WORDS ABOUT SINGING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 726, 12 June 1953, Page 20

WORDS ABOUT SINGING

A Monthly Review ‘by

OWEN

JENSEN

AY T "introduce Anna Rus- * sell, Sings? The "Sings" is not’ Miss Anna’s last mame, but what she does. After hearing her, you are at liberty to describe her art by any other name that comes readily to mind. Miss Russell also gives advice on making the voice a career, which is what it may _ be when it is no longer, as some haye’ pointed out, an art. If you have not yet met Anna Russell, you may find her a.bitiof a handful, or rather, mouthful. Meeting her, however, is an experience such .as no really thorough listener can afford to miss. You may be delighted, shocked, amused or even -but perhaps I should mention that it may be difficult for you to acquire Miss Russell honestly .in» New Zealand. But before you take up your pen-more in sorrow than... ~anger, of course-to protest against this introduction ‘to ‘the unattainable, it should be added that ‘Miss Russell is not the sort of artist. you will want to have about the place all the time: You will understand what I mean if*you listen to 2YC on June 16.. 2YA shortly after and other stations as may be from time to time, occasions

COLL LB LDP LBP PP when Anna Russell Sings? (Columbia ML 4594), What Miss Russell sings, can best be left, I think, for her to tell After a session with the famous Miss Russell, it is appropriate to give advice on songs that are worth acquiring and that may be come by reasonably easily. There. is, for instance, a disc of songs from The Youth’s Magic Horn, by Gustav Mahler-Lorna Sydney, mezzosoprano; Alfred Poell, baritone; the Vienna State Opera Orchestra conducted by Felix Prahaska (Nixa-VLP 412: 1 and 2). Alfred Poell has a voice wel! suited to Mahler’s fruity romanticism and Lorna Sydney is not far behind him. The Vienna State Opera Orchestra play beautifully. Whether you will en: joy this disc-technically and musically it is vety good indeed-will depend on your reaction to Mahler. If he is for you "banal," "morbid" and "sentimental," as some critics have alleged, then there’s no more to be said about it; if, however, you find him "magnificently. convincing," you will not weg to be pressed further, Pam e

Dover Beach, a setting of Matthew Arnold's poem by the contemporary American composer Samuel Barber, is romanticism of a different hue, It is performed by John Langstaffe, baritone, with the Hirsch String Quartet (HMV C4201). This is serenely beautiful music and, not being too contemporary (cf Anna Russell) should have many admirers, Langstaffe is not quite in Alfred Poell’s class, but he obviously knows what he’s about, and sings Barber’s music lovingly. The Hirsch Quartet does all it is asked to do. My pick, however, among the singing is a little dise of 12 short, very short, songs by Darius Milhaud-Soirées de Petrograd. The singer is Jean-Chris-tophe Benoit. He is accompanied by Jacqueline Stip (Ducretet-Thomson-Selmer LP 8439). Again, your enjoyment depends on your affinity with contemporary French music and French singing. (Refer again to Miss Russell.) In this case both are fine, Jean-Chris-tophe Benoit’s voice has a rich texture, and his singing character. On the reverse side is a group of pieces from Milhaud’s music for the film Madame Bovary, play by Maxime Chapiro, Very interesting; and easy enough on the ear. Contemporary Music. To Barber and Milhaud can be added Stravinsky, Prokofieff. and Bloch; and the best of these-is Stravinsky. This is his Concerto for Piano and Wind

Orchestra, with double-basse® and, tyitk pani, performed in Paris in 1924, The pianist is Noel Mewton-Wood and-wind. orchestra and etcs, comprises members. of the Residentie Orchestra under Walter Goehr (Nixa CL.P~1160), The: wind playing comes -off well,-with a velvety richnéss "which can ‘turn biting. when required, Mewton-Wood plays excellently: This is altogether fineStravinsky in benign mood "quite in the style of the’17th Century," as he himself puts. it, "that is, the 17th Century viewed from the standpoint of today." On the reverse side Ricardo Odnoposoff gives a brilliant performance of the first . Prokofieff "Violin Concerto with the Radio ZurichOrchestra,-a work. which has become known. threugh.the Szigeti’s earlier. recording... "NOt. as "ihgratiati perhaps, ‘as/the secorid "Prokofieff Vi Concerto recorded by Heifetz, » but nevertheless exciting music, Then there is Bloch, his Israel] Symphony performed by the Vienna State Opera Orchestra under Fritz Litschauer and soloists of the Akademie Choir (Nixa-VLP 423), with the fervour and fire that Bloch’s music needs. Much Bloch, however, leaves me with similar after-effects to those of an excessive intake of carbo-hydrates, affecting the figure-emotionally. Coda Luis Maravilla, guitar (April Choice) appears on a second disc, guitar only this time (Ducretet-Thomson-Selmer

LPG 8495). It is quite as exciting as the first disc. Offenbach’s Orpheus (February Choice) is joined by the same composer's La Belle Heléne (Nixa PLP 206-1 and 2) with almost as lively results. Robert Speaight has added the reading of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (Argo ARS 1010) to his Waste Land with, to my mind, not such a lively result, Speaight seems to miss some of Eliot’s mysticism and to make what one had imagined as "a deeper communion through the dark cold and empty desolation" into a sort of homespun philosophy. W. W. Rodgers reads a selection of his own poems in a lilting, semi-chanting style that does not woo one much to his muse. Maybe this isn’t poetry that should be read aloud. Maybe it isn’t poetry. For your Curiosity Corner enquire about Vaughan Williams’s Romance for Harmonica, Strings and Piano played by Larry Adler and orchestra and piano conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent (Columbia DX 1861). All these discs, except perhaps Anna Russell, may be obtained in New Zealand. Disc hunting round these parts has something of: the excitement of collecting stamps, fossicking for antiques or looking out the notornis-you have to know where to go for what you want. But there’s fun in the looking and you may meet with other adventures on the way.