A Wandering Minstrel I

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 944, 13 September 1957, Page 24

A Wandering Minstrel I

By

DISCOBOLUS

[FOLK songs and ballads have a vitality all their own; the only time they can be killed is when a hearty male voice choir sings them with treacly harmonies or a dramatic soprano gives an over-accompanied "interpretation." These murders are not committed so often now, for a school of folk singers has arisen with a real feeling for that elusive thing called style. We have had Burl Ives in this country, and now we have in New Zealand William Clauson, who has made one record which is available here, Folk Songs. and Ballads, H.M.V. CLPC Il. He sings to his own guitar 19 songs, some old folk songs, some his own variants on traditional songs, all with a delightful and exhilarating zest. The labelling of the record, however, is most peculiar. Songs from all parts of the world are simply labelled

"Traditional," and a version of the Londonderry Air is called "Irish Love Song, by K. Tynan, arr. Moffat." But whatever they are called Mr Clauson treats each on its own merits, and is always convincing, and sometimes enchanting. Also in New Zealand soon will be the Smetana String Quartet, who issue on Columbia 33CX 1424, two of the greatest of Mozart's quartets, K.421 in D Minor and K.428 in E Fiat. This virile quartet plays from memory, and gives a typically vigorous and masculine interpretation of these two masterpieces. The recording is considerably better than some of the quartet’s earlier discs, in which they were not well served, and makes one eager to hear them in the flesh, Also newly issued is a remarkable record of the Budapest String Quartet playing what they call Encores, on Coronet KLC 581. These are far more than the title would indicate, for two are complete short works, the Schubert Quartettsatz and Wolf's Italian Serenade, while in addition there are seven of the best-loved single movements from famous quaftets. Try this on anyone who thinks he doesn’t like chamber music and you'll have a convert. Woodwind instruments always seem to me at their best when they are combined in small groups with strings, and one of the most delightful of such works is the Schubert Octet, Op. 166, for string quartet, double bass, clarinet, bassoon and horn. This has long been available in a version by the Vienna Octet, but Columbia on 33CX 1423 "have produced a new one by a Russian

group led by the great violinist David Oistrakh. The Octet has six movements, which makes it rather more like a suite, with both a scherzo and a minuet, and an extra andante with variations, but this is surely a case of "heavenl length." The Russian players give tt the spacious tfeatment it deserves. Members of the Vienna Octet themselves have another record out this month, Decca LXT 5293, with Mozart's Quintet for Wind and Piano, K.452, surely the finest work ever written for such a combination, where Mozart took those wind instruments for which he wrote such bucolic outdoor music in the serenades, and used them as subtly as strings, and they are played on this record with as much finesse. Coupled with this is the charming trio for clarinet, viola and piano, K.498, in which Mozart uses with grace and humour the different chatacters of the last two in-struments-in the trio of the Miruet the clarinet speaks with the soothing coolness of its upper register, while the viola replies with gruff bad temper which can hardly be heard without a stile, But all is well in the last movement where they sing together in amity. This is ’a superb recording. Mozart is well served with another recording, this time the Clarinet Concerto played by Bernatd Walton and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Karajan. This work, which Mozart wrote toward the end of his life, was the flowering of the love and understanding of the clarinet which he got from his association with the greet player Anton Stadler, Bernard Walton plays it well, not quite as suavely as Reginald Kell, but I’m afraid I find the latter’s playing a little cloying after a few hearings. This version is noble and incisive. Coupled with it Karajan gives a typically vigorous interpretation of

one of Mozart's last and greatest symmonia is in excellent form. The last, and by no means the least, of this month's tribute to Mozart is a charming record, Salzburg and Mozart, Philips 05906R. With a gloriously rich German accent, Berhard Paumgartner describes Salzburg and Mozart's childheed and life there to the sounds of Salzburg’s bells and fragments of Mozart’s compositions, including the Minuet and Trio, K.1. In spite of there being parts of 24 works played there is no feeling of disunity in this unique record, from the dust cover of which looks the face of the young Mozart in the famous Helbling painting, in seeming satisfaction at the tribute.

Some time ago the Philadelphia Orchestra made a record called First Chair, which was designed to show the capabilities of the different instruments of the orchestra. They have now released on Coronet KLC 562 a very much better recording designed to show the capabilities of the various choirs of the orchestra: Richard Strauss’s Seranade for Wind Instruments, Milhaud’s Concerto for Percussion and Small Orchestra, and so on, The record is a better one in that the music stands on its own feet as it were, the only exception being ther arrangement in which all the violins play Paganini’s Moto Perpetuo, Op, 11, in unison, which is so often heard that it’s now almost having an existence in its own right. The celebrated silken tone of the Philadelphia is there, with the sheen of woodwind

LLL and the solid chords of the brass in an orchestra that prides itself on tone. It’s rather a surprise to find that the work in which they all come together is the Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1-rather an unexpected choice for an American orchestra. Lastly, a welcome for an old friend in a new guise. H.M.V. have begun a series of "Great Recordings of the Century," and the Schnabel recordings of the Beethoven Piano Concertos are now issued, If these were only authoritative they would be worth having, but they are much more than that; the reissue on LP is excellent, and the records stand in their own right as masterly interpretations which would grace anyone’s record library,