Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 3, No. 4 (1929-01)

The Phonograph Monthly Review January, 1929 110 <oirrr- German colleagues to supervise the recording. To tell the truth, we were joshing him a little, think- ing that he was over-enthusiastic, especially in describing the size of the orchestra. But on my return home, I had the pleasure of a visit from Mr. Georg Boettcher, famous French horn player, who was induced by. Mr. Koussevitzky to leave the Berlin State Opera House Orchestra to take the post of principal of the noted horn choir of the Boston Symphony. And the first thing Mr. Boettcher asked was if I had the samples of Bodanzky’s Meistersinger Prelude in the Studio. I wondered why he should ask for this particular work, as for over eighteen years he had been re- cording almost every day with the Berlin State Opera House Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Charlottenburg Opera House Orchestra, etc., under the direction of all the leading German conductors, Blech, Muck, Morike, Weissmann, Fried, Kleiber, Abendroth, Klemperer, Strauss, Furtwangler, Pfitzner, etc., etc. He explained that the Bodanzky records were made just two days before he left for America, and that, by the way, they were supervised by an American visit- ing the laboratory, a man who most certainly knew his business. “I have never played under a man who combined such technical knowledge and musical insight, and I am anxious to hear and own the finished records, for they are un- questionably exceptional.” Yes, indeed, they are: even the celebrated ver- sion by Dr. Muck is eclipsed by them. By all means you should hear them, and regardless of what set you may already possess, you will want this one also. Next on the Columbia list are Masterworks sets 99 and 100, respectively the Liszt A major Piano Concerto recently released under the Odeon label, and the Debussy Quartet played by the Lener String Quartet, both examples of fine per- formance matched by fine recording. Gaubert and the Paris Conservatory Orchestra are heard in Saint-Saens’ Rouet d’Omphale which we im- ported recently in the French pressing; Eva Turner, a sensational British soprano, makes her American debut in a wonderful series of three impressive operatic disks; George Gershwin plays piano solo versions of his own preludes; Myra Hess, Felix Salmond, Sophie Braslau, and Charles Hackett are also represented with characteristic releases. (I might mention here that the other day while visiting the local branch of the Columbia Com- pany, Mr. Norman Smith, the New England Manager, kindly demonstrated for me the new Columbia-Kolster Viva-Tonal combination phono- graph, Model 980. A complete description of this most remarkable instrument will appear in the next issue.) Leading the Brunswick releases for the month are Albums 13 and 14 in their celebrity series, two sets of excerpts from all the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan operas, spiritedly performed by a good orchestra and cast; unfortunately, the singers are not named. The leading orchestral disk is SokolofFs coupling of Sibelius’ Valse Triste and Halvorsen’s Entrance of the Boyars, a record which caused quite an argument in the studio. R. D. D., as his review shows, was most enthusiastic, and several other members of the staff agreed with him, but having heard both compositions conducted by their respective composers scores of times, I could not agree that SokolofFs inter- pretations were absolutely authentic. I will admit that his are the best on records up to date (with the exception of Mengelberg’s old acoustical ver- sion of the Entrance of the Boyars), but we are still waiting for fully satisfactory recorded per- formances of both pieces. Among the solo disks, those by Chamlee, Hils- berg, Onegin, Morrisey, Branzell, and Fradkin all deserve warm praise. From Odeon we have brilliant records of the Martha Overture and Tales of Hoffman excerpts, played by Dr. Weissmann, and a less satisfactory record of Brahms’ Fifth and Sixth Hungarian Dances and Tenth Slavonic Dance. The Poly- phonic Choir hs fine choral record of Ave Verum Corpus and Tu Es Petrus from the Mass of the 29th Eucharistic Congress; the New Master Or- chestra couples vigorous Tosca and Boheme fan- tasias; and Edith Lorand and Dajos Bela are represented as effectively as always. The for- mer’s record of Gems from the favorite operettas of Johann Strauss, von Suppe, and Millocker, is to be particularly recommended. This month’s foreign supplements are not quite as rich in “finds” as has been usual during the last few months. However, there are some very good works, notably in the Odeon list. I should like to call special attention to Odeon 85195 and 85192. The former has a brilliant performance of the Hoch und Deutschmeister March by the Grosses Odeon Streichorchester— a fine example of military march playing by a full orchestra. The latter contains Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht, and 0 du Frohlicher, sung by the Staats und Domchor under the direction of Prof. Hugo Riidel. The other evening I played this record to a German gentleman who formerly sang in the Staats und Domchor in Berlin, and he described how Riidel and his famous chorus sang Stille Nacht every year at a special Christmas morning service in the Berlin Cathedral. The church would be filled hours before the service began', and the experience of being present was one that never could be forgotten. He termed the record “absolutely perfect.” The outstanding records in the Columbia foreign list are the two released in the domestic supplement as novelty disks, and the organ record by Quentin Maclean of the Light Calvalry Over- ture, released in the Scotch list. For Brunswick, the leaders are the two orchestral works by the Brunswick International Concert Orchestra. For Victor, the record by the Russian State Choir of Storm on the Volga, and the light orchestral disks by Marek Weber, Ferdy Kauffmann, Gerhard Hoffman, and their respective orchestras. It is also worth nothing that this month the Victor Company has begun a mid-monthly foreign sup- plement and to adopt a new system of numbering foreign releases. We have received large boxes of imported re-