MUSICAL RECORDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 10 (Supplement)

MUSICAL RECORDS.

Among the popular selections in this month's His Master's Voice list are a bracket of organ solos played by R. E. McPherson, a celebrated London Wurlitzer organist. For his recording debut lie has chosen " A Japanese Sunset" and " Ninette" and plays both numbers with brilliant variations. A brilliant pianoforte recording has been provided for His Master's Voico this month by Frederic Lamond. His playing of Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's " Erl King" is a wonderful piece of work, charged with dramatic intensity and a masterly handling of technical difficulties. On the reverse side is a fine rendering of Liszt's " Etude de Concert." This is one of the outstanding records of the month. Kreisler is still the supreme violinist of the day. His latest record for His Master's Voice consists of re-recordings of his own " Tambourin Chinois" and the famous " Meditation" from " Thais." Kreisler plays both with delightful smoothness. He is not simply a technician, attempting to introduce all the possible variations of strings; he plays as an artist with the melodic sense ever paramount. The distinctive Kreisler tone is made finer than ever by the electric recording. Jose Echaniz, a brilliant Spanish pianist and pupil of the great Albeniz, makes his first Columbia record a stirring version of the E Flat Polonaise—lesser known than the A Flat or the " Military" but no less charged with high patriotism. Echaniz has an exquisite touch, giving a hint in such quieter passages as the introduction of the second theme of a fine poetic sense.. He clarifies the rebellious and spirited' coda, and no one will object here to his very personal rubato, for ho justifies it by results. Any Est of His Master's Voice records seems incomplete without at least ono disc from Peter Dawson, the Edgar Wallace of the gramophone. He has teen a prolific recording artist, but he never loses for an instant that manly quality of voice and that excellent understanding of dramatic values which make his singing so distinctive. His latest record pairs Popple's " The Smugglers," a fine rousing ballad, with Cooper's " The Man who Brings the Sunshine." Both are sung as only Dawson could sing them, Every month Marek Weber's orchestra is increasing in popular favour. Two His Master's Voice discs come this month from this fine combination and the music is marked by that well accentuated but never too prominent rhythmic treatment which has distinguished Weber's earlier selections of Viennese waltzes. Selections from " I Pagliacci" are well chosen and excellently played; Paderewski's famous " Minuet" is given graceful and tuneful treatment; and Gillet's " Coeur Brise," on the reverse side to the Minuet, has a singular appeal which loses nothing in the playing. Few overtures have so captured the popular imagination as the broad and hearty " 11812" Overture Solenelle by Tschaikowsky. To most of us its chief merit ia its understandability. Its dramatic meanings are written in heavy ink and well underlined. And Sir Henry Wood tells the story through Columbia just as plainly. He reserves all his subtlety for the fiendish technical difficulties of the orchestration, and achieves thereby a clarity and perspective that are quite new to the piece. The tone is crisp and triumphant, mellow and lofty by turns; and, save for a slight emphasis on the strings, and even this may be a deliberate device to tone down the brass, is extremely well balanced. One of the month's most attractive records is a pairing of violin solos by Albert Sandler for Columbia. The melodies are from the fertile pen of A. W. Ketelbey, who accompanies the violinist on the piano and shows us sound musicianship in his playing as in his writing. " Algerian Scene " is an artistic impression with the simple and charming theme given chiefly to the fiddle. It is only once interrupted by a vague " tom-tom " in the piano bass. The sweotly solemn " Phantom Melody " makes a very worthy coupling, for which all lovers of straightforward music will find admiration. Albert Sandler plays with a steadiness and feeling that appeal to the senses—his top notes are effortlessly obtained. The composer himself, in providing the accompaniment interprets it with an enchantment that is really distinctive. Many critics will place the short "Fingal's Cave" Overture as Mendelssohn's finest work, and indeed it has a grandeur and depth of feeling that are often absent from this composer's writings. The overture was a result of a visit to the Hebrides, and pictures, in the manner of a tone poem, the lashing of the ocean round the rock-bound coast. Calm alternates with storm; lovely limpid melody with tumultuous and dynamic thunders by the full orchestra. It is recorded for Columbia by.the New. Queen's Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood. Sir Henry's attack is sharp and incisive. He wastes no time on Victorian sentimentality, and the music' is all the healthier, and all the more manly, for leaving out this quality whicia sugared so much of Mendelssohn's writing. The Overture occupies three sides, and the fourth is given to charmingly played versions of two almost inevitable Mendelssohn favourites—" The Bee's Wedding" and " The Spring Song."