Recorded Music

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17220, 1 October 1927, Page 18 (Supplement)

Recorded Music

A High Compliment. What will rank as one of the giant works in gramophone chamber music is Brahms’s Quintet in F Minor. It is performed by some distinguished players, who are the Flonzaley Quartet and Mr Harold Bauer (piano). The “run’ ’is a fairly long one, • there being five records, or ten sides, but there is not a dull or uninteresting moment throughout. In the quintet are some delightful melodies. One of the boldest and liveliest is the semi-military theme belonging to the Scherzo, while in the closing stages of the finale, which reveals the musical strength of the early Brahms, piano and strings rise to heights of brilliance. An alternating use of contrasting rhythms is among the attractive features of the Scherzo.

The “Emperor” Concerto. As a companion to the “Emperor” violin concerto recorded by Kreisler and the ißerlin State Opera House Orchestra, 1 nothing could be more fitting than the piano concerto by Backhaus and the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Landon Ronald. This is known as the Emperor Concerto, more because of the grandness of its conception than through any association with a particular empire. Beethoven was a generous democrat, as may be gathered from the definitely human touch in even his most sublime music. There is a sensation of majesty and might in this work which might be the outcome of the martial circumstances which surrounded the composer at the date of its composition. The nimble technique of Backhaus fits him peculiarly for the interpretation of this great concerto, and he appears to entirely at one with Sir Landon Ronald and the orchestra. The brilliance of the piano in these records will no doubt tend to make this set of records one of the most popular works during the celebration of the Beethoven Centenary, while its own stately grandeur will ensure its permanent place in the world’s great music.

The Motif of the ‘Eroica.” Beethoven lived during a period of historical transition. His great alert mind was deeply influenced by the powerful social forces that surged around him. Like. Mozart and Wagner he responded to the revolutionary needs of his time, and his music was thereby deepened and strengthened. This is most clearly seen in his third, or “Eroica,” symphony, which was dedicated to the French Revolution

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though the person of Napoleon. When, later, Napoleon became emperor Beethoven viewed this step as a betrayal of the revolution; and in a fit of temper he tore off the dedication page. So deeply did the French revolution impress Beethoven that musicians all agree that the “Eroica” symphony not only marked a great step forward in his genius, but that it indicated a new.

A Great Russian Aria. The story of how Rossini was so lazy that he wrote out again a whole sheet of “The Barber of Seville” rather than get out of bed to pick up a copy of it which was blown to the floor by a gust of wind through the window, was related to a huge audience in London recently by Mr H. L. Rink, who gave a lecture-recital. Introducing the subject, Mr Rink explained that the recital was to show people what the gramophone in its modern form can really do in the matter of realism and faithfulness to the originals. He impressed the need for music to have its proper place in the scheme of education, and ' submitted that the gramophone is one of the best means of spreading a love of good music among all classes. Having told the story of Rossini’s laziness, Mr Rink went on to give an account of the catastrophes which, marked the production of the “Barber” in 1815 at Rome —when the composer was booed for appearing to conduct in a velvet coat, a piece of scenery fell down, and a cat walked across the stage—and its subsequent success three months later in Milan. He then put on a record of “Una voce poco fa” from this opera, which was so realistic that one could have sworn. Galli-Curci herself was singing from behind the platform screen. Her wonderful cadenzas and sostenuli filled the hall, and drew considerable applause, to which Mr Rink responded with the lovely “Lo, Hear the Gentle Lark,” as an encore. A Voice from West Africa. The following letter from West Africa has been delivered at the London office of a gramophone company: —“Honoured and Respectable Master Voice; With greatest emotion I write to you for I am sometimes hear you am fattest and fairyest trader in the City of England I myself also too am Englishman my father he am one big trader johnny once dead by fever and my mother am one pure Lagos gal ■: teesech you on knee send me free one big catalogue of you worthy gramophones and worshipfully send mo one bible for convert heathens.—Yours Faithfully Friend, Kckeri Ladikoy.”