RECORDED MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 19062, 3 October 1925, Page 19

RECORDED MUSIC

To my mind. Berlioz’s ‘Symphonic Fantastique 1 (H.M.V.) is the best orchestral recording achieved by the gramophone up to date (writes Sir Compton Mackenzie in the ‘ Gramophone’). Apart from the remarkable quality of the string tone and the exceptional timpani, the brass is much better managed than usual, and never sounds as if a small boy at a fair had suddenly blown a tin trumpet in one s oars to pierce them above the noise of distant roundabouts. The symphony itself Iq full of melody. I can’t think why we never had that waltz to dance to in the days when we used to waltz. ]t’s as good a waltz as exists. It reminds me curiously of the andante in one of Mozart’s Divertimento. The whole work has something of the quality of a Balzac novel. It’s no use trying to enjoy Berlioz unless you have some sense of the drama, and if musical pedants argue that a sense of the drama is not required to appreciate music I retort that unless you have a sense of drama you can’t appreciate Beethoven. Half the depreciation of Beethoven nowadays comes from people who have no conception of drama outside the melancholy struggles that take place in their own digestive organs. Mr Felix Woingar tner, conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, has recently been on a musical mission to Athens, and conducting there. He is regarded as one of the finest exponents of Beethoven’s orchestral music of our lime. His latest achievement for the gramophone is the recording of Beethoven’s sth Symphony for Columbia. It is on its way out to New Zealand, and its arrival is awaited with more than usual interest by who are discriminating in their selection of orchestral records.

When friends come to spend an evening and the gramophone is called into requisition it is not an easy thing to draw up a programme that will give general satisfaction, so varied are tastes in music. But a few good songs well sung generally meet the case, and among these may bo recommended the singing of ‘ I'm a Friar of Orders Grejj ’ and ‘ Simon the Cellarer,’ sung by Harold Williams. Every word is clearly recorded, which cannot be said of some of even the highest-priced records, and them are slight touches of humor imparted to the songs, just so much and no more that will ensure them a welcome place iu any evening’s entertainment.

Browning Mummery, who has been singing for Zonophone lately, is splendid in his two tenor songs from the ‘Tales of Hoffmann.’ Ho is an accomplished recording singer, and this is worthy of him. Adequate records of opera at this price are worth noting (states a reviewer). The Royal Air Force Band has not recorded as yet much serious music; one of its few efforts in this direction is the two marches from Vaughan Williams’s ‘Folk Song -Suite’ (8.1945). This record is so good as to make one hop.? for more like it, and the music is perfectly delightful. Of the piano records this, quarter one stands out above the rest, and that is Paderewski’s playing of Schubert’s ‘ Impromptu in A ’ (is the of a London reviewer). At the beginning of the second side there are some doubtful moments with the bass, but it is tho only record that does faintly reproduce tlie magic of tho greatest pianist we have, and as such must not be overlooked. Tho Flonzaley Quartet disc from H.M.V. of two movements of Haydn’s ‘ Quartet in G ’ is said to be a miracle of playing and recording, according to the latest reviewers. Notwithstanding the rage for modem dances, the waltz is steadily recovering ground, and the call for records of waltz inusio is becoming more and more insistent. The now Columbia waltz records that have come to hand are not of now, but certainly of most popular, waltzes, with a “wearing” quality almost as good as that of ‘ Tho Blue Danube.’ They aro ‘ Valse Bleue ’ and ‘ Amourouse,’ and aro played by the J. H. Squire Instrumental Celeste Octet. a most capable body of instrumentalists. _ Miss Dorn. Labette, the sweet-voiced singer of old songs, has just boon recorded in ‘Vo Banks and Braes’ and ‘ Tlie Flowers of the Forest.’ Miss Labette is probably the most successful, and certainly tho most popular, singer of the old songs. These expressions of the emotions of the people—sorrow, joy, love, patriotism, passion—endure because they do express things; whereas so many drawing room ballads have their day and cease to bo because they do not ring true, either in words or music. Major Bavin, official lecturer of the Federation of British Music Industries, recently attended a gramophone congress in England to explain to those present the work and objects of tlie federation. Ho pointed out that tho educational department of tho federation was kept in a water-tight compartment, altogether separate from tho commercial side of the work, and that its activities were guided by a group of musicians whose names carry weight and respect throughout tho land. There was nothing philanthropic about this; it was a far-sighted business point of view; the growing knowledge and love of music made a growing demand for it. Since 1921, when tlie department was started, lectures and demonstrations had been given to over 200,000 people in all parts of the country. It was in these demonstrations, said Major Bavin, that the help of the gramophone had been invaluable, and in the preparation of children in schools for the full enjoyment of those children’s concerts which wore proving so popular. At tho end of his interesting address Major Bavin described a scene in an infants’ school, when at their own suggestion the chidlren bad danced to the gramophone record of Bach’s ‘Suite in B Minor’ for flute and strings. Such unprepared incidents as this proved, he said, tho ever-widening horizon of the gramophone’s influence on the musical taste of the nation.