GRAMOPHONES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 108, 28 July 1927, Page 12

GRAMOPHONES

Gene Austin’s latest is “To-night You Belong to Me” and “Here I Am.” This is Austin at his best. The numbers are of the lively order, and the orchestral accompaniments are excellent. Two good waltzes are “In a Little Spanish Town” —“There’s a Boatman on the Volga,” walzes by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. (H.M.V.). “In a Little Spanish Town” has had a great run of popularity for its melodic qualities. Gladys Rice sings a vocal refrain in the bracket number. Perhaps the most practical and stimulating words about Beethoven at this moment from the gramophone point of view is the introduction which Sir Walford Davies wrote for the H.M.V. list on Beethoven Centenary records. This is a booklet which every one should procure. “O Terra Addio” (“Aida”: Verdi), sung by Rosa Ponselle, soprano, and Giovanni Martinelli, tenor, for H.M.V., is a glorious record. It sets .the mind so that one feels one could write and sing and be freer for the hearing of it. This fhay seem a doubtful compliment, but it is not. It means that not one note jarred. The effect of the aloof singing of the choir is to give one the impression of being of it and in the performance—but a kind of spectator who has no part to play other than that of looking right. Writing of the new H.M.V. recording of Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony,” by Sir Landon Ronald and the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, a London reviewer says: “Here, indeed, is a truly magnificent set of records, which will challenge comparison with the very best examples of orchestral music. The actual recording, I should say, touches the very apogee of excellence. As to the interpretation of this titanic music, it is masterly—impressively virile, yet always sensitive to every fleeting mood. There are passages out of which Sir Landon Ronald wrings such extra-

ordinary majesty and strength that the music seems to go to one’s head like strong wine, and there are others of more contemplative mood from which he distils the true magic of beauty. The whole reading has that quality of spiritual oneness only to he found when conductor and orchestra are on the most intimate terms of sympathy and understanding. Four records are occupied by the recording of the symphony and with each complete one of the handsome H.M.V. albums is presented.”