RECORDS Who's who and What's what

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 51, 30 June 1933, Page 10

RECORDS Who's who and What's what

(By

Bolton

Woods

‘PAIS department is at the disposal of all readers who wish for information about records, works recorded or recording artists. No charge is made. Communications must be ad-dressed-Bolton Woods, c/o "N.Z. Radio Record," P.O. Box 10382, Wellington. "NAPIER."-The record you refer to is: "The Loxley" (Silcher), sung by the Berlin Union of ‘Teachers (Parlophone A5009). On ‘the reverse side is "The Heavens Are Telling"? (Creation’s Hymn), by Beethoven. MISS NELLIE COOKE (Glen Massey): The English words of "The Song is Done," from "The Song is’ Ended," sung in .German by Richard Tauber on Parlophone Record No. AR142, ave, unfortunately, not available, but Marie Burke sings this number on Columbia Record No. DO474. THOMAS SIMON (Timaru): The only baritone recording of Allitsen’s "The Lord is My Light’? that I can trace is Reginald Whitehead’s on Parlophone No. E10564,

Denza’s 600 Songs. "THOUGH all Denza’s other music should one day be forgotten he will probably be remembered as long as songs are sung by his merry "Funiculi, Funicula." It has passed so completely into the realm of popular things that the great Richard Strauss imagined it to be a real folk song, and as such, made use of it in his Suite for Orchestra, "From Italy." Denza, like his Italian compatriots ‘Tosti and Arditti, found fame and fortune in London, being one of the

Directors of the London Academy of Music and a professor at the Royal Academy of Musie for many years. He wrote over 600 songs, two of his best ones being "Had You But Known" and "A May Morning." Elsie Suddaby, the famous Yorkshire soprano, will be heard in the last-named from 1YA on Saturday, July 8, at 9.34 p.m.

Stravinsky. WO examples of the simpler type of Stravinsky’s music have been recorded by the Concert Colonne Orchestra, Paris, on a magnificent Parlophone record (AR 1059). These are "Fireworks" ‘and "Polka and Galop," wo Gr-

chestral works that attracted the attention of the genius of the Russian ballet, Serge Dioghilev, with the result that a commission was given to Igor

works such as "Symphony of the Psa*ns" produced in 1913. Intended for Law. QRIGINALLY intended for the law, Stravinsky, who is just past 50, found musie to be his true forte. Pursuing new forms he first outrages but finally wins his public. His adherents now number many thousands the wide world over. He was a pupil of RimskyKorsakoff, who, when he was 20, he first met whilst travelling in Germany. The relationship between him and his teacher’s family was happy. Some of the piano music is dedicated to the sons of Rimsky-Korsakoff, whilst the now popular "Wireworks" was written to celebrate the marriage of the daughter of the Russian master. Drinkwater’s ‘‘ Discovery." WHEN John Drinkwater was a boy of 16 he was a clerk in an insurance office at Nottingham -§ earning eight shillings a week. He stuck it for ten years, threw up his job, and then eked out a living with journalism and advertisement canvassing. But his mind was really in the theatre anc writing plays. The amateur theatre really induced him to take this step, and as he had become a member of Barry Jackson’s amateur company in Birmingham he soon became absorbed in the stage and all its works. His transition from hunting for insurance business to the more

precarious . hunt for a definite living as an actor is admirably told in the second volume of the autobiography ‘" Discoyery," in which he says: "The merest shade more. 0% prudence, th! } merest shade less of self-confidence, and I might have stayed where I was for ever, or until I retired at 60 with a pebsion."

