The record changer (Mar-Dec 1947)

FARRAGO 9 By EDWARD HILL And so there is another cold gap in the world, for Louise Homer has passed from it. Her affair with the world did not end with her retirement from the stage any more than it began when first her voice was heard. She was in love with life and her life was lovely. A devoted wife, mother and grandmother, Mrs. Homer's days were gentle and benign, and she went about doing good works on behalf of aspiring youngsters who probably never will discover the source of their benefits. Fame, fortune and prestige were matters for others to discuss ; she merely wanted to sing beautifully. Success she regarded as little more than the incidental result of her aspiration. What pride she had was the wellearned reward of a half -century of devotion to the happiness of Sidney Homer and "the children." What more would a woman of such character have asked of her Maker? Or He of her? The lunatic fringe lately has been duping the press into providing quite an amount of valuable newsprint for the airing of expressions directed against the reputations of artists who chose to fellow the dictates of private conscience before and during the recent instalment of world hostilities and, as indicated in an earlier article of this series, your correspondent has not escaped petition. Our concern here being with matters musical, we do not conceive it as germane to our editorial commitment to assume judgment over the acts or activities of these people aside or apart from those affecting the musical scene. We have never noticed that Tito Schipa's substitution of the Fascist salute for the customary bow was inimical to his legato; nor has Melchior's opulence been spoiled for us by the presence of the gew-gaws with which he delights to adorn his chest. The hysterical mewlings which have attended Mme. Flagstad's return to our concert life cannot alter our opinion of her prowess as a singer. So long as her vocal and interpretative performance continues to be of good report, our acknowledgment will be in her favor. As for her having remained at her husband's side: we shall make no quarrel with her for that, ever, but must in all decency hold her in highest regard as being the proper sort of wife. We have seen, heard and smelled of the pickets, and doubt that their Constitution begins with the words, "We, the people. . . ." The International Record Collectors' Club has brought out a few more well-considered couplings for its members to enjoy and for others, sooner or later, to seek at premium prices. Had you known that Mary Garden made cylinders back in 1907, in Paris? Here are two of them, superbly re-recorded on IRCC 3006. Her singing of L'amour est une vertue rare from Thais has for its companion Bemberg's Chant Venetien. Adamo Didur, so recently deceased, is represented in the IRCC list (3008) by examples of his worthy bass singing of excerpts from two roles which he created for America (L'Oracolo and L'Amore dei Tre Re). Those who admire Frieda Hempel's efforts will be pleased to acquire No. 3006 on which she is heard doing the Queen's Air from Huguenots in German, in 1907. Marion Telva made no solo recordings for public release and it was eleven years after her formal retirement from opera that some friends of hers persuaded her to perpetuate her voice for them. Now she has given permission to Mr. Seltsam to issue two sides, Zueignung and Grieg's Ich Liebe Dich. Interest in the disc is enhanced by the piano accompaniments of Geraldine Farrar. Marguerite Namara, whose career may be recalled by more concert-goers than opera habitues, is another artiste whose good will lias been extended to the club and she has recorded for it a Carmen excerpt, backed by two de Falla songs (239). La Namara's style is compelling and her self -accompaniments are nothing less than stupendous. It would be well for one of the commercial companies to engage her for a recital album. It was inevitable that the film, Carnegie Hall should have as its record counterpart an album entitled A Night at Carnegie Hall. So it goes— only the contents of Columbia Set M/MM 676 add up to about a quarter of A Sunday Night Concert at the Metropolitan. Four of the album's six sides appeared previously in other collections ; — Pons' Bell Song, Rise Stevens in Carmen, — things of reasonable merit. New to the market are Ezio Pinza's versions of // lacerato spirito (Simone Boccanegra) and the Serenata and Brindisi from Don Giovanni. The last named excerpt, incidentally, seems to have been tossed in as an afterthought to fill grooves, and the results are just what you'd expect, even to the hastily summoned pianist. An acceptable but by no means necessary release. HELEN TRAUBEL has been singing around for a good number of years and her pre-Met experience should have seasoned her for more discerning treatment of the six Italian Operatic Arias contained in Columbia album M-675. The great soprano voice has been employed (and none too