Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1930-12)

78 The Phonograph Monthly Review Vocal Recording Standards By RICARDO M. ALEMAN A noted connoisseur of operatic discs asks, "Do electrical recordings invariably sound better than acoustical ones?" C ERTAINLY, most of my readers will be surprised when reading the question head- ing this article. Some of them, rather many of them, who are great lovers of the new electrical system of reproducing the human sounds, will be alarmed. Surely they are think- ing of what I am going to answer to myself; and it will not take a long time before all my readers (know the solution of this problem. Most phono- philes think the new electrical records are very good from every point of view; and they have not hesitated to withdraw from their record li- braries all their acoustic records, thinking there is no use to keep them after the new process has been invented. Some have sold their old records at a very cheap price, and others have given them to some friend. Well, I am an admirer of the new electrical records, but not in a general way, and with some reservations. Not all electrical records are at the same height of perfection. I shall set apart the artis- tic side of the records, which belongs to another matter; I shall limit this article to what may be called the mechanical side of the record-making. Not all the electrical records, as I said before, have the same clarity, the same sonority. We may find many and many splendid records; but there are numerous records that sound very opaque, very weak; some of them are almost inaudible; others, as those belonging to the Mar- ina set, which have been reviewed with his usual competence by my distinguished friend Mr. Wil- liam S. Marsh, in the July edition of this maga- zine, are too loud and with a very noticeable vi- bration. In the Marina set all the artists except- ing the baritone, Marcos Redondo, seem to have sung their roles extremely loudly. If you com- pare these Marina records to other selections made by the same artists (Capsir, Lazaro and Mardones), you will notice that their voices are entirely different. However, I think it is better to have a very loud selection than an almost in- audible record. One of the latest releases of the Victor Com- pany has been the “concertato” “0 Sommo Car- lo," from Verdi's Emani , which begins with the phrases “0 Sommo Carlo—piu del tuo nome— le tue virtudi—aver vogrio.” It is sung by Giu- seppe De Luca, Grace Anthony, and Alfio Te- desco, with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and orchestra. The phrases alloted to the baritone De Luca are sung in a classical way, with real unction and delicacy (it must not be forgotten that “0 Sommo Carlo" is a very humble invoca- tion to the soul of Charlemagne) ; but his voice sounds very weak, and it looks as if De Luca had put a piece of cloth or of heavy paper on his mouth. The timbre of his voice seems to have lost its natural brilliancy, for De Luca's voice has always been characterized by its sonority and mellow timbre, always full of a peculiar sweetness, which differentiates him from any other baritone. So, it is really a great surprise to hear that record. Of course, we cannot think that De Luca's voice has been diminished, for on the other side of the record there is the “Bar- carola" from Ponchielli's “La Gioconda," sung by De Luca and the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, which is surely superbly sung by the mentioned baritone, showing the freshness and the beauty of his voice. In my record library I have some other “con- certati," “0 Sommo Carlo," which sound very well. There is one performed by Fregosi, Fullin, Poli-Randacio, Righetti, Nessi and Baracchi (Fonotipia record) ; one sung by Stracciari, a soprano and a tenor whose names do not appear on the label (Columbia record). I have two rec- ords of Mattia Battistini; one of them is sung with soprano De Witt, tenor Taccani and La Scala Chorus; the other with Emilia Corsi, Lui- gi Colazza, Aristodemo Sillich and La Scala chor- us. Mario Sammarco, the soprano Bohuss and the tenor Jose Palet, made the same piece for the Fonotipia. They are accompanied by La Scala Chorus and pianoforte. Benvenuto Fran- ci has sung the mentioned “concertato" for elec- trical recording, as have Fregosi and Stracciari. Both Battistini records and that of Mario Sam- marco are acoustical, and they sound as well as any electrical record. Besides those I have re- ferred to, I have one “concertato" “0 Sommo Carlo" sung by Alfredo Gandolfi (now at the Met- ropolitan), the tenor Carlo Ballin and the so- prano Signora Agostoni, always with La Scala Chorus. And finally, there is the oldest of all, the one sung by Francesco Cigada, Maria Grisi and Remo Sangiorgi and the same Chorus. This record appears in the 1906 catalog of H. M. V. It sounds better than any electrical record of the same piece. The duet from Verdi's Otello , sung by Hina Spani and Giovanni Zenatello, which begins with the phrases “Quando narravi l'esule tua vita,"