Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 9 (1930-06)

An independent American journal devoted to recorded music and phonography q^IUSIG LOVERS’ PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY REVIEW AXEL B. JOHNSON Associate Editor Founded 1926 by Axel B. Johnson ROBERT DONALDSON DARRELL Managing Editor Published by THE PHONOGRAPH PUBLISHING CO., Inc. 5 Boylston Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts Telephone UNIversity 1618 THE PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY REVIEW appears on the twenty-eighth of each month. All material is fully protected by copyright and may be reproduced only by permission. Yearly subscription price $4.00 in the United States and $5.00 in Canada and other foreign countries, postage prepaid. Single copies 35 cents. All communications should be addressed to the Managing Editor at the Studio, 5 Boylston Street, Cambridge, Massa- chusetts. All unsolicited contributions must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. All checks and money orders should be made out to THE PHONOGRAPH PUBLISHING CO., Inc. The Phonographic Month Comparative versions y new releases s discs for broadcast T HOSE who subscribe to the old saw concern- ing the odiousness of comparisons are most certainly highly ignorant of phonography. One of the keenest and most enlivening phono- graphic pleasures that I know is the balancing of one recorded performance of a piece of music with another. It is one of the phonograph’s pe- culiar and most valuable talents to give the oppor- tunity for comparative analysis and a close scru- tiny of details that would be quite unthinkable in the concert hall. There have been some choice examples in the past few years’ releases, but sure- ly none approaches in interest the current Sacre and Bolero sets. Whatever may be the permanent worth of these works, each is music that by all odds is exciting. Their concert career may have a smack of hysteria to its successes, but the profound and intense interest each has generated is based on more solid merit than a purely sensational appeal to mob emotion. The record of Strawinski’s and Ravel’s past achievements alone guarantees that, and fa- miliarity with the music is throughly convincing. Such works are ideal material for the phonograph, which has been thriving lately on contemporary ballet music. The composer’s version of Le Sacre was brought out by Columbia a few months ago as widespread interest in the work was being gen- erating by the then approaching first American performance of the full ballet under Dr. Stokow- ski’s baton. Now Victor makes the Stokowski reading available. The Bolero records demon- strated an unusual example of alacrity on the part of the manufacturers. The Polydor recording conducted by Ravel appeared in France only two months ago and was hastily rushed over for issue in this country under the Brunswick label. The disks have been on sale for some time here, ap- pearing just too late for review in our last issue. And hot on the heels of this version comes that of Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony—record- ed in one week and on sale as a special release within two or three more. For good measure the latter set has been named as the Victor “Record of the Month” for June. On one hand are the composers’ own editions of their music, and the other the same pieces as read by two conductors indisputably ranked among the foremost of their day. Here are comparisons to lick one’s lips over—as musically stimulating and educative ,as any recorded music has yet had to offer. The student of comparative interpretations will not be surprised that there should be more points of similiarity between the conductors’ and the composers’ performances of different pieces than ’between a conductor’s and a composer’s ver- sion of the same piece. In each case the composer’s reading is the better poised and the more sharply outlined, while the conductor’s performance is the more dramatic and the more warmly colored. See last page for Table of Contents Copyright, 1930, by the Phonograph Publishing Company, Inc,