Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 11 (1931-08)

304 is purged away by the abundance of life- force and the flexibility and freedom of its formal harnessing. The Mazurkas I SPOKE of Cortot’s readings of the bal- lades as taking course between the old and new traditions. The qualities to be expressed are of course those inherent in the music and if they are suppressed (as by some contemporary pianists) nothing is left by the empty structural shell. But the qual- ities themselves, while not exactly conge- nial to us of today, may strike us with re- newed convinction and force if the means of expression approximate our leaner, more straightforward and taciturn ideals. Yet at best such performances involve some com- promise. With the mazurkas we are on easier ground. The last traces of the over- heated, perfumed air of the salon is swept away by the fresh air of the countryside. In many of his works, the Polonaises especial- ly, Chopin’s much hailed patriotism partook a great deal of the theatricality and selfcon- sciousness of most expatriates in Paris. But in the mazurkas he is not boasting about the pomp and warlike spirit of Poland, he is re- calling and recreating the homely savour of the soil and the melancholy merrymaking of its tillers. Filtered through his aristocratic and sensitive imagination we still get the genuine color and invigorating rhythms of the native dances, caught in the daintiest and yet sturdiest of settings. Their tremen- dous rhythmical vitality and resilience are their very being. Melodies and forms are merely the inevitable embodiment of that vibrant soul: they are their rhythms. So for us there is no fustian to be swept away; we recognize immediately the kinship of their closeness to earth, their brevity and wit, the restraint and yet indubitable gen- uiness of their sentiment, with our modern temper. Friedman has always been a strong pro- ponent of the mazurkas even in his early re- cording days, and the promise of those early discs was the basis of a hope often expressed in these pages that he would be selected to record a collection of these pieces. The critics of this set have not been overly en- thusaistic about his playing, but I fail to see the point of the accusation that he lacks the fire and glow of a Paderewski or Pachmann or Rosenthal. To be sure his performances are not distinguished by great subtlety, but they are distinctively individual, and they properly concentrate attention on the rhyth- mic versimilitude of the music. Fine record- ing captures all the crispness, vigorous resil- ience, and sturdy masculinity of his playing. In the less individual pieces, particularly those of the fourth record of the set, he slips The Phonograph Monthly Review at times into a languid sweetness that brings disturbing of a salon scent, but in the more energetic dances, he gets the full salty sa- vour of the music’s vitality and wit. Besides Friedman’s set, the only other ex- tensive mazurka contribution is the set of sixteen recorded by Niedzielski for H. M. V. For convenience I subjoin a fairly complete list of the available electrical recordings, in- cluding those by Friedman and Niedzielski. No. 5) B flat major, Op. 7, No. 1. Friedman, Brailowsky 6) A minor, 7-2. Friedman; Niedzielski 7) F minor, 7-3. Friedman 9) C major, 7-5. Niedzielski 10) B flat major, 17-1. Niedzielski 13) A minor, 17-4. Casadesus 17) B flat minor, 24-4. Rosenthal, de Pachmann, Friedman, Niedzielski 19) B minor, 30-2. Niedzielski 21) C sharp minor, 30-4. Horowitz 23) D major, 33-2. Friedman, Niedzielski 24) C major, 33-3. Smeterlin 25) B minor, 33-4. Smeterlin, Koszalski, Fried- man 26) C sharp minor, 41-1. Friedman 30) G major, 50-1. Niedzielski 31) A flat major, 50-2. Friedman, de Pachmann 35) C minor, 56-3. Rubinstein 37) A flat major, 59-2. Niedzielski 38) F sharp minor, 59-3. Marguerite Long, Niedzielski 41) C sharp minor, 63-3. Friedman, Niedzielski, de Pachmann 44) C major, 67-3. Friedman, Niedzielski. 45) A minor, 67-4. Niedzielski, de Pachmann 46) C major, 68-1. Niedzielski 47) A minor, 68-2. Friedman, Niedzielski, Koczalski 48) F mapor, 68-3. Niedzielski 49) F minor, 68-4. Niedzielski (Brailowsky records for Brunswick-Polydor, Ro- bert Casadesus for Columbia, de Pachmann for Vic- tor, Marguerite Long for Columbia, Arthur Rubin- stein for H. M. V.—Victor, Jan Smeterlin for Brunswick-Polydor, Horowitz for Victor, Koczalski for Brunswick-Polydor, and Rosenthal for Parlo- phone.) (To be concluded in the next issue)