaza Theatre. He spoke to me in a Swedish accent. Curious, I asked if he were Jussi Björling, the tenor, and he was! I wondered if my whistling was why he asked me for directions, but I didn’t ask. I was astonished that he was there in person, so I don’t really recall all of the conversational exchanges we made. I …

Björling On Pristine Audio And Immortal Performances, Kristian Krogholm

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

There are a few record companies left that continue to restore and release old archive recordings in high quality sound. Richard Caniell`s Immortal Performances in Canada is one. I strongly recommend Roméo et Juliette (IPCD 1003-2) and Verdi Requiem (IPCD 1073-2)and a NEW release is due in April/May 2019 (IPCD 1110-2 Manon Lescaut 1959 + bonus concert recordings).

New Björling Cd Available Soon!, Henry Fogel

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

This spring, Immortal Performances will be issuing an exciting new 2-CD set “Jussi Björling: A Treasury of Little Known Broadcasts”. This beautifully re-mastered offering will feature the complete November 1959 Stockholm performance of Manon Lescaut, excerpts from concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and London Palladium, among others, and a Stockholm December benefit concert, (including “O Helga Natt” and a Christmas greeting to the audience from Jussi.) This highly anticipated CD is already receiving rave reviews, such as the following:

New Orleans’ Longtime Promotion Of The Vocal Arts, A Prime Case: The Career Of Soprano Audrey Schuh, Dan Shea

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

“New Orleans is America’s most exotic city ... both mother and muse to countless artistic talents.” These statements are made at the start of Brian Morgan’s 2006 biography of bass-baritone Norman Treigle. Examples of musical talents nurtured in New Orleans are named throughout Morgan’s book, but one of those is very special for Björling fans: Audrey Schuh, the soprano whose lively, lovely singing of young Oscar’s music shines throughout her 1950 recording from New Orleans of Un ballo in maschera.

Thrilling Centenary Book To Be Published, Sue Flaster

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

2019 marks the centenary of the singing tour in the United States of David Björling and his three oldest sons. Of course, for David, this tour was his second American adventure— a subject on which Harald Henrysson has been doing research and publishing informative pieces for many years.

Breathtaking Vocalism In Jussi’S Finest Wartime Concert, 75 Years Ago, Stephen Hastings, Milan Correspondent

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

November 10, 1944 (the first half, consisting of three Swedish songs, has not survived) demonstrates Björling’s increasingly idiomatic command of that language in arias by Donizetti, Mascagni and Puccini and displays the thirty-three-year-old singer at his mid-career best: the voice still enchanting in its youthful overtones, but sufficiently full-bodied to project the music of Calaf and Turiddu (and of course Nemorino) with total authority. Moreover the presence of an enthusiastic audience (the concert was programmed as part of the Stockholm Musicians Festival) and the singularly spacious leadership of the fifty-year-old Tor Mann (then chief conductor of the Swedish Radio Orchestra) …

Birgit Nilsson Centenary 2018: Nilsson Autobiography Re-Issued In 2018: Excerpted From The Original 2008 Review, Andrew Farkas

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Whatever the actual circumstances under which the text was born—writing, dictating, or taping—the narrative voice of Nilsson is consistent throughout and her well-chosen words read as if captured while relaxing in her armchair. Why did she decide to commit her life story to paper? Among the four reasons she enumerates in the Preface, the most convincing is her third: “I want to forestall the coming of the day when some nasty little writer will cook up a brew of lies about la Nilsson.”

Birgit Nilsson Centenary 2018: A Year Of Memories And Tributes, Janel E. Lundgren, Editor

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

“Birgit Nilsson as Isolde Flashes Like New Star in ‘Met’ Heavens.” proclaimed The New York Times on Dec 19, 1959, placing an exultant review of her first performance at the Metropolitan Opera on its front page.

