GRAMOPHONES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 618, 21 March 1929, Page 14

GRAMOPHONES

POPULAR RIGOLETTO NEW H.M.V. RECORDING LA SCALA ARTISTS PERFORM No opera maintains a greater hold on the musical lovers than Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” It is a tour de force of musical creation. Composed in forty days in 1851, over three-quarters of a century before the footlights, it still retains its vitality.

There are several reasons for the public’s abiding interest in “Rigoletto.” It is based on a most effective play by Victor Hugo, “De Roi S’Amuse,” and the role of the deformed court jester, Rigoletto, the hunchback, not only figures in the opera, but has been vividly characterised by Verdi in his music. It is a vital, centralising force in the opera, concentrating and holding attention. It was in this role that Ruffo made his debut in America.

But the opera offers other parts of distinction. Caruso made his sensational debut iu the character of the volatile Duke of Mantua. As Gilda, the daughter of the jester, Patti, Melba, Tetrazzini and Galli-curci have added lustre to their achievements. However, apart from its dramatic importance and strong characterisation, the opera has other big claims. There is the famous quartet, one of the two greatest concerted numbers in Italian opera, the two tenor arias, “La donna e mobile” and “Questa o quella,” the soprano’s ecstasy of love, “Caro Nome." and the denunciation of the broken-hearted jester, “Cortijioni, vil razza dannata.” As a background to the great arias there are the ensembles of chorus and orchestra and the melody of Verdi is continuous. Thus the feature of this month’s H.M.V. issue must be the complete performance of the opera by soloists, chorus and orchestra of La Scala Opera House, Milan. The recording is magnificent. The soloists are household names in Italy and the chorus and orchestra under the famous Maestro Carlo Sabajino is iu perfect balance and uncannily responsive. The quartet is a memorable performance, and it takes no great stretch of the imagination for one to transport oneself to the auditorium of La Scala itself. The atmosphere is there, so is the artistry, and the general setting completes an extraordinary performance by the soloists, chorus, orchestra and the recorders.

Two Norwegian gems are “March of the Bojaren” (Holvorsen) and “Bridal Procession, Op. 19, No. 2” (Greig) plajmd by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. (Columbia 02622.) Here m indeed fine work by Robert Hood Bowers’s fine orchestra. The first item is magnificent—both the music itself and its presentation. Stirring music indeed, a march that should make our far distant Viking blood’ leap, as the bagpipes stir the Norsemen of the Tweed! Greig’s vernal and poetic gem is finely played. Although an early work, he scored it for orchestra later in life. I’hose who know it only as a pianoforte piece will appreciate the lovely tone-colours introduced by the wood-wind and horns. A record for everybody who likes music of any sort.

The Band of tile Grenadier Guards always seems to hit the note fairly and squarely. There is always an unerring precision in their march pieces, and such is the case in “Semper Fidelis ” a well-known composition bv Sousa, file brass is never too blatant, and one can enjoy the swinging tempo without experiencing that all too frequent sharpness of tone. A descriptor? piece, “The Bells of St. Malo” (Rimmer), is on the reverse side, and a charming number it is. (H.M.V.

“Quartet in F” (Dvorak—Op. 96). played by the London String Quartet (Columbia 04131-33) is a record worth having. Dvorak wrote this delightful piece of music during his brief year or two in the United States toward the close of the last century. He did not actually use negro tunes, but the basic idiom lie employed is the same as that used unconsciously in the plantation melodies reviewed above. Compare these recordings and hear for yourself. This latter work is excellently done.

Two of the most magnificent voices m the world give thrilling expression to two duets from Verdi's “La Forza del Destino” (Force of Destiny”). “Thrilling” is a word that is hard-

worked nowadays, but here it aptly applies. Martinelli (tenor) and de Luca (baritone) are the singers, and the excerpts are from the fourth act, and the scenes portrayed are consecutive. The heroine’s brother (bari-

tone) has £or five

years sought the hero (tenor), and at last discovers him in a monastery. The insults and taunts of cowardice goad the hero into casting aside all religious scruples and consenting to a duel to the death. The accompaniment helps to create the realism, and the whole scene is vivid and intense. (H.M.V., DB1172).

