Splendid New H.M.V. Recordings

Radio Record, 12 June 1936, Page 57

Splendid New H.M.V. Recordings

Presenting Beethoven and Glazounov, SaintSaens.and Gershwin

(By

BOLTON

WOODS

"THERE is a story of Beethoven’s having once said to Cramer when they had just heard a pianoforte concerto of Mozart’s: "We shall never be able to write anything like that." But his No, 2 Concerto in B Flat Major, Op. 19, for piano and orchestra, is, in many ways, "like that’; it reminds the hearer coustantly of Mozart’s light-hearted charm and delicate grace. In its recorded version. just. issued, Schnabel. with the London Philharmonie Orchestra, under Dr