Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 3, No. 5 (1929-02)

152 The Phonograph Monthly Review February, 1929 formance of the Brahms Variations on a Theme of Haydn, Stokowski’s Carmen suite, and Holst’s Planets in versions by the composer and by Albert Coates. (The Coates disks— H. M. V.—were issued singly and over a considerable period of time.) Less significant were: Haubiel’s prize-winning variations—Karma, Debussy’s Children’s Corner (French H. M. V.) and Petite suites, de Falla’s El amor brujo, Nights in the Gardens of Spain (French H. M. V.) and Three- Cornered Hat ballet (H. M. V.), the Midsummer Night’s Dream sets by Herz and Mengelberg, the incidental music to l’Arlesienne played by Chagnon (French Columbia), the Carnival of the Animals, etc, etc. Class “A” of the works issued in two disks might be said to consist of Toye’s performance of Brigg Fair, Coates’ and Defauw’s versions of Till Eulenspiegel, Faure’s Pelleas et Melisande suite played by Wolff (Polydor), and Barbirolli’s performances of a Purcell suite and Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro (N. G. S.). In a second group were: Gaubert’s ver- sion of La Valse, Sokoloff’s Prince Igor Dances, Walter’s Don Juan, Stenka Razin played by Defauw (English Colum- bia) and Kitschin (Polydor), Die Moldau played by Bourdon and Schuricht, Mozart’s German Dances played by Kleiber (Polydor), Gaubert’s La Peri (French Columbia), Goossens’ performance of the Granados Spanish Dances (H. M. V.), and the Respighi Antique suite (Fonotipia.) The long list of overtures was topped by several splendid series. First, that by Leo Blech, led by the Roman Carnival and Fidelio; Bodanzky’s Meistersinger, Magic Flute, and Lohengrin; Muck’s Parsival and Meistersinger; Harty’s Rosamunde, Carnival, and Alphonso and Estrella; Bourdon’s extensive series, particularly Norma, Martha, Stradella, and Orpheus in Hades; and the Fonotipia series by Guarnieri. Not far behind were: Mengelberg’s Anacreon, Wolff’s Roi d’Ys (Polydor), Stokowski’s Lohengrin, Goossens’ Carnival, Weissmann’s Jubel, Martha, and Forza del Destino, Casals’ Coriolanus, Verbrugghen’s Khowantchina, Gabrilowitsch’s Academic Festival, Shikret’s Raymond, Walter’s Rienzi, Mascagni’s William Tell and overtures to his own operas, and the Germania Orchestra’s Bartered Bride (Victor foreign list.) Among the miscellaneous single disks these was no one of the towering stature of Stokowski’s Toccata and Fugue or Coates’ version of the Siegfried Death Music of the previous year. However, a class “A” rating might not unjustly be given the Beecham’s Delius records, Stokowski’s coupling of a Bach prelude and chorale prelude, Mengelberg’s Sinfonia, Wolff’s record of two de Falla pieces (Polydor), von Schilling’s performance of Briinnhilde’s Tod and two excerpts from the second act of Tristan, Blech’s Radetzky march, and Harty’s Queen Mab scherzo. A number of works in the Muck, Goossens, and other series mentioned previously are of al- most equal merit. A few of the more important remaining twelve-inch disks were: Copolla’s Fire Dance and Spanish Dance of de Falla, Ariane and Bluebeard preludes, Pacific 231, Pavanne and Five O’Clock of Ravel, and Nocturnes of Debussy; Harty’s version of the Berlioz Hungarian march and Dance of the Sylphs; Sokoloff’s coupling of Valse Triste and Entrance of the Bo jars; Gaubert’s two Nocturnes of Debussy, On the Steppes of Central Asia, and Rouet d’- Omphale; Klemperer’s Alborado del Gracioso (Polydor); Chagnon’s performance of the trois pieces montees of Satie (French Columbia); Herz’s Valse de Concert; Chagnon’s Rapsodie Norvegienne (French Columbia); Gabrilowitsch’s disk of Valse-Serenade, Marche Miniature, and Russian Soldier’s Song; Bourdon’s Sylvia ballet; Grainger’s Gum Suckers’ March and The Power of Love. Among the ten- inch disks the following might be singled out: Stokowski’s Rosamunde Ballet Music and Moment Musicale, Fetes of Debussy^ and coupling of Danse Orientale and March of the Caucasian Chief; Galbrilowitsch’s Espana; Sokoloff’s coupling of Shepherd’s Hey and School of the Fauns; Bourdon’s Juba Dance and From the Canebrake; the Introduction to Mous- sorgsky’s Fair of Sorochinck (French Odeon); and Grainger’s arrangement of Lord Peter’s Stable Boy. It is instructive to compare the changed status of many noted recording conductors. Of the previous year’s three leaders,—Stokowski, Coates, and Harty, only Harty was repre- sented by several major works The eclipse of the other two is only temporary, however, as rumor whispers that both have notable series of recordings ready for early re- lease. The outstanding names of last year were those of men long noted in the