Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 5 (1931-02)

152 The Phonograph Monthly Review certos in G Major, E Flat; Sonata PathHique), Chopin (Twenty-four Etudes), Brahms (Paganini Variations), and a good choice of single discs. Poetry, fire, are less obvious sides of his art; instead, one finds beautiful clarity of thought and tone, a philosophic rather than emotional approach, an amazing technique, and occasionally, something bordering on the efficiency expert. He reveals the structural aspect of a work, its basic content, but his Beethoven has not the maj- esty of Paderewski, D’Albert, or Ney. In the Paganini Varia- tions, however, he is unassailable, sharing honors with Rosen- thal, Lhevinne, and Iturbi. The Chopin Etudes, the Mozart- Bachaus Don Juan Serenade, Liszt’s Waldesrauschen, or the Delibes-Dohnanyi Naila Waltz all show his powers impres- sively. Also with stupendous technique is the Pole, Ignaz Fried- man (Columbia), noted as a Chopin player, whose best con- tribution is from that composer. His speed and control over dynamics give him access to rarely heard pianistic effects, realistically recorded. His interpretations have breadth, sometimes poetry, but of an unspontaneous kind. Probably no pianist will ever play faster the Chopin Etudes Nos. 7 and 12 from Op. 10, or Liszt’s Campanella, and very fine are the Chopin mazurkas and his own Viennese transcriptions. His countryman, Raoul von Koczalski, is also noted in Europe for his Chopin, from whom he has recorded a good assort- ment for Polydor. On the other hand, Arthur Rubinstein, another Pole, is at his best interpreting the modern school. His choice for the Brahms B Flat Concerto (Victor), fine as it is, was a misfortune when the same company could have had Gabrilowitsch. In ‘Albeniz, however— Navarra, Evocation, etc. (Spanish Victor)—he is beyond reproach. An intense individualist, Percy Grainger (Columbia) gen- erally manages to interpret a work differently from any other pianist. What he plays is transformed to his own rhythmical mold, but the result is rarely other than powerful and stimu- lating. An athlete, he is better in the sturdiness of Brahms Percy Grainger F Minor Sonata, the Schuman Symphonic Studies, or the more vigorous Chopin of the B Minor Sonata, than in his other masterworks. His playing of his own folk-music ar- rangements and Grieg is rhythmically infectious, suggestive of both the sprightly and the trudging characteristics of peas- ant dances. In the Grieg Concerto, he is unequalled, a fact which makes more unaccountable Columbia’s choice of Fried- man for this work. More Grieg, original works, and his vital performances of the Bach fugues would prove valuable ad- ditions to the recorded repertory. (To be concluded) Phonographic Echoes The Musical Pillow The engineering products division of the RCA-Victor Com- pany announces a new type of hospital and Pullman car loud-speaker* that is beyond doubt the last word in humani- tarian refinement. The reproducing unit is concealed within a regulation hospital size pillow made of specially selected sponge rubber, so constructed that it may be sterilized like an ordin- ary pillow and the pillow-cases changed at will. The pillow is plugged into a central radio receiving system and while sound permeates the pillow itself, it cannot be heard except by resting the head on the pillow. This eliminates at one stroke irksome earphones, which are liable to chafe if worn for any length of time, and loudspeakers, often impracticable. While primarily intended for use in hospitals, Pullman cars, ocean steamers, etc., the uses of the magic “radio pillow” are obviously capable of considerable expansion. The pil- low may be plugged in on an electrical phonograph as well as on a radio, and the voracious phonophile may now continue his concerts when he is too weary to sit or stand up to his music. The ambitious student may continue his recorded lecture or foreign language course, with the aid of an auto- matic phonograph and the new pillow, all through his slum- bers, instead of sitting up in the light of midnight oil. (And indeed, experiments have been made to prove that music or lectures heard in one’s sleep are retained to a surprising ex- tent on waking.) Whether every music 1 lover will jump at the chance to take Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms as bed- mates remains to be seen, but the new device unquestionably will be a genuine boon to the ill, the bored, and the languid. We wonder what Bach (who thought little of walking fifty miles on foot to hear Buxtehude’s concerts of contemporary music) would say if he knew that in the effete twentieth cen- tury it had become no longer necessary even to raise one’s head from the pillow to hear the great music of classical and modern times! Yet such labor-saving contrivances need not necessarily be enervating, providing the pillow listener fol- lows the music he hears as intently as Bach followed the mu- sic he tramped so many weary miles to hear. Perhaps if Bach had been spared the sheerly physical drain on his energy we should have had an even richer legacy from his hand. But—one is very much inclined to doubt it. Columbia Artists in Concert Bulletins from the Columbia publicity bureau reveal many and varied concerts and tours by European artists already well known to the American musical public through their Columbia recordings. The brilliant Don Cossack’s Choir has already made sensational “first appearances” in Boston and New York, and the acclaim with which it has been greeted should focus further attention upon the choir’s discs Among the. new Metropolitan Opera stars, Georges Thill is the tenor of Columbia’s “Carmen” album and is repre- sented also by solo discs, and Ivar Andresen has been re- corded in the “Tristan und Isolde” album and in many individual Wagnerian and lieder records. Lotte Lehmann, now appearing with the Chicago Opera Company has been recorded by Columbia and Odeon in German lieder and arias. The Lener String Quartet—represented in the Colum- bia Masterworks series by some thirty album sets, are mak- ing a second American concert tour, and Max von Schillings is the principal conductor of the German Grand Opera Com- pany also making an American tour this season.