Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1930-01)

110 The Phonograph Monthly Review January, 1930 *81 1 - — - From the softer climes to the southward other arts of men were employed, chiefly painting and music, as birthday offerings to the King. There came a time when one mighty “Adoremus” spread from sun-scorched Iberian uplands and rolled with increasing intensity over the Southern plains and middle mountain barriers, skirting the fog- drenched Western islands, until it thundered it- self out in the icy waters of the Baltic Sea, or be- came lost on the snowy steppes of distant Mus- covy. Everywhere at the winter solstice men sang their “Venite Adoremus Domino.” Today, reach- ing across the centuries, and stretching beyond the borders of worlds to other spheres of being, again we join with angels and men in that glad song that has not ever ceased. General Review T HE Columbia list is exceptionally rich in good things this month, for in addition to Mozart Quintet and Haydn Quartet (Mas- terworks 124 and 125) received too late for review in the last issue, there is the first record- ing of Mendelssohn’s “Scotch” Symphony, con- ducted by Felix Weingartner (Masterworks 126), a complete Aida (Operatic Series No. 3), and announcement is made of the early release of a complete Madame Butterfly, and Strawinski’s great Sacre du Printemps conducted by the com- poser (Masterworks 129). In the individual Masterworks series records are the ballet music from Rabaud’s opera, Marouf, conducted by the composer; Fingal’s Cave Overture, conducted by Sir Henry Wood; and a disk of excepts from Strawinski’s Pulcinella Suite, conducted by the composer. The other orchestral recordings in- clude a good routine performance of Finlandia by Sir Henry Wood, and two light concert pieces, Ganne’s Ecstacy and Bayer’s Puppen-Waltzer played by Edith Lorand and her orchestra. The Columbia Light Opera Company sings some spirited excerpts from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Yoemen of the Guard, Alexander Kipnis sings two songs by American composers; the B. B. C. Military Band is heard in remarkably effective transcriptions of Rimsky-Korsakow’s Dance of the Tumblers and Debussy’s Golliwogg’s Cake Walk; Georges Enesco plays an excellent four- part version of Handel’s fourth violin sonata: Yelly D’Aranyi plays Hubay’s Poem Hongrois and the Delibes-Gruenberg Passepied; and Quentin Maclean plays theatre organ versions of Handel’s Largo and the Mendelssohn Spring Song. As we are going to press more than a week early this month in order to get the issue in the mails before the holiday, the complete monthly releases from Odeon have not yet reached us. Besides the Marinarella Overture received too late for review in the last issue, there is a new recording of the Roman Carnival Overture, con- ducted by Josef Rosenstock, lately with the Metropolitan Opera Company, and a Tiefland selection conducted by Dr. Weissmann. The highly interesting new series issued by Brunswick was announced too late for comment last month, and the records did not arrive in time for review in this issue, but the Dvorak Fourth Symphony, conducted by Basil Cameron, is already well-known in the Studio from the British pressings. In addition to this work, there is de Falla’s El Amor Brujo suite, played by the London Chamber Orchestra under Anthony Ber- nard, a new performance of the Tannhauser Overture by Verbrugghen and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and three notable operatic disks by Rosa Raisa and Giacomo Rimini, Xenia Belmas and Willi Fassbaender, and Gabrielle Ritter-Campi. Altogether a distinguished list and one that should prove highly attractive to Amjerican collectors. In the regular domestic lists there are celebrity disks by Sigrid Onegin, singing Giordani’s Caro mio ben and Scuderi’s Dormi pure, and Max Rosen, playing suave ver- sions of Elgar’s Salut D’Amour and Tchaikow- sky’s Melodie, Op. 42, No 3. In addition there are two new twelve-inch talkie medley disks played by the Brunswick Salon Orchestra and the Colonial Club. The two new Victor Masterpiece sets are Smetana’s Quartet in E minor (Aus meinem Leben) played by the Flozaley Quartet in their usual impeccable fashion, and a suite of excerpts from Bizet’s L’Arlesienne, done in Dr. Stokow- ski’s most effective style. For orchestrals there are two little disks comprising the little-known Alcina Suite of Handel, spiritedly conducted by Mengelberg, the Zampa Overture in an exceed- ingly brilliant performance conduc ted by Nathaniel Shilkret (who quite outdoes himself in this deserved concert hall favorite), and a piquant coupling of two sparkling little pieces composed and conducted by Rosario Bourdon. Titta Ruffo re-records arias from Andrea Chenier and L’Africana, Elisabeth Rethberg and Giacomo Lauri-Volpi join forces in the love scene from the third act of Aida, Hulda Lashanska is heard to excellent advantage in a fine selection of three German lieder, Mischa Elman plays vio- lin arrangements of Beethoven’s Minuet in G