Fred Plaut

Friedrich "Fred" Plaut (born May 12, 1907 in Munich ; † 1985 ) was a German-American sound engineer and photographer . His excellent recordings with musicians such as Leonard Bernstein , Dave Brubeck , Miles Davis , Glenn Gould , Wladimir Horowitz and Barbra Streisand are often classics today.

Life

Fred Plaut graduated from the Technical University of Munich as a sound engineer. From 1933 to 1940 he lived in Paris , where he ran his own recording studio. He also worked for Polydor .

On September 24, 1938, in Paris, he married Rose Kanter, a soprano from Poland who studied singing in France . Rose Plaut performed in France, England , Belgium , the Netherlands and Italy and was a close friend of Francis Poulenc , who dedicated some of his songs to her and had a lively correspondence with her until his death in 1963.

In January 1940 Fred Plaut moved to the USA and began his career as a sound engineer with Columbia Records in New York City in April of the same year . He was employed there until 1972, most recently as the label's chief engineer.

In June 1940, with the beginning of the German occupation of Paris , Rose Plaut also came to the USA. She continued her singing career now under the name Rose Dercourt; in April 1944 she made her American debut in New York's Town Hall .

Plaut recorded numerous jazz LPs for Columbia, but was also in great demand as a sound engineer for recordings of classical music. He recorded the majority of the Columbia Masterworks and oversaw many recordings with the leading orchestras in Philadelphia , Cleveland , Chicago , Minneapolis , Louisville and New York, as well as albums of music from Broadway shows, operas and dramatic pieces, both for Columbia as well as for other labels. He has also recorded numerous chamber music and solo performances.

His work usually took place in the Columbia recording studios, particularly the legendary CBS 30th Street Studio , but also on-site at events such as the Newport Jazz Festival and the Marlboro Festival .

During his time at Columbia Records, Plaut taught The Art of Recording for the Manhattan School of Music . After retiring from Columbia in 1972, Plaut joined the staff of the Yale School of Music as a consultant and senior recording engineer and began teaching there in 1977. In 1975 he also taught "Music in Modern Media" at Columbia University .

Famous albums

Fred Plaut recorded numerous famous albums for Columbia, including

• Bach: The Goldberg Variations with Glenn Gould (1955),
• Billie Holiday , Lady in Satin (1958),
• Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (1959),
• Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis and Gil Evans (1959/60),
• Time Out by Dave Brubeck (1959) with the hit Take Five ,
• Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus (1959),
• Mingus Dynasty by Charles Mingus (1959),
• Classical Barbra by Barbra Streisand (1976).

Activity as a photographer

Through his work as a sound engineer at Columbia Records, Plaut has had frequent opportunities to photograph famous artists. In addition, he and his wife often gave parties in their lavishly run New York house, to which numerous well-known guests also appeared.

The result are thousands of candid portraits of great conductors, orchestras, soloists, chamber musicians, pop and jazz musicians as well as actors and writers. Those portrayed by Plaut include George Balanchine , Samuel Barber , Leonard Bernstein , the Budapest String Quartet , Pablo Casals , Aaron Copland , Zino Francescatti , Glenn Gould , Mieczysław Horszowski , the Juilliard String Quartet , Dimitri Mitropoulos , Eugene Ormandy , Vittorio Rieti , Richard Rodgers , Ned Rorem , Henri Sauguet , Alexander Schneider , Rudolf Serkin , Isaac Stern , Igor Stravinsky , Carlos Surinach , George Szell , Joseph Szigeti , Virgil Thomson , Edgard Varèse and Bruno Walter .

More photos were taken on the travels the couple took and where they met personalities such as Eugene Berman , Pierre Bernac , Janet Flanner , Alberto Moravia , Francis Poulenc and Pablo Picasso .

Plaut's photographs have been exhibited in various museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Awards

Fred Plaut received five Grammy Awards and six other nominations.

Publications

• The Unguarded Moment: A Photographic Interpretation , Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1964 ( digitized )

estate

Plaut's estate is in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library at Yale University .

Web links

• Fred Plaut at Discogs (English)
• Discography at AllMusic
• Estate directory including a short biography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ROSE DERCOURT GIVES FIRST LOCAL RECITAL; Polish-Born Soprano Makes Her Debut Here at Town Hall , in: New York Times , April 20, 1944, p. 22 ( digitized version )