THE LONGINES SYMPHONETTE RECORDINGS Some Recollections by Angela Morley

Reuben Musiker has asked me to write about the work I did for the Longines Symphonette Society in the 1960s. His request to me was triggered by his rediscovery of some orchestral recordings, such as ‘Evening Serenade’, an album of standards which he felt to be of truly excellent quality.

I don’t have a single record from that series of recordings which I don’t really think was as good as the Reader’s Digest Series, which I described in an earlier issue of Journal into Melody. All I can remember about it is as follows.

Sometime in the middle 1960s, I received a letter from an old friend of Norman and Betty Luboff called Gene Lowell. When Norman was demobilized from the army after WWII ended, he headed for New York to find a job singing. There were at that time several big radio shows that had choirs. One was called the Rail Road Hour where the musical director was Lynn Murray who became much later a respected Hollywood film composer for writing scores like ‘The Bridges at TokoRi’, the Gary Grant and Grace Kelly film ‘To Catch a Thief’ and many others. Lynn Murray had an assistant called Gene Lowell and it was the latter who auditioned singers for Lynn. Norman Luboff turned up one day and sang for Gene who gave him the Rail Road Hour and some other shows. Anyway, I received Gene’s letter asking me if he could produce records for the Symphonette in London. I didn’t have time to read the letter because I was just leaving the house to take my car on a holiday to the continent with my son Bryan. The first time I had to write a reply was in Andorra.

Gene really liked hearing from Andorra of all places. When I got home again I ‘phoned Gene and the first recording happened soon after that. We did all the recordings at the old CTS Studios in Westbourne Grove with Eric Tomlinson and later John Richards as recording engineers. The first package was a Christmas album and I managed to do it all myself. After this, the work became so heavy that I couldn’t do.

From then on, there’s not much to remember. The work continued until about 1970. None of us were ever credited for either arranging or conducting, the name on the records was, I believe, just made up to look impressive. Maybe the lack of recognition was the reason why I didn’t rank it with Reader’s Digest. I’m afraid I do not know anything about ‘Evening Serenade’. Several arrangers could have done it, perhaps Peter Knight, Ken Thorne and quite a few others. Maybe I did some of it without knowing the title ‘Evening Serenade’. Gene Lowell passed away in the late 1980s. His dear wife, Helen, is still alive probably in her 90s. I’m certain that she would not be able to help you.

Angela Morley 2004