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

154 The Phonograph Monthly Review Correspondence The Editor does not accept any responsibility jor opinions expressed by correspomdents. No notice will be taken of un- signed letters , but only initials or a pseudonym will be printed if the writer so desires. Contributions oj general interest to our readers are welcomed. They should be brief and writ- ten on one side of the paper only. Address all letters, to CORRESPONDENCE COLUMN, Editorial Department, The Phonograph Monthly Review, 5 Boylston Street, Cam- bridge, M assachusetts. Recording Suggestions Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: Should the recording companies ever be at a loss to know what to record, I should like to make a few suggestions. A few of the more glaring spaces on our record shelves have been filled in lately by releases of the records of Pelleas et Melisande, of the Sibelius symphonies, and of most of the rest of Ravel’s works which had not been recorded previously. Miaskovski is a modern composer of importance, who, like Sibelius, has been neglected by conductors and recorders. Records of his Sixth and Eighth Symphonies, works of almost monumental strength, would bring to him a large audience which he certainly deserves. Frederick Stock and the Chica- go Symphony Orchestra would be the logical interprepeters for these symphonies. Stock and the orchestra have given magnificent performances of both works—in fact Miaskov- ski’s music better suits the orchestra than anything they have yet recorded. I cannot understand why Gruenberg’s works are set aside by the recording companies who fall all over themselves get- ting to the latest Gershwin chef d’oeuvre. It is a pity Erich Kleiber and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra could not have made records of Enchanted Isle. Obviously Toscanini would not be the proper interpreter for the piece, even if he consented to conduct it. Maybe Stokowski could be per- suaded to do it. And then there are Daniel Jazz, Hill of Dreams , the Jazz Suite, and the various string quartet compo- sitions—all of which should make good and profitable records. On a visit to South America two years ago I heard a new composition played at the concerts at the Teatro Colon in Beunos ‘Aires. It was a Sinfonietta, by Ernesto Halffter—the young Spanish composer, at that time only eighteen years old. This Sinfonietta was thoroughly delightful, and I can- not help wishing I could renew my acquaintance with it through the medium of the phonograph. Speaking of Spanish music reminds me that Manuel de Fal- la’s Harpsichord Concerto has not been recorded. Harpsi- chord records are rare, and Falla’s concerto for the instru- ment should make a unique recording. Unless the composer himself could be persuaded to interpret the solo part, Wanda Landowska would be the best performer for the work. Why is it none of Delius’s choral works is on records? Why is it we cannot buy a complete set of Brahms’s German Re- quiem?.. And why doesn’t someone record Honegger’s King David? The German Requiem and King David are available in fragments, but the choral works of Delius, for some in- explicable reason, never have been put on wax. It would be very appropriate right now while the Ravel vogue is at its peak to have Koussevitzky and the Symphony Orchestra record Ravel’s orchestration of Moussorgsky’s Pic- tures at an Exposition inasmuch, also, as it was Dr. Kousse- vitzsky who commissioned Ravel to do the orchestration. Despite the fact that Strawinsky is the most discussed con- temporary composer, our phonographs are silent when it comes to many of his important works such as Les Noces, Renard, Histoire du Soldat, and Chant du Rossignol. Schonberg also suffers from too much debate and too little real understanding. And Bartok and Kodaly might bear some litle attention from the recording companies. The wit and humor in Kodaly’s Hary Janos make the attempts of the modern, French school to instill humor in music seem very awkward and childish. Here again is a piece of music in which Frederick Stock is far more at home than he is in the music on most of his present records. The list of Debussy’s recorded works is by no means com- plete. Printemps, Jeux, La Demoiselle elue, and the sym- phonic fragments from Le Martyre de St. Sebastien are all without which nobody’s Debussy collection is complete. Sto- kowski is a fine conductor of Debussy’s music as he has demonstrated in his readings of Afternoon of a Faun and Fetes, and one cannot help wishing he would do more De- bussy and leave such music as Brahms’s and Wagner’s to those who make a better job of it. And next spring, after the League of Composers perform- ances at the Metropolitan, a recording of Prokofieff’s Pas d’- Acier by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra would make available to everyone in the country what only a few in New York were privileged to hear in actual performance. In other words, why not consider last year’s recording of Sacre du Printemps as a precedent to follow both this year and in years to come? Oak Park, Illinois Charles H. Mitchell Note: The De Falla harpsichord concerto mentioned by Mr. Mitchell has already been recorded with the composer in the solo role (European H. M. V.). Several of the other works mentioned have also been recorded, but not yet re- leased. We agree very emphatically with Mr. Mitchell con- cerning the desirability of a recording of Halffter’s Sinfon- ietta in D (see the review of a piano piece by Halffter—page 99, December issue). Kodaly’s Hary Janos suite, Strawinski’s Les Noces, Satie’s 3rd Gymnopedie, are particularly good suggestions. The potential appeal of records of some of the other works named is more doubtful. The Brahms Requiem. Honegger King David and Delius Choral works are all in- evitable, but until they can be done adequately, it is better that they be left for the nonce. Decca’s Sea Drift pointed the lesson of attempting such a work without proper prepara- tion. Slorrimsky and New Music Editor, Phonograph Monthly Review: The appearance of Mr. Nicolas Slonimsky’s reviews in the Phonograph Monthly Review and an article on the “New Music” publications, led to my taking in the town Hall con- cert last night of his Boston Chamber Orchestra, and I was much interested by the refreshingly original choice of pro- gram he offered. I must confess that the “new music” of Ives, Ruggles, and CowelFleft me a little baffled, although some of the effects were certainly unusual, and it seems to me that once these composers become a little less self-conscious about their new idioms, they may produce musical achievements of less sensational and more lasting worth. But the little suite by Robin Milford, of whom I had never heard before, struck me as wholly delightful, employing modern resources and idioms not for their own sake alone, but to enhance the inherent animation and spontaneity of natural melodic and rhythmic gifts of a high order. And it was a grateful op- portunity to hear the first of Mozart’s forty-one symphonies, composed at the incredible age of eight! And I am grateful also to Mr. Slonimsky, whose “relevant notes” on the pro- gram played contained the charming anecdote of Mozart re- questing his sister to “remind me to give something worth- while to the horns.” She didn’t fail to remind him, as this and the works that were to follow bear ample testimony. Perhaps most amusing of all was the other Mozart work, “A Musical Joke,” an amazing take-off on the music of the fu- ture, with its poly tonalities and other devices that modern composers complacently thought they had originated. When are we to have more chamber music recordings? I have the fine series by the Philadelphia String Sinfonietta, and the chamber symphony by Paul Juon put out by the National Gramophonic Society, but the recorded repertory of chamber orchestral works is otherwise practically non- existent. Yonkers. N. Y. W. J.