Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 8 (1930-05)

The Phonograph Monthly Review 277 May, 1930 Analytical Notes and Reviews By OUR STAFF CRITICS Orchestral Columbia Masterworks Set 135 (3 D12s, Alb., $6.00) Bach: Suite No. 3 in D, played by Desire Defauw and the Brussels Royal Conservatory Orchestra. (On the sixth record side Arbos and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra play a Corelli Sarabande.) An electrical recording of the Bach suite has been due for the last year or more. There are any number of sepa- rate versions of the Air (which originally had no particu- larly association with the G string), but almost invariably they are transcriptions of divers sorts, much more in- genious than happy. It is good to hear it again for orches- tra, and—mirabile dictu—played in straightforward, un- sentimentalized manner. For once the entire musical scheme is not wholly subordinated to the melody, but the gravely marching bass receives is permitted to sound out to form, as it rightfully should, a sturdy substructure. The performance here gives the key to that of the reading as a whole. Defauw approaches the suite impersonally, real- ising that it is highly formalized music, and intent on playing it as it is written, without the incessant and often unstrung “expression” to which the music of its time is al- most invariably subjected today. In consequence many people will agree with British reviewers that this perform- ance is “too plain,” “pedestrian,” lacking in “give and take.” Admitted that Defauw’s playing might have in- cluded more subtlety and resilience without denying its creed—“Bach’s music unadorned”—I still find it immensely invigorating to listen to. There is good sound strength and common sense to the playing here. The orchestra at- tacks the music directly and without any great ado. It plays throughout with proud muscularity, rejoicing to run its race. The gavottes, bourree and gigue are taken with a splendidly healthy swing. This is refreshing, meaty fare after too extended a diet of ephemerae, clouded impres- sionism, and all kinds of music that lack vigorous roots in life. On the odd record side Sr. Arbos and the Madrid Sym- phony exhibit more mellow and—in the ordinary sense— eloquent qualities. They keep within safe bounds how- ever, and their performance of this noble music is in its own way no less heart-warming. They have the benefit of sweeter recording, I think, although that is rather hard to determine on account of the marked difference in styles and tone qualities. Columbia Masterworks Set 136 (6 D12s, Alb., $12.00) Rimsky-Korsakow: Symphonic Suite — “Scheherazade,” played by Philippe Gaubert and the Paris Conservatory Orchestra. Rimsky-Korsakow little dreamed when he was exploring every resource of the orchestral palette for the making of his kaleidoscopic suite that he was setting a well-nigh insolvable problem to recording conductors and engineers. After Stokowski’s intelligent grappling with the problem, Fried, Cloez, and now Gaubert have set their hands to it. Dr. Stokowski’s version was reviewed in detail in the January 1928 issue of this magazine and has since been the object of lively discussion. Fried’s and Cloez’s ver- sions are available in this country only as importations. Gaubert is logically the man to press the Philadelphian most closely. Unfortunately he tries to beat him at his own game, instead of throwing restraint to the winds and playing an out and out sensational version such as brings down the house so often in the concert hall. Gaubert is too admirable a musician to stoop to such sensationalism, and one respects him for it, even although it would have been the more profitable course. His performance is a well-planned, carefully executed version that just falls short of catching the work’s flamboyant oriental coloring, bright- ly turned tunes, and piquant rhythms. There is a cer- tain child-like quality to much of Rimsky’s music; Rosen- feld has compared Scheherazade to a vividly illustrated child’s edition of the Arabian Nights. And to this quality the work owes much of its charm, for when it is coldly analyzed the actual content proves to be slight enough in all truth. By approaching it over-seriously Gaubert loses the naively fairy-tale quality of the music, and it becomes rather pedestrian. His orchestra does not give him the best support in the world. It is rather more sluggish than in its previous records; the wood winds do well, but the solo violinist is decidedly inadequate. Scheherazade takes eleven sides (as in Fried’s version). I have heard it only on advance samples and no informa- tion has yet come to hand regarding the filling-in piece for the twelfth side. Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-71 (3 D12, Alb., $6.50) Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals, played by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra; Mary Binney Montgomery and Olga Barabini, pianists. (On the sixth record side the Philadelphia Orchestra plays Dr. Stokow- ski’s arrangement of Tchaikowsky’s Song Without Words in A minor.) Saint-Saens’ self-consciously rakish pranks in the zoolog- ical musical garden offer rather barren fare for Dr. Sto- kowski’s talents. He plays the suite in crisp, clean-cut fashion, without wasting too much time over it, and with- out overlooking such possibilities for musical humor as it does offer. I do not mean to under-estimate them, for I have seen performances of the work set staid symphony audiences into much more than merely polite laughter. The cocks and hens, the lumbering elephant, the methodi cal pianists, the hopping kangaroos are all sure-fire smile provokers. And in one or two of the other pieces the aquarium, aviary, and cuckoo in the depths of the forest, rather than the complacent swan—Saint-Saens touches a more delicate note than any place elsewhere in the vast body of his labored works. The recording is good here, and the performance even if routine is still by the Phil- adelphia orchestra. Any one interested in the~ music will find these disks fully satisfying. On the odd record side Dr. Stokowski fills in with his own smoothly turned trans- cription of a well-known Tchaikowsky morceau for piano, the pretty little Chanson sans Paroles in A minor, that gives the Philadelphian strings good opportunity to glow with their characteristic lambency. Vicor 7196-7 (2 D12, $2.00) Prokofieff: “Classical” Sym- phony, Op. 25, played by Serge Koussevitzky and the Bos- ton Symphony Orchestra. (On the fourth record side Dr. Koussevitzky conducts the Scherzo and March from Pro- kofieff’s Love for Three Oranges.) Every one who has heard the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky either at home or on tour is familiar with Prokofieff’s little symphony, one of the most delightful Major recorded works to be reviewed in early issues of the magazine include Strawinski’s Sacre conducted by Dr. Stokowski . . . the complete Ma Vlast cycle of Smetana played by The Bohemian Philharmonic under Talich . . . Bach’s Mass in B Minor conducted by Coates . . . Carillo’s Preludio a Cristobal Colon—the first recorded example of music in quarter tones • • . etc., etc.