Narrow Escape. "TINO have missed my chance,’ he continues. "would have beeu to miss my life." He writes this ai the end of the volume. Like the artist that he is, Drinkwater describes how he escaped from a life that gave him no chance to de-

BEST-SELLING RECORDS OF THE WEEK

"Rose of Tralee’ and "Ireland, Mother Ireland,’ John McCormack (H.M.V. DAI1119). "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life," and "Song of Songs." Richard Crooks (H.M.V. DA999). "She Shall Have Music’ and "Hungarian Song."’ Jack Bund and Bravour Dance Band (Parlophone A3549). "Red is Your Mouth," and ‘There Was a Love Dream." Richard Tauber (Parlophone AR186). ‘tf Hear You Calling Me’ and "Mother Machree."" John McCormack (H.M.V. DA958). "Shuffle Up to Buffalo," and "Young and Healthy," from "42nd Street." George Sorbie (Parlophone A3609). "Hand in Hand’ and ‘An der Volga." Richard Tauber. (Parlophone AR1049). "You Will Remember Vienna,"’ and . "I Bring a Love Song." Richard Crooks (H.M.V. DA1174). "The Hollywood Party.’"’ Florence

Desmond (H.M.V. B4264). "When I’m Looking at You" and ‘White Dove." Lawrence Tibbett (H.M.V. DA1102). "Because" and "Bird Songs at Eventide’ (in English). Richard Tauber (Parlophone AR200). "Y odelling Ploughboy" and "Yodelling Coon.’’ Ned Tucker (Parlophone A3438). "After To-night We Say Good-bye" and ‘You're More Than All the World to Me." Gracie Fields (H.M.V. EA1161). "Pu-leeze, Mister Hemingway" and "Heaven Wiil Protect an Honest Girl." Gracie Fields (H.M.V. B4366). "Lily of Laguna" and "Look for the Silver Lining.’’ Leslie Harvey (Parlophone A2555). "Floral Dance" and "Lute Player." Peter Dawson (H.M.V. C1313). "Tt Isn’t Love" and "Truly Rural.’ Ronald Frankau (Parlophone A3559).

velop the things of the mind, though it gave him material security. Undeniably a poet of front rank among the moderns, Drinkwater’s stage experience taught him how to read his own lines in such a way that listeners get the utmost enjoyment from hearing them. On a Columbia record (D40140) he reads four, viz, "Mystery," " Vagabond," "Moonlit Apples" and " Birthright." 4YA listeners will hear this admirable effort on Monday, July 3. Newspaper Advertisement IN May, 1808, when Schubert was little more than eleven, his eyes (and those of his father) were caught by a newspaper advertisement which announced two vacancies in the Royal Court Chapel Choir. How Schubert applied, and, after appearing before the examiners, was admitted to the choir, and thereby secured not only a& musical but also a good secondary education, ig now a matter of history. His beautiful soprano voice and wontderful musical knowledge gave him a lead over all other applicants. So Schubert donned the gold-laced uniform of Vienna’s Imperial Choirboys and during his membership sang solos, and, in his unique way, conducted the school orchestra. To this day the choir still functions and, what is more to the point to New Zealanders, its efforts’ may be heard on the gramophone. "Solveig’s Song" (Parlophone Record AR1038) is a case in point. This will be heard at 9.10 p.m. on Monday, July 3, from 2YA during an attractive "Grieg Hour," and listeners will be enchanted with the singing of the boys of the Hofburg Chapel choir, Vienna. Romantic Wallace. BERLIOZ wrote a whole chapter about Vincent Wallace, the composer of "Maritana," in his book "BHvenings in the Orchestra." He appears once to havé met Wallace, who amused him very much. "He is a firstclass eccentric, as phlegmatic in appearance as certain Englishmen, but in reality as rash as any American. We have spent together, in London, many half-nights over a bowl of punch, he narrating bis strange adventures, I listening eagerly to them. He has carried off women, he has fought several duels that turned out badly for his adversaries, and he was a gavage-yes, a savage, or pretty nearly one for six months," Two Good Liars. "THERE follows (in what are supposed to be the words of Wallace, but one suspects them to be far more the words of Berlioz, and that both are lying), the most amazing account of an adventure in New Zealand (concerning an alleged punitive expedition sent from Australia) that has been written about musicians. Berlioz concludes the chapter with naive impudence. "Good morning, my dear Wallace; do you think I have committed a breach of trust in publishing your Odyssey? I warrant you do not." Doubtless, Berlioz would have ‘said: also what he thought of Wallace’s opera "‘Maritana," but apparently he never heard it, taking it altogether on trust. On Nov. 15, 1845, at Drury Lane Theatre, Wallace conducted the first performance of what to this day remains one of the most popular native-born operas England listens to,