In “Mephistopheles’ Serenade” and “The Calf of Gold” Alexander Kipnis, basso, is really diabolical. (Columbia 03583.) These two popular arias from Gounod's Faust are here presented with a juicy sarcastic inflection of the voice that is not usually present in most records of these popular airs. The cackles of laughter are perhaps a trifle forced, but they are quite Satanic—certainly inhuman (un-human, at least). The “Calf of Gold,” with its whirlwind accompaniment, is also dramatically done. Two popular Rimsky-Korsakov airs, “Song of India” (from “Sadko”) and “Hymn to the Sun” (from “Coq d’Or”) are sung by Maria Kurenko, soprano. (Columbia 03574.) These two excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas are finely sung—and sweetly sung, too, which is rather unusual for a Russian coloratura, even singing in French. Recording is all that could be wished for.

Ignaz Friedman has recorded “Rondp Alla Turca” (Mozart) and “Pastorale” (Scarlatti), .Columbia 03612. “Pastorale,” by Scarlatti, one of the oldest of the mediaeval composers, and a leading exponent of the old Italian classical school, is written in the classic idiom. It is quietly

joyful, jovial composition, suggestive, as its title indicates, of purling streams and gambolling lambs. “Rondo Alla Turca” is from a sonata in A major by Mozart. It moves along briskly in a captivating manner that has enabled it to survive in a popular way the work from which it was taker).

Life in a modern city is presented in “Metropolis,” a “Blue Fantasie” by Grofe and played by Paul Whiteman and his concert orchestra. The musical treatment of Persian and Chinese scenes by Lehmann and others are well-known and very popular. Well, here are all the noises of a metropolis worked into au amazing composition. Many will snort —but none will deny the originality of the music, or the ingenuity of the composer. Whiteman is Whiteman at his best, and he knows what a big city is like just as much as Grofe does. (H.M.V., EB 31 and 32).

“It Was a Lover and His Lass” (Shakespeare and Morley), and “Diaphenia” (Whitaker), sung by John Coates, tenor (Columbia 01323), are very admirable records of the great artistry of John Coates, who has long been famed for the fine qualities of his song interpretations and vocal abilities. In Morley’s “It Was a Lover and His Lass,” one of the greatest songs, he shows most delightful vocalism, wfith very clear and characteristic diction. Whitaker’s “Diaphenia” and Cripp’s “O Mistress Mine” are also most fascinatingly sung. To all lovers of artistic singing, these beautiful songs by John Coates are models of perfection, and will be very highly appreciated.

With the continuous output of beau- J tiful songs by modern English composers, the English tenor has a big field at his command, and none realises its possibilities more than Sydney Coltham. It takes a lyric voice wfith all the resources of light and shade to do justice to such songs as “A Dream” (Bartleet) and “Green Hills o’ Somerset” (Coates). Coltham’s interpretations are full of artistic merit, and he makes one proud of our modern song writers, who write with British sentiment, and to-day take second place to none. (H.M.V., 82783.) “The Man I Love” and “My Melancholy Baby," by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra (Columbia 07503), gives us somethingto think about. Seriousminded musicians should remember that Paul Whiteman is more than a “Jazz King.” He is a musician of undeniable merit, reared iu an atmosphere of music, by musical parents. Paul Whiteman is a modern. He is adding something to the steady advance of music, both as an art and as a science. He is doing for rhythms much the same as Strauss and Schonberg are doing for harmony and tonality. Creating new forms, experimenting, pioneering the unexplored recesses of" tone-combination. The two trifles on disc 07503 are a fair example of Paul Whiteman’s original treatment. The progress of “symphonic jazz” is worth watching—and the man iu the street will certainly find it worth hearing.