GRAMOPHONE NOTES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 22 October 1931, Page 2

GRAMOPHONE NOTES

COLUMBIA RECORDINGS. ? Malcolm McEadiem. There’s little doubt that Malcolm McEadiem —‘ ‘Jetsam ’’ of “Flotsam and Jetsam” —has one of the finest bass voices in England. Faulty intonation, that bugbear of basso singing, is not. one of this singer’s vices, and his production is forward, resonant and suggestive of effortless case. Perhaps that is why he records so well, and why his discs are so universally popular. He sings on Columbia DO3 “My Old Shako,” that old ‘war-horse’ by Trotere, and a song called “The Windmill.” * * * * Boy Soprano Sings Well. Master John Bonner has chosen two delightful songs, well suited to his fluent soprano voice. The Purcell song, “Nymphs and Shepherds,” is a typically pastoral composition- of the seventeenth century, while ‘ ‘ Should He Upbraid,” on the reverse side, has the same simplicity of construction.

Traditional Scotch. Songs. News that Elder Cunningham, the famous Scotch bass-baritone, will be touring New Zealand within a year or two lends additional interest to his new series of Scotch songs. His latest is a pairing of two old, but by no means hackneyed songs, “O’ a’ the Airts,” and “Jessie, the Flower of Dunblane.” Both of them have the true Scotch sentiment, which has the happy knack of going to the heart and not the head. Cunningham phrases with natural instinctive refinement; indeed, naturalness seems to be his outstanding quality. His voice is round and open, and records with lifelike fidelity.