544
The Gramophone, May, 1930
the best reeords she has ever done, 'Ghe famous Vilja from The ll1erry Widow, and a Sehubert song I have never heard before called Zoge1'nd leise, a .serenade with a delightful chorus. Finally, poor Meta Seinemeyer sings the love duet from Boheme, with Pattiera, and another duet from Andrea Chenier on the other side. I t would be a ha,rd task to make my choice between these four records, and to find them all in one bulletin shows the wealth of the Parlophone resources. Moreo~ler, not only did they give us the best four examples of soprano singing I have ever found in one bulletin, but they . also gave us what I think is the best version we have had so far of the Eroica Symphony. This is played by the Berlin State Opera House Orchestra, under Max von Schillings, on six discs. By the way, thinking of the Funeral March in this reminds me that we have no version of the Dead March in Saul, except an old pre-electric Coldstream Guards recording. I t seems a pity to leave this gap in the orchestral list, and, though I cannot pretend that any correspondent ever suggested that i t was wanted, I want i t . I t is one of the two things that I can pick out on the piano' for myself. The other is .Musetta's Song from Boheme. A queer contrast. Another brilliant record in this bulletin is the Roman Carnival of Bp.rlio7.. (\Onrtllf>J... rt hu .TAsef Rosenstock, with tb Orchestra, and if the Ii I weI of the rest of the 1 J) Clhone had ever brought 'whom one can usually ,re tiresome in At an 1 ,re are no Elsie and Do n l ight records I do nOl h Lorand, who are as ~
In tho::; VUlUlllum UUllelJIll lvlaryse Beaujon is a good soprano, and sings well two arias from Massenet's Thais, but this month you will have to keep the money you spend on sopranos for the Parlophone performances. Lily Morris sings a couple of quite frankly vulgar songs in the style of Marie I..Iloyd, and I enjoy her cockney humour of the old style after wallowing in a stream of molasses from America. A descriptive sketch of An old-time sing-song, with Charles Cobol'll in the chair, is perfectly carried out, and is one of the best records of trus style ever made. The old man himself gives us Two lovely black eyes and The man that broke the bank at .~IY1onte Car'lo,and the whole business winds up with God Sa've the King. Beware of The Swanker·s. It's a real stumer, and one of the few hopelessly bad comic records Columbia has put out, and I hope somebody will soon drop the matrix and break i t aCCidentally on purpose. In the Columbia list there is a good record of the Grenadiers Band in two marchea, Light of Foot and With Sword and Lance, and I ought to mention Leopold Godowsky's performance of Grieg's Ballade on two bght-blue discs.
In the H.lVLV. list nothiug can be better than these chorus songs which Stuart Robertson is giving us with a splendid piano accompaniment by Victor Hely-Hutchinson, whose name, I think, might have been mentioned on the disc. He nearly drives me mad sometimes over the wireless when he is talking in the Children'S Hour, but he really is a splendid pianist and musician, much too good to be ignored like this. The songR are lr!y Bonni,e, Down in Demerara, V i l ikins (md his Dinah, and Some folks like to sigh. I can do with as many of these chorus records as Mr. Stuart Robertson can be persuaded to make, but I think that a singer like him should be encouraged to give us some more solos as well. There is plenty of room for him in serious work as well as Mr. Keith Falkner, who sings Maud Valerie White's setting of Browning's King Charles this month magnificently, and on the other side Handel's Droop not, ymmg lover, just as well. I once said in THE GRAMOPHONE that I would not mention any vocal disc on which the name of the writer of the song was left out, and i f Mr. Keith Falkner had not made such an exceptionally good record I should have been very much tempted to keep my word on this occasion. I t is mere amateurishness on the part of the H.M.V. l i terary staff to omit a name bke Browning and print Maud Valerie White's on the disc itself as "'White," without even initials. The Columbia l i terary staff takes a great deal more trouble about this matter of author's names.
Readers abroad should make a point of getting hold of the H.M.V. record of Dayb·reak in a Surrey Farm, which is quite enchanting. Even the cuckoo is heard in the distance, and the thrush must have thought the microphone was an early worm, so near has he come to i t . After Tauber I did not care much for Marcel Wittrisch in the two songs from Lehar's Friederike. However, this is a good record. I have said what I thought about the Prelude to the Loves of Robert Burns in the Sunday Pictorial, and I shall say no more, because writing in my own paper I might be tempted to step beyond the decencies of adverse criticism. I did not greatly care for Pablo Casals' interpretation of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony; but i t is extraordinarily interesting to compare i t with Sir Hamilton Harty's idea of i t as recorded by Columbia. No doubt many people will like i t better, but that Fourth Symphony played by . the Halle Orchestra, under Sir Hamilton Harty, will not easily be driven away from my favourite shelf. The Chocolate Soldier Waltz and a waltz by Lincke called Unrequited Love, played by the International Novelty Orchestra, make a good double on a 12in. plum-coloured disc, and a pleasant l i t t le record for those who like pleasant l i t t le noises is that of Fritz Kroeger with the xylophone in Goldfishes and the glockenspiel in 'l'he Black Forest Chiming Clock.
Decca this month has been putting out some good stuff, and the surface has been re~lly conquered at