159

The Gramophone, September, 1925

at which I was present, and I noticed that while he was praised for his Irish folk-son D'S, his Mozart arias -and his 1ieder were merely condescended to. vVell , I've yet to hear Mozart or Brahms better sung by any contemporary. Then I read effusive praise of Frank Mullings as an operatic performer. To be sure, he makes singing sound a deuced difficult business, but when will the critics and the -public diges that stale old Horatian maxim: An est celate a)'tom ~ You don't-praise a wheel for squeaking or an engine for clanking, then why praise an actor, or a writer, or a singer, or a pianist for showing his works all the t ime ~ The Columbia record of Frank Mullings in B~~tterfly sounds as i f Sharpless were trying to throttle Pinkerton. No doubt he would have liked to, but i t doesn't happen to be in the opera, The record itself is first class, and Miriam Licette sings well, provided that you don't want to hear more than one word in ten of the idiotic English. Madame Stralia has a voice that I greatly admire, and she has given us some really good records; but the sooner she stops trying to sing bad ballads, the better for her reputation and the pleasanter for us. I should not quarrel with her for a moment if she sang them well. I should recognise her right to cater for all tastes, i f she were a good caterer. But all she does is to use her fine voice as unintelligently as a railway-engine might use i ts whistle on a concert platform, and this helps nobody. One of the ballads is called I hear you singing. But the trouble is that we hear her singing. I f she co'ttZel hear some of us singing, we might get back on her. I enjoyed the H.M.V, record of Maartje Offers and Tina Poli-R,andacio in one of the great duets of Aida, but I don't fancy i t L<; really very good singing. I think Mr. Klein might be a l i t t le severe on both ladies. Still, as I say, I enjoyed i t in an uncritical mood. Bllt I enjoyed much more the lovely performan'ce of Heckmann-Be t tendorf in two monologues from the Rosenkavaliet'. This is a really good Pariophone, and the orchestral part i s excellent.

We had some pa,rticularly interesting singing records from Vocalion and Aco. I liked thc Frank 'Titterton record better than any of his I have heard, particularly Jenny's lYIantle which is a Welsh folk:song from that splendid collection, Songs of Four Nations. He sings TU1'n Ye to Me as well as most ,singers, but after McCormack I can't hear anybody -else in this. By the way "Mhaire" should be pronouncEd more like Marie than l \bry. Another best record is . vVatcyn vVatcyns in Stanford's magnificent song The Pibroch, which he gives really well. He is equally good in the dull song from Tom Jones on the other side. Constance vVillis must be praised for giving us a couple of what most people would call good songs, though I myself don't care for either of them.

Now I want to draw your particular attention to two splendid Aco records by Joan Vincent and

Stella Murray. Delicious songs on both sides charmingly sung and well recorded. Five shillings will secure five songs. Do let us encourage good work like this. Another Aco record worthy of anybody's attention is that of Eileen Andjelkovitch playing the Chanson Hindoue and Beethoven's j}!inuet in G. She has an exceptionally rich tone and a great deal of temperament. It's no us:) our shonting for cheaper records lIDless you support good cheap records when they appear, and here are three that genuinely deserve support. I forgot to mention a good Brunswick record last quarter, which was Frederick Schorr in a lovely Beethoven song on one side and on the other an equally lovely Schubert. His voice is a l i t t le rongh, but the style is impeccable. I did not much care for the R,ichard Bohnen record of the two arias from The jrI agio Flute. Like Prospero's long speeches Sarastro's arias are no doubt very good, but they bore me. A lot of pretentious nonsense has been written about this opera. One day in these pages I shall give myself the pleasure of t i l t,ing at the allegorical windmill which zealous freemasons have built above Mozart's unknown tomb. The Marie Morrisey record from Brunswick consisted of two intolerable songs accompanied by a piano quintet. One is called Just A-Wearyin' For YML "Of" would be a more suitable preposition than "for." A pity, because the lady has a really good contralto.

There are three piano records in the H.lVLV. bulletin. I 'suppose the Company knows i ts own business best, but I should have thought the policy of issuing a bunch of tenors one month and a bunch of basses the next, a bunch of violinists and then a blIDch of pianists, was a mistake. Of course, ' the outstauding record is the Pachmann, including the cross-word puzzle of his asides. This is not the t ime of day to praise Pachmann in Chopin. The point is that here is one of the new electrical recordings, and obvionsly the piano has never been nearly so well recorded before. But don't play i t with a steel needle. Without admitting any kind of argument at all about it, I say that fibre is infinitely more successful. In fact, with fibre you have the piano. The trouble with this electrical recording is going to be the telephonic effect. I haven't spotted any electrical recordings of the voice yet, though rumour says that the last McCormack is one. I f i t is, then fibre is no more use for that with the voice than i t ever was, except to die-hard fibreurs. What about fibre with orchestral recordings ~ The only one that I suspect is that of the New Light Symphony Orchestra in last month's H.lVLV. bulletin. On the whole, I think t,hat fibre wins, but I don't intend to argue this point until I have heard more. I'm inclined to think that the COl·tot record may be an electrical recording. It is certainly much better on fibre. With steel the piano in this sounds like a new instrument that is something between a gong and a