Birgit Nilsson Centenary 2018: Meeting With Isolde, Stefan Johansson, Director

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

The first time I saw and heard Birgit Nilsson on the stage of the Royal Swedish Opera is now more than 60 years ago, the 16th of March 1958. I had started my career as a member of the opera audience in the autumn of 1957 with a holiday afternoon performance of Wagner’s Parsifal, in the first Swedish staging from 1917… Really I had wished to see a fairly recent production of Carmen, much talked about and broadcast in the then single channel of the Swedish Radio. But Parsifal neither made me fall asleep nor scared me off from further …

From The President, Janel E. Lundgren, President And Editor

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Happy New Year to our members, and welcome to the 2019 edition of our Journal. We are privileged to feature articles by multiple eminent authors, friends, and supporters of JBSUSA. We also reprint an article by our dear former member the late Pat Darrow, take a delightful stroll down memory lane with our friend Ray Harsant, and say farewell to JB documentary creator Torbjörn Lindqvist with a memorial by Harald Henrysson.

Front Matter

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

No abstract provided.

A Musical Weekend In Washington, Janel Lundgren, Editor

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

“It was a wonderful idea to bring JB Society members together for an outstanding performance with the National Symphony Orchestra with such great singers. The dinner at the Kennedy Center was quite enjoyable, met some interesting people and had a good time.

A Longtime Member Recalls The Roots Of Her Fascination With Jussi, Vicki Wallshein, Dan Shea

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

The Directors of our Jussi Björling Society-USA had their annual meeting in Washington DC last November, and the delightful Vicki Wallshein attended several sessions with her mother, Dixie. One of the main social events was Sunday brunch at the DC Army and Navy Club, hosted by Carol Pozefsky, where we had good opportunities to swap notes with others about how Jussi Björling had entered our lives! Vicki had this especially charming story:

Announcing The Member Marketplace!

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

JBS-USA is happy to offer a new, free service to our members. On our website, we now have a new page called Member Marketplace, a place for our members to offer up for sale, swap, or donation, any music-related items or collections they might have which they now want to “offload”. Only members of the Society may post items. Buyers, however, may be anyone from the general public who visits our website.

What Becomes Of My Jussi Stuff?, Walter B. Rudolph, Contributing Editor

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Regrettably, there is no Jussicology or scholarship in what I’m offering. But it is timely. We, as the Jussi Björling Society-USA, are occasionally approached by people with Björling recordings, seeking an afterlife, or an off-load, of their collections. Major repositories are systematically turning away such collections. And now, on a larger scale, we have joined the struggle to preserve the invaluable resource of the Swedish Record Archive.

Save The Swedish Record Archive!

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

“I am forwarding and strongly recommending an appeal against the actual destruction of the Swedish Radio Record Library, where I once worked. The collections there were of great importance for my work on the Jussi Björling Phonography. The text is also in English, and I hope that international support for the action against the wasting of a Swedish cultural treasure might be of some importance.” —Harald Henrysson

The First Second Caruso, James A. Drake

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

I don’t want to be another Caruso; I just want to be Gigli,” said the tenor who inherited many of Caruso’s lyric roles after his sudden death in 1921. Over the years, other tenors have expressed similar reservations, sincere or otherwise, about the “second Caruso” label which Beniamino Gigli addressed in his memoirs. Yet there actually was a “second Caruso”: the legendary tenor’s son and namesake, Enrico Caruso, Jr., whom I was privileged to meet at a social event in Tampa, Florida.

Revisiting Jussi’S Last New York Recital, Janel E. Lundgren, Dan Shea

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

From Jussi by Anna-Lisa Björling, Andrew Farkas (Amadeus Press, 1996, page 327):

“Jussi closed the autumn tour with a recital at Hunter College on 27 December 1959. His popularity and drawing power were such that he and Schauwecker had been invited back for this ‘concert extraordinary’ only nine months after their previous appearance. It was a capacity house; many people had to be seated on the stage behind him, but as always, Jussi sang at least one number or a couple of encores facing them. Cornell Mac- Neil recalls the night, the last time he heard Jussi sing.

