ALMA GLUCK Singer's music is reissued on CDs

She was versatile and an unfailing musician.
By TIM PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
Here's a good question for your next trivia contest -- what was the first record to sell a million copies?
If you guessed that it was something by Elvis Presley or the Beatles, you're way off. And no, it wasn't one of the wildly popular big-band records by Paul Whiteman, Glenn Miller or Benny Goodman. The first disc to break the million mark, way back in 1915, was a Victor recording of James A. Bland's "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," sung by the Romanian American soprano Alma Gluck, accompanied by a male chorus.
Along with Irish tenor John McCormack, Gluck might be considered the first great crossover recording artist -- a musician equally at home in popular song and the classical literature. Now an acoustician and avid amateur musician named J.C. Lockwood has issued all but 18 of the 116 recordings Gluck made on 78 rpm discs, in impeccable transfers on four CDs from his own label, which is appropriately titled 78s2CD. They are very beautiful indeed, and allow us, for the first time, a virtually complete portrait of an artist of rare versatility.
Unfailing musicianship
Whether she was performing minstrel songs or florid Handel oratorio, Gluck never "sang down" to her audience. Within the five hours of music represented here, a listener will find "My Old Kentucky Home," "Aloha Oe" and "My Bonnie" set cheek by jowl with arias by Bellini, Bizet and Puccini. She recorded two loopy songs with a professional bird-caller named Charles Kellogg and the "Brindisi" from Verdi's "La Traviata" with Enrico Caruso. She sang them all in a pure, bright, strong soprano voice, with unfailing musicianship.
Gluck was born in Bucharest but came to the United States when she was 6, and grew up in poverty on Manhattan's Lower East Side. In 1906, a friend heard Gluck sing and arranged for a meeting with Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, a celebrated voice teacher; he agreed to take the young woman on as a student for a reduced fee. A scant three years later, she made her debut in Massenet's "Werther" at the Metropolitan Opera.
Her career
She remained with the Met until 1912, singing a total of 18 roles, large and small. But she found recital singing more congenial and -- especially after she began recording for the Victor company in 1911 -- more lucrative. The remainder of her career was short and brilliant: She received more than $600,000 in record royalties between 1914 and 1919, but by 1920 she was suffering from vocal problems and she retired shortly after her 40th birthday. Thereafter, she devoted herself to charitable work and the upbringing of her three children, two of whom -- the novelist Marcia Davenport and the actor and producer Efrem Zimbalist Jr. -- went on to distinguished artistic careers themselves.
Efrem Zimbalist Sr., who was married to Gluck from 1914 until her death, was among the leading violinists of his time, and they made a dozen recordings together. But her most famous collaborations were with the contralto Louise Homer. These included three excerpts from Humperdinck's "Hansel und Gretel"; popular duets such as "Oh, That We Two Were Maying," "Whispering Hope" and the "Barcarolle" from Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann" and several devotional works ("I Need Thee Every Hour," "One Sweetly Solemn Thought" and an unforgettably intense "Abide With Me").
The four CDs devoted to Gluck are titled "Listen to the Mocking Bird," "The Lost Chord," "The Lass With the Delicate Air" and "Calm as the Night." Each CD is $11.99; all four are available for $24.99. The discs are not available in stores. For information visit www.78s2cd.com or write to J.C. Lockwood 78s2CD, 7523 E. 25th Place, Yuma, Ariz. 85365-7893, or call (928) 344-6806.