MUSICAL RECORDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 10 (Supplement)

MUSICAL RECORDS

Tlio quickest soiled that Ilegal have had for a number of years has been " He Played his Ukelelo as the Ship Went Down." Leslie Holmes, the singer of this record, is a new artist for Regal, and there is no doubt that this recording is just the thing to cheer people up to-day. Wo are advised that Leslie Holmes is being issued on another Regal record entitled " Perry Werry Winkle." On the reverse side ho sings tho well-known favourite, " Only Mo Knows Why." None but the Weary Heart " {Tchaikovsky—arr. Willoughby) and -" Serenade in C —Elegie " (Tchaikovsky —arr. Sear), are played by tho J. H. Squire Celeste Octet oil a recent Columbia record. Specially augmented for tho occasion, tho Celeste Octet has chosen a transcription of a Tchaikovsky song and a serenade movement by the same composer. The artistic treatment accorded these compositions represents the highest standard of musicianship. There are many who wjll class this as tho finest record of serious music the celebrated Octet have yet mado. It should certainly prove enormously popular. The name of Edouard Commette is linked up with some of the greatest organ recordings the world has known. Now he augments his list of Columbia triumphs with a new Lyons Cathedral record of Mendelssohn that for sheer/-brilliance of pedalling and sonority of tone will create a sensation. The items are the " Wedding March" from the incidental music of the " Midsummer Night's Dream," which everyone knows, and the Allegro Molto movement from Mendelssohn's Sixth Organ Sonata —which everyone does not .know. The sonata movement should, as a result of this record, become very popular. It is rich, tuneful music, and should delight everyone, organ lover or not. Tho disc is superlatively recorded. Whilst General Higgins, leader of the Salvation Army, was in Australia he made a record for Regal. The titles of his addresses are " The Search for Happiness " and " Getting and Spending." At the same time, Regal issued three other Salvation Army records, " The Maple Leaf March " coupled with " The Conqueror " (March), played by the Salvation Army International Staff Band; "I know a Fount " coupled with " Thou Art Enough for Mo," sung by Mrs. Commandant Ward, with violin, 'cello and organ accompaniment. A, further recording is ""Christmas Carols," vocal selections introducing " While Shepherds Watched," " Christians Awake," " Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," and " Once in Royal David's City," by the Salvation Army Southall Songsters, and accompanied by Band of the Supplies Department, conducted by Captain Eric Ball. Mischa Elman puts some pretty violin work into his record of the Beethoven Minuet in G," with which is coupled his own arrangement of Arensky's " Serenade in G Major." His tone is always warm, • and in the " Minuet " gives all the lilt of the dance. There is i some lovely detail in the " Serenade," and the performance is poetic as well as technically finished. In Elman's playing there is not only all the virtues of finger and bow, but an intense conviction that the piece of music he is playing is a masterpiece to which he is doing homage. There i 3 no violinist recording who comes through with better tone, and that is saying a great deal. The disc is by His Master's Voice. The six Brandenburg Concerts were so named because thoy were dedicated by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, a musical enthusiast whom the composer met at Carlsbad. Those who only know their Bach for his sombre :uul reverent mood will be surprised at the gaiety and jollity expressed in the second of these concertos, which is recorded on three His Master's Voice discs by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. The whole work is an extremely intricate study in counterpoint, and both the recording and the performance are a splendid example of the marvellous height to which gramophone reproductions has risen, and a word might bo added in piaisc of the manner in which the difficulties of the trumpet passages in the last movement are surmounted by the soloist. One of the most impressive performances of " Siegfried's Funeral March " from Wagner's " Twilight of the Gods " is that recorded for His Master's Voice by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Albert Coates, one of the greatest living conductors. The majestic march is stirringly and powerfully presented, while the recording does full justice to Wagner's magnificent orchestration. The harp cadenzas stand out better than in any previous recording of the march, adding notable sonority and richness. It may be, perhaps, due to the number of harps employed, for the original score provides for six harps. Jn earlier recordings of tho Funeral March tho harp passages were very faint. After the repetition of Siegfried's theme by the trumpets, Coates works up a superb climax toward the end.