Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 12 (1930-09)

414 Smetana was well-named the Bohemian Mozart. The opera is a well-spring of the most sparkling music, running at times like champagne, at others like country lager. True the mu- sic often seems wasted on the farcical situations, but the composer always lets you hear the melodies again and again so you don’t feel the disappointment that you otherwise would. The plot is secondary and whenever about to in- trude there is usually a brilliant folk-dance to take its place. In the last act there is a circus (and what a circus!). with a bear, the sight of which always caused Herr Bohnen to hide on the top of the nearest dwelling. In the original produc- tion in this country Alma Gluck impersonated the soubrette, Esmeralda. Can anyone who heard 'her forget her beauty, her impeccable musical style and the fascination of her per- sonality as well as her rare voice? Louise Hunter sang this at the latter Metropolitan performances' before she went Hammerstein. It is now temporarily out of the repertoire m New York but Chicagoans will hear it this summer with Rethberg to sing Marie and Ruth Page to dance the Furiant in ideal Ravinia surroundings (it is the open-air opera par excellence) and this winter at the Civic Opera with Maria. RadjJ in the name-part. Allerton, Mass. B. R. Reply to a Musical Miniver Cheevy Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Yes, D. L., writing in the August Review, mechanical music indeed! As for the “old time instruments,” where are the instruments of the past: the ^spinet, the, clavichord, the harp- sichord, and the numerous stringed tools of music? Today they satisfy musical sentimentalism, nostalgic snobbery, the penchant for the quaint, antiquarianism, the vicarious. Arn- old Dolmetsch and Wanda Landowska have not re-estab- lished organically the medievalism and eighteenth-century- ism of the limited instruments. The piano was born to sat- isfy the scope of a new age, of a Bach. Instruments were created to realize the inventions, concepts, of Wagner. And as for home made music, that sentimentality has nothing to do with the question of music by artists for audiences. Submitting a defense of home made music (home made cooking?) is a plaintive note in a society whose most valid idea and organization—the family—the home—is disintegrat- ing. I did not urge in my article, any particular mechanical instrument upon the reader. It was a descriptive article mainly. But homesickness is no contradiction of a tendency. “Miniver Cheevy’s” yearning for iron clothing was no answer to the burning question: What shall the modern Apollo New York City Harry Allen Potamkin A Note from R* H* S* P* Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Since completing my article on the recordings of the Missa Papae Marcelli of Palestrina (June issue), I have had the opportunity to hear the “Sanctus” as sung by the Staats-und Domchor, directed by Prof. Hugo Rudel (Victor, German list, 9250, D12, $1.50). I can only say that in every way it sur- passes my highest hopes. As I hazarded before having heard it, the singing strikes exactly the proper medium be- tween the excessively concert style of the Roman Polyphon- ic Society and the lack of clarity and weight of the West- minster Cathedral Choir. The ton£ here is brilliant and the attacks vigorous, and clean-cut. As for the recording, I should not have believed such perfect and truly realistic reproduction of a cappella singing possible,—every part and run, accentuated to the correct degree in the performance, stands out with clarity as it issued from the phonograph. Even their excellent Lassus disc would not have led one to expect this. It is most unfortunate that the whole mass was not done at the same time as the “Sanctus,” but everyone must hope that at some time we may still have it from them, —as well as many others of the unrecorded polyphonic choral masterpieces. May I be permitted to make a correction in one sentence of my review of the Beethoven Septet in the July issue (page 353, bottom of column one). I do so only because as there printed it is rather meaningless. The sentence beginning “Yet it is here, perhaps . . .” should read as follows: Yet it is here, perhaps, that the contrast with Mozart is most The Phonograph Monthly Review marked; whereas the Rondo of his Quintet imparts the in- definable elation arising from a perfectly proportioned beauty, this possesses merely a pleasantly animated form and move- ment, which leaves it far outside the company of the great- est music.” Bethel, Connecticut Robert H. S. Phillips Phono Cranks Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Despite the mysterious “Observer’s” blasts against phono- cranks^-all those who are touched by more than a trace of fanaticism in their phonographic interests, it is apparent that the tribe is as unabashed as ever in its own singular and oftentimes highly fantastic activities. And how amazingly voluble they are about it! Like many another reader of the P.M.R., I find the corres- pondence columns one of the most enjoyable features of the magazine. The lofty communications of British readers to their journals are vastly higher in tone, but certainly not one-tenth as amusing or genuinely interesting. To tell the truth, I have rather missed the American phono-cranks’ hot- headed espistles from recent issues of the P. M. ,R., yet when I find them back in full force in your August number, I am roused to mingled wrath, laughter, and serious rebuttal argu- ments. I suppose your policy is to give them a chance to be heard every so often (I remember the months of their hey-day several years ago, when the historical fanatics were given full opportunity for expression, when the controversy between Mr. Aleman and a Montreal gentleman—I forget the initials—who dared to dispute the Cuban’s authority’s dogmatic pronouncements, was taking the place of the wan- ing excitements over poor S. K. and his struggles with Straw- inski.) Unquestionably they would over-run the magazine unless they were rigorously subdued, but they make for fun and helpful controversy when they are given fair opportuni- ty to advance their particular prejudices and views. And they seem to be glimpsing the light in some respects. It is encouraging to find Mr. Dancy (one of the piano-disc cognoscenti, I believe) actually admitting that new record- ings are interesting, and that he buys a far larger proportion of them than of his highly-touted historical discs dug up in Salvation Army depots and somewhat shady second hand shops. Alas, I fail to see what charm such establishments and their ancient wares boast. The fact that Herr Doktor Wcychzi once made an acoustical recording of his own Etude in F flat holds no interest for me no matter how famous the Herr Dtoktor may be or how much I admire his Etude. The recording in those days was not adequate to give a fair idea of either his music or his performance. This inaccuracy and unfaithfulness of early recordings are what have handi- capped the phonograph so severely in the eyes of the best musicians. The new process, with its vastly fairer and truth- ful reproduction, permitted for the first time discs to be made that would not utterly betray both letter and spirit of the original performance. The old time record “enthusiasts” seem utterly unable to grasp the fact that were it not for the new recording and the new type of record buyers (music lovers rather than disc collectors), the phonograph today would be as dead as the stereoscope. Similarly, if the celebrity recorded repertory were con- fined today as it once was to operatic works, the phono,- graphy movement would be inconceivable. In variably one finds that those interests lie wholly in the operatic field de- vote their attention far more to personalities, traditions, styles, and the like, far more than to the significance of the music and the musicianship of the performances. The rise of sym- phonic and chamber music to its proper sphere—on records as well as in concert— bespeaks a tremendous advance and opens up the only possible avenue of future development. The devotees of opera worship at a dead shrine, a beautiful one in many instances, but one from which the vitality has long since fled. But I am waxing as voluble as the very writers against whom my blast is directed! A certain amount of controversal excitement seems inevitably associated with discussion of mu- sic and particularly recorded music. However, it is a good sign. Without controversy interest would flag. The im- portant point is to discover whether debate and discussion are constructive or idle. Buffalo, New York D. H. D.