Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 12 (1931-09)

324 The Phonograph Monthly Review formance of the minuet from Ravel's Tom- beau de Couperin (with the Franck Sym- phony) and the Sicilienne from Faure's Pel- leas et Melisande suite (with Dukas' La Peri; Holsts' Marching Song (with The Planets ), Schillings' Version—the best—of the prelude to Act II of Die Meistersinger overture (with his prelude to Act I), the Cor- tege and air de danse from Debussy's UEn- fant Prodigue (with Klenau's version of Iberia ), the Firebird, Berceuse conducted by Pierne (with the Roman Carnival overture), finally two numbers from Sibelius' delightful Karelia suite, both conducted by Kajanus, the Alla Marcia with the first symphony, and the Intermezzo with the second. Turning to Victor I find that Stokowski should by rights have been ranked with—per- haps even above—Koussevitzky on the merit of the odd sides of their album set recordings. Two of Stokowski's rank with the most preci- ous of all recorded music: the Entr'acte from Moussorgsky's Khowantchina (with the Firebird suite) and the Bach Chorale—“Wir glauben all' in einem Gott" (with the Sec- ong Brandenburg Concerto). Two others are nearly equally important: Eicheim's colorful Japanese Nocturne (with Salomes Tanz) and the finale—orchestra alone—of Gotterdam- merung (with the Rienzi overture). This Gotterdammerung finale and Coates' per- formance of the Handel-Elgar Overture in D minor (with Strauss' Tod und Verklarung) are two excellent examples of instances where the major work in the set did not appeal to me, but where I thought so much of the odd side that I felt it well worth the cost of the last disc of the set. Two of the best Toscanini recorded per- formances are to be found on odd sides: the enchanting Gluck Dance of the Spirits (with the Mozart “Haffner" symphony) and his in- imitable reading of the Midsummer Night's Dream Scherzo (with the Haydn “Clock" symphony). Six other conductors boast one each. Coppola plays Molinari's orchestration of Debussy's L’lsle joyeuse with his Iberia set, Rachmaninoff conducts an orchestration of his own Vocalise with his Island of the Dead , Goossens plays Bax's Mediterranean with his T intag el records, Stock adds Glazou- now's Pas D’Action to his fine set of Schu- mann's first symphony, Damrosch fills out his Gluck Airs de Ballet discs with his father's orchestration of the Gavotte from a Bach 'cello sonata, and Sevitzky leads his Philadel- phia String Sinfonietta in a Bach Arioso, ek- ing out his set of Bloch’s Concerto Grosso. Leaving the orchestral field behind we find that the National Gramophonic Society of England has a virtual monopoly on the best solo and ensemble odd sides. The gold medal assuredly goes unanimously to Kathleen Long for the last sides of her Mozart and Haydn piano sonatas. On the first she plays two charming pieces by Gottlieb Muffat and the gloriously vivacious Tic-Toc-Choc of Coup- erin ; on the other she plays an air and varia- tions by Rameau: two of the best odd sides in all recorded literature. The other N. G. S. piano fillers are nearly equally good, how- ever: a Bach chorale, “Blessed Jesus here we stand," played by Ethel Bartlett on the last side of the Bach piano concerto in F minor, and one of the most interesting of the De- bussy preludes, Les sons et les parfums , play- ed by Barbour on the odd side of the Debussy violin sonata. Other N. G. S. odd sides: a magnificent Purcell fantasy played by the In- ternational String Quartet (Haydn “Sunrise" quartet), three charming Irish folk song transcriptions played by Barbirolli ('cello with a Vivaldi 'cello sonata), the andante from Bach's violin sonata in A, played by Fachiri (Beethoven violin sonata in G), and an odd Danse de la Chevre by Honegger play- ed by Rene le Roy (flute solo) on the last side of a Bach flute sonata. There are several string quartet move- ments on odd sides that I shall pass over here as most of them are also available in com- plete recordings of the works from which they are taken. Several more piano pieces should be mentioned, however: Myra Hess' ineffably gracious performance of the Rosa- munde ballet music (with her Schubert piano sonata for Columbia), and the Brahms Cap- riccio in B minor played by Lamond (Bee- thoven D minor Sonata—H.M.V.), De Falla's Andaluza played by Mme. van Barentzen (Nights in the Gardens of Spain — Victor), Brahms' Ballad in G minor played by Gunter Homann (Brahms' Quartet in A minor— Polydor), Mozart's Fantasia in D minor play- ed by Hirt (Hadyn's “Horseman" Quartet— Polydor), and the superb Chopin Mazurka in F minor played by Marguerite Long (Chopin Concerto—Columbia). The above lists of course by no means com- pletely cover the odd side recordings of all the available album sets. Many light pieces have been intentionally omitted, and probably many European works of genuine worth with which I am not familiar. However, I trust that I have named enough works of unques- tioned excellence to accomplish the purpose of drawing appreciative attention to the wealth of phonographic music issued primar- ily as “fillers", yet by virtue of their intrinsic significance oftentimes equally or more im- portant than the album set itself. Concert hall artists would do well to emulate the in- terest of these phonographic “encores."