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

June, 1930 The Phonograph Monthly Review 305 Thoroughly competent chorale records offer a simple and ef- fective method of encouraging the taste for the best choral music and building up a discriminating critical standard for its performance. There are not many present examples, and nearly all are confined performances by German choruses. These perform- ances are usually fairly competent, but they tend to be some- what stodgy. I miss the animation and gusto of the chorale singing I have heard at the Bethlehem Bach festivals, or for that matter, by many amateur choruses. The best recorded examples I know are the two chorales sung by the chorus of the Brussels Conservatory under the direction of Defauw in the two French Columbia disks devoted to excerpts from the Passion According to St. John. Here there is marvellously realistic recording matched to unmistakable sincerity and enthusiasm in the singing. I hope to see these two records appear eventually under American labels. Indianapolis, Indiana C. V. D. W. Quarter-Tones and Spooks Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: May I refer Mr. R. W., who wrote in a while ago about the use of records in seances, to the new quarter-tone record from Columbia. If this wouldn’t raise spooks nothing would! If this is to be the “music of the future,” I am glad I live in an old-fashioned era when music like that of Senor Carillo is considered out of tune, and badly so. But I suppose the barbarisms of our musical modernists have led logically up to this and to the final elimination of “sweet sounding con- cord” altogether. St. Louis, Mo. “Pro Musica” The Preservation of Dramatic Traditions Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: In one of the back issues of your magazine I once read an excellent letter on the preservation of pianistic traditions. I think it was by Mr. Anderson of San Diego, one of your most valued correspondents. It has occurred to me that the phonograph may now play a large part in the preservation of dramatic traditions. Already we have records of many of the greatest actors, but a syste- matic recording of their voices will be an inestimable boon to posterity. I quite realize that most of them are engaged in recording their art for the talking films—but films are so short-lived that they cannot be relied upon to perpetuate a tradition. An album such as that Victor has just devoted to the Guitrys is a beautiful example of what I mean. I wish that other artists of similar or even greater stature might be given the same opportunity—not merely to record a set speech or recitation, but to enact an entire scene. I am particularly desirous of hearing recordings by the great German actor, Moissi. I understand that he did sev- eral recitation disks for the German section of the Columbia Company’s foreign record department, but these works seem exceedingly difficult to procure. Wellesley, Mass. "• read detective stories in preference to all other forms of literature play? Would the movie star who pretends to read nothing but Shakespeare and Goethe, claim a corresponding interest in Beethoven and Brahms? I wonder what sort of records the great musicians play? Do they often play their own? Or do they play only light and novelty records for relaxation?—Like the orchestral player who vacations in the same toivn I do, and who refuses to listen to any of my “serious” records, but insists on playing Dajos Bela and Marek Weber waltzes, or else French music hall records that he has imported. This isn’t a very important suggestion. But the public is always interested in personalities, and a little light on phono- graphic likes and dislikes of the musical and other great, would probably be very interesting and instructive reading. Bronxville, N. Y. C. Fisher Nominations For Vocal Honors Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: If “Vocalise” is anxious to secure examples of the finest recording voices, he should by all means obtain a copy of H M. V. D 1431, on which one, Barbara Kemp, sings the Marschaillin’s Monologue and “Zeit sie ist ein Sonderbar Ding” from “Der Rosenkavalier.” I don’t know who Miss Kemp is or in what opera company she sings, and I have never heard her voice except on this one record. But to my mind this disk alone entitles her to a foremost position among the finest recording voices of today. Pontiac, Michigan *■ • L. Editor. Phonograph Monthly Review: The letter on perfect recording voices stimulates me to add to the few examples your correspondent cites. I should put Elisabeth Schumann among the very first. Elena Gerhardt, too, despite the fact that her voice is no longer at its best. And among the men, surely Alexander Kipnis, Ivar Andresen, Emilo De Gogorza, and perhaps Vanni-Marcoux. Baritones and basses, to my mind, are easily the voices best suited to recording or broadcasting. When some acoustical expert does contribute an article on what qualities fit a voice for recording I wish he would also tell us what there is that prevents some great voices from recording well. I know of a number of singers to whom. I can listen with the greatest of delight in opera or recital, but over the radio or on the discs they are horribly distorted and altered. This can’t be altogether the fault of the re- cording engineers; there must be some qualities in such voices that fall beyond the range of the microphone. Wilmington, Delaware l. n. i. "Rio Grande" Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: No one interested in recorded examples of contemporary music should overlook Constant Lambert/s “Rio Grande, re- cently recorded in Great Britain by Columbia Its fresh vitality and color should wm it favor here as well as abroad. Npw Haven. Conn. From a Strauss Devotee Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review : Why the sudden neglect of Richard Strauss by the phono- graph companies? A few years ago his works vied with Wag- ner’s and Beethoven in popularity. Today the majority of Strauss records are of works by Johann, not Richard! We have fine recordings of the best known tone-poems, of course, but no electrical versions of the great Alpine Symphony, the seldom-heard Macbeth, and the Sinfonia Domestica. I am looking forward to the day when a complete album is devoted to Der Rosenkavalier—the most delightful of all modern DISCS FROM ABROAD The following paragraphs summarize the extensive list major European recordings issued within the last mont h two and not previously mentioned in these pages. Many the larger works will eventually be released in this untry under the label of the American affiliation of the ikers. In the meantime all works mentioned can be pro- i it Ampriron UTinOftPrS. operas. Lancaster, Penna. Celebrites' Favorite Records Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: A few years ago all the book magazines were overflowing with lists of the “Ten Books I would Take if I Were to be Marooned on a Desert Island.” Or symposiums of the favorite books of presidents, authors, actors, and other celebrities It would be rather interesting to know what records these same celebrities favor. What would the great executives who History of Music The first volume of English Columbia’s monumental work covers the choral style to its period of perfection, and the bteginning of artistic instrumental music. Five Record sides are devoted to plainsong with Organum through choruses by Palestrina—Sanctus and Hosanna from the Missa Papae Marcelli—recorded under the direction of Sir Richard Terry. Five more to pieces by Byrd Bull, har- nabv, Norcome, and Weelkes for virginals, viola da gamba and lute, chest of viols, etc:, played by Mr. and Mrs. Arn-