GRAMOPHONE NOTES
THE most attractive of a not very interesting collection is the Busch Quartet's new recording of Brahms' A minor string quartet, beauti- fully played and satisfactorily recorded. Some more Chopin mazurkas by Malcuzynski and two Debussy preludes (General Lavine and La terrasse des Audiences) by Robert Casadesus are unexception- able—both Columbia, like the Brahms—but the really unusual piano record is Arthur Rubinstein's playing of Schumann's Arabesque (H.M.V.), a wonderful' study in Romantic intimacy as well as in the fine gradations of piano tone. Both H.M.V. and Columbia have issued new versions of old idols—Tchaikovsky No. 6 by the Phil- harmonic under Malko and Rachmaninov No. 2 by the Liverpool Philharmonic, Cyril Smith and Sir Malcolm Sargent. An even older idol is the Elijah, which Columbia have recorded in toto to celebrate the Mendelssohn centenary. Spectator readers will not, I suspect, number very many among the thousands win) are supposed to be going to buy this outsize piece of Victorian furniture. But if you do collect the musical equivalent of antimacassars and stuffed birds there is some good singing from the Huddersfield Choral Society and some of the soloists—notably Isobel Baillie.
The Halle Orchestra under Barbirolli have recorded the overture to Hansel and Gretel for H.M.V.—and, presumably, for Christmas— and the Czech Philharmonic under Rafael Kubelik Dvorak's In der Natur overture, the most extraordinary hotchpotch of styles from Mendelssohn to Wagner but pleasant enough as a Christmas present for a .not too critical nephew or niece. Records are a good idea for Christmas presents, of course. My own choice from this month's list would be as follows. For a sophisticated taste, a single record : either Rubinstein's Arabesque or the Vienna Philharmonic's Kaiser- walzer (J. Strauss, Columbia). For the same taste, but more lavish : either the Brahms or Mozart's harp and flute concerto (H.M.V. Sir Thomas Beecham with the Royal Philharmonic, Lili Laskine and Rene Le Roy). Both these consist of three records. For a less advanced (or alternatively extremely sophisticated) taste there are records of Coppilia made by the Covent Garden Orchestra under
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