WITH SMALL ORCHESTRAS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12181, 4 July 1925, Page 14

WITH SMALL ORCHESTRAS

With both wireless and gramophones it ■will probably always be the case rlat the best results are obtained when the fewer instruments are employed (says a writer in the "Oxford Magazine”). The records of modern orchestral works are still to n certain extent unsatisfactory, though they have a very distinct use. After all, one of the chief advantages of a gramophone is to extend one's knowledge of music, and with orchestral jor cords, whatever their limitations, one can get into the heart of a masterpiece in a way that an occasional heading at a concert can never afford. The case of Beethoven and earlier orchestral works is rather different: here, I think, it < wght to be.possible to enjoy a measure at least of the added pleasure one gets from cham-ber-music records, and I am confident that the secret lies in the employment of smaller orchestras. In this connection it is interesting to contrast iwo fairly recent productions: t'le "Jupiter” Symphony of Mozart (H.M.VJ and the "Surprise” Symphony of Haydn. (Parlophone). I am inclined to regard the latter as the best example of orchestral recording so far achieved. The circumstance of a Haydn orchestra as opposed to a modern is of course all in its favour, and it is perhans unfair to contrast it with records of modern works; but a comparison with, say, the record of the "Jupiter” is fair enough. For the "Surprise” far fewer performers are employed, and the result is a clarity which certainly does not exist with Ihe "Jupiter,” where a very much larger band is used. The detail of the former is as lucid as could he wished, and the beauty of the individual playing is beyond n/aise: each instrument receives its full value. The "Jupiter,” admirably interpreted as it is, is rather a pudding of sound, jumbled and confused. So far as surface-noise is concerned, the English firms are still welt ahead of the German; and here, at any rate, one must give higher marks to the "Jupiter.” Of Parlophone records as a whole one may say this*, they llavo a notable catalogue, which includes a number of works, in apparently uncut versions, still unattempted over here; they are verv cheap; the performances by the Opera House orchestra (under such conductors as Moerike and Weiesmann) are excellent —the performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is superb; but the surface of the records leaves something to be desired, and whether they last well or not, I have not possessed any long enough to be able to say. The hardened gramophonist, such as myself, is inclined to pay less and less attention to surfacenoise, at least with orchestral records, just as he grows to use hard needles always, for the sake of the tone they bring out, rather than soft ones for the cake of their quiet. He gets to a point at which he iust doesn't hear the surfacenoise at all. For 6hamber-music, where surface-noise is of more moment, I think that fibre-needles are the best to use; but a really satisfactory cutter has yet to be deVised.