MUSICAL RECORDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18949, 21 February 1925, Page 8 (Supplement)

MUSICAL RECORDS.

Mo/.ait's Concerto in A major (No. 5). i for violin and orehostra, is one of tlnlatest at Movements in reeordmg the classics. The violin part is beautifully played by Mr. .Artliui- Catterall. and the orchestra, is conducted by Mr. Hamilton Hartv. The work covers four doublesided discs, and is regarded by many musicians as a record of considerable iniI poitance. The masters iire indeed now coming* into tile home, for, but for tb gramophone, ery tew indeed are likely to hear so grand 11 work performed in the concert hall, coitainly not in New Zealand. "A Spray of Roses," sung by that accomplished tenor. Hubert, Eisdell, is a particularly fine model lor aspiring tenors The excellent enunciation, fine phrasing, and adroit bte.ath control ol this popular singer of tender love songs and ballads is particularly interesting to singers who can learn much I roil i the gramophone. Pouishiiolf. who went lo London prae- | ticaily unknown, and became that ex ! tremely rara avis an instant success, is ! in the I nited States, and is due in Paris ! in March, before resuming in l.ondon. A i very fine record of his perlorinanee <>t j "The March of the Dervishes." from | Beethoven's ' Ruins of Athens ' (ar- | ranged by Saint-SaonsL has been S secured. Tile beauty ol Poiushnott s play- | ing is necessarily less apparent on a ! poor instrument- ilian one of the latest I and best type. By way of contrast in brilliaiicv. the ballet, music from "RosaI mundo" (Schubert), as transcribed oy S Pouishnotf, is the companion 10 the Bee- ! thoven number. Both are commended to j pianoforte players as examples of vir- | tuoso playing. I 'Tago's Creed." usually written "Credo | in nil Dia Crudol," will appeal to those | who may not know Italian, but are fair.i ; i liar with lago. This great aria lor bari- ! tone, as will be recalled, is from ! "Othello," inspired by Shakespeare. It. lis one of the most, dramatic and descripI tive arias ever written, and it will bo j found to have received adequate troati rnent at the hands of C'esare Formichi. ; It is not at all diflicult to account for j Formichi's great success at t.'ovent (!;irj den, after hearing the '"Credo" as he sings it. I The room and even the position of the i gramophone in the room will often make | a very great difference to She tonal j quality, as well as the volume.' The licit j room for a gramophone undoubtedly is | one that is not too heavily draped with j curtains, not too heavily furnished with j heavily upholstered furniture, as these are | sound-destroying mediums, and often by | moving the gramophone from one place to I another—even if only a few feet-t—an im- | provernent may easily be effected. Heavy i furniture should be kept a reasonable dis- j j tance away from the horn, and the sound : j should be, free to reach every part of the j J room without obstruction. A huge undertaking has been successfully carried through in the recording of "Madame Butterfly" (in English), on fourteen 12in. d.-s. (says the. "Musical j Times"). Goossens conducts, and there is a, strong team of soloists, including j Rosina Bue'man ( Frederick Baualow. j Sydney Colt-ham, Tudor Davies, Edward J Halland. etc. The singing, c>n the whole, i is well up to the average, and a good j level of clearness in enunciation is achieved. | The orchestral reproduction is the most j completely successful part of the enterprise • —so much so, that one. is inclined at times i to switch the attention onto the ae.com- | paniment and interludes. The fourteen records are issued in a handsome album, j on the, inside cover of which is the story |of the opera clearly told. One is helped | to follow the progress of the work bv the I marginal numbers indicating the record J that is concerned with that particular j I point iu the story. i dust before leaving England for bis rrI cent vi-it to .America the prince of Wales j made a little speech on sportsmanship, j In his numerous world tours he has ad | dressed many thousands of people on an | infinite variety of subjects, but this speech j is unique in one respect—it was made in ! his bedroom, in the hearing of only two I other people. It. was made for a gramo- ! phone record to be sold for the benefit of | Field-Marshal Karl Haig's British Legion Appeal Fund for necessitous ex-service men of all ranks. " Sportsmanship " was a theme after the heart (if our Prince of Sportsmen. "Tohe a good sport sI man," he says in the course of his reI corded speech, " becomes the idea] of every British child born within the seven seas." I And again. "It teaches men respect lor ; women, and women admire manliness. It j i makes us hard fighters, but. good losers." | i This record should make an immense ap j I peal, not only by the reason of the Prince's ■ ; characteristic utterance on the subject ol | universal interest, but also because it re- j I produces faithfully the timbre and in- j flexions of His Koval Highness' voice. j The'new pleated diaphragm gramophone j which is worked by simple diaphragm like j a fan was tested by Chaliapine with a record of his " Death of Boris." " Moto bene!" was bis verdict (his speech is a J mixture of Italian, French and Kngli.-Ji). | " The human-ness of the tone is a, surprise. - to me. I could sec almost the duplicate ' of myself coming out of the fan." Apropos of a previous brief reference to ; - Gershwin's " Rhapsody in Blue " is the interesting note in "The Queen." Thorn is little doubt- that the most remarkable record lately issued is that- of George Gershwin's " Rhapsody in Blue." Serious critics see in this the first real manifestation of an aulhenic American "school of music. Up to the present America has produced everything except a distinctive. culture of its own ; her most solemn musicians have merely retailed the small talk of European conservatoires. Now comes along this young composer with a. pia.no concerto (himself the solo pianist) based on jazz, but formal in shape, brilliant, witty, full of colour, and as cleverly contrived as anything that has emanated from (lie most advanced moderns, 'there are passages here ' that Stravinsky himself might have written—passages iri which Gershwin has escaped from the fetters of syncopation and evolved a rhythmic freedom that laughs at bar lines. truly an interesting adventure is this Transatlantic rhapsody, which will be here in April.