MUSICAL RECORDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20722, 15 November 1930, Page 10 (Supplement)

MUSICAL RECORDS.

Tlio Rotorua Maori Clioir adds four moro numbers to tho Columbia Maori series. r llio til los firo * (Marui Girl) and "Moo Mai o hinc " (Maori Lullaby), and " Mate koo i te A roll a (Givo Mo My Lovo) and " Tahi nri (aru kino.' All of these rcnch tho same liigli standard set by the earlier releases.

Two favourites in " O Solo Mio " and " The Rosary " provide Sergeant Morgan, of tho Coldstream Guards Band, with excellent scope for revealing his abilities on that most musical of band instruments, the cornet. Ho plays tho melodies with a beautifully clear tono which never wavers. The band provides attractive accompaniment to this Ilis Master's Voice record.

An interesting record in (he Columbia list is Lehar's " Gold and Silver " waltz, which is played by the Gallis Orchestra of Malino, Sweden. In spito of tho fact that this Swedish ensemble is of no enormous size, it produces a rich and sonorous volume of sound. A truo Viennese band could do no better with Lehar's famous waltz, and that is to say a very great deal. This disc is, in fact, a splendid example of modorn light orchestral recording.

Tho " Quarletto No, 2 in D Minor " (Mozart) is tho second of the six quartettes which Mozart dedicated to Joseph Haydn. For tho' man who does not know much chamber music or is, perhaps, timorous about venturing on to what he believes difficult ground, there could bo no finer introduction to tho string quartet than through this crystal clear and wondrously beautiful " Quartette in D Minor," which is recorded for His Master's Voice, by tho famous Flonzaley String Quartette.

The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra lends its uncanny and incomparable brilliance to a record of Debussy's " L'apresmidi d'un faune," whose pensive exoticism and delicate weft of rich harmonies have endeared it to a big public. Leopold Stokowski and his orchestra have given the music an enchanting mythological remoteness. It is gorgeous playing, which reveals all the lovely tone-colours Debussy here indulged in, and the recording, which is by His Master's Voice, is well up to the high standard this orchestra is happily accustomed to.

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony stands tho test of time as well as any other of his works, and naturally tho version by the Philadelphia Orchestra, which has been recorded for His Master's Voice, is of special interest. It is a very vivid recording in the grand manner, as it should be. The Scherzo comes through very clearly, in spito of the pace at which it is taken. The trio, a little gem which was n favourite with Beethoven, is beautifully done. This symphony is in Beethoven's finest manner, and incorporates all that he stands for in music.

A collection of Hungarian folk tunes is played by tlio Bela Bartok (pianist) and Josef Szigeti (violinist) in a recent Columbia record. Bartok, and to a lesser degree, Kodaly, are tho two most prominent composers of the modern Hungarian school. Both liavo made farreaching researches into tho origins of their country's folk music, and Kodaly has gone as far afield as Spain. The gypsies, of course, have taken Hungarian folk tunes all over tho world, and those who have heard gypsies make music will recogniso a family likeness in tho tunes under review. There are seven on this record, all well contrasted and intensely interesting.

There are some very great German bassos living and singing, but among them there is none to surpass Ivar Andresen. Now that he has given a record in the Columbia dark-blue series, ho attracts added interest. His song is a Litzau ballad set to music by Loewe, that talented contemporary of Schubert. Andresen's interpretation of " The man who seldom played " —as the German title is loosely translated —is a magnificent piece of restrained dramatic singing. Tho dark and forlorn atmosphere of tho ballad has been wonderfully captured. The accompaniment ol this record is by Dr. Franz Hallasch of Munich, and tho recorded paino tono is as fine as tho voice.

To Sir John Stainer belongs the honour of having given, with his " Crucifixion," in 1887, the first universally popular oratorio for Englishspeaking people—a work popular in the sense which cannot be used of tho great Passions of Bach or tho long series of llandelian oratorios. Not a Lenten season goes by without the singing of this famous work in hundreds of churches throughout tho Empire. The performance recorded for His Master's Voice is an ideal one. Lawrence Tibbett is ono of the principal baritones of tho Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and Richard Crooks, an American by birth, has recently been acclaimed throughout Germany as one of the finest tenors of the generation. Mark Andrews at the piano proves that the great reputation ho enjoys in America is well deserved, and the Trinity Choir is an admirably trained and very capable body of fine singers.

In (lie singing of Mozart, Elisabeth Schumann stands supreme, and now that Gerhard I is getting past her prime, she ranks as high as anyone in licdcr, especially in the more lyrical forms, Her His Master's Voice recording of the " Deb Vieni " air from " The Marriage of Figaro " is (lie finest of her Mozart items. She has lavished upon it all tho carossi'ng beauty of voice ami phrasing it could kuhtain, and grouped with it is tho joyous companion air from "Tho .Shepherd King." Another superb Mozart record of hers is " Batti, Haiti," from " Don Giovanni on one side, and " Voi cbo Sapete," from Figaro " on fbo other. Her Richard Strauss group reminds one of the fact fliat I here are two very different sides to (bis composer, and that thoso who know him only by his orchestral tone-poems know him incompletely. His songs tako tho very opposito mood t.o tho harumscarum high jinks of somo of his orchestral writings. They often acliiovo a remarkable melodic beauty, as in the " Freundiche Vision," which Elisabeth •Schumann with raro lyric beauty. This is coupled with " Wiegenliod." She is also exquisite in " Standchon," which lias with it another lino Strauss sung " MOl gen."