THE VOCAL RECORD COLLECTORS' SOCIETY

PRESENTS


JUSSI BJÖRLING IN MEMORIAM
A FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE


By
DANIEL F. SHEA AND SETH B. WINNER



We know it seems impossible to believe, but Jussi Björling’s untimely passing occurred exactly fifty years ago as of the day before our September meeting – on September 9, 1960. To mark this unhappy anniversary, and also the upcoming one-hundredth anniversary of his birth on February 5, 1911 (some sources say February 2, the day on which Björling always celebrated his birthday), the V.R.C.S. will, in conjunction with The Jussi Björling Society-U.S.A., present a very special program devoted to this unique tenor.

Since it would be a total waste of space introducing Jussi Björling to members of the V.R.C.S., we will confine our Björling comments here to mentioning that from the mid-1930s until his death, Jussi spent a great portion of his career making radio (and, later, television) appearances, both in the U.S.A. and in Sweden, and it is the world’s good fortune that so many of these broadcasts have been both preserved and reissued over the years, even if often in inferior sound. (Jussi Björling was, of course, an eagerly sought guest for the classical music broadcasts of the era [1937-1960] as evidenced by his having won Musical America’s annual media music writers’ poll for favorite male singer for three years in a row, 1950-1952.) And to mark the two Björling anniversaries, The Jussi Björling Society-U.S.A. is issuing, through West Hill Radio Archives, a commemorative four-CD set, almost all of which emanates from these radio sources, and at least some of which has never been issued before. However, in the vast majority of instances regarding even the previously-issued material, they have had access to better transcriptions and sources than have heretofore been used, and they also now have the benefit of our own Seth Winner’s sound restoration techniques to ensure the greatest possible fidelity. We have heard some of these already, and they are startlingly well done. Because of various legal considerations, these sets cannot be “sold” in the United States, but they are available for dissemination to members of the Björling Society for a specific contribution. To learn more about this, and avail yourself of the opportunity to acquire one of these sets, please see the order form enclosed with this notice, which covers just about any question(s) you could possibly have. Also, since this is a vast undertaking and we cannot possibly include the contents of the set with this notice, please go to http://www.JussiBjörlingSociety.org for complete information (the order form inadvertently has a fourth “w” in that address; please use only three of them as given here). You may be astounded by the scope of what you encounter there!

Some of our V.R.C.S. members are also members of The Jussi Björling Society-U.S.A., but there will be a number of non-V.R.C.S. members of the Björling Society in town on our meeting night, and we will be welcoming their attendance, so it will be quite a Björling evening here in New York.

As for our presenters, Dan Shea (whose name you will encounter on the enclosed order form) was a founder of The Jussi Björling Society-U.S.A. and served as both President of the organization (1998-2007) and Editor of the Society’s Journal (2001-2007). He is currently Secretary of the Society. As a mathematician he visited Sweden regularly between 1975 and 2001 to do research in theoretical harmonic analysis; that field provides the mathematical basis for the equipment used by sound engineers to improve recorded sound – a fact, he assures us, that adds to his enjoyment and appreciation of Seth Winner’s work on this current project. (And you thought you were smart!)

Seth Winner, of course, needs no introduction here. Seth has been President of Seth B. Winner Sound Studios for two decades and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards! He has overseen remastering projects for the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, SONY/BMG and Pavillon Records, and he is especially known for his work with The Toscanini Archives, the Jan Peerce Archives and The Bach Aria Group Archives. Recently, he has been involved with preservation and remastering for The Cy Walter Archives, The Schnabel Family Foundation, and the Benny Carter and Benny Goodman Collections at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University. In addition to all of that, he has engineered all of our V.R.C.S. Annual Issues for over two decades and, wonder of wonders, has been engineer and eminence grise for almost all V.R.C.S. programs over the past quarter-century. (Seth is smart, too!)

Please plan to be with us for what is certain to be an unforgettable evening at the V.R.C.S.

DATE: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
TIME: 7:30P.M. SHARP
PLACE: CHRIST CHURCH BASEMENT AUDITORIUM
PARK AVE. & 60TH STREET
N. Y. C.

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