Gramophone Notes
Tan great success of the Valkyrie records (His Master's Voice) has been well deserved. Doubtless those who own the larger types of gramophone will hear this performance to the best advantage, and the same applies to the Columbia recording of Sir Thomas Beecham's much discussed perform- ance of Messiah. Such examples as these make it clear that the gramophone companies are thinking more and more in terms of big feats and big business, and the gramo- phone enthusiast who wishes to keep abreast of the times must accept these big feats in the spirit- which produces them. Those who prefer smaller feats and smaller business must pass over the Valkyrie and Messiah. They will miss some admirable singing by Florence Austral, Schorr, Walter Widdop and Harold Williams, but their more fastidious tastes will probably be better satisfied by Tauber's beautiful singing of Schubert's Winterreise (Parlophone, six 10-in. records, 4s. 6d. each), or again by Paul Robeson's Negro Spirituals (H.M.V.), or by Elizabeth Rethberg's singing of Elizabeth's Prayer and Elsa's Dream. This latter (Brunswick, 8s.) is one of the very finest vocal records I have heard for many months. The phrasing is exemplary, each period growing from the last simply, naturally, and, as it were, inevitably. There is no searching after effect and yet the significance of the music in relation to the text is conveyed clearly and pointedly. For the same company, Alfred Piccaver sings the Sicilians from Cavalleria Rusticana and Questa o quella (5s. (id.). Both these renderings suggest " opera in modern dress." The delivery is so free and easy as to be almost casual. Turiddu might be singing in his bath.
. The records of the Two Black Crows (Columbia) have won deserved renown. Naturally we hear from various quarters that each successive instalment is less good than its pre- decessor, but .I consider that nothing in the whole set is better than the `! reciprocity " story recorded in Part 5.
7ASIL MAINE.
Previous page
