GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

artists and their records

(By SOUNDBOX.)

■tvhoce heights and depths of '•meaning the broadcasts have done ranch to bring home to the of those who nre fit to retiVe them (and, after all, that is J thatthe 8.R.C., or anyone else, n r!o for us : it being understood , C h tt "t our part is to find out if « fit. and, if we choose, to make of ourselves liner receiving instruments.) r. Anderson. Jeanette Mac Donald, of "Love Parade" fame, sings the two big numbers o j «viktoria and Her Hussar" for His Master's Voice, "Goodnight" and "Pardon lladame." (83952, 10-inch.) Tie Philharmonic Choir and Walter Widdop (tenor) have made for His Master's Voice an excellent record of two choruses from Bach's St. Matthew Pasc!nn "Behold How Throbs" and 'I Would Beside My Lord." (D 1872, 12inch.) Gavin McNair, Parlopliones singer of sacred songs, whose fine baritone voice and forthright sincerity so pleased me when I his first record, now sings "When the Mists Have Rolled Away" and "A Shelter in the Time of Storm," and loses nothing of my good opinion. (A 3288, 10-inch.) Benno Moiseivitch, the pianist whose return to New Zealand is eagerly awaited by those who have heard him in person or know him on the gramophone, gives us a work of some magnitude this month, the "Variations and Fugue on a. Theme by Handel," op. 24 of Brahms. The yariations total 25 in all, followed by the furrue, -which takes a whole side. (His Master's Voice, DIS2S-30, 12-inch.)

Essie Ackland seems to favour sacred soncs or hymns to organ accompaniment. Now this splendid Australian contralto sings Carey's "Nearer, My God to Thee" and Gounod's "There is a Green Hill." While the record is very fine I hope Miss Ackland will not bury her talents by restricting her activities to one class of music, notwithstanding her unquestioned ability to do it justice. (His Master's Voice, C 2150, 12-inch.)

Those who remember Ania Dorfmann's delightful first record, part of the "Kosamunde" ballet music and a paraphrase of the "Fledermaus" waltzes, will welcome her present offering, Liszt's "Valse Impromptu" and the wholly delightful "Rondeau Favori in E Flat Major" of Hummel. Miss Dorfmann's pianistio ability is fortunately served by the improved Columbia piano recording. As far as I know, Columbia have never explained just how they have improved on past methods, but that their present piano recording is giving other recording companies new standards to work to is generally acknowledged. (DQX234, 12-inch.)

Olga Haley, the English mezzosoprano, whose Parlophone debut was recently the subject of complimentary comment, now brings the simplicity of a fully-developed art to the interpretation of two fine old Scottish son;--, "Annie Laurie" and "Oil the Banks of Allan Water." (A 3257, 10-inch.) Her ability in oratorio is evidenced in her singing of "Where'er You Walk" from Handel's "Semele," the backing being Dido's moving lament over the dead Aeneas, "When I am Laid in Earth," from "Dido and Aeneas," by Purcell, one of the fathers of English ■ music and the composer of the first English oppra. (A 4352, 12-inch.)

There have been few really first-class women composers and it is a matter for congratulation that Dame Ethel Smyth is not only acknowledged one of the greatest living British composers, but the greatest woman writer of music of her day. She has the unusual distinction, for her sex, of having succeeded in the difficult field of opera, having seen all five of her works in this class produced. The overture to one of them, "The Wreckers," she has arranged for concert performances, and Columbia have recorded it, played by the British Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer. With a diversity of subjects scope for the use of melodic invention and an instrumentation that exploits admirably tho orchestral possibilities of the various episodes, the music at once strikes the hearer with its masculine strength and vigour. (D0X256, 12-inch.)

Some time ago Columbia gave us the first of the Strauss vocal waltzes, the famous "Blue Danube," sung in English the 8.8.C. Choir. Then followed "Wine, Women and Song," '"other good series of Viennese waltz tunes (all the Strauss waltzes having Mough material for half a dozen), but father spoilt by footling words, or a poor translation. Now we have "Morgenblattcr" (Morning Papers) real Straussian tunes with fine words of Wuch tho opening verse may be quoted J* an example, the waltz being based on I Wea of a young couple, deeply in love, who dance on through the night ""til the morning papers come out:— papers, morning papers, «e out ere we two leave, a® cloak about your shoulders, sweetheart mine, of them I'll weave. leaflet giving the words accompanies 6 record, but it is hardly necessary, so «cellent is the diction of the 8.8.C. (D 0558, 10-inch.)

A favourite with English opera-goers, ( Lotto Lehmann recently reg to London to sing at Covent son Tnf-° r e i"kth consecutive seats f S exce '^ en t German soprano is avourably known to gramophoniats jol over. Famous in Wagnerian t»n 8 ' c . me Lehmann has recorded j.. °* Elizabeth's arias from "TannSonj> r > the "Greeting to the Hall of ttio° opens the second act, and Blessed Virgin," that third np commencement of the g., ' •'•annliauser has returned, in the lall € f Xcer Ptj and Elizabeth enters the SOn ° or *'he time since his win ft, Ure ' ha PP U y confident that he will aa h; 1 ® on teßt of song and claim her ttood'nf+i.®' J ll6 joyously triumphant contra t • side finds a striking piWim m P ra y cr episode, when, the herfcM 3 r< ? turnin S from Rome without she ' E'izabeth is as downcast as tifni P reviou sly elated. In this beauworM Elizabeth renounces the "Virgin an( l conse crates her life to the of ?]V the exacting requirements femaio' o i De greatest Wagnerian tion +n i' singer brings, in addiof ti>« ? t v °eal equipment, the sense ..dramatic that has earned her the Phone, Ams^lolnXr" 10 ' 01 ' 3, - F^°'