JEWELS FROM CARTIER: Gem Portraits by Louis Alter – OOP RARE 1956 RCA LP DSD Remaster

Louis Alter (18 June 1902 – 3 November 1980) was an American composer, pianist and arranger, Alter studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. In his early teens, he played piano in silent-movie houses, and in the 20s served as accompanist for singer Nora Bayes, as well as Beatrice Lillie and Helen Morgan, among others. Later in the decade, he contributed songs to several Broadway musicals and revues. During World War II Alter served as an Entertainments Officer for US Air Force bases, returning to compose the music for film songs such as �Dolores� (Frank Loesser, Las Vegas Nights, 1941), �Love Me As I Am� (Caught In The Draft, 1941), �If I Had A Wishing Ring� (Breakfast In Hollywood, 1946) and �The Blues Are Brewin�� and �Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?� Alter also wrote several instrumental pieces, including �Manhattan Masquerade�, �Manhattan Moonlight�, �American Serenade� and �Side Street in Gotham�. Twice nominated for Academy Awards ("Dolores," "A Melody from the Sky"), he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975.

In the mid 1950s Claude Yvoire, principal conductor of the Radio-Geneva Orchestra, commissioned Alter to write a suite of short tone poems based on the various jewelry designs for which the Cartier Company was famous. The resulting suite �Jewels from Cartier� was premiered in Geneva 1956 and soon after recorded by RCA Victor using their �New Orthophonic� monaural recording technique. On the album cover and rear the orchestra was credited as �Louis Yvoire and His Orchestra�, probably because it was marketed as a pop album in the USA. Alter�s music is never less than interesting and a quite melodic example of light classical works. �Jewels from Cartier� was only in print for a short while and has been out of print for over a half century. The album has never been legitimately reissued in any other format and even the LP is a somewhat rare find. This download was DSD archived from a fairly clean original RCA pressing and remastered using the extraction process which allows monaural recording to breathe across the stereo speakers and headphones in use today. I think you will find this unusual album a delightful listen. The download will only be available for about 30 days or so due to restrictions from SendSpace, as I can no longer use Mega thanks to the person (or persons) who has plagued us all on this site. It is in mp3 (320 kbps), since flac files are too large for SendSpace, I will no longer be able to offer flac of any of my posts here any more. Please do not ask. The mp3 files can be expanded in ITunes or other music programs into very good sounding wave files or CDs.

JEWELS FROM CARTIER – Gem Portraits by Louis Alter, composer – Claude Yviore, conductor
https://www.sendspace.com/file/qcd8d8

Thank you

Thank you for sharing this!

Many thanks.

thank you stevie

Wonderful & very rare!
Many thanks! It’s a gem of a record!