Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 9 (1931-06)

June 1931, Vol. V. No. 9 265 Paris Letter By RENE LEVY The complete "Werther" Album and other French releases O NE cannot really love Massenet, whose feminine sen- sibility, eroticism, and superficial swooming are too often the expression of a latent vulgarity. One can even detest his constantly setting manly literary masterpieces to music surcharged with voluptuousness, whose melodies float in the memory, undulating and lascivious, as the heady fragrance of a girl lingers in the atmosphere of a room. One cannot fail to acknowledge his prodigious ability, the very genuine allurement which frees itself from his pliant and limpid melodic twinings, and the moving grace that now and then flowers in the brief interludes with a perfection never surpassed in any other French opera. These qualities are par- ticularly perceptible in Werther, whose first and third acts are unquestionably the composer’s masterpiece. Werther is indubitably the work of Massenet which contains the most music, and the one in which stylistic unity has been most carefully and most felicitously maintained. Of course, as everywhere else in Massenet, the writing strikes us today as almost tasteless by reason of its sensuality and prettiness. The part given to the violoncello, to the intensely vibrant violins, offends us like a too sweet simp. But, after all, that is the fashion of his period. Who predicts that in a few decades the hardness of M. Strawinski, the hideousness of some of our “atonals” and the determined intent to displease which animates all of these gentlemen, will not seem as old-fash- ioned and ridiculous as the insipidities of Massenet’s time? Morever, this hardly concerns us. Werther's popularity, after a certain initial period of coldness and incomprehen- sion, has not diminished in almost forty years, and each time the unhappy candidate for suicide prepares to die on the stage, a goodly public spills ready tears over his agony. One can certainly be assured of the material success of the com- plete edition in fifteen discs which has just been issued by Columbia, the more so that it is of irreproachable musician- ship and technical magnificence without equal. It assuredly constitutes the most beautiful effort of lyrical recording ac- complished in France in the existence of the phonograph. The three protagonists are M. Georges Thill (Werther), Mme. Ninon Vallin (Charlotte), and Mile. Germaine Feraldy (Sophie). A more judicious or happier choice could not have been made. M. Thill is the best French tenor. Mme Vallin has not always been as favord by the microphone as one could have wished, and she has perhaps made too many discs of dubious quality, but even the least successful are still interesting since they capture the echo of her voice, the refined intelligence and chaste sensibility of her interpreta- tions. Here, however, the quality of the recording has been watched with particular care, and Charlotte is worthy of Werther. As for Mile. Feraldy, she is a charmingly youth- ful and ingenuous Sophie. The other performers are excel- lent. The orchestra is conducted by M. Elie Cohen, who has made much progress since his unhappy experience with Car- men, and he gives us today a Werther conforming to the best traditions, heavily voluptuous, and shot with all the colors of life and passion. I have already indicated the merits of the recording. These fifteen discs have obviously been the object of exceptional care as to their clarity and the delicacy with which the smallest details are captured on the recording wax, and I find it scarcly criticizable that there is a somewhat marked preponderance of the voices over the orchestra. The school- master’s injunction to the children, in the very first measures of the score: “Pas trop de voix, pas trop de voix!” could have been observed with profit by the singers, who read the dy- namic indications throughout in constant augmentation: ppp becomes an ordinary p, when it is not an mj, which with them becomes an /, or even fj. However, by virtue of the other qualities of the performance, I am ready to absolve these minor sins which a little experimentation in the choice of needles will largely correct; also such imperceptible defects (apparent to the exacting listener) as George Thill’s little break on the A sharp of the second verse of the lied d’Os- sian, and the somewhat insecure pitch of the last note of this air. These minor blemishes do not exceed the margin of im- perfection of all human achievement, and ever so, they are compensated by the beautiful quality of the neighboring pas- sages. Charlotte’s Priere, recorded on the other side of this disc, is truly a magnificent bit, one of the moments when Mme. Ninon Vallin has fairly surpassed herself. The space which I have devoted to this considerable re- cording prevents me from enlarging as I should like on the other excellent recordings issued in France this last month, but I must at least mention the splendid performance of Mo- zart’s Flute Concerto in D major by our incomparable Mar- cel Moyse and an orchestra conducted by Piero Coppola (French H. M. V.), and a highly distinguished interpreta- tion of Mozart’s Quintet in E flat for wind instruments and piano by the Societe des Instruments a vent de Paris. I should add that the latter work has already been performed, without pretention but very pleasingly, by a quintet for Pathe, which has also published the charming similarly scored quintet by Beethoven. 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