[B8

The GRAMOPHONE

May, [949

Take a shorter work, Beethoven's First Symphony. 7B r .p.m. shellac $6.00 78 r .p .m. Vinylite 9.00 331 r .p .m. Vinylite 3. 8 5 45 r .p.m. Vinylite • 3. 80

Now for a look at the changers. In the preconversion days one. of the best and cheapest changers on the market (the Webster) retailed at close to $50. Other combinations could b6 had for as low as 820 or 825.

This means that for the previously established price of one 7B r .p.m. automatic attachment, a customer will now be able to take home two attachments: one at 33t r .p.m. and one at 45 r .p.m. Or he can choose either a 331 r .p.m. or 45 r .p.m. attachment at half what he would have paid for the old 78 r .p.m. machine. Or he can even stand pat with his 78 r .p.m. machine and go right on buying 78 r .p.m. records as he has always done. There are at present 15 million such turntables in American homes, and no record company is going to neglect that market. Indeed, Decca, with the bulk of its business based on 78-speed [o-inch popular singles, feels that i t will be in this end of the business for a long time to come. Companies will continue to produce, and stores to stock, the 78 r .p.m . record. The home that has already installed a good 78 r.p m. turntable is Iwl being forced to change over. Manufacture of Players

The production of players is, of course, not restricted to Victor or Columbia. In fact, the great majority of radio-phonograph manufacturers have already put 331 player attachments and players or double-speed players (78 and 331) on the market. The production of the 45 r .p.m. changer-player by many manufacturers is alw on the way, .and three-speed players have been announced at wide price ranges from the expensive console to the inexpensive small three-speed player by Ansley projected at a retail price of $54.95, only slightly higher than the previous one-speed machine. In addition, adjustment kits for the two new speeds to be attached to your present phonograph are also in the making. Conclusion

The two new systems have brought in ,jefinite1y all the advantages which the record industry has tried to achieve in long and careful experiments over five decades--without necessarily rendering obsolete the 78 shellac for those who prefer not to invest in the new systems. Considerable price reduction, elimination of breakage, higher fidelity, minimum of storage space, minimum of interruption and greatest listener comfort have now become a reality.

Just as cach revolutionary step ahead in the development of recording and reproduction has given thc record industry a new and always better period of prosperity in the past, this final, and possibly greatest, revolutionary change incorporating ALL the advantages of progress stands a good chance to make listening to recorded music and entertainment more attractive .and enticing. With i t a new era of prosperity for tlle manufacturer and dealer, and a new era of enjoyment for the consumer should be ushered in.

* * * * * And now there is just space to compli­ ment the H.M.V. recorders on the mag­ nificent job they have made of Strauss 's Don Quixote with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and to compliment the Decca recorders on the equally fine result they have achieved with Strauss's Tad und VtTkliirung with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Clemens Krauss.

I do not often cry out for recordings, but after hearing on the B.B.C. Third Programme the Seven Last Wordl- from the Gruss composed by Haydn I am sure that the performance of the Amadeus String Quartet in these seven marvellous andantes should be recorded, and that if they were they would be welcomed by all lovers of chamber music. Also I recommend to the immediate attention of the recording cLmpanies the Russian soprano, Mascia Predit,

who is the best dramatic soprano I have heard for a very long t ime. Probably the recorders have already noted her down, and my commendation may be superfluous; but just in case they have not, verbum sapienti.

