GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 9 (Supplement)

GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

ARTISTS AND THEIR RECORDS. (By SOUNDBOX.) SCHUBERT. He breaks his dazzled wanderings, Onr human ways to walk among, Chanting of paradisal things In paradisal tongue. —Stanley Snaith. There are comparatively few saxophonist's doing solo work for the recording companies. Probably the best known of those who do is Rudy Wiedoeft, whose playing of "Sax-o-Trix" and "In the Orient" is as remarkable for the success of the recording as for the skill of the player. (3395, lOin.) Baaed on a theme that is rather refreshing after the banality of many of the machine-made fox-trots we hear, "Baby's Feet Go Pitter-Patter" is a happy combination of good sentiment and a good tune to carry it. Played by Abe Lyman's Orchestra with "There's One Little Girl Who Loves Me" on the reverse, it is good dance music. (3605, lOin.) When Frank Wright and Frank Bessinger, two American vocalists, became associated for broadcasting purposes, they billed themselves as ''The Radio Franks," and under that name have since won an enviable reputation both on the air and on records. Their latest, "When Day is Done" and "No Wonder I'm Happy," is quite up to their usual standard (3585, 10-inch). Two delightful duets are sung by two delightful singers, Vivien Lambelet and Dorothy Lebish, "The Old Sweet Song" (Kreisler) and the famous Barcarolle from Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann." The former is another vocal version of the fascinating "Caprice Viennoise," with which Kreisler's name as composer will remain inseparably connected. (B. 2471, 10-inch).

For some time I have had the feeling that, contrary to the expectations of some pessimists, radio was helping rather than .hindering the gramophone trade. A [writer in the "London Financial News" has a good deal to say on the subject. After referring to the natural assumption that the rise of wireless would mean the decline of the gramophone, the writer points out how wireless has brought music much more into the lives of a very large number of people, and in doing so has created a wish to hear more music and the desire also for the repetition of certain popular pieces. He says the theory ia that after having heard music on the wireless, people purchase records so that they can play them at wiil. Undoubtedly his theory is sound.

It does not seem so very long ago since a new fashion for Hawaiian music was developed by means of the gramophone. Many must have considered it ti passing fancy, but my friends in the gramophone trade tell me there is no sign of a lessening of interest in this quaint music by the record-buying public. Palakiko and Paaluhi, capable exponents of the Hawaiian guitar, play ''South Sea Dream Girl" and "Sunny Hawaii," tuneful ditties, in which the twang of the guitar has been faithfully recorded (3307. 10-inch).

This month's issues of the Dajos Bela orchestra include "Fantasio Orientale" and Russian "Fantasie" (E10625) and "The Grenadiers'' (Waldteufel) and "Casino Tanze" (Gungl), waltzes (1210626), both 12-inch. The fantasies are as interesting as well arranged fantasies should be, the Oriental containing several of the chief tunes of Korsakoff's '•Scheherazade," while the Russian includes something of Tchaikowsky's Sixth Symphony and the "Volga Boat Song." The waltzes are as well played as is usual with this orchestra, which seems equally at home with whatever it plays.

"Ain't Thai, a Grand and Glorious Feeling" and "Just Like a Butterfly (That's Caught in the Rain)" are sung by Harry Richman (3569). A rather interesting story of Richman's rise to fame appeared in the "Cincinnati Post." Sixteen years ago he was playing the piano in a New York cafe. He left the city and played and sang his way about the country in cabarets. Family friends felt more hopeful for his brother, who had a steady job as a mounted policeman. After ups and downs a-many, the latter predominating, Richman appeared with George White's Scandals in New York and achieved remarkable success, winning a public that he has succeeded in holding since, both on the boards and on records. His records have brought him generous royalties, and he now conducts the Richman Club in New York, where his guests look forward to the hour when Richman himself sings to them. After referring in glowing terms to his "Long Island Place," the paper remarks that the curious may ask, "What of the policeman brother?" and then tells that he resigned from the force to help conduct the nightclub of his famous brother.

During Dvorak's sojourn in the United States as director of the National Conservatory of New York, he made an interested study of the folk melodies of the North American Indians and of the quaint "spirituals" of the negroes. His "Symphony No. 5 in E Minor Op 95" was written in America, and as the composer himself describes it in an inscription at the head of the score as the "New World Symphony," it is natural to imagine that its melodies were largely influenced by his American studies. It is a comparatively new work still, but has already achieved an unusually large measure of general acceptance. Recorded on a set of five 12-inch discs by the Royal Albert Hall orchestra under Sir Landon Ronald, it is a notable addition to the fine album sets that have preceded it. Opinions differ regarding "organ" records and naturally enough, as with grand organs, Wurlitzer and Kimball organs and what not, "organ music" may mean anything from Cesar Franck and Marcel Dupre to Irving Berlin and Jesse Crawford. While the devotees of the latter simply cannot comprehend the former, those who can appreciate "real" organ compositions find the lighter cinema class anathema. If any recording organist could bring together these differing tastes and satisfy both (no simple task) it would certainly be Reginald Foort. He is the organist of [ the New Gallery Cinema, London, and knows that what matters most if his music is to interest the "masses" is that it must have a very definite melodic base. With this need always in mind, he chooses music of a higher class than most picture-players. An admirable example of his deft choice of something to interest the unmusical and at the same time avoid offending Mr. Highbrow is his playing this month of Luigini's "Ballet Egyptien." Most capably played, parts 1 and 2 will whet the appetite for the other half of the ballet, and it is to be hoped it will follow shortly. (B. 2477, iO-inch) : ,

< There is an unvaried time about Hawaiian music that is one of its accepted, features, and "The Royal Hawaiians," a band of instrumentalists wlio also sing, are clever enough to realise that it is a rule not to be departed from, so that there is the real atmosphere in their vocal as in their instrumental work. Their first record is "Don't Play Aloha Oe When I Go" and "The Huia Blues," both, I should imagine, likelv to prove very popular (3620).

>.ew dance music includes ''Can't You Hear Me Say I love You?" and "Homewaid Bound," waltzes by the Regent Club orchestra (3609); "Dew Dew Dewv Day" and "Oh, Doris! Where Do You lave? (good melody), fox trots by Ben Orchestra (3610); "No Wonder I m Happy" and "Just Once Again" fox trots by Golden's Hotel McAlpins Orchestra; and "She's Got It" and Gonna Get a Girl," fox trots by the clever Jumping Jacks (3603).

A light orchestra whose work always has a fascination for me, and no doubt for many of my readers, is the band of musicians known as the A. and P. I have never dis?overed what the initials stand for, but the mystery does not detract from the pleasure their light and well-played offerings alwavs bring. This month they give us "Temp'le Bells, Ring On," described as a Far East fantasy, and "Madam Lu! Lu!" a Russian air, and quite up to the usual standard. (3543, lOin.)

It is remarkable how often musical people marry musicians. Recently Mary Lewis (who made her English reputation in "Hugh, the Drover"), after working with Michael Bohnen at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, not only married him, but broke an important engagement so that she could make an extended European tour with her husband. Similarly, the association of Edith Mason, one of America's leading sopranos, with Giorgio Polacco, the musical director of the Chicago Civic Opera, where the soprano has appeared on many occasions, led to a joint matrimonial venture* and in private life she is Sirs. Polacco. This month Mmc. 2tason gives us "Oh, for the Wings of a Dove" (Mendelssohn) and "Serenade" (Tosti), capably sung in voice of charming quality (10243, lOin.) H *