GRAMOPHONES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 310, 22 March 1928, Page 17

GRAMOPHONES

“La Provencale” (Mari-Marias) and “Sleepy Song” (Jean Jean) are two new ’cello solos by W. H. Squire. (Columbia 03514.) The outstanding characteristic of Squire’s ’cello playing is the “singing” quality of tone that he draws from his instrument, and this has the happy knack of recording most admirably and with exceptional richness. One hears it to full advantage in the two light but very pleasing pieces that he has chosen to record for Columbia this month. The two tunes are so simple as to be almost like folksongs. “Sleepy Song,” especially, with its flowing sweetness, and phrased in Squire’s deft and confident manner, is quite irresistible.

Two good songs by Percy Heming (baritone) are “The Devout Lover” (M. V. White) and “Joggin’ Along the Highway” (Samuel). There are very few singers to-day who can compare with Percy Heming, either in singing simple little ballads or in opera. He sings with such fine directness and simplicity that you are immediately won. He has given two very popular little ballads for this record; that by Maud Valerie White is an “old stager,” and dear to an audience possibly numbering millions. Incidentally, the song on the reverse is by Harold Samuel, the famous pianist. H.M.V. 8.2514.

A welcome return is made by Walter Kingsley, baritone, in “Calling Me Back to You” (Seaver), and “Dear Little Irish Mother” (O’Brien): Columbia 0809. Really good baritones are rare enough in all conscience, and many of us noted with regret that the records of Walter Kingsley, one of the first artists who recorded for Columbia in Australia, were becoming few and far between. Now he is back, and the advance in recording shows us very clearly what we have been missing. He displays a fine round voice, and good enunciation in the very attractive “Calling Me Back to You,” while in the emotional and sentimental ballad his rich baritone has the support of a violin and ’cello accompaniment.

Beniamino Gigli (tenor) in “Tosca,” Recondita armonia (Strange Harmony) and “Manon Lescaut,” Donna non vidi mai (Never did I Behold so Fair a Maiden) (11.M.V., DABS 6), provides an excellent record. “Manon Lescaut” is the composer’s earliest opera to remain in our modern repertoire; it ante-dates “La Boheme” by a year or so. The passage recorded here, the outburst of the youthful hero of the Abbe Prevost’s story, at catching his first glimpse of Manon, shows us tha’t Puccini’s melodic style was formed even then', every essential and even several beloved mannerisms being there. Whatever Puccini’s detractors may say, it cannot be denied that he had the rare quality of sincerity; he could mark a passage as “rapturous” in the knowledge that it was rapturous. Gigli’s singing of both arias is superb.

A “Beethoven Centennial” masterpiece is “Trio in B Flat” (Beethoven, op. 97, No. G), by Albert Sammons (violin), W. H. Squire (’cello) and William Murdoch (pianoforte). (Columbia Llßsl-55, five records in album with descriptive notes.) This, the greatest of all pianoforte trios, was written in 1811, eleven years after Beethoven had first felt the bitterness of deafness. Its scherzo is not only one of the favourite movements from Beethoven, but one of the best known and most populair airs in music. The first movement, an allegro moderato, is cheerful and bold, consisting of two tunes quite clear in construction. There follows the famous scherzo, gay and jesting in style, and toward the middle of the movement is a curiously creeping theme, in which each instrument has its turn in sequence. third, “Andante Cantabile,” is a set of variations founded on quite a simple theme of an appealing nature, and the last movement is a Ronda with a Coda that winds up at full speed. One always hesitates to put a first, second or third against living artists, life examination candidates, but it is hardly too much to say that Sammons, Squire and Murdoch are the greatest exponents of their particular instruments in England. Their combination is faultlessly balanced and' at every phase of the playing we are treated to really distinguished tone and phrasing. This is a great recording.