concert hall but only recently achieving an equal success on records: Koussevitzky, Muck, Blech, Bodanzky, Sabajno, and Sokoloff. Of the great figures of early phonographic days only Mengelberg and Weingartner regained a measure of their former position; both were still represented by far too few new works. Morike and Fried were almost unrepresented; Toscanini entirely so. Henry Wood, Landon Ronald, and Dr. Weissmann gave their atten- tion to smaller works. But there were many new men of pro- mise; Shavitch, Defauw, Cloez, Wolff, Chagnon, Kitschin, Bar- birolli, to name but a few. Gaubert and Copolla continued to fulfill the promise of their auspicious record debuts. Un- fortunately, one of the most promising of the previous year’s younger men, Paul Klenau, was not heard from at all. Turning to chamber music, the leading larger works were: Schubert’s Octet, “Forellen” and C major quintets; Brahms’ (Columbia), Schumann’s. Franck’s piano quintets; Brahms string sextet (N. G S.); and a Mozart Divertimento for wood wind (English Brunswick). Of the many excellent string quartets special mention should go to Malipiero’s (N. G. S.), Debussy’s played by the Leners. and Schubert’s- “Death and the Maiden” by the Budapest Quartet Some of the others were Schubert’s E flat and A minor, Dvorak’s “American,” several of Haydn and Mozart (H. M. V and Polydor), Brahms’ Op. 51 (Polydor), Boccherini’s (N. G. S.), Suk’s (Polydor), Semetana’s Aus meinem Leben (Polydor), and Honegger’s (French Columbia.) Miscellaneous quartet com- binations were Migot’s for flute, violin, clarinet, and harp (French Columbia); Brahms’ for piano quartet (N. G S.); and Mozart’s for flute, violin, viola, and ’cello (N. G. S.) String trios: Schubert’s B flat (Hess, D’Aranyi, and Sal- mond), Mendelssohn’s (Casals, Thibaud, and Corot), Dvorak’s “Dumky” (English Brunswick), Reger’s A minor (Polydor), and Hindemith’s (Polydor) Poulenc’s trio for oboe, bassoon, and piano (French Columbia), and Debussy’s “sonata” for flute, harp, and viola (French Odeon) were particularly merit- ous. Single chamber music disks worthy of commendation were: Schubert’s Satzquartett in two versions; Borodin’s Noc- turne by the Budapest Quartet; the Catterall Quartet’s disk of Ave Verum, Traumerei, and Moment Musicale; the Flonzaley’s transcriptions of Christmas carols; and movements from Debussy’s Quartet played by the New York and Lon- don Quartets. The leading violin sonatas were Faure’s, Beethoven’s G major (N. G. S.), and the Schubert D major sonatina; fol- lowed by the H M. V. Schubert sonatina, and sonatas by Handel (A major) and Grieg (C minor). Among the single disks I might pick out Paganini Caprice and Debussy Menuet by Szigeti, Menuhin’s Romanesca and Sierra Morena, the Prize Song from Die Meistersinger by Albert Spalding, de Falla’s Jota by Heifetz, and Kreisler’s coupling of the de Falla Spanish Dance and Albeniz Tango. The return of Zimbalist to the recording studios was an event of impor- tance. Among the lighter works those by Sachai Jacobsen should be mentioned. For ’cello the principal larger works were the Beethoven Variations on a Theme of Mozart played by Casals and Cortot, the Brahms sonata in E minor by Beatrice Harrison (H. M V.), and Grieg’s sonata by Salmond. Single disks: Casals’ two Spanish Dances, Bach Musette and Popped Mazurka, and Salmond’s coupling of the Faure Berceuse and Chopin Largo. First place among the larger piano works was won by the Kempff series of Beethoven sonatas (Polydor), the Schubert sonatas by Myra Hess and Pouishnoff, the Chopin Nocturnes by Godowsky and Etudes by Bachaus, and Rehberg’s per- formance of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasia and Liszt’s Rapso- die espagnol (Polydor). Following came Leginska’s sets of the Schubert Impromptus and Moments Musicales, the Brahms waltzes for piano duet (English Columbia), Bach’s English suite in A minor played by Harold Samuel (H. M. V), the Chopin preludes played by Lortat (French Columbia) and Saint-Saens Variations on a Theme of Beethoven (French Odeon) and Bax’s Moy Mell (N. G. S.) for two pianos It is difficult to single out individual disks from the many excellent piano records, but even the most cursorily selected group could hardly fail to include the four Myra Hess disks, the two Horowitz disks, Godowsky’s transcriptions of two Schubert songs, Gershwin’s performance of his own preludes, Gieseking’s debut record, the Liszt Etude and Schumann In der Nacht by Bauer, the Chopin Bacarolle by Rubinstein (H. M. V ), Blue Danube Arabesques by Lhevinne, Friedman’s Alt Wein, Bach’s A minor Fugue by Lucie Cafferet (English Brunswick), the Albeniz Tango by fLchaniz, Poulenc’s Mouve-