GRAMOPHONES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 156, 22 September 1927, Page 16

GRAMOPHONES

“Poet and Peasant” overture, Parts 1 and 2 (Suppe). Coldstream Guards. (H.M.V.) is an old favourite. Who does not know the ‘ Poet and Peasant” overture? Few indeed, and we suspect that, even those who may claim they do not, are familiar with the music and the title, but cannot associate them together. The Coldstream Guards play with superb vigour, and the reproduction is positively thrilling in its volume.

Gramophone recitals have become established features in the Claines Parish Church, Worcestershire, writes the

“Musical Times.” The programmes of the most recent have included records of Elgar’s second Symphony and A minor “Pomp and Circumstance” march, Strauss’s “Death and Transfiguration,” Schubert’s Trio in B flat, organ solos, and extracts from the B minor Mass. This strikes us as being an excellent feature and well worth noting by those who wish to help forward the cause of good music.

A clever banjoist, Fred Van Eps, has rendered “Persiflage” and “The Coconut Dance” for Columbia. Fred Van Eps plays these two tuney little things with extraordinary dexterity and skill. He gives his banjo a mellowness rather unusual after the usual twangy tone of this friendly instrument.

St. Margaret’s Chimes, Westminster, and “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”— Impressions of London (Westminster) —Actual recording of Big Ben and traffic noises—St. Margaret’s Chimes and “The Old 100th” (Stanley Roper, on the organ). H.M.V. 82398. This unique record, which is of an entirely new and original character, illustrates some of the wonders of which the “His Master’s Voice” new electrical recording is capable. On the first side we hear “Big Ben,” the famous clock of the Houses of Parliament, strike the hour, and then successively (to that faint accompaniment of traffic noise with which every Londoner is so familiar and without which he would feel “lost”) the beautiful tones of the chimes of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, and of its organ.

An excellent recording of the “Flower Song” from “Carmen,” and “E Lucevan le Stello” (“Tosca”) has been made for Columbia by Ulysses Lappas. The siinging of both these popular extracts from grand opera is very fine. The full, round tone of the Greek tenor, who made his English debut in 1919, never came out so clearly and strongly, so reminiscent of the Caruso richness, before. His B flat is not phenomenal, but up to A natural he has a splendid scale, and his breath-control is phenomenal. The recording of both airs is exceptional. I hope we shall hear more from Lappas as time goes on, for he reveals great promise.

Fine organ music is provided in the “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” Parts 1 and 2 (Bach), by G. D. Cunningham (organist) on the organ of the Kings - way Hall, London. (H.M.V. C. 1291.) The wonderful “His Master’s Voice” records on the organ have, in addition to opening up an entirely new field in recording, effectively demonstrated the amazing powers of the new electrical recording. This superb record introduced the name of yet another famous organist to our lists, that of G. D. Cunningham, organist of the City of Birmingham. He has played for his first record one of the greatest pieces of organ music in existence, Bach’s great “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” a grandiose and impressive work cast in a mighty mould. The “Fugue” begins about two-thirds of the way through the first side.

“Father O’Flynn” and “Off to Philadelphia” have been sung by Thorpe Bates, baritone, for Columbia. His pleasing, manly voice is particularly well suited to these popular ballads, and he tackles them with a boldness and vigour that could well stand as an object lesson to some of his rivals.

A splendid choral recording has been achieved with the “Church Scene from Act 1 of “Die Meistersinger,” and “Wake Up, the Day is Approaching,” from the same opera (Wagner), as performed by the chorus and orchestra of the State Opera House in Berlin under Dr. Leo Blech. (H.M.V. D 1211). Of these two choral extracts from Wagner’s “Mastersingers” the first, “The Chorale,” is heard as the curtain rises on the first scene, the interior of a church. It is sung by the congregation while Eva and the young knight, Walther von Stolzing, catch each other’s eye (this is described in the short orchestral interludes). The second, the “Wach auf” chorus, comes from the second scene of the last act. The crowd has assembled to do the Mastersingers honour and Hans Sachs is greeted by this wonderful outburst —a worthy tribute, as it is one of his own compositions. Wagner is said to have based his chorus on a tune traditionally said to have been wriUsn by the “real” Hans Sachs in the fifteenth century.

I’he “Peer Gynt Suite” (Greig) as played by the Royal Opera Orchestra, Covent Garden, under Eugene Goossens (H.M.V., C. 1298) is a very welcome record.

Greig arranged two suites from the incidental music he wrote for the production of Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt,” and in this country, at least, the music is far better kno\yn than the play. Of the two suites, the first (that recorded here) is by far the more popular. The four movements do nqA by any means occur in the same order as they do in the play, and it may be interesting to give here a rough indication of the scenes they accompany. No. 4: In the Hall of the Mountain Kings. Peer has been led to the Hali of the King of the Trolls; he is to marry the Troll King’s daughter. The music conveys the grisly, unreal atmospheres of the Troll’s Court. No. 2: Death of Ase. Peer has come home; he finds his mother dying. He sits by her bedside as she lies in her death agonies and tries to divert her attention by fantastic word pictures. He turns to find her dead. No. 1: Morning. Peer has wandered to Morocco. He awakes one morning in a grove of palms. He finds a horse in the desert, and mounting it, rides into a Bedouin encampment. The atmosphere of awakening life at dawn, with its cool, clear light is admirably suggested by the simple principal melody upon which the movement is based. No. 3: Anitra’s Dance. One of the Bedouin girls, Anitra,' dances before Peer. She bewitches the amorous youth, and they run away together. A wild rhythmic dance.

Two new organ numbers, “Cherie I Love You,” and “Ting-a-Ling,” have been played on the Wurlitzer organ by Jesse Crawford. (H.M.V., E.A. 120). The Wurlitzer organ, with its wonderful resources for effective description in varieties of tone colour, seems to be adapted for all sorts of music, apart from the literature of the legitimate instrument. As an example, we have here a transcription of two popular ditties, played by the well-known kinema organist, Jesse Crawford. These &re quite good.