About November 1959, Göran Forsling

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

I have already dealt with the autumn of 1959 in Jussi of the Month November 2018, ( on the Jussi Björling Sällskapet website) but when I now return there it is from a somewhat different perspective, which may perhaps offer a further dimension to the artistry of Jussi. That Jussi’s plans for that autumn were thwarted through illness and limited to a small number of appearances has been mentioned earlier, but it’s interesting to realize that almost all of those appearances were recorded and, at least partially issued on records. On 20 August he gave a concert at Gröna Lund …

Announcing Immortal Performances’ New Release Of Roméo Et Juliette: Notes For Roméo Release, Richard Caniell

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Jussi Björling is particularly celebrated for his singing in Roméo et Juliette and La bohème, especially for a mixture of refulgent passion and much refinement in the characterizations sung in tones of such resplendency that we can scarcely believe such sound could be uttered by the human voice. These two roles are memorably represented by performances sung in his youth (in 1940) at the Royal Opera Stockholm. In March 2020 we are presenting our restoration of the complete 1940 Roméo et Juliette as well as a complete 1943 Act II. In addition the set includes the world premiere commercial …

Jussi’S Three Debuts At The Stockholm Opera, Nils-Göran Olve

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

As readers of this journal may know Jussi Björling’s first role in opera was the tiny part of the Lamplighter in Manon Lescaut, a role which is only 18 bars long – but most of them solo – in that opera’s third act. That was on 21 July 1930, and the venue was of course the Stockholm Opera, or as it says on the poster “Kungl. Teatern” — an abbreviation for “Kungliga Teatern” — The Royal Theatre. If you can master rudimentary Swedish you can find it and much of the data that I will cite in this article on …

Front Matter

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

No abstract provided.

Does Spotify Really Hurt Artists?, Daniel Witt

Marriott Student Review

For years, members of the music industry have debated whether music streaming services like Spotify help or hurt artists. This article explores the pros and cons of music streaming and argues that overall, Spotify and services like it are helping artists to achieve their career goals.

Recording Of Marco Borogni’S Vocalise Etudes For Trumpet, Dominik Campora, David Brown

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The experience of preparing, completing, and evaluating the progress of my ORCA project over the past twelve months has helped me grow exponentially as an aspiring orchestral musician. Specifically, preparing the Bordogni etudes has helped me achieve a heightened musical sense of phrasing, analysis, and musicality. Our musical and academic objectives of the project were to provide a reference for future trumpet performance students on vocalise studies (such as these,) and the concept of overall sound production, phrasing, and virtuosity. We were able to record a CD that will be documented and preserved in the trumpet studio for students to …

I Hear Dead People: Addressing The Discord Between Museum Culture And Contemporary Classical Music, Christian Hales

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Classical music in our society is a window to the past. While social attitudes are increasingly forward thinking, backward-looking preferences in classical music have stayed relatively unchanged since the mid 19^th century. Why isn’t the music of living composers listened to and respected as much as that of dead composers? I begin this paper by briefly outlining the beginnings of our modern musical landscape--that is where we came from and how we got here. I then make a series of observations on performing groups that are presenting contemporary classical music in innovative ways. Lastly, I discuss the concert of …

School Of Rock: The Relationship Between Music Training And Academic Academic Achievement, Clayton Hadlock

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Music education has been a key part of human culture for thousands of years (Cartwright, 2013). As children often begin to receive musical education during grade school, many researchers have begun to investigate whether musical training may benefit other areas of academics. This literature review evaluates the overall effectiveness of musical training on academic performance for three different age groups: pre- and elementary school children under 12 years old; middle and high school-age adolescents between 12 and 18 years old; and college and university students over 18 years old. Musical training here includes instrumental and vocal training, as well as …

The Effects Of Music On Student Step Counts And Time In Activity In College Basketball Activity Classes, David C. Barney, Keven A. Prusak, Lindsey Brewer

Faculty Publications

Music is a powerful influence in life. We hear music at work, in the car, at the mall, and in our homes. Music has also been found to have an affect during physical activity. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of music on physical activity rates, via pedometers, of college-aged students in basketball class. For this study 106 college-aged students participated in this study. Two classes played basketball with no music playing during game play. Two other classes played basketball with music playing during game play. It was found that the two classes that played basketball …