RECORDED MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 22

RECORDED MUSIC

[By Erato.]

HOW SZIGETI WOULD LIKE TO .MAKE RECORDS.

Szigeti has been talking to the ‘Gramophone’ about recording. Although he is only thirty-seven years old, this brilliant violinist made his first record over twenty years ago. He is still trying to buy them back I “I like recording,” he says. “My nerves in the studio are about the same as they are on a concert platform. Electrical recording is a great step forward. I think that its great advantage is that it will in time obviate the laboratory atmosphere. As improvements are effected I think the real atmosphere of the concert hall will be captured. Records are sometimes too ‘ perfect ” mechanically. In making the records perfection is so striven for, and so many tests made before one is satisfied, that often the spontaneity, emotion, and excitement which are so essentially a part of tho music have disappeared. “Recently I have been making records of the Brahms Concerto with Sir Hamilton Harty in Manchester, It occupies nine sides and took the best part of three mornings to make. We finished an hour before our schedule time. I suggested to Harty that we should make some “luxury” records. By that I meant that we should go straight through the work cwith the barest pauses after each side. When the various “ test ” records were sent to mo for approval I noticed that nearly all those I chose were the “luxury” ones.

“ Indeed my idea of a studio Utopia is a place where gramophone records are taken like snapshots. I imagine myself surrounded by a battalion of recording machines, one of which will surely give the perfect result, one machine perhaps making a test while one is keeping a permanent record of that test. The number of machines employed would eliminate the present unnerving waits between sides.”

A WIDER PUBLIC FOR DEBUSSY. When Claude Achille Debussy first gave his compositions to the world the critics were openly hostile, and the public threw its hands up in despair and exclaimed “ Incomprehensible 1” Just as we do over Epstein to-day. Just as our forefathers did over a hundred and one artists and writers and composers whom we accept to-day as staid and established masters. But you cannot keep a good man down. Debussy had something new and interesting to say, and his own Way of saying it. And now that our ears are accustomed to his once-so-strange harmonies and his once-so-strange rhythms, we find that his message is worth while, and we must listen to it. Our ugly duckling, we find, is a swan after all. To a form of composition that Beethoven perfected, and almost exhausted, Debussy brought fresh vitality. He was interested in new things. He liked the sparkle of gems, the way sunlight caught the dancing waters, the babble of crowds and the ripple of splashing streams. He rnakes v us see a fresh beauty in them, that otherwise we might have missed; and therefore he is a genius who has enriched our minds. His most popular work is the poetic and fanciful ‘ Apres Midi d’une Faune,’ a work teeming in delicious melodies, in which exquisite use is made of woodwind. Paul Klenau, a famous Debussy specialist, tecords it on Columbia L 1772. His sole quartet is admirably rendered by the Lener String Quartet on Columbia 04210-13. Perhaps the happiest introduction to his work is a charming lOin disc of two preludes for pianoforte by William Murdoch—Bruyeres ’ and ‘ Les Collines d’Anacnpri.’ HAYDN ON THE RECORDS. Even in these days of jazz, where even the greatest music, is affected by the rush and restlessness of the time, most of us prefer now and then a ,quiet holiday of pence and contentment. It is a relief unspeakable to retreat to the gentle art of old “ Papa ” Haydn. His art is expressed in comfortable curves of melody, in music of quiet refinement, where pleasure and not excitement holds, sway. A happy example typical of this “ Father of tho Symphony ” is the famous ‘Clock Symphony,’ recorded for Columbia by Sir Hamilton Harty and thp Halle Orchestra. Its melodies are of transparent clarity and flow as smoothly and peacefully as an English brook shaded by willows Haydn wrote it for Salaman, the English violinist, who ordered a series of symphonies for London’s delightThe ‘ Clock ’ has remained from that day to this as his most popular work. It derives its name from the exquisite Andante movement, with the jolly tic!.-took effect of a clock playing throughout. Sir Hamilton Harty plays with utmost felicity, achieving an agreeable sweetness and variety of tone, the woodwind being particularly rich.

One of the happiest of all Haydn’s works is the deliciously melodious ‘Quartet in F,’ a dain J , little thing with a complete movement on each

side of two records. Each movement has a captivating melody of its own, and the whole fragrant work is played with distinction and feeling-by the Lener String Quartet. A MASTER RECORDING BY FRIEDMAN. 'Friedman’s playing of Grieg’s ‘ Piano-Concerto in A Minor ’ leaves one with a breathless feeling at having been present at some great event. His visit here a year or two ago prepared us for the boldness of his tone, his dazzling execution and for the moments of sheer poetry into which he can so readily slip. But in this recording he reveals a force of intellect that somwhat awes us. He handles Grieg’s thunders and lightnings with the ease of an accustomed Jove. Who would not be thrilled by that tremendous opening—the crescendo roll of drums and the mighty piano chords that spring from it? But greater proof of Friedman’s services is the facility with which he sustains the power, the passion and the lofty poetry to the last note. This is Friedman’s best work so far. DVORAK’S ‘ CARNEVAL OVERTURE.’ When Dvorak wrote the ’Carneval Overture ’ he meant it to be no more than a musical picture of an Hungarian fair. The dancing, thip lights, tl-a jolly crowd, and the spirit of revelry are his subject matter. But he has treated his subject matter in so broad and so wholesome a manner that the music has become the quintessence of happiness. The first essential of happiness—beauty—is caught herein. Sir Hamilton makes a typical reading. His wood-wind is a sheer delight, and his strings have an opulent smoothness and rotundity. A brilliant playing of a brilliant work and sheer joy from beginning to end. TWO ARIAS FROM ‘ RIGOLETTO.’ One of the most attractive of recent operatic records is a pairing of ‘ Caro Nome’ and “E il sol dell’anima,” sung by Maria Gentile. The singer has a voice of exceptional sweetness and purity. It is one of the most flexible coloraturas in the world to-day, sliding up and down the scale with extraordinary ease, and never losing its liquid clarity. Lovers of good vocalism will be thrilled by her delicious ease of production. Her enunciation is of the clearest, and the slow, thoughtful pace at which she takes these two favourite airs heightens their, immediate and unmistakable appeal.