Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 6 (1930-03)

198 March, 1930 The Phonograph Monthly Review the stage hands at the Academy of Music are accustomed to lose no time in getting out of the hall after they have set up the orchestra’s stands and chairs for rehearsals, for Stravinski’s “Sacre du Printemps” or even a Brahms or Bee- thoven symphony is very little to their taste. One day they were making their usual hasty exit, when suddenly they were arrested by the opening bars of “Stars and Stripes Forever.” They stopped dead in their tracks and then slipped into the nearest seats, to listen attentively until the re- hearsal was over. “Now, why doesn’t he play that kind of stuff all the time!” one was heard to murmur as he left the hall with his delighted fellows. The New Yorker spoke of this march being rehearsed for a phonograph recording. Can this be true? I suppose there are some highbrows who will claim that Stokowski and his orchestra would degrade themeslves by playing a common march, but I think that the average person will share the stagehands’ delight. I heartily agree with your editorial comments some months back, pointing out how welcome some march performances by first class orchestras would be. Undoubetedly the Philadelphia got the idea from your edi- torial, and if so we have another excellent reason for owing The Phonoraph Monthly Review a debt of gratitude. White Plains, N. Y. T. A. Editor’s Note: The march record referred to was actually made, aiid is released and reviewed this month. Further com- ment on it appears in the General Review. THE UNBREAKABLE RECORD AGAIN Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Every other month a new “unbreakable” record pops up in the public prints. (The alternate months are of course de- voted to r “ong-playing” record or home tele-vision sets an- nouncements.) Why do these masterpieces never actually emerge from the newspapers onto the dealer’s shelves? Some have materialized, I admit,—one a celluloid affair with ad- vertising blurb as well as “music” printed into the disk. A “scientific experiment” was made of dropping one of these celluloid disks off the Boston Custom House Tower. Rescued from the ground beneath it was put on a phonograph and played no worse (nor better) than before. But as yet I have not been able to hear Koussevitsky or Stokowski or Dr. Morike on celluloid records. The latest example to meet my eye is a “Durium” record that is receiving considerable publicity in the papers. Dr. Hal T. Beans, Prof, of Chemistry at Columbia, announces that he has perfected a new synthetic resin, liquid in its original form, which is transformed by the subjection of heat into an insoluble, infusible solid which combines hardness and flexibility to a remarkable degree. A thin film of durium will not crack or chip under hammering, yet it is almost as flexible as paper, etc., etc., Dr. Beans demonstrated his new record hammering one until he split the chair he was using for an anvil. The record showed no evidence of its maltreat- ment when reproduced. Scratching the needle across the sur- face left marks and damagaged the needle, but did not affect the quality of reproduction.” The new records are going to be produced at retail for 15 cents for a standard-size disk. It reads well, extremely well, but so did every other an- nouncement of the latest unbreakable record to revolutionize the industry. Maybe this one will come through and confound the doubters, and if so I shall be the first to enjoy the laugh on myself, but until I am shown I shall continue to scoff— and to derive immense enjoyment from the old-fashioned disk that will break when it’s dropped, but if it isn’t dropped has the masterpieces of Beethoven and Brahms “on tap” at all times. Roxbury, Mass. “Missourian” ORGAN RECORDS Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Each month as I read the release lists of the British gramo- phone companies I am made more strongly aware of their overwhelming superiority in recordings of that king of in- struments—the organ. On rare occasions Columbia issues a Commette disk or Victor one by Dupre, but for the most part the movie “organists” (if indeed the name can be applied to them at all) hold the field alone. No wonder that so many Americans cherish a prejudice against the instrument. How can they feel otherwise when for most of them it means either wheezy church hymns or that insufferable witches sab- bat of sliding, rattling,-gulping tone that one hears in the movie palaces. There are good organists in this country, and in .the larger cities there are ample opportunities to hear first rate organ music competently played. But capable rec- ords could make the organ at its best known to a far more extensive audience than it is able to reach now. Granted that organ recording is exceedingly vulnerable to criticism, and that perfection is far distant, nevertheless there are a goodly number of disks issued which are not only quite tolerable but decidedly pleasurable to any musically cultivated .person. Yet their release is almost exclusively confined to England, France, and Germany. I do not bring any charges against the American com- panies, for the disks are easily available from their foreign affiliations. It is the record buying public that is at fault, for if the demand were there, records would soon appear to meet it. However, do think that the American companies have not always exercised great discrimination in selecting works for re-presing here. I refer particularly to some of Dupre’s recorded versions of various transcriptions. Origi- nal organ works may be imposing to the nth degree, but transcriptions and arrangements are almost invariably in- effective, not to say actually repulsive. The organ will not come into its own as long as it is represented by this type of piece. Akron, Ohio Pedalpoint STEPS IN RECORDED MUSIC APPRECIATION Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: My introduction to the phonograph came at the youthful age of one year—when the family invested in a very good model Victrola which has lasted for lo! these sixteen years. But at my first meeting with the phonograph, my only re- action was to express my appreciation as well as I could. But at the age of five, I was entrusted with the important privilege of being allowed to play the Victrola—even before I could read the selections printed on the labels. In apprecia- tion of this act of trust, I did not break a single record! My first record disaster came only last year, when I most inadvertantly sat upon Caruso’s “Di quella pira”, and De Luca’s “II balen del suo sorriso.” I am not counting three terrible Edison non-destructible records which I very gently but firmly took into the back yard and smashed on a large rock. In spite of my early acquantaince with fine records, my overwhelming desire for records of my own did not some until two years ago when I discovered how interesting records of singers who w T ere dead or retired could be, and which led me into buying many very marvelous records that I might otherwise have missed. My lack of finance made me resolve to buy just one selec- tion of every famous artist possible, but my resolution has wavered when I came to artists who had a great long list of lovely records, and so I have acquired about twelve of Galli-Curci’s records, ten of Caruso’s, and about eight of Rosa Ponselle’s. , There are other artists of whose records I have promised myself to buy every one as it comes out. By some chance of Fate, my only interest has been in vocal records, and of these I much prefer operatic selections. However, contrary to the usual procedure, it was not with “war-horses” that I first became acquainted, but with more modern selections—such as those from “Thais”, “Manon”, “Louise”, “Snegourotchka”, “Die Walkure”, and others. It was not until one day last week that I heard “E luceven le stelle” from “Tosca” for the first time—a record of which I have heard many times as a standard tenor “war-horse”, or, as the H. M. V. supplement editors put it last month; a Grane. It has been a source of disappointment to me that I have not been able to buy a complete opera, but each time that I have saved up enough to pay for the opera, I use it to go off on a jaunt to hear opera or concert “in the flesh,” so I do not feel that I have missed something irretrievable. However if “Thais” or “Traviata” should ever come out with a celebrity or two in its cast, I should most 'certainly invest in it. The “something” which causes an appreciation for sym- phonic works has, unfortunately, been left out of me, and while Maria Olszewska’s rendition of Che faro senza Euri- dice, or the “Ye now are sorrowful”, from the Brahms Re-