The Light Opera Company will be heard in Vocal Gems from Maritana (H.M.Y. ©1698) from 8YA on Tuesday, July 4 The Modest Viola. HEN comparing the violin with the viola, we cannot but be struck by the unassertiveness of the latter. It is not often one meets a viola player who adopts the career of a virtuoso, perhaps because with one or two exceptions there are no orchestral works of first-rate importance in which the

central role is assigned to that instrument. Indifferently described as the alto or tenor yoice in the orchestra, the viola is of all instruments the one most readily mistaken for a human voice. Its tone, which sometimes contains a comical suggestion of a boy’s voice in mutation, is lacking in incisiveness and brilliancy, but for this it compensates by a. wonderful richness and filling quality, and a pathetic and inimitable mournfulness in music. Christopher Robin. A LONDON paragrapher recently . motored down through delectable Surrey one Sunday morning to attend service in the beautiful chapel of Boxgrove School, near Guildford. ‘The service was without a sermon and exquisite in #he quality of music. "Who is that," the journalist whispered, "who is leading the choir?" "That is Christopher Robin, A, A. Milne’s son," came the answer that thrilled even a newspaper man’s bosom. Later in the service Christopher Robin sang a solo. These boys’ voices, they beat all the. trebles in the world, as Mr. Baldwin once said. Becoming interested in the A. A, Milne songs, I looked up ‘the H.M.V. (Bnglish) catalogue and made a momentous discovery.

Christopher Recorded. [tz was the fact that Christopher Robin himself has made two records. He does three little ditties from "Now We Are Six," of which the music is by H. Fraser-Simson. They are "Down by the Pond," "The Engineer" and "The Friend" (H.M.V. B2980). On the reverse side of this record he does "When We Were Very Young" and "Us Two," the music of which is by the same composer. What a pity they are not in the possession of every family of youngsters, The next best thing is to broadcast them in the Children’s Hour. "The Hums of Pooh" and the "When We Were Very Young" series, by the excellent George Baker, and Mimi Crawford’s "Now We Are Six‘ make up three wonderful sets of discs. Children of all ages never tire of hearing A. A. Milne’s whimsical poems aud songs. A Musical Missionary N the Bnglish "H.M.V." record catalogues oceuts the name of that rematkable otganist, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, whose two disus, "Prelude and Fugue in EB minor’ (Bach), abd the Choral Preludes, "My Heart is Longing" and "When in Deepest Need" (Bach), must surely be unique. In the words of one writer they are the work of a man who has become traditional whilst yet alive. Starting life as an organist, and becoming a leading organplayer of France (Schweitzer is a native of Alsacge), he started also as a theologian and as a student for practical missionary work. At 80 he went to Upper Congo, as a medical missionary, and there he wrote his bodk, "J. S. Bach-The Musician-Poet" (translated since into English by Ernest Newman), the work being based on the pictorial realism of Bach’s music. Gospel of Hard Work. TNLIKHB the missionary of the imaginations of so many arm-chair critics, Dr. Schweitzer believes firstly in the gospel of hard work. In 1918, after eight years in Africa, he returned to Burope to lecture on theology at Strassbourg, and in 1918 he went back to his missionary post. For some years he has visited Europe periodically to raise funds for his medical mission by giving organ recitals which, needless to add, are better attended than those recently suspended in Wellington. In his newly-published biography he says in the Bach chapter, "All utterances about art are a kind of speaking in parables." It ig no small privilege to hear the work of this remarkable man through his organ records.