Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 2, No. 6 (1928-03)

The Phonograph Monthly Review 219 March, 1928 ■■O il S S Correspondence Column The Editor does not accept any responsibility jor opinions expressed by correspondents. No notice will be taken of un- signed letters, but only initials or a pseudonym will be printed if the writer so desires. Contributions of general interest to our readers are welcomed. They should be brief and writ- ten on one side of the paper only. Address all letters, to CORRESPONDENCE COLUMN, Editorial Department, The Phonograph Monthly Review, 47 Hampstead Road, Jamaica Plain, Boston, Mass. Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Ostensibly there are some music lovers who are anesthetic, for various reasons, to phonograph music, while there are others who, for better reasons, are most enthusiastic—quite militantly so, at times. Would that some hound for statis- tics devote himself to discovering just how large the Brueder- schaft of Gramophilistia really is! This fauna is not rare, although rather deceptive and keeps well under cover—except for an occasional sortie in the form of a letter directed to the Correspondence Column of your excellent magazine. The fauna is of several kinds: there are fortunate ones who can afford to and do buy most of the worthwhile records as soon as they are released; then there are others, myself included, who can not afford, yet somehow manage to obtain most records, by stopping just short of murder; and finally there are those who love phonograph music, but hate to crank the machine, or have been stuck with an expensive radio, or would rather borrow your records for an evening, and so never really get round to buying a record. Of these, the chronically insolvent class fare worst. They never escape with whole skins from the monthly avalanche of releases. Surely the recording companies if they maintain the present plethora of good records will make hardened criminals of us impecunious die-hards. In the sweet and innocent pre-Orthophonic, non Viva Tonal days, when in not too frequent intervals an ex- ceptional record made its modest appearance, I promptly got out my prayer rug and gave thanks unto Allah. But I have long since presented a completely worn out prayer rug to the ashman, together with my acoustic records. If instead of releasing a_ whole library of master works at once, which seems to be the policy of the larger companies— especially the Columbia Company—they would give us only master works sets each month—ein wenig adagio—it would give us a chance to catch up. As it is at present, I can only buy one-third of the records that come out and am hopelessly behind—and my budget is—well, one isn’t a real phonograph enthusiast if one doesn’t kick about something all the time! Wareham, Mass. Abie Wend. Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Your paper is becoming more valuable as the months go by. I am sorry that you have discontinued the list of especially recommended records. While such a list may be unimportant to those who have access to phonograph stores, it is a guide to those who have no opportunity of hearing a record before buying it. I hope you will give your readers an opportunity to vote on a list of unrecorded items. My recommendation would be that you print a list of about one hundred (100) titles and invite your subscribers to vote for ten (10) or twenty (20) which they desire most. This I am sure would be of interest to your readers and would further point out to the recording companies the music which when recorded would probably meet with a quick sales response. Cleveland, Ohio C. D. Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Why in heaven’s name can’t we get the Mozart Requiem and Bach B minor Mass choral records in this country? As it is one is forced to import them from England, al- though the Victor Company’s catalogue is very weak in major choral works. I have their excellent Meistersinger nnd Messiah excerpts, and these certainly are very fine. But the Mozart and Bach works are also superb and would be a credit to the Victor or any other label. They should be out here! It also irritates me that American choruses are apparently not thought good enough to make records. Beyond a few small works by the Mormon, St. Olaf, etc., choirs we have nothing. How about the great Bethlehem Bach Festival Choruses? Or Dr. Davison’s Harvard Glee Club? Or several leading choruses in New York and other leading musical cities? Now that choral music can be recorded so effectively it seems a downright shame that more advantage is not taken of the fact. I wish to thank you for drawing attention to several fine choral records in the Foreign lists and for paying due tribute to the fine Odeon choruses from Aida and Cavalleria Rusticana; also the Metropolitan Opera House Chorus records from Victor. Germantown, Penna. “A Capella” Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review : A good many months ago I wrote a rather hasty and opinionated letter to these pages regarding needles and my own conviction that “a medium steel needle of perfect make, used once only, solves all needle problems.” Captain Barnett, that staunch defender of fine gauge needles and grips, was so kind as to send me a Sympathetic outfit for test, and later on I procured Euphonic needles and grips. I have hesitated to come to any decision until I had given these thorough test. Meanwhile I have read with interest the glowing (and some not so glowing) reports in your pages, also Mr. Fassnacht’s two articles. My faith in medium steel needles for general use re- mains unshaken, but the merits of both the Euphonies and Sympathetics is indisputable. No real enthusiast should be without them, not for exclusive use, but to augment the regular variety. It would be hard to decide between the two makes of grip sets; the Euphonies are particularly good on piano records, especially those made by Columbia. The Sympathetics are much easier to handle, and are especially fine for old acoustic records. It seems to me a mistake to use one kind of needle ex- clusively. Best results can be obtained by using the needle fitted for each type of composition and recording, and, above all, for one’s personal taste in tone quality. This last pojint is obviously the mo^t important one. The fine needles in particular allow an exceedingly delicate adjustment of quality, and there can be no question that by virtue of their improved definition and sensitivity they make possible phonographic reproduction of a higher aesthetic level. While for achieving “concert” effect, medium steel needles com- bine the sonority and “ring” of the heavier needles without taxing the wearing qualities of the records. Boston, Mass. “Needle-Angler” Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review : The enclosed cutting from the “Musacal Courier” of Dec. 1st will no doubt be of interest to gramophone en- thusiasts, especially as an article on the New York Phil- harmonic Orchestra, appears in the current issue of the “Phonograph.” Perhaps the Victor Company will now be in a position to have this orchestra make some records under the baton of Toscanini. “SHAVITCH RECORDS FOR THE VICTOR” “Vladimir Shavitch conductor of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, was in New York for several days last week making records for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Mr. Shavitch conducted the New York Philharmonic Or- chestra, and among the compositions recorded were two symphonic works. Campo and Isla de Los Ceibos, by Eduardo Fabini, the noted Uruguaian composer. Both these works received their premiere by Mr. Shavitch in Mon- tevideo.” Vancouver, B. C. Shaw Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: The two instalments of Captain Barnett’s “Chatter” in the last issue were of greater pleasure to me than some of his works in last fall’s issues. I am glad to see that he is com- ing back to technical points and leaving artistic and musical ones alone. I don’t like to criticize anyone on the maga- zine, least of all the Captain, but that it has been a great source of irritation to me whenever he ventured to comment upon compositions or composers. If he can’t endure modernist composers and would prefer a timpani concerto