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

30 The Phonograph Monthly Review October, 1928 side is particularly intense. An impressive record with the details sometimes slighted, but the broad effects stressed and doubly stressed. Victor (Italian list) 6843 (D12, $2.00) Maanon Lescaut— Guardatepazzo son, and Luisa Miller—Quando le sere al placido, sung by Aureliano Pertile with orchestral accom- paniment. Recorded excerpts from Verdi’s Luisa Miller are scarce enough in all truth; undoubtedly this is the first electrical one. Pertile lets himself go far more than is his wont. Usually he is refreshingly free from the exaggerated emo- tional display not uncommon with Italian tenors, but here his splendid singing is occasionally marred by over-acting and a lack of restraint. In the Manon aria the entire performance is bombastic and unrestrained in the ex- treme. It is undeniably exciting, however, particularly the sonorous coda which the orchestra thunders out with the greatest gusto. The recording is likewise vigorous and impressive. Both this and the previous disk are not for the devotees of Pelleas et Melisande, Delius, and chamber music, but for those who thrill to the desperate ardors and frantic furies of Italianate opera, with passion uncurbed and energies unspared. Victor 1343 (DIO, $1.50) Herbert: Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life, and Moya: The Song of Songs, sung by Richard Crooks with orchestral accompaniment. The popularity of Herbert’s saccharine masterpiece con- tinues unabated. Those who like it w r ill like Crook’s per- formance, appropriately bland and fervid. The coupling is cut from the same cloth. The recording is excellent and Crooks in fine voice; there are sentimental excesses in his singing, but the songs themselves are surely irresistible provocation. Brunswick 15182 (DIO, 75c) I Need Thee Every Hour, and One Sweetly Solemn Thought, sung by Marie Morrisey and Frank Munn with orchestral accompaniment. Sacred duets done far better than the average. The recording is good and the accompaniments discreet. Columbia 156-M (DIO, 75c) Bizet: Carmen — Habanera, and Air des Cartes, sung by Sophie Braslau with orchestral accompaniment. Miss Braslau sings the Habanera with tonal clarity but very little vivacity. The Air des Cartes is much better, despite a tendency to a somewhat hard tone, and is sung with feeling and restrained power. The recording is very good, the accompaniments decidedly weak. Victor 6776 (D12, $2.00) Crouch: Kathleen Mavourneen, and Molloy: Love’s Old Sweet Song, sung by John Mc- Cormack with piano accompaniments by Edwin Schneider. Aptly described as “two sweet old favorites of John McCormack himself and of his crowded audiences.” Mc- Cormack’s voice is wearing very thin; about the only thing I can praise is his enunciation, which is splendid — in fact, the pieces are given in a sort of Schonberg sprechstimme rather than actually sung. Victor 1340 (D10, $1.50) Bernard: The Old Rugged Cross, and Ackley: Mother’s Prayers Have Followed Me, sung by Marion Talley with orchestral accompaniment. Miss Talley is now properly relegated to her rightful sphere, that of the “sacred solo.” These performances are among the worst of their type, but at least the soloist is at home in them and not incongruously out of place as she was in her highly touted operatic roles, about which the shouting has now died pretty well down. Victor 6842 (D12, $2.00) Chopin: Impromptu in A flat, Op. 29, and Arditi: Leggiero Invisibile, sung by Sigrid Onegin with piano accompaniment by Franz Dorfmueller. A remarkable piece of recording. The almost incredible fulness of Onegin’s great voice is reproduced with un- canny amplitude and tonal purity. The Arditi Bolero is a delightful piece of singing, somewhat more successful than the Chopin vocalise (the vehicle with which Trilby used to bowl over her Parisian audiences). There the voice is almost too rich and broad for the character of the piece, and the middle section is taken very much on the slow side. Did something disturb Miss Onegin here? The even flow of her cantilina is broken once by a brief tremor and once by an actually, if tiny, “break.” It is a magnificent record for all of that, worthy of hearing if only for its superb tonal breadths, the clarity of the re- cording, and Dorfmueller’s capable accompaniments. Victor (German list) 81294 (D10, 75c) Loewe: Tom der Reimer, sung by Fritz Gabsch with piano accompaniment. Another first rate piece of lieder singing by this Ger- man baritone. Gabsch possesses a voice of exceptional richness and smoothness (never the slightest saccharine), and he sings with ease and sincere feeling. The accompani- ments and the recording are likewise good. Victor (German list) 6837 (D12 $2.00) Schubert: die Post, Wohin?, Im Abendrot, and Die Voegel, sung by Elisabeth Schumann with piano accompaniments by Karl Alwin. Remembering Miss Schumann from her concert appear- ances with Richard Strauss several years ago, I have awaited with impatience the American release of her H. M. V. recordings. The first disk even surpasses my expectations and gives good promise of the excellence of those to come. The surface of the studio copy of the record is a little rough at the beginning at each side, but quickly improves, and makes no difference anyway, for Miss Schumann’s voice is of a loveliness that can only be described as heavenly! Im Abendrot is suffused with a tonal sunset glow of the most ethereal tints and shades. Wohin? is a miracle of delicacy, Die Post of vivacity, Die Vogel of sprightliness and humor. And the accompani- ments are scarcely lesser miracles. The songs are among Schubert’s finest inspirations; in these performances they are indisputable masterpieces of genuine romanticism. The phonograph can seldom give us the haunting and subtle musical fragrance we find here. This is a rare record and one of indescribable beauty. Choral Victor 35932 (D12, $1.25) Gems from Cavalieria Rusticana, and Gems from Pagliacci, sung in English by the Victor Opera Company. A good record for transitional purposes, to lift the popu- lar music lover into the slightly higher altitudes of the operatic twins, Cavalieria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Since English is used, one might wish for a little more dis- tinctness of enunciation, but for the rest the performances are competent, with the soprano soloist deserving of first honors. An excellent disk for its purpose it will not appeal to the more experienced music lover who probably has already the excellent records of these various excerpts, particularly those by the Metropolitan Opera House Chorus, or the remarkable Odeon disk of the Mascagni Easter Hymn. STEPHEN FOSTER MELODIES Victor Album C-2 (4 D12s, Alb. $6.00) Stephen Foster Melodies, by Nat Shilkret, the Victor Salon Group, and the Victor Orchestra. The centennial of Foster’s birth was celebrated in 1926 and the December issue of the The Phonograph Monthly Review for that year contained a biographical article by Richard G. Appel and a list of recorded works then available. The list has been considerably augmented since that time, but this Shilkret album is the first major re- corded representation of an American composer whose works have become an accepted part of the folk music of the entire world. I note with particularly keen interest the fact that the Victor Company lists this set in its September supplement under the classificaion “American Music”, a procedure which was urged in these pages over a year ago (“A Glance at Recorded American Music”.) The supplement heading reads in full, “Modern American Music,” however, for some reason not readily apparent, probably the nature of Shilkret’s arrangements, which are of the present day semi-jazz, movie presentation” type throughout. Indeed the set itself might more accurately be titled, “Salon Arrangements of Stephen Foster Melodies.” The selections are as follows: Part 1. Open Thy Lattice Love, Uncle Ned, Village Maiden Beautiful Dreamer. Part 2. Ring de Banjo, Oh! Lemuel!, Nelly Bly, Oh! Boys Carry Me ’Long, Lou’siana Belle, De Camptown Races. Part 3. Nelly Was a Lady. Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair, Oh! Susanna, Come Where My Loves Lies Dreaming.