Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 2, No. 9 (1928-06)

June, 1928 The Phonograph Monthly Review 319 . U L. " ■ ■ kret has an interesting record of two famous Serenades arranged for Salon Orchestra; Casals is heard in an excellent recording of two Spanish Dances; and there are many unusually fine dance records, among which those by Waring's Penn- sylvanians deserve special praise. From the Brunswick Company are more rec- ords by Godowsky, Bonelli, and Rethberg; the pianist plays Sinding's Rustle of Spring and Macdowell’s Witches' Dance, Bonelli sings Danny Deever and On the Road to Mandalay, and Miss Rethberg sings Rubinstein's setting of Du Bist Wie Fine Blume and Jensen's Murmuring Zephyr. The American soprano Grace Moore is heard in two Boheme arias to advantage, and there are several praiseworthy light orchestral disks from the Brunswick Orchestra and the A. & P. Gypsies, in addition to the usual lengthy group of fine dance records. There are no major works released by Odeon this month, but the untiring Dajos Bela Orches- tra is represented as usual, this time by Strauss' Blue Danube and Kaiser Waltzes. There is also a very brilliant recording of In a Persian Market and In a Monastery Garden by the Odeon Orches- tra and a very noteworthy novelty record (41035) of a dialogue entitled Hello Jake! by Watson and Cohan, one of the funniest releases since the famous Okeh Laughing record. But the lack of orchestral works is very disappoint- ing. Where are all the excellent releases we see in the Parlophone lists every month? Are we not going to get any of them here? The foreign supplements are rich in interest- ing “finds" this month. First are two remark- able symphonic poems by Eduardo Fabini, the Uruguayan composer, played by Vladimir Shav- itch and a Symphony Orchestra, to which our attention was first called by an alert Vancouver reader, Mr. N. Shaw, in a letter to the Corres- pondence Columns some months ago. These three records were first released for South Am- erican sale only, and now are made available here through the Victor Company's Spanish-Mexican list. They are perhaps the most valuable dis- coveries ever made among the foreign releases; the more they are heard, the more fascination they exert upon one. They are a wonderful ex- ample of what our South American friends are doing in music. Another “find" is Nat Shilkret's new version of the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, issued in the International list. Let us hope that this ex- cellent record is released shortly in the domestic supplement also. For a good twelve-inch dance record, the Columbia International list provides Eddie Thomas' coupling of Beautiful Ohio Waltz and a Waltz Medley of famous Victor Herbert melodies. Odeon lists another fine song coupling by the German baritone Willy Fassbander, heard in Lowe's ballad Die Uhr and Schubert's Am Meer. In the Brunswick list there are the usual interesting disks from Isa Kremer, and also a very good record of Moussorgsky's Song of the Flea, sung by the noted Polish bass, Adam Didur. Besides the Mengelberg record of a Sinfonia by Christian Bach, mentioned before, we received two other great works from abroad. One of these, the Brahms Violin Concerto played by Kreisler, was ordered at the same time from The Gramophone Shop in New York and from our regular London dealer. The former set arrived an entire week before the other, a convincing tribute to American efficiency of service! Need- less to say, the Concerto is exceptionally fine, as are the Brahms Variations on a Theme of Haydn, conducted by Casals, which arrived from London at the same time. Through the kindness (of Mr. Elbridge W. Newton, head of the Music Department of Ginn and company, the famous publishers of educa- tional works, we have received a complete set of the Ginn Music Education Series, consisting of some eight books and sixty records, the latter made by members of the New York Philhar- monic under the direction of Henry Hadley. Detailed reviews of this remarkable series will be deferred until the August issue, which is to be a special Education Number. From the William H. Wise Company of New York City another notable set of records has been sent to us, the Roycroft “Living Tone" recordings of the English Singers, heard in celebrated old madrigals of Byrd, Gibbons, Morley, etc., and in folk-song arrangements by Vaughn-Williams and others. These exceptionally interesting works ar- rived too late to be reviewed for this issue, but full details will appear next month. A third set of records must also be mentioned here, this one of native Indian music sent all the way from Bombay from Mr. M. R. Bharucha, whose letters to the Correspondence Column and programs of the Bombay Chamber Orchestra have attracted considerable attention in our pages. The disks he sent are of native composi- tions performed by native artists, and made at the H. M. V. factory in Calcutta. A complete description will follow later. As the concert season has now come to a close, the feature, Recorded Symphony Programs, is discontinued with the instalment in this issue. In its place will appear a series of articles on Recording Conductors, the first of which will come out in an early issue. However, the prog- ress of the concerts in the Lewissohn Stadium, the Los Angeles Bowl, etc., will not be overlooked, and from time to time their programs will be given comment and analysis. American record buyers will be glad to learn that the National Gramophonic Society records are now made available in this country through the progressiveness of the Gramophone Shop in New York City and the H. Royer Smith Com- pany in Philadelphia. Major Christopher Stone, Secretary of the N. G. S. and the London Editor of our British cousin, “The Gramophone," writes us about making these live dealers American rep- resentatives of the N. G. S. and very kindly sug- gests that he would be grateful to learn what works American enthusiasts would particularly