COLUMBIA.
The ballet music from Borodin's Prince Igor is effectively played by the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham's idiomatic conducting. Beecham has managed somehow to impress his personality upon these records, which is surprising, seeing that he is essentially a conductor who relies upon " presence." I wonder how many times Sir Henry Wood has conducted the Unfinished Symphony. His records reveal that the work is as fresh and surprising to him as ever. The phrasing is beautifully clean and lyrical. Mengelberg conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra in some episodes from Berlioz's Faust. The records arc disappointing. Can you imagine listening to an orchestra in Paddington Station on a cold and frosty morning before breakfast ? These records produce the same draughty and rather miserable effect.
The balance, however, is more than restored by the recording of Mozart's Bassoon Concerto, Mr. Archie Camden as soloist, and Sir Hamilton Harty conducting. These records should help to correct the impression that the bassoon is the low comedian of the orchestra. .Mozart had quite different ideas, as you will discover.
Two recordings by Percy Grainger afford a good illustration of what kind of piano music is effective through the gramo- phone medium and what kind is not. On one side of the disc is Debussy's ClOir de Lune, which, I am afraid, loses all its intimacy and atmosphere in the process of transference ; on the other side is the same composer's Toccata, a brilliant performance by Mr. Grainger, and a no less brilliant one by the Columbia Company. Piano records should he confined to this martellalo type of music for the present. In this connexion I commend to the company Arthur Bliss's new Etude, which was 'given a first performance at a lecture by Mr. Edwin Evans last week.
In connexion withthe Beethoven Centenary, the Columbia Company is issuing all the nine symphonies, twelve quartets, and a number of sonatas and concertos. The H.M.V.tompany has promised the D Major Violin Concerto (Kreisler as soloist), the Choral Symphony (conducted by Albert Coates), the Quartets in E flat, B flat and C, and the Piano Sonata (opus 13), in addition. to the many other works which have already
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