Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 2, No. 5 (1928-02)

4 The Phonograph Monthly Review style. As this Staff suggests, the running comment does bring one quickly into sympathy with the music. Frederic Lamond’s interpretation is a scholarly one to say the least—his brilliant chromatic runs, his wonderful scale work stamps him as a player of no little ability. He too is a composer, his works including a symphony, overtures, a piano trio, chamber music and many piano pieces and he interprets this Concert Study as though he appreciates an- other performer playing his brother composer’s work—full of sympathy and understanding. Difficult passages are. many in this Study but Lamond knows not the meaning of the word “difficult.” And this music is of the style we all love to hear many, many times. Truly the collector of music rolls should not overlook this one. DUO-ART WORLD’S MUSIC LIBRARY, A-56, Bacn: Prelude and Fugue in B-flat. Played by Harold Samuel with Listener’s Introduction and Running Comment by Percy A. Scholes, author of “The Listener’s Guide to Music”, etc. As Scholes so fittingly writes, “Bach is everybody’s composer” so the reviewer can write, “Scholes is everybody’s annotator” for here Scholes has explained the working out of a Fugue so clearly that one must, not be so very far advanced in the study of musical form to derive real enjoyment from the playing of this roll. The Prelude is first given us with the running comment covering the two “voices.” After this has been played com- plete we come to a “STOP” bar and here is explained the Fugue which follows in the three “voices”. Scholes here names for us the three individual tunes, the first being the Chief Tune or LAUGHING tune so named on account of the rip- pling figure (or “motif”) with which this chief tune ends. Two other definite tunes are constantly combined with this chief tune. The one ending with a knocking motif, Mr. Scholes calls the HAMMERING tune, the other is frag- mentary and suggests a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, hence Mr. Scholes naming this last the FLUTTER- ING tune. Throughout the playing of this fugue each en- trance of the various tunes are marked with a capital L, H and F covering the names of each tune as named by Mr. Scholes. He also tells us when the tune is “inverted” and for the true amateur the instructions contained in this won- derful recording are without limit, for in the parts not cov- ered by Mr. Scholes the detail unfolds itself as if it were simply because the more principal sections were explained and “discovered” for us. True it is that this Fugue is 'complex in its structure as many of Bach’s other fugues have but one or two chief tunes, but we owe the Aeolian Company a vote of thanks for re- leasing this particular one, especially so when we consider Mr. Scholes’ very vivid explanations. Harold Samuel shows true musicianship in his interpretation. DUO-ART WORLD’S MUSIC LIBRARY, A-59, Schu- mann: “Soaring.” Played by Josef Hofmann with Listeners Introduction and Running Comment by Thomas F. Dunhill, Professor at the Royal College of Music, a composer and author of “Chamber Music,” etc. It was while Schumann was suffering under torturing sus- pense and uncertainty that this exultant composition was written. For four years Schumann’s marriage to the brilliant pianist, Clara Wieck, whom he loved so devotedly, was bit- terly opposed by her father and for these four years he lived in constant alternating hopes and despairs of a lover’s heart. Of these years he wrote, “My troubles have been productive of much music,” and again, “I have never written so thor- oughly from the soul as just lately.” In “Soaring” the spirit of exultation is unmistakable— strong, impetuous, troubled at times, but always regaining real heights. It naturally links itself with that poem of D. T. Dane, “Wings of Ecstasy” as the music is so closely akin as to suggest its use here as a parallel. Schumann will al- ways be regarded as the leader of the Romantic School of musical composition. He was the first of the great com- posers to be powerfully influenced by literature. Mr. Dun- hill quotes in part from this poem in his comments through- out the roll. It is natural that he should do so for surely this number embodies completely and exclusively, the idea conveyed by its title that one cannot be mistaken. It is No. 2 of Op. 12. One of the eight Fantasy-Pieces making up this Opus, and one of the finest and most poetical of this group. Josef Hofmann has surely captured