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

14 The Phonograph Monthly Review October, 1928 those exciting seasons when such men as Colonne, Strauss, Safanof, Herbert, Weingartner, Fiedler, Steinbach, and many others appeared in a rapid succession of “guest” conductors. During the last few seasons Mengelberg has become more a “resident” than a guest for he is now a regular conductor of the Philharmonic, and while he ostensibly shares the post with Toscanini, Furt- wangler, and others, it is he who occupies the rostrum during the major part of the season and whose name is most closely identified with the Philharmonic’s leadership. The consolidation of the New York Symphony with the Philharmonic will have no effect upon his present status, and judging from all indications, Mengelberg will be a familiar figure in New York for years to come. For all the appeal of his genial personality and irresistibly convincing performances, Mengelberg is too mercurial a person ever to rest on either his laurels or his popularity. One year he will drive his most fervid admirers frantic by his indefatigable efforts to popularize his idols, Mahler and Bruckner. Another year he will rush to the other extreme of spicing his programs with such condiments as the 1812 Overture. And the following season he will win back all his alienated hearers by a single program of the superb performances of which he is capable at his best. This lively, jack-in-the-box figure is never dull, never just what one expects. And on records no less than in the concert hall is this true. What original and stimulating works he has given us: Schelling’s Victor Ball (still the only major American orchestral work to be recorded) ; Cherubini’s Anacreon Overture; Christian Bach’s delightful Sinfonia; Halvorsen’s Festival March of the Boyars; to say nothing of his unconventional readings which restore the virginal freshness of such hackneyed works as the Tannhauser and Rosamunde Overtures. The complete list of his recordings follows: Electrically Recorded Columbia 67420-1-D Cherubini: Anacreon Overture (3) and Beethoven: Eighth Symphony — Allegretto (1) Columbia 67273-D Beethoven: Coriolanus Overture (2) Columbia 67220-D Beethoven: Egmont Overture (2) Columbia 67221-2-D Wagner: Tannhauser Overture (4) English Columbia L-2047 Christian Bach: Sinfonia (2) English Columbia L-1799 Berlioz: Damnation of Faust — Hungarian March (1), and Les Sylphes (1) English Columbia L-1798 Mahler: Fifth Symphony — Ada- gietto (2) (All the above are recorded with the Concertgebouw Orchestra; those following are recorded with the New York Philharmonic) Brunswick 50096 Johann Strauss: Tales from the Vienna Woods (1) and Artist’s Life (1) Waltzes Brunswick 50072 Tchaikowsky: Marche Slave (2) Victor 1127-8 (2 ten-inch disks) Schelling: A Victory Ball (4) Victor 6547 Wagner: Flying Dutchman Overture (2) Acoustically Recorded Victor 6223 Beethoven: Coriolanus Overture (2) Victor 6224 Weber: Oberon Overture (2) Victor 6225 and 6373 Liszt: Les Preludes (4) Victor 6374 Tchaikowsky: Symphonie Pathetique—2nd Movement (1), and 4th Movement (1) Victor 6427 Johann Strauss: Tales from the Vienna Woods Waltz (1), and Tchaikowsky: Waltz from the • Serenade for String Orchestra (1) Victor 6464 Halvorsen : Festival March of the Boyars (1), and Mendelssohn: Athalia—War March of the Priests (1) Victor 6479 Schubert: Rosamunde—Overture (1), and Entr’acte (1) Victor 795 (ten-inch) Beethoven: Fifth Symphony—1st Movement (2) Victor 989 (ten-inch) Saint-Saens: Omphale’s Spinning Wheel (1) No other recording conductor has covered in the same number of releases as wide a range. It would be difficult to pick out a single record as wholly characteristic of Mengelberg: nearly every one throws a new light on his many-sided per- sonality, and nearly every one .is representative of a different type of interpretative power. The sole exception is the ten-inch disk of the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth, Mengelberg’s one failure, and even this is not uncharacteristic in that it proves again his essential human-ness. The last work to be recorded, the Christian Bach Sinfonia , is also the most effective from a technical standpoint and gives a good indication of the success of his future releases. This the Cherubini and Beethoven pieces for Columbia, the two Brunswick disks, and the two electrical Vic- tor disks form what might be termed the Group A of his works, but all the others, even those dating from the early acoustical days, are worthy of study from an interpretative point of view— and even from the effectiveness of the recording judged by acoustical standards. Many of these early works cry for re-recording, particularly his most famous war-horse, Les Preludes , the Festi- val March of the Boyars , and the Rosamunde and Oberon overtures. Rumours have been rife of recent months that a major symphonic recording is to be expected in the none to distant future from Mengelberg. Every record collector will offer earnest prayers for the confirmation of this report! With the powers of the modern recording added to his inherent gift for glimpsing new beauties in standard works* and for making modernistic ones seem less strange and forbidding, his new re- leases will exert an influence on the phonographic public no less striking than his concert perfor- mances have exerted on his concert audiences. In the future as in the past any Mengelberg release can be brought unheard in the sure confidence of getting a work of vivid and arresting individua- lity, colored always with the warm geniality and incomparable glow of the Mengelberg touch!” The Phonograph Monthly Review wishes to express its regret for two serious errors appearing in its advertising pages last month. The advertisement of the Okeh Phonograph Corporation appeared in its uncorrected form with a confusion between the descriptive ma- terial on the Dajos Bela and Dr. Weissmann disks. (The Odeon 3000 series in which the Dajos Bela and Edith Lorand records appear is now in the $1.00 price classification.) In the Columbia Company’s advertisement on the back cover the Viva-tonal Columbia Kol- ster instrument pictured was incorrectly designated as Model No. 30 instead of No. 930.