Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1928-10)

October, 1928 The Phonograph Monthly Review 5 We regret very much having made a prema- ture announcement of this issue as our special Educational Number. Mr. Elbridge W. Newton, who was working on an excellent treatise fon such a number, has, we are very sorry to say, been forced to abandon his desk by reason of a serious breakdown from overwork, and is com- manded by his doctor to lay aside all work and take a much needed rest. However, we are as- sured that as soon as he is able he will finish his article, and we are postponing our Educational Number until it is available. We trust that our readers will join us in wishing a speedy recovery to Mr. Newton, who has given many proofs of his valuable assistance to the phonograph move- ment. The Phonograph Societies are beginning to dis- play signs of real life as the season is about to open. Except from Chicago (which is as silent as the grave), we have word of the activities of all the old societies and plans for several new ones. Mr. Ralph C. Graves of Phelps, N. Y., writes us of his plans for two societies, one in Geneva and one in Canandaigua, N. Y. As Mr. Graves rightly points out, such organizations can fill a larger place in the social and artistic lives of small communities than they could possibly do in larger cities. In proof of this contention we have the successful example of Reverend Sat- cher's group in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Talbot's Machias, Maine, classes in Phono- graphic Listening, about which we have the privilege of printing some interesting material elsewhere in this issue. A few sincere music- lovers are all that is necessary for the nu- cleus of a Phonograph Society and we trust that no one interested in forming a society will hesi- tate to do so in the belief that they are only pos- sible in the larger communities. As always, we are anxious to be kept in touch with plans and activities, and to lend our heartiest encourage- ment and support to Phonograph Societies, for we realize the invaluable part they play in spread- ing the appreciation of fine recorded music. Recording Conductors By ROBERT DONALDSON DARRELL Personalities ( Continuation ) I HAVE been much interested by the reactions of leading British gramophiles to two of the Stokowski major works lately discussed in this article. Everyone fascinated by the “Pro- blem of Personality” upon which our attention has been focussed will find new light thrown upon this subject, a sufficiently adequate excuse, I think, for returning for a moment to the omni- present Philadelphian. In the September number of The British Musician Mr. Sydney Grew analyzes Stokowski’s Scheherazade in consider- able detail and (in the paraphrase of the pro- gram) with a delightful sprinkling of humor. He confirms the views I have already expressed that the so-called programatic weaknesses of the reading are actually merits in this poetic per- formance of the work as a piece of symphonic, rather than descriptive, music. Mr. Compton Mackenzie, in his Editorial in the September issue of The Gramophone admires the work no less, but finding in it an altogether different pro- gram than that indicated by the composer, ad- vises the listener who has not memorized the argument or seen the ballet to “listen to it with- out bothering about the Arabian Nights and sim- ply enjoy the great barbaric drama which the music will provide without any pictures or printed commentary.” The Franck Symphony, however, draws Mr. Mackenzie’s condemnation: It is bad. I am inclined to doubt whether any con- ductor after even a year’s experience of American pros- perity would be capable of conducting 1 a Franck Symphony. Stokowski has enjoyed it far too long. Dame Ethel Smyth’s story of meeting Brahms at lunch and of being rather shocked to see him pick up the tin of sardines to which he had been helping himself, and with great gusto pour the remaining oil down his throat, gives me the clue to something in Brahms that is proof against the effect of riches on his interpreters. But the music of Cesar Franck eludes these millionaire interpreters. It may be that this inability to stand the strain of modern American life reveals a fundamental weakness in the music of Cesar Franck. I have not yet heard any of Stokowski’s interpretations of Beethoven, but I have an idea that his Beethoven would be good, and that marvellous record of the Bach Toccata and Fugue proves that Bach is rich and robust in himself to stand any amount of modern cleverness. This is a new score on which to hold Stokowski to task, and it gives food for thought. There is something in Franck's music which does not resist (like the sinewey, closer-to-earth music of Brahms) the softening, or even the refining and civilizing influence of wealth and adulation. There is something false in Stokowski's version of the Franck Symphony, particularly in the first and last movements. I might compare it to a church risen to great temporal power: there is a magnificent architectural edifice, there is an atmosphere of piety and nobility, even sincerity, but there is something flabby, something almost repugnant about it on the borders of one's con- sciousness. The atmosphere may be that of de- votion and nobility, but it reeks also of age-old rooms, too costly hangings, and unhealthy per- fumes. The bloom, the innocence, the freshness are gone. And without these essentials, Franck's music is a pale sickly thing. Brahms, no limp saint cloistered in the organ loft, but a burly, whiskered, “practical fellow," drinking the oil