MUSIC IN THE HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1926, Page 20

MUSIC IN THE HOME.

GRAMOPHONE NOTES. WONDERFUL ORGAN RECORDS. The organ is one of the most impressive of all instruments, and up to recently one of the most elusive of all to record satisfactorily. Perfect balance of tone values, from tlie lowest and most sonorous notes to the highest harmonics, has not been secured hitherto, urn! anything like full volume has refused to reproduce with that fidelity and clean cut definition necessary to success. Many difficulties, however, have been overcome under the new recording methods, and J. J. McClellan's playing of the Overture from “Tannhanser,” and Sextette from "Lucia” for Columbia, 2232, has a grandeur and life-like faithfulness of volume and tone that can only be termed wonderful. The organ, however, is not confined to classical music, for a very fine musician in Howard Peterson has recently played a quartette of the biggest light music “hits” of the day. There is impressiveness, dignity and. happy abandon, combined in those two Columbia records giving “Just a Cottage Small” and “Too Many Parties” (0502) end “Oh, How I Miss You To-night,” with “Always” on the reverse (0509). To hear these popular cabaret numbers in their organ version is indeed a happy augury of still greater recording of this class to come. LATEST DANCE SUCCESSES. Dances that are literally all the rage in the cabarets and dance halls of a dozen countries automatically find expression in disc form before there is the faintest indication of decline in popularity. The Columbia people are never behindhand in catering to their legions of record buyers in this matter, and from a select list of recent productions one may pick on any of the following with the assurance that there will be nothing lacking in a musical, a playing', or a technical sense. The Gilt Edge Four have their name to “Honey Bunch” and “Tentin’ Down in Tennessee.” The Ipana Troubadours, with lively vocal chorus, play “I Found a Roundabout Way to Heaven” and “At Peace with the World.” Paul Specht’s Original Georgians, also with vocal chorus, give us “Horace” and “Spring is Hero” (fox-trot). The Denza Dance Band issues include “Melodic du Rovo” and “Julian” (tangos), while the Clicquot Club Eskimos incline to the sentimental typo of music with “Lonesome and Sorry” and “Somebody’s Lonely” (foxtrots).

SONG SUCCESSES, CONCENTRATED. Those who make a point of securing records of the accepted song-hits of the day should jot down number 9112. This is a Columbia record, coming, which gives a number of some of the biggest song successes of the year in one. “Popular Songs,” in two parts, includes “Always,” “I’m Sitting on Top of the World,” “Moonlight and Roses,” and “Then I'll be Happy”—all on part one. Reversed, there are “Picador,” “Goodnight,” “Speak,” and “Headin’ for Louisville.” These tuneful numbers have orchestral accompaniments, and are sung by the Columbia Vocal Gem Company, making a record of its welcome kind that is of unusual interest and value.

RUSSIAN FOLK MUSIC. In the “Volga Boat Song,” and “Shining Moon,” the Balalaika Orchestra gives us Russian folk music in characteristic orchestration “The Song of the Volga Boatmen” immortalised by the great Chaliapin, coupled with a little Russian folk song. The reproduction is truly wonderful —mandolin-like instruments played in a dashing, spirited manner by the famous zKirilloff’s Balalaika Orchestra. A WHISPERING BARITONE. Jack Smith is a “whispering baritone.” He is also “American,” as you will note from his diction. In his latest disc, “Poor Papa” has the sympathy even of his children, who see him, as the head of his family, consumed like some of the insects in Fabre’s entomological researches. “Don’t be a fool” is a ditty of the pre-divorce period in marital life. Both songs are superbly enunciated; in the former one, a true whisper is recorded with case. Both have catchy melodies, sung to the accompaniment of the piano, and both are faithful to life. A GREAT RECORDING PIANIST. One welcomes with sincere pleasure the re-appearance of that splendid recording pianist, Arthur de Greef, on the record lists. In the latest H.M.V. budget he gives ,us Liszt's famous “Hungarian Rhapsodic No. 12.” Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies are amongst the most popular of the great pianist’s compositions, and of these by far the best known are the Second and Twelfth Rhapsodies. De Greef has given us an astonishing record of the Twelfth; the wild, almost -barbaric, gipsy tunes of the. Magyars have afforded Liszt excellent material upon which to base a glit-■ tering structure.

THE KING OF INSTRUMENTS. Handel’s “Largo” and Sullivan’s “Lost Chord,” played on the grand organ respectively by C, Whitaker Wilson and Gatty Sellers, have an excellent loiret. The organ has been called the “King of Instruments,” and no one after hearing this wonderful record would say that the appellation was not just. There is a grandeur and a majesty about its rich tones, which, together with its limitless possibilities of stop combinations, make it stand head and shoulders above all other instruments. The two pieces which have been recorded here are famous tunes known almost wherever European music is known, and they are invested with a new attraction by the instrument upon which they are played.