the verj' spirit of the composition and gives it forth again with a magical mastery. His tone is that of the delicious lyric note February, 1928 ) |5V of the sky-lark as it soars on wings of ecstasy. A beautiful interpretatin, a really life-like tonal picture as played by this artist, Josef Hofmann. DUO-ART WORLD’S MUSIC LIBRARY, A-55, Chopin: Raindrop Prelude” or Prelude in D flat. Played by Guiomar Novaes with Listener’s Introduction by G. C. Ashton Jon- son, Author of a “Handbook to Chopin’s Works.” This is No. 15 of Opus 28, the wonderful opus of the twenty-four compositions called by Chopin, “Preludes.” They are in twenty-four different keys, which would seem to indicate they we^e planned as a whole, notwithstanding their ex- traordinary variety and dissimilarity. It is believed they were composed in Chopin’s twenty-seventh or twenty-eight year and as Liszt said, “they are marked by a youthful vigor not found in some of his later works.” Rubinstein called this Opus 28 the pearls of Chopin’s work. This “Raindrop” Prelude is considered by many as the most beautiful of them all. The opening theme is an im- pressively beautiful one with the middle section dramatic yet stately, with the re-entry of the beautiful first theme bring- ing with it a marvellous sense of relief such as one experi- ences on waking from a bad dream. The suggestion has been made that Chopin elaborated the idea of the constant fall of raindrops which appears in the Sixth Prelude of the same Opus. The Running Comment was prepared by the Staff of the Aeolian Editorial Department. In the writer’s opinion there is little need for any great elaboration in ex- pounding this composition and the Staff probably felt the same way. They follow every little change of mood and tell us as suddenly as this mood appears. Little more can be done. The music tells its own story. It is believed that three or four of the Preludes were written while Chopin was staying at Palma of Valdemosa and if so this fifteenth Prelude in D flat Major was probably one of these. Surely it reflects the gloomy atmosphere of the monastery of Valdemosa and a suggestion of the incessant rain that lasted the whole of his stay in the island. Guiomar Novaes gives us here another of her wonderful conceptions. Her fresh sparkling treatment of the work at hand gives one the feeling that here we have an artist play- ing with her whole mind and heart. A melody which brings tears to the most hardened, still it is one that can be played “wish-washy” unless held in check. Novaes gives us her usual masterly performance, with no trace of ever becoming sickeningly sentimental. A beautiful composition, beautifully rendered by a ranking pianist is this contribution of Guio- mar Novaes. DUO-ART WORLD’S MUSIC LIBRARY, A-52, Bizet: L’ARLESIENNE, “Prelude” Roll 1. Played by Percy Grain- ger with Listener’s Introduction and Running Comment by W. McNaught, formerly Music Critic to the Morning Post, London. As we all know, Bizet wrote music to the play L’Arlesienne (“The Maid of Arles”) written by Alphonse Daudet. L’Arlesienne was not a success. It was full of poetry but lacked action. The incidental music written by Bizet, however, won everybody’s praise and has ever since been popular in the form of concert music. It finally found its way in two orchestral suites. This Prelude is the first number of the first suite. Mr. McNaught divides the Prelude into three separate sec- tions as follows: 1st. “Turenne’s Mai^ch,” played five times with varied style and harmony; 2nd. The music later to be associated in the play, with the Innocent; 3rd. The music later to be associated with Frederick’s fatal love for the Maid of Arles and with the tragedy that grew from it. “Turenne’s March” is first played abruptly, rigidly and without accompanying harmony, in C Minor. Grainger plays with his usual masterly fashion, full of power, and strength. Mr. MacNaught comments throughout in a very instructive style indeed. We can almost see the play unfold before us. We can hear the Innocent’s question as to the story re the goat and the wolf. We can feel Frederick’s suffering, and so it should be. It proves beyond doubt that if a story is told clearly and concisely, following the music at the same time, all that the AudioGraphic Music Rolls’ series prom- ises to fulfill for us is actually done. Mr. Grainger’s playing is masterly throughout. He retains to a surprising degree the fulness and richness of their orchestral coloring, giving us a new revelation of their pianistic effectiveness.