Gramophone Notes
I HAVE just returned from an annual pilgrimage through the United States, feeling even more thankful than usual that I am a gramophone enthusiast. It is so pleasant to be able to say to one's American friends : "Still there is one modern invention which we use better than you do, and that is the gramophone ! " For one thing Americans have gone over wholeheartedly to the electrical machines which are both radios and gramophones. We all remember the unpleasant piece of furniture mentioned in the "Deserted Village," which
"Contrived a double debt to pay, A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day."
And we are all sure that the very duplicity of the thing pro- duced a bad chest of drawers and a worse. bed as a necessary result. So it with most of the combined radio-gramophones on the market ; they do not give the best results if real musical values are desired. It is inevitable that the electric pick-up will ultimately drive the ordinary gramophone off the market, but at present only the most expensive of the new contrivances can compete musically with the far cheaper older machine. It is an interesting case of history repeating itself, for the old horn gramophones of 1912 gave better musical results than any hornless model before 1925, but people would not buy them because they did not like the look of the horn and were willing to sacrifice sound to a false idea of what was genteel-looking as furniture. It is worth re- marking in passing that there never has been a real " hornless" gramophone ; all that happened was that the disreputable object was folded and packed away inside a pseudo-Jacobean box out of sight and, unfortunately, somewhat out of hearing in consequence. Those who insist on having a combined electrical affair run the risk of being ten years out of date musically speaking.
- The Americans are likewise less fortunate than we in their records : we have all their best productions, all our own and the pick of the continental ones into the bargain. And in this context I would recommend readers to watch very carefully for Polydor records, a German production to be had now very easily in this country. The statistkally minded will be inte- rested to know that, whereas in 1920 the U.S.A. produced over £880,000 of records and England £680,000, in 1928 the U.S.A.. produced over three million pounds' worth and England well over four million. In short in those eight years England not only increased her output sixfold, but overstepped the U.S.A. very considerably ; a progression rare in the statistics of trade in these days. A large proportion of those records have, of course, little to do with music, but a glance at only the major works which have accumulated during these three months makes one realise the astonishing wealth hidden in current discs for those who are sensible enough to learn what a good gramophone is and how it should be used. The music- lover who is a gramophobe has either only heard bad instru- ments. or is an ass.
Here are some of the chief additions to our library so far in 1930. Of Brahms H.M.V. have given us the Piano-Concerto in B flat. Op. 88, played by Arthur Rubinstein and conducted by Albert Coates, on five records. This is above the average for piano recording and can be recommended without reserve from the technical point of view. So also can Columbia's five records of the Quartet in B flat Op. 67, played by the Lener Quartet, and the single record by Parlophone of the Academic Festival Overture. Readers should be careful to watch Parlo- phone lists, by the way ; their recording is consistently good, and apart from serious music they havea very high standard in lighter matters ; for example, in Tangos, where their Canaro records are the real thing. But to return to 'Brahms, mention must be made of the H.M.V. issue of the Double Concerto.- played by Thibaud and Casals and conducted by Cortot ; this came out in December and is, perhaps, even better worth buying than any of the other Brahma records mentioned above.
H.M.V. have given us all the four Chopin Ballades played by Cortot Here is something sure to delight its own audience, though many will not be reconciled to Cortot's piano even by Cortot Of Cesar Franck there is the Symphony from Columbia and the Violin Sonata from H.M.V. The latter is played by Cortot and Thibaud, and if the recording is not as perfect as
the playing we need not grumble : everyone should get DB 1350, which contains the last movement.
Other chamber music includes a Dohnanyi Quartet from H.M.V.—excellent recording and, of course, excellent music—. and the Mendelrsohn Octet in E flat which will please even those who do not usually care for chamber music and are frightened of "highbrow stuff." Of Tehaikowsky there are the Fourth Symphony from Columbia and the Theme and Variations from Suite in G from H.M.V. The second is on three records and is altogether delightful ; go to your gramo- phone shop, hear it and buy it. The Symphony is more pretentious and therefore, being Tchaikowsky, not So good ; the conductor is Mengelberg.
And so to the moderns : Decca are a bold, courageous com- pany, improving rapidly and likely to join the older companies in importance quite -soon.- It was Decca who prodticed—not too successfully—Delius' Sea Drift ; they have now given us Facade, music by W. Walton, poems by Miss Sitwell, on two records. The music is flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, 'cello and percussion ; the poems are not easy to hear, but if they can be read from the poet's books much fun will be had by all. Decca have also given us Walton's Portsmouth Point, modernity-cum-folk-dance music capable of giving pleasure. Columbia give us Constant Lambert's The Rio Grande, played by the Halle Orchestra and sung by the St. Michael's Singers ; this also is nothing if not jolly. Finally —and most important of all—Mr. Arnold Bax's Tintegcl on three sides and Mediterranean on the fourth come from H.M.V. Of the first the composer says : "The intention is simply to offer a tonal impression of the castle-crowned cliff of Tintagel, and more especially of the long distances of the Atlantic as seen from the cliffs of Cornwall on a sunny but not windless summer day. The literary and traditional associa- tions of the scene also enter -into the scheme." If every reader of the Spectator who owns a gramophone, or has a friend with one, would buy these two records, perhaps H.M.V. would make 1930 a 13ax year in the same way as Columbia made 1929 a Delius year. We ought to have more Bax, and, this is the way to get it. • - JOHN_ ItANGDON-DAVIES.
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