Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

26 RADIO BROADCAST MAY, 1928 these duets as sung by this baritone and tenor from the Metropolitan Opera Company. The Blind Ploughman (Radclyffe-HallClarke) and The Fairy Piper (WeatherlyBrewer) sung by Sigrid Onegin (Brunswick). An organ accompanies this rich contralto voice in the first selection and reflects the seriousness of the song. In the second selection the tinkling notes of a piano and a flute illustrate the fairy music of which Miss Onegin sings delightfully as well as capably. Lucia: Sextet — Chi raffrena il mw furore {Why do I my arm restrain?) (Donizetti) Sung by M. Gentile, D. Borgioli, G. Vanelil. S. Baccaloni, G. Nessi, I. Mannarini and chorus. (Columbia). This imported recording does not do full justice to the famous musical race in which the soprano is foreordained to win. The volume is, for one thing, too great. On the reverse is Somnamhula: D'un Pensiero (No Thought but for thee) by M. Gentile, D. Borgioli, I. Mannarini, G. Pedroni and chorus, which is excellent except for the thinness of the soprano voice. Die Zauherflote — 0 I sis Und Osiris (The Magic Flute — Chorus of Priests) (Mozart). Sung by the Metropolitan Opera Chorus with the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra under the direction of Giulio Setti. (Victor). This splendid organization presents a very plausible chorus of priests who are evidently all superior musicians. And the very next moment (on the reverse of the record) they are equally convincing as a Chorus of Courtiers — On Mischief Bent (Scorrendo Uniti Remota Via) from Verdi's Rigoletto. My Message and Nocturne by John Charles Thomas (Brunswick). The same glorious baritone— and you may like the ballads. Quartet in G Minor Second and Fourth Movements (Debussy). Played by the New York String Quartet (Brunswick). All the tricks of the string trade are herein utilized to demonstrate the beautiful and varied effects obtainable by two violins, a viola and a cello. Bridal Procession (Grieg; Op. 19, No. 2) and March of the Bojaren (Halvorsen). Played by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Robert Hood Bowers (Columbia). This delightfully gay and lighlhearted bridal chorus must have been written for a fairy wedding; mortals take their weddings more tearfully. And here is a march that is not impressed with its own importance but is quite willing to be exuberant and even humorous. But then a march scored for strings, and woodwinds as well as for brasses can present these characteristics more easily than can the fife and drum brigade. The Columbia Symphony handles both these numbers with ability. All Hail the Record Albums IT IS just another miscarriage of justice that somewhere in these United States there walks a man, unheralded and unsung. The man in question is the inventor of the album set. Until he sold his idea to the phonograph companies (we hope he sold it; if he can't have fame he should at least have royalties) our record library contained only selections from operas, gems from operettas, arias, ballads, folk songs, bits of this, and bits of that. No extended work could be had in its entirety because, alas, it could not be fitted on to the limited space afforded by a rubber disc, and it had never occurred to the phonographers to distribute one work of art over several discs, selling them as one unit. Now, however, we have whole symphonies, tone poems, and concertos, complete from the first note to the last. They come on several records, neatly stowed away in good looking albums, and accompanied by explanatory booklets which invariably are excellent and useful. These musical works are recorded by the best talent available in this country and in Europe and the technical work of putting the notes on the wax is done so expertly that no iota of tone is missing, no shading is lost. In the March Radio Broadcast appeared a partial list of the music available in album form. The list is growing daily. Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony WE HAVE already reviewed one album set, the Scheherazade Symphonic Suite by Rimsky-Korsakov, played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowsky, and recorded by Victor. This month we praise another symphony, equally beautiful in an entirely different way, the Jupiter Symphony (No. 41, Op. 551) of Mozart, played by the State Opera Orchestra of Berlin, conducted by Richard Strauss, recorded in Europe for Brunswick. It covers two sides of three records and one side of a fourth, the remaining surface being given over to the Turkish March (Mozart-Cerne) played by Vasa Prihoda. The Rimsky symphony is full of color, warmth, and emotion. It conjures up pictures of the Orient with its glowing colors, shimmering light, sinuous maidens, swaying camels, dancing fakirs, and the spicy smells of the market place — all the kaleidoscopic romance of the East. Mozart's symphony, on the other hand, brings forth no pictures. It lacks the warm humanity of the Russian music, lacks its emotion, lacks its color. But it has something which takes the place of these qualities, a precise musical style. It is music as pure, unsullied, and crystal clear as water bubbling from a spring on a mountain side. It is melodious from start to finish for Mozart was an expert harmonist. He lived his short life (1756-1791) at a time when emphasis was placed on form and harmony. The symphony was a fairly recent development. It had evolved gradually from the overture, the instrumental introduction to an opera, and had been given a more or less standard form by Haydn who was born twenty-four years before Mozart. This form consisted of three or four movements, generally four. The first and fourth were the longer and more essential, and were brisk in tempo. The second was slower and eminently lyrical, and the third usually a sprightly minuet. This is the form used by Mozart in the Jupiter Symphony. The orchestra for which he scored the symphony consisted of one flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, kettledrums, and strings, and for the second movement he reduced it by the omission of trumpets and drums. This is a much smaller organization than the symphony orchestra of to-day. It is particularly in the fourth movement, the loveliest of them all, that Mozart displays his technical skill, but not ostentatiously. The beauty and spontaneity of the music conceal the learning which is its foundation. The design of the movement is a combination of the sonata form and the fugue. The sonata form is that used for first movements of symphonies and consists of three parts, the Exposition which sets forth the themes; the Development which embroiders the themes; and the Recapitulation which restates the themes. In this movement Mozart uses four distinct musical ideas. The first is given out at once by the violins, its four opening notes being an ecclesiastical melody of which Mozart made frequent use. A second, and gayer, phrase follows this; the subject is then repeated forte by the full orchestra and at the end of the passage the second idea is introduced by woodwind and strings. There are sixteen measures of this, filled with exuberant tone. Next there is a return to the church theme treated in the orthodox fugal manner. At length this same theme is taken up forte by the full orchestra and at the fourth measure of it there is heard, in the first violins, the third idea. After a repetition of the second idea, the fourth idea — the second real theme — appears in the strings. From this brief analysis of the last movement of the symphony you can perhaps derive some idea of the intricacy of the framework on which Mozart weaves his beautiful melodies. You will love these melodies whether or not you understand the construction, but if you follow the mechanics of the symphony you will arrive at a more complete understanding and consequent appreciation of the composition. A CLOSE-UP OF THE CONTROL PANEL A bank of three loud speakers is used with this phonograph-radio combination. Each loud speaker circuit has its own distortion meter, with controls permitting each circuit to be operated at its own regulated volume. Circuits and apparatus are provided so that the operator can announce the selection to be played through the entire loud speaker system