GRAMOPHONE NOTES
OUTSTANDING among the September recordings are two which I strongly recommend to my readers. They are Borodin's fine Symphony No. 2 in B Minor, played by the Halle Orchestra, con- ducted by Constant Lambert (Col. DX8190-3). This glowing vital work is given a performance worthy of its quality under Mr. Lambert, who is one of the best of our conductors. It is a pity we do not have more opportunities of hearing him. The second recording I can warmly recommend is the Czech Folk Songs, sung by the famous Jarmila Novotna, with pianoforte accompaniment by Jan Misaryk (H.M.V. DB6157). It is not often, unfortunately, that one hears real singing—the combination of a fine natural voice, musical intelligence, masterly production and true artistry is hardly ever to be found, but here it is. In addition, the five folk songs recorded are of exceptional musical merit. The only criticism I have to make is that the pianoforte accompaniments are not in keeping with the original airs, but are distracting in harmony, monotonous and arpeggio-ridden. After these it is a considerable drop to the banal Czech Rhapsody by Weinberger, played by the National Symphony Orchestra of America under Hans Kindler (H.M.V. C336o), and to the rather insipid performances of the two Mozart duets from Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute, sung by Gwen Catley and Dennis Noble, with the Halle Orchestra under Warwick Braithwaite (H.M.V. B9338). A more pleasing record is Isobel Baillie's singing of Grieg's "To a Waterlily " and Bralun's "Sister Dear," with Gerald Moore at the pianoforte (Col. DB2120). I can find nothing good to say of John McCormack's recording of two Somervell songs, "White in the Moon the Long Road Lies" and "The Street Sounds to the Soldiers' Tread" (H.M.V. DA1834), but perhaps some of his most ardent admirers may enjoy them.
The Selection from Flotow's opera Martha (H.M.V. C336i) raises hopes as a possible recording of good light music ; but, alas! it proves that Berlioz was only too right when he said after its original production in Paris that it contained only one item of merit, and that was the air ".The Last Rose of Summer," which Flotow " lifted " from the Irish composer Millikin, and sadly mutilated even that is in this recording. Admirers of that fine violinist Yehudi Menuhin will want to get his latest recording, an arrangement of Schubert's Ave Maria and of a theme from Dvorak's "New World" Symphony (H.M.V. DB6I58). Admittedly, violinists have not a superabundance of good music for their instrument, but I personally do not want to hear Schubert's Ave Maria on the violin and still less a theme from Dvorak's symphony. In the old days if a musician took a theme from an opera or any other large-scale work he would use it to write a set of variations of his own on it. Simply to transfer a song or a melody from a symphony to _the violin seems to me a very beggarly procedure for a musician.
W. J. T.
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