MUSICAL RECORDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18577, 8 December 1923, Page 8 (Supplement)

MUSICAL RECORDS.

Some Recent Arrivals.

I have just been running over some ; recent releases for the local Christmas and New Year trade. These include some excellent records and since we musical people, 'are enjoined to "say it with music." what better expression of our good wishes at this season of goodwill than a good record or two. There is, for example, a very fine record by Caruso of Pergolesi's beautiful "Nina," in which this gifted tenor is heard in one of his happiest renditions. , A very fine record also is Maria Jeritza's singing of the "Tannhauser number, "Dich Tours Halle." in which this gfted soprano is heard in her best form. * A Spanish dance from Granados (Kreisler's arrangement) comes from the indefatigable but. invariably en/'pyable Heifetz. This is well worth while, especially to lovers of violin music of tho best class. Very welcome, too, is a Rachmaninoff recording of Grieg's ,l \\ alt/, and Ellin Dance" (Op. 12, Nos. 2 and 4). This you must certainly add to your pianoforte section. Sullivan's celebrated song, "J lie Lost Chord," has been presented by singers many in number and varied in qualify, but I do not remember having heard it. sung so finely as by John MacConnaek in a record which has just beeu released locally. All tfirs MacCormack art has been * thrown into a supreme effort to adequately translate the composer's splendid conception. Mark Hambourg is to the fore with his characteristic, forceful interpretative quality in a bracket which includes Ravel's "Ondine" (which you are certain to like), and Couperin's "Carillon Cvthere" (brilliant display of technique), and "Les Barricades Myslerieuse." Of orchestral numbers of the more popular kind .we have the Mayfair combination's presentation of selections from "Peter Pan," two pretty waltzes, by the De Groot orchestra. Next week there will be some notes on Christmas and New Year music, for which there should be an interested demand. Looking over the lists of some of the recent London record releases, I find much that provides pleasant anticipation of good things in store for New Zealand gramophone enthusiasts. A recent London record release, "Chanson Georgienne," sung by Dmitri Smirnoff (tenor), presents Rachmaninoff in the role of a song writer. The general public as a rule knows little of Rachmaninoff, apart from his famous "Prelude" and some of his more recent piano works, but that he is also a past-master of vocal writing this fine record (says a London critic) incontestable proves. "One is struck by the beautiful harmony of the orchestral accompaniment, as well as by the distinctive character of the melody, which Smirnoff delivers with intense expression." So far as I can remember, the only record—in New Zealand—from Berlioz s "Damnation of Faust"' is the famous "Marche Hongroise." I seo now that the fine tenor solo, "Nature .Immense." has been recorded by Fernand Annseau. The "Faust" of Berlioz is essentially different from the popular version of Gounod, with which everyone is familiar. The work may be termed a dramatic legend in four parts and the "book" is based on Nerval's version of Goethe's poem. It was first performed (in concert form) at the Opera Continue. Paris, in 1346. and it is in concert form that the work, which is seldom given as a whole, is now chiefly heard. It is generally sureed that, * the music is far more "musicianly" in scope than that of Gounod, "and the work without doubt embodies some of Berlioz s finest conceptions. The Flor.zallv Quartet is still contributing to the gramophone chamber music section some very tine numbers. The latest, which , should be in NeMi Zealand soon, is the second movement from Beethoven's "Quartet in C Minor" (Op. 18). I notice that Renee Chernet. the clever French violinist, has played for the recording room a rondo of Mozart - Kreisler's edition. The quality ,of Richard Strauss' music is a much-debated, subject, but there is no doubt about his genius for tone colour and his mastery of the technique of the orchestra. His "Tod und Verklarung, better known in England as "Death and Transfiguration," has just been recorded by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra under Albert Coates. arid the records should be here verv shortly. "Tod und Verklarung" is * one of a series of great symphonic poems. ,of which the best known on record have been "Don Juan and "Till Eulenspiegel."

Something rare in pianoforte recordings is the "Piano Quartette in C Minor" (Faure). played' bv the Beatrice Hewitt Piano Quartet. The quartet under 'review is a clianniftg example of the modern French school, with none of the mannerisms and eccentricities of the later "ultra-moderns." The record is due here shortly. . I notice that Rosin a Buekman has been singing in the recording room. recently Alfred Hill's fine song, "Waiata Maori." This she sings in English and Maori, so we are informed. Brucketdft with this is Percy Kahn's very beautiful "Ave Maria," which, many of you will remember, was sung in New Zealand during the last visit of Madame Buckmah. Harry- Dearth, the popular basso, has sung for the recording room recently a bracket which should be very popular on arrivalHemblem's "The Rolling Stone" and Ktcrndale Bennett's "It's a Beautiful Day." Tho fact that T have not seen a new record from Frieda Hempel for a long time makes'me curious about a recent recording bv her of L'ine Wilson's arrangement of the fine old song. "Phyllis Has Such Charming Graces." This limpid singer has a good following out here. The recent issue in London of the great duet from the second act of "Tristan and Isolde" makes a most welcome addition to the fine sets from "The Ring" (writes a London critic). These 'two discs, together with those already issued of the Prelude, the Prelude to the third act, and the "Liebestod" criye us the finest passages in the opera. Ibis great duet, the longest in grand opera, is on two doublesided 12in. discs, for not only have they given the duet proper, but have included the orchestral introduction to the second act and a good (leal of the earlier part of this act that leads up to the entrance of Tristan. Of course, this means pretty severe cutting—the duet alone takes an hour in the opera— all the best parts are retained.