MUSICAL RECORDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20235, 20 April 1929, Page 8 (Supplement)

MUSICAL RECORDS.

The Revellers Male Quartet have come to light with another attractive number. " Oil, Lucindy!" The blend of the voices is wonderful, and the closer vocal effects are cleverly worked in. Another quartet of equal eminence, tbe National Cavaliers, sings " Beautiful," one of the most lar songs of the day, and sings it excellentlv.

The famous band of the Coldstream Guards gives a stirring and vigorous ren dering of Tschaikovsky's " 1812 Over ture," composed in commemoration of the liberation oi Russia from the Napoleonic invasion. Tho great climax at the end, in which the national hymn, " God Pro tect the Tsar" triumphantly rises above tho " Marseillaise " and tho din of battle, is splendidly recorded.

Sir Harry Lauder's songs, as everyone knows, are far. above the average music-hall standard—splendid tunes, as shapely and vigorous as the folksongs by which they are inspired. Ten of the best have been arranged and played with great effect for a new record. The Grenadier Guards Band excels itself in crisp, clean playing, in which some re markubly good solo pieces stand out.

Peter Dawson seems to enjoy every minute of his latest song, " The Kerry Dance," a beautiful lilting Irish melody by Molloy. Tho rhythm and tho touches oi' colour introduced by the singer catch the fancy immediately. Dawson knows how to sing a ballad, and he continues his art in tho companion song, " Travellers of Evory Station," by Balfe, tho composer of " The Bohemian Girl," and such old favourites as " lvillarncy."

The magnificent playing of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra is now so well known through tho lino series of records issued that it, is hardly necessary to enlarge upon it here. In a new ten inch record embracing " March of the Caucasian Chief" (Ippolitov-Ivanov) and " Dance Oriental" (Glazounov) all the possibilities of light and shade aro fully realised. The tone of the strings is magnificent. Both works aro full of colourful tone pictures and are made fascinating by the famous conductor; Leopold Stokowski.

Pleasant memories are revived by the beautiful singing of Winnie Melvillo and Derek Oldham in two duets from " The Chocolate Soldier " Sympathy," and " The Chocolate Soldier." Oldham has a tenor without limitations, and Miss Melvillo has a soprano voice of quality. The pair have been associated in many of the biggest musical comedy seasons known to the London stage, and here they give us their greatest successes. The melody of Oscar Strauss is her.e at its richest, and the singers and the orchestral acompaniment realise the significance of every note.

The music of Verdi's " Otello " flows in a swift and vigorous stream. It has extreme dramatic force, and the role of la go runs through it like a streak of crimson. Ligo is really the central point of interest (as villains are so often in the most "moral" plays) and we can see, from internal evidence, that Verdi found him so, too. Splendid though the other pages are, it is in those he allotted to the role of lago that Verdi reaches the highest level of dramatic power, Franci is one of tho few living baritones who can handle this tremendous music properly ; ho realises the breadth of the part and responds nobly to its demands. His record is in every way superb.

The first records issued in New Zealand of the famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is a brilliant and authoritative rendering of Beethoven's Pastoral Syrn phony (No. 6). The reproduction is particularly good, and gives an orchestial tone of noteworthy purity. 'ihe gnu deur of the symphony is the sleeping grandeur of a day when all Nature seams to be iving failow. All must be moved at its pe.icefuluess and simple humour. A.s a result this wtrk has become one of tns best-known and best-beloved of all classical music. hi its perfect fusion of uutransitable emotion, with every beauty of musical design and lone, it has never been equalled, nor is it probable that any other art can show a wider range of thought embodied in a more perfect form. Beethoven always remained within the bounds of pure music.

Schubert was the world's greatest song writer. It was he who brought the modern song to its artistic perfection. "Schubert's songs," wrote Schutter, " next to Beethoven's sonatas represent the completion of modern musical art." With him the terms " words " and " setting,'' " melody " and " accompaniment " lose their distinctive meanings; all are fused into a single whole, in which no pan has the preeminence. lie follows every shade of the poet's thought with perfect union of sympathy, he catches his tones, he echoes his phrases, and he almost anticipates the issue. Four of his songs have been grouped on one record by John Goss, the cultured English baritone. The numbers are 'Whither," "Hark! Hark, the Lark," " Song of the Fisherman to the Twin Stars," and " The Hedge Hose." Goss sings in complete harmony with the spirit of the songs and his artistic use of light and shade make this a beautiful record indeed.

The Strauss Symphonic Poem, " Don Juan," as performed by the Symphony Orchestra under Albert Coates, is a wonder of daring, yet,masterful, instrumentation. Coates has realised that Strauss is essentially a rhapsodic writer. It is said that the composer has always lacked ethical dignity, and the critics quote his " Death and Transfiguration," but he shows us in " Don Juan" that there is also a pagan nobility. The beginning of this work is one of the bravest and most triumphant notes in music. How marvellously Strauss finds the right orchestral world for his theme here! The whole point of " Don Juan " is that life must be a very welter for the Don t:; plunge into recklessly. Where in music is (here such a splendid welter of orches tuition as Strauss sets going with one swift stroke at the beginning of " Don Juan" ? (jive Strauss the world, the flesh, and the devil, and ho is a master