MUSICAL RECORDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 10 (Supplement)

MUSICAL RECORDS.

Bernard Zighera, a harpist of real brilliance, makes this month a very notable Columbia recording. Both the choice of items and the playing are to be heartily commended. The pieces chosen are " Vers la Source dans le Bois" (" Toward the Stream in the Wood"), (Tournier), and "Andaluza," a Spanish dance measure by Granados. Everyone will enjoy the rippling loveliness of these tunes as played on Zighera's harp. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is heard in a delightful performance of Bach's exquisite Suite No. 2 in B minor, arranged for flutes and strings, recorded in two 12in. His Master's Voice records. The balance between the woodwinds and strings is admirable throughout, and the performance superb in artistic detail. The impressive introduction is followed by a bright allegro, and people who consider Bach dry will find such an opinion completely refuted by the lovely freshness of the melodies and the boundless vitality of tne sarabande, the captivating polonaise, the charming minuet, and the fascinating badinerie. The performance is of superlative merit. A-recent Columbia recording comprises (1) " Bolero " (Ravel —arr. Branga and Salvado), and (2) "Entrance of the Little Fauns " (Pierne —arr. Mouton), played by Jack Payne and his 8.8.C. Dance Orchestra. Ravel's now famous " Bolero " depends almost entirely for its effect on the ever-growing crescendo of the music sitself. And this is where most recorded versions suffer rather in comparison with the actual performance —the turning over to put on each fresh side detracts somewhat from the thrill of the increasing wealth of sound. But in this version we have the " Bolero " rescored and compressed to fit a single 12inch side. Never has Jack Payne played so well or recorded so perfectly. On the reverse is the favourite Pierne march—also exceedingly well played. The most popular work of the talented French composer, Ambroiso Thomas, was his opera " Mignon," which has ever remained his most successful composition. It is a work of delicate texture, which is, as Gustav Ivobbe says in his famous book on opera, " perhaps too ingenuous to appeal to a sophisticated audience of the modern opera house." Perhaps this accounts for the fact that it is rarely performed. The overture to 'i Mignon," which has been recorded by the Berlin State Opera Orchestra under Dr. Leo Blech, is fashioned after the custom of its times, as a pot-pourri introducing the principal airs. After an introductory passage, a feature of which is an elaborate harp cadenza, the orchestra gently gives out the melody of the air, " Knowest Thou the Land?" into which Thomas has put a wealth of expressive melancholy. The reverse side of the record gives further delightful melodies, the principal being the famous coloratura " Polonaise " with its fascinating rhythm. The recording, by His Master's Voice, is particularly notable for its brilliant tone and definition.