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THE GRAMOPHONE

DECEMBER 1931

unreasonable when my nurse denied my appetite for a delicious cake because I was unwilling to prove i t in advance by eating two or three repellent slices of thick bread thinly buttered, and that is precisely what the devotees of Beethoven and Mozart are apparently doing when they despise that vast public which buys a record of Kreisler playing 'The Angels' Serenade' and refuses even to consider the purchase of Beethoven's Violin Concerto played by the same master. The trouble the recording companies have always had is to persuade any appreciable quantity of the public that works of classical music, though admittedly nutritious, are also pleasant to eat and much less likely to induce nausea than over-indulgence in cake. Without going into the question of restricted finance, i t is an indisputable fact that the production of good music does from time to t ime exceed the demand. Consequently any member of the staff of one of the great recording companies who suggests to the Sales Department such an idea as the publication of all Beethoven's piano sonatas is likely to be invited to look at the sales of the last two or three Beethoven quartets produced and to show any just cause why the Sales Department should respond to his optimism about Beethoven's piano sonatas. To the justifiably cynical Sales Manager the piano sonatas of Beethoven seem just as much caviare to the general as the songs of Hugo Wolf; bu t whereas the artistic young member of the staff can freely admit that Hugo Wolf is caviare he must in the interests of us all maintain that Beethoven is nutritious and appetizing roast beef. The success of the Hugo Wolf Society will encourage experiment, and that, if no other reason were forthcoming, would be a strong enough reason to make me exercise all my powers to persuade the intelligent readers of THE GRAMOPHON E to support it. The worst that can happen to any supporter who forks out his thirty bob in this spirit is that he will have some records lying idle on his shelves; but we may be sure that he will make a good attempt to get his money's worth out of these records, and in doing that he \vill have provided himself with some intelligent exercise fully worth the money. When you think of the number of shillings wasted on hair-restorers you should not grudge a few shilling ~ being wasted on the brain .

Now we come to another point of view which is , expressed in a letter to the Editor of The New Statesman and Nation in the issue of November 7th:

J w;t recently your paper published some interest,ing correspondence which arose from Mr. Constant Lambert's plea for the recording of less well-known music. Now The Gramophone Company (H.M.V.) are appealing for 500 direct subscribers to a Hugo Wolf Society, and Mr. Compton Mackenzie (whose paper THE GRAMOPHONE should be read by everyone, and who dubs your correspondents "passionate ideal is ts ") lamen ts to the end of a whole page in this month's issue the fact that the appeal is not going well.

Of course i t is not. The gramophone dealer, who is expected to take a dozen different recordings of Handel's Largo, gets nothing out of i t . All he sees is the probable loss of 30s. which his customer spends on Hugo ';Yolf records instead of something he makes a profit on. Why not invite the dealer to help? I f one in every twenty-four dealers throughout the country got one subscriber the desired end would be achieved.

My company supports the Society because i t believes i t is a good thing, but we cannot live that way.

Yours, etc.,

REGINALD W_ BRAYNE.

This letter at first sight is reasonable enough, and if one in every twenty-four dealers throughout the country were as closely in touch with an eclectic public as this representative of E.M.G. Handmade Gramophones, i t would be unanswerable; but if Mr. Brayne seriously intends us to believe that there are five hundred gramophone dealers with as much goo~ taste, intelligence, persuasiveness, tact, and enthusI~sm as the company he represents, then all I can say .IS that he is the most generous figure I have met outSide the pages of Dickens. I f those five hundred g'ramophone dealers existed, the circulation of THE GRAMOPHONE would be ten times what i t is, the advertisement revenue of THE GRAMOPHONE would be ten times what i t is, and the sales of N.G.S. records would be ten times what they are. I f those five hund~ed dealers e.xisted, I should be able to write what I liked, when I Irked, and where I liked and the dreams in which the London Editor and ~yself indulge before every Irish sweepstake would come true. Aladdin would have nothing on me and the Miner's Dream of Home would sound like a comic song. But, alas, I am afraid that Mr. Brayne has been anticipating Christmas charity; either that or he has been misled by the response his own initiative has elicited from that intelligent minority which reads a paper like The New .State~man. and Nation. I sympathize profoundly with hiS .dlsgust at the notion of being expected to stock a dozen different recordings of Handel's Largo, and ~ have fought ~s hard as anybody in print to stop thiS senseless d.up.lIcation and re-duplication; but whereas a specialIst firm of the status and efficiency of Rimington, Van Wyck could easily demonstrate to a sales man~ger that i t was not worth his while to support the pubhcation of another Largo, the evidence coming from another splendidly competent firm like Alfred Imhof might easily satisfy him that i t was.

What is never sufficiently taken into consideration by those who complain of the re-duplication of such works as Handel's Largo is that there is a vast floating body of purchasers who will order. t~e Lar~o in the same spirit as they order a Lager, and It IS to thiS body that the sales manager is appealing. I can remember perfectly well that when I looked through my first H.M.V. catalogue after I had alrea.dy ha~ the excitement of ordering all the chamber musIc avallable in the Vocalion list, I started to order many of the stock favourites like Handel's Largo, or Dvorak's Humoresque, or the Toreador's Song, and i t is because I have myself passed through all the stages of gramophone taste that I cl.aim to be ~ble to offer fairly good advice as a critiC. The baSIS of all my