RECORDED MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 20510, 14 June 1930, Page 22

RECORDED MUSIC

[By Erato.]

“ I have just returned from an annual pilgrimage through the United States, feeling even more thankful than usual that 1 am v a gramophone enthusiast (writes Mr John Langdon Davies, in the ‘Spectator’). It is so pleasant to be able to say to _ one’s American friends: ‘ Still, there is one modern invention which we use better than you do, and that is the gramophone!’ One reason for this, he says, is that the Americans have gone over wholeheartedly to the electric machines which are both radios and gramophones. It is inevitable that the electric pick-up will ultimately drive the ordinary gramophone off the market, but at present only the most expensive of the new contrivances can compete musically with the far cheaper older machine. The Americans are also less fortunate than the British in their records. Whereas in 1920 the U.S.A. produced over £830,000 of records and England £680,000, in .1928 the U.S.A. produced over three million pounds’ worth and England well over four million. In short, in those eight years England not only increased her output six-fold, but overstepped the U.S.A. very considerably; a progression rare in the statistics of trade in these days. “ A large proportion of those records have little to do with music, but,” Mr Davies admits, a glance at only the major works which have accumulated during these three months makes one realise the astonishing wealth hidden in current discs for those who are sensible enough _ to learn what a good gramophone is and how it should be used. The musiclover who is a gramophobe has either only hoard bad instruments or is amass.” • # ♦ # A writer in the New York ‘ Outlook ’ describes Leopold Stokowski, the records of whose orchestra are among the most admired: —One Friday night, wo are told, a few years ago there was no one on the concert stage when Leopold Stokowski, leader of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, came out to make his bow. The audience applauded nervously. After a moment two players sauntered out with their instruments and took their seats. Stokowski gave them the signal to begin. At every few measures or the piece, which was a composition by a modern Belgian, another musician straggled to his place and tuned in. Finally they had all come. As the music drew to its close they filed out one by one, playing until they disappeared from sight. The staid Philadelphia audience dropped its jaws. The last thing on the programme was Haydn’s Symphony.’ Stokowski played 'it in the same way. The musicians came and went with the same apparent nonchalance. Alone on the stage again, Stokowski turned toward the empty places and gave the signal for the absent orchestra to rise. Then, facing the audience, ho made a deep bow. A united hiss whistled through the hall. The conductor bowed anew and left the platform. Every one present at the concert was angry. The critics, unaware that both composers had written this scheme into their directions, primed their pons with a sting Stokowski had baffled Philadelphia. Was ho enjoying a tour tie force? Or had ho none too subtly given them a lesson in manners? He left them to decide for themselves. When ho repeated the programme on the. following day the audience burst from surreptitious smiles into outright laughter. The second performance succeeded. Of Polish descent, Stokowski grew up in England. He played the piano arid the violin as a child. Later, with the aim to become an orchestra leader, he served apprenticeship to the other instruments. He has never boon able to follow, but he wanted to equip himself to lead. From fourteen to sixteen, he gave up his music. He devoted himself to studying sound in physics. Sound led him to light, then to chemistry. For those two years he was absorbed in the natural element or music. He graduated from Queen s College at Oxford. He went on to *he Royal College of Music in Lon-

don, of which tho Prince of Wales has since made him a fellow. Ho was not 1 ike_ tho precocious youths oi success stories who fall into accidental glory. He fathomed _ the science of his art. Ho studied instrumentation in both Franco and Germany. He built a basis to bolster his fluid gift. Soon after going to America Stokowski married the pianisto Olga Samaroff A few years ago they were divorced. In 1926 he was married again to Miss Evangeline Johnson. In 1912 he took the leadership in Philadelphia. Most of all, perhaps, lie is criticised for playing modern music. He won it a place on Philadelphia programmes. ‘‘People who object to modern music are using only one side of the brain,” ho has said. “ Don’t resist or deride tho beautiful of either the old or new age.” He keeps agents digging for new ,gems in various cities the world over. They send him about a thousand pieces' a year, from which ho chooses some thirty to try with tho orchestra. Three compositions finally emerge for concerts. These are the discoveries which provoke a din of controversy. People guffaw and hiss. Critics wallow in acid mockery. . Much of his audience cannot understand. But hisses are grist to his mill. He fears only apathy. Undoubtedly he is aware that his experiments make a dramatic display. But Ins gestures are not mean, lie is quick with tho Jngn fire of his art.