GRAMOPHONES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 612, 14 March 1929, Page 14

GRAMOPHONES

Flute virtuosity is represented by John Amadio in two movements from Mozart’s “Flute Concerto.” (H.M.V. C 1535.) Great flautists are rare, and consequently our opportunities of hearing the delightful works which have been written for the flute are few. John Amadio, however, has done us all a good service by making this charming record of movements from a flute concerto by Mozart. It is exceptionally attractive music, bright and gay, with innumerable touches of filigree from the solo instrument that positively warm the heart at their innocent appropriateness.

A fine young singer, Stuart Robertson (bass) is heard in “Silent Noon” (Vaughan Williams) and “Myself When Young” (“In a Persian Garden”) (Lehmann). (H.M.V. 82755.) Stuart Robertson is generally accepted as one of the finest of the younger generation of English singers. He has exceptional musical feeling, and his singing is modified by a strict sense of the artistic. His latest record gives us two very different kinds of songs. Vaughan Williams’s “Silent Noon” is a little moodpainting echoing dreamily the sentiment of the Rosetti poem; the other is an echo of Fitzgerald’s “Rubaiyat." Grand opera duets by Martinelli (tenor) and De Luca (baritone), from “La Forza del Destino” —“Invano, Alvaro,” and “Le Minaccie, i fieri accenti” (Verdi). (H.M.V. D 81172.) In the particular passages which Martinelli and De Luca have sung for this record, the heroine’s brother (the baritone) has discovered the hero (tenor) thoroughly reformed and a monk. But vengeance must have its course, and the hero is taunted into consenting to a duel. With ordinary singers the dramatic force of the duet would still be very strong; with two such superb voices as those of De Luca and of Martinelli. the record achieves a terrific intensity. Sydney Coltman (tenor), in “A Dream” (Bartlett) and “Green Hills o’ Somerset” (E. Coates). (H.M.V. i 82753.) gives us two good songs. Eng- • lish tenors who can put the direct I charm that is sincerity into their sing- , ing are not frequent nowadays, and that is undoubtedly why | Sydney Coltman is so extremely i popular. He sings two little ballads with pleasant style and splendid vocal tone.

Among the odds and ends of recent Zonophone recordings should be mentioned Jimmie Rogers’s items, “Away Out on the Mountain,” and “Never No Mo’ Blues,” with guitar (E.E.109); Bud Bellings’s tenor whimsicality, “I Tore Up Your Picture When You Said Good-bye; but I Put It Together Again,” and the BillingsRobison duet, “Do You Still Remember?” two popular titles capably ren dered (E.E. 115) Esther Coleman's fine contralto disc, “The Dear Homeland,” and “My Ain Folk” (5107); and Albert Richardson's (bass) offerings of old English folk songs. “The Old Sow,” and “Buttercup Joe” (5178).

Light Opera Company, In gems from “Pagliacci” (Leoncavallo), and “Cavalleria Rusticana” (Mascagni). (H.M.V. E 827.) This record represents the first electrical recordings of “Gems” from operas. The singing is in English, and both are among the most popular of operas. Both vocally and instrumentally they are splendid and cannot he anything but huge successes.

German Lieder is given us by Elisabeth Schumann (soprano), in “Serenade” (“Standchen”), Op. 17, No. 2, and “To-morrow” (“Morgen”), Op. 27, No. 4 (sung in German) (Strauss). (H.M.V. DZ1010.) Elisabeth Schumann possesses all the virtues of a great lieder singer. Her record of Richard Strauss’s song, “Morgen” (“To-morrow”) is magnificent, not by reason of any dazzling display of “technical ability” (technique with Frl. Schumann is of secondary importance; it is a means to the end rather than an end in itself), hut by reason of the exquisite intelligence with which the song is sung. “Morgen” is a song often enough sung, but few who sing it make us realise it is a song of rapture; Frl. Schuman performs the miraculous and makes it a song of ecstasy.

The latest Levitzki disc contains "La Campanella” (Paganini-Liszt) and “Stdccato Etude” (Rubinstein). (H.M.V. D 1459.) Mischa Levitzki’s first “His Master's Voice” record was in the nature of a “nine days’ wonder” f.

or it represented a high level of reiroduction of the pianoforte never

previously attained. This high level is maintained in this new record, to the production of a most remarkably brilliant record. The Paganini-Liszt “La Campanella’’ (“The Little Bell”) is a famous piece of prodigious technical difficulty, qualities which are shared by its companion piece, the “Staccato” study by Rubinstein.