A QUARTERLY

RETROSPECT (JANUARY TO MARCH 1949) BY EDWARD SACKYILLE-WEST

THE reasons offered to the companies for ranging beyond the usual repertoire of popular and near-popular mmic cannot seem to them very strong. Yet range they do; and those of us who like to hear out-of-the-way music ask ourselves: Why these particular pieces? This is not mere cussedness : we are grateful enough, but might be more so if certain works, either of proved musical value, or of more obvious attractiveness, did not continue, year after year, to be passed over. I am thinking of Holst's Egdon Heath and Hammersmith; of Vaughan Williams's Oboe ConctTto and Mass in G minor; of Bri tten's Sirifonia da Requiem; of Roussel's Concert pour Petite Orchestre and d 'lndy 's Triple Concerto (both l ight works of extraordinary charm). Then, two of Mozart's String Quintets have at various times ·been in the catalogue, yet the last (K614 in E flat major) remains totally ignored. Alban Berg's Violin Concerto-his most purely beautiful work-was so badly recorded in the U.S.A. that the set would not be worth importing; but why not record i t here-perhaps with Andre Gertler as the soloist? Much of Ravel's small output of songs has received attention, but \ ,hat about the Trois Poemes de Mallamzi, which are among his best and might with advantage be confided to Suzanne Danco? We should beg H.M.V. to issue Italo Tajo's superb r ecords (C.E.T.R .A. ) of Mozart's Si.x Arias for Bass (written, mostly, to be interpolated in other composers' operas), and to engage Ema Berger to record Strauss's Three Hymns by Hiilderlin for soprano and orchestra; while Decca surely owe i t to us to remake Dvofak's magnificent Piano Trio, Op. 65. Finally, no time should be lost in recording Oda Siobodskaya's inimitable performance of Mussorgsky's Nursery Songs.

The past three months have brought us rather too few good things and some unpleasant surprises. Among the latter I should certainly give pride of place to the Vienna Philharmonic issue of Schubert's "Great" Symplwny ill C major (Col.). This was a dreadful piece of engineering and the performance not above routine level. Another unaccountable disappointment was Edwin Fischer's solo in the C major Piano Corlcerlo, K503, of Mozart (H.M.V.). I must confess to being heretical about this concerto, which strikes me as does the more antiseptic kind of Adam interior. Only a very grand, solid style can make all this ~arb~e and stucco live, and unfortunately Edwm Fischer, who can sometimes command mat style, has chosen to play with a finicking grace and absence offeeling that recall a (one had hoped) bygone attitude to Mozart. In the same composer's Concerto in G minor, K49[ (Decca)a far greater work, every bit as serious, but full of the warm aspiration of Mozart's passionate nature--Kathleen Long gives a well comidered performance, which nevertheless falls short in pridc and daring. This is essentially a man's concerto : one would like to hear Michelangeli in it, or Claudio Arrau. Wllile on the subject of concertos I cannot but mention the really astonishing virtuoso performance of the Concertgebouw in Bartok'sConcerto for Orchestra (Decca). This set is too obviously outstanding to need "further comment her e, and I should like to think the same was true of Ossy Renardy's performance in the Brahms Violin COl/certo (Decca). This young Hungarian possesses a rich tone and a magnificent attack; he really holds the centre of the music, as Ginette Neveu somehow failed to do. The recording maintains an excellent balance. On the other hand, I should not care to havc to defend the HeifetzBeecham set (H.M.V.) of Mozart's Violin Concerto in D major, K218, against a charge of vulgar smartness. Heifetz's technical ease is not in question, no r the conductor's mastery of the score; but the resulting texture is that of rayon rather than silk .

I must return for a moment to symphonies in order to welcome, reservedly, the latest Tchaikovsky No. 5 (Decca) and Prokofiev's NO.5 (Col). The former has always been an answer to the egotistical conductor's prayer. I t does not wholly escape manhandling on this occasion : surely i t is very affected to announce the E minor theme quite so slowly! But on the whole . this is a decently straightforward rendering,

and, assisted by a good modem recording, i t replaces those (Beecham, Koussevitzky, Lambert) wllich have hitherto disputed the field . In his Fifth Symphony Prokofiev evidently intended a reply to those of us who had been complaining of the tinny. frivolous quality of his later work. While still unconvinced that gravity sits as happily as puckish humour on this volatile composer, I think we must concede that the Fifth Symphony has considerable body to it. The themes--especially in the first two movements--are genuinely thoughtful, but the harmonic scheme in which they are clothed is not very convincing. This is a fairly good recording, by American standards, though i t hardly does justice to the superb playing of the New York Philharmonic. This symphony undoubtedly repays study-if only because i t seems partly to reveal the inner mind of a musician who is enigmatic even for a Russian .

If he is to be of any value, thc academic. composer must first of all be clever. Cherubini was clever; so was Reger; and both cling on still, by that fine but tough thread. Saint-Saens, again, was as clever as a monkey, and he was also the possessor of an elegant touch, which may not cover me multitude of his sins but does guarantee a certain durability. His Danse Macabre and Le &uet d' Omphale are both as brittle as SpWl glass, and as sweet as nougat ;