well recorded) in as business-like a group of performances as it is possible to imagine. Santuzza's fire is lacking altogether and the bereaved Donna Anna might as well be doing "The Holy City." Vissi d'arte is not for the fair Helen, nor is she properly unhappy in Desdemona's Ave Maria. The big Suicidio from La Gioconda is more adequately handled than anything else in the set and Ritorna Vincitor also has its points. As well appointed a music store as we've come upon since the horn-and-stylus days is the new Tusting emporium in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The Tustings have served the home needs of music lovers in their region since 1883 with a complete line of up-to-date quality merchandise, from Chickering square pianos to RCA telesets. People drive as many as a hundred miles to partake of the genteel hospitality that accompanies purchase and browse alike. Inspection of the new store provides a lesson in tasteful sales promotion. On the day that Columbia's "Messiah" came into the store, no less than thirty sets of it went right back out. Nice Town, Asbury Park. BACH : Brandenburg Concerti No. 2 and No. 5. Koussevitzky-Boston Symphony. Victor M/DM-1118. 8 sides. Immediately there is the question of comparison with the long honored Busch project and the answer is that personal preference and authenticity of scoring enter into the matter of detailed analysis — just as was the case with the release, not long ago, of the 3rd and 4th works in the series — and will be again within a short time in the future, which will see the issuance of the 1st and 6th concerti in Tanglewood editions. The Busch albums are fine, indeed. These, we believe, are at least equally so — eschewing the argument as it entails the weighing of pro and con affecting choice of concertino ensemble. The case in point involves a report that Dr. Koussevitzky has been able to procure a small D-flat trumpet for the 2nd, whereas a piano, with lid closed, is made to serve as substitute for the prescribed harpsichord in the 5th. Recorded, as were the preceding issue and that to follow, at Tanglewood during the 1946 Berkshire Festival, these records are in every way deserving of a high position in the catalog. BARTOK: Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orch. Gyorgy Sandor, with Ormandy-Philadelphia Orch. Columbia M/MM 674. Six sides. This is the last work of Bartok's life and it is sheer delight through and through. The concise manner in which the composer has stated his case presents an object lesson to other moderns to emulate the Hungarian's method of setting down attractive themes and letting them live unmolested ; of letting the soloist hold sway within reasonable bounds and of rescuing him with apt, balanced orchestration when enough is enough. Gyorgy Sandor's playing of the splendid solo part is completely satisfying, as is the orchestra's execution, and the recording stands among the better technical achievements. Highly recommended all around. BARTOK: Concerto for Violin and Orch. Yehudi Menuhin-Dorati-Dallas Symphony Orch. Victor M/DM 1120. Ten sides. Some do not like Bloch ; to others Stravinsky is anathema and Ravel by now oldhat. True, the music of many eminent composers (and they not of our century alone) would get short shrift in concert life were not their works blatantly identified with the well-established celebrity of their names. Not so with Bela Bartok for, over and above the publicists' recent furious enterprise, he usually delivers the goods. As in this case, the wrappings may be of strange and unfamiliar pattern, but patient examination of the parcel will not fail to reveal the wholesome goodness of its contents. So it is with the Violin Concerto, a work of enduring beauty and newsomely discovered delights — to the musician, for it is musician's music and nothing less. Its intricate craftsmanship will be apparent to the layman only if he is willing to undergo strenuous study under the patient guidance of a learned lecturer-musicologist. Yehudi Menuhin's playing is of great lyric appeal and both he and the orchestra have been treated royally by the recordists. It is by no means a back-handed compliment to call this album a labor of love. Would that such noble efforts by recording companies were ten times as frequently pursued. MARC BLITZSTEIN: Symphony: The Airborne. Victor M/DM 1117. Thirteen sides. Each record season brings its well-touted' banner releases, and for almost every year . or two there is at least one recorded mu _\ sical event of more-or-less lasting significance. The commercialism accompanying | such advents cannot taint the worth of what j is genuinely meritorious and. obversely, no A amount of brash hoopla can preserve the inferior for long. Of course, there are those j discs and albums of discs whose life, while i seemingly assured, teeter precariously on \ the brink of limbo for years and manage j to survive because the bare minimum of I 54 THE RECORD CHANGER