NEW RECORDS.

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17409, 21 July 1928, Page 6

NEW RECORDS.

REVIEW OF RECENT ISSUES. BY THE COLUMBIA COMPANY. "Symphony No. 2 in D" (Beethoven). Four records in Art Album. Columbia L 1864-67. Beethoven's Second Symphony was first performed in Vienna in 1803. It was probably completed towards the close of 1802. Written when the composer was thirty-three, it represents a. step forward in breadth of style and distinct individuality as compared to the First Symphony. It is a cheery work, although when he wrote it Beethoven was already overshadowed by those "powers of darkness" against which lie waged a never-ceasing battle. The first movement was a very slow

and long introduction, and then dashes off in a quick and high-spirited style. The Larghetto is notable for its beautiful and delicate wood-wind play-' in»;. and in the main is of lyrical character. The Scherzo, which Beethovcu uses instead of a .Minuet, is skittish in its stylo, and the stately old dance is changed into a fascinating movement jocular in manner. The finale is a sort or Second Scherzo, and Berlioz describes it as ev.en "more delicate and piquant" than the Scherzo proper. Sir Thomas Beecham has recorded this symphony with infinite charm. j_, , ■ ———— "l*eonoro (No. 3) Overture" (Beethoven). /In' four parts. Sir Henry Wood conducting the New Queen's Hall Orchestra. Columbia Ll9~B-79 "Leonore (No. 3) is one of the five different overtures that Beethoven wrote for his Single opera. "Fidelo,"

and it is the favourite of them all. i clearly showing the composer to be an ! oehestral but not an operatic writer. Jt is practically a tone poem illustrating the story of the opera, several themes from which are used in its construction. The playing under the famous conductor is wonderfully expressive, and the tone colour is perfectly reproduced. Gramophonists will be keenly interested to notice the increase in sonority and mass production of this record, this one being, recorded in the Scala. one of the biggest theatres in London. (1) "Brindisi" (Otello-Verdi); (2) "II Sogno" (Otello-Verdi). Sung by Riccardo Straeciari, baritone. Columbia. X 332. Verdi's "Otello" is gradually but surely winning its way to the place it deserves in the hearts of opera lovers.

All the best things in the score are now to be heard on the gramophone, and here we have two of Jago’s few detachable pages, apart from the “Credo’’—namely, the “Brindisi,” or Drinking Song, and the passage from the duet with Otello, where the Moor’s traitorous “ancient” first rouses Otello’s jealousy by liis story of what he overheard C’assio mutter in hisdream about Desdemona. Both are short, but full of colour. The Drinking Song, a macrabre sort of ditty, trolled forth by Lugo amid the gathering storm, is sung with abundant spirit and the Sogno. or dream, is related be right degree of subtlety and a striking contrast in the voices of the two speakers.' In each number Straeciari shows what an artist he is.