MUSICAL RECORDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21224, 2 July 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)

MUSICAL RECORDS.

For parties, the " musical chairs " records issued by His Master's Voice, are an indespensable aid to jolly games. The records give bright, popular tunes broken by the necessary, irregular pauses for musical chairs " or similar games. The latest of the scries included in the His Master's Voice July list, is a 12in. disc at a popular price, played by the New Mayfair Orchestra.

The Loner String Quartet, famous tho world ovor for their masterly interpretations of the Beethoven quartets, now offer somewhat shorter and lighter fare. Their latest lOin. disc gives Schumann's " Traumerei " and a graceful and expressive " Adagio " from Bach's Organ Toccata in G major. As over, the Loner four play with consummate artistry and feeling. Recording i.s by Columbia.

Tho following two discs give us two versions of two of the most popular recent songs of tho screen. The fox-trot " Over the Blue " and the tango " 'Neath the Spell of Monto Carlo " are played by Jack Payne and his 8.8.C. Dance Orchestra, and paired on a Columbia record. Both of these catchy titles are also splendidly sung by Layton and Johnstone on another disc from tho suine company.

Although by the composer of " The Bluo Danube Waltz" and "Tales from the Vienna Woods," the light opera " Die Fledermaus" (Tho Bat), has not yet attained tho same popularity as other works from tho pen of Johann Strauss. A recording of vocal gems from it by the Grand Opera Company, and just released by His Master's Voice, should go far to give it the popularity that its lighthearted and sparkling melodies deserve. Tho singing has great clarity and crispness, and the orchestral accompaniment is splendid.

Novelty records are tho order of tho day just now, but it is doubtful if any record yet made comes up to a recent Columbia disc for sheer dramatic vividness. "To Meet tho King" is one of the most successful one-act " stage or radio " plays ever performed in London. Now, fitted on to two sides of a standard label record, and played by Sybil Thorndiko, Jane Comfort, Lewis Casson and Jack Hobbs, it provides all and sundry with a most astonishing eight or ten minutes. The play concerns a very proud mother who, through sickness, is unable to seo hor son take part in an international air race. What happens as a result you must hear for yourself.

Two scenes from famous German opera of entirely different classes are given by Alexander Kipnis and the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, on a new His Master's Voice celebrity disc. In the lighter of the two, Kipnis is heard in a duet with Elsie Ruziezka in the delightful " Letter Scene " from Richard Strauss's opera, " Der Rosenkavalier." To the time of a charming waltz a woman reads to the Baron Oclis a letter, supposedly from a pretty waiting-maid. To the accompaniment of a second fine waltz, we hear the old gentleman chuckling over the thought of his prospective evening. On the other sido Kipnis's magnificent baritone voice is heard at its best in the scene from "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, ' in which the wealthy goldsmith, Pogner, makes the dramatic announcement of his prize for the next contest —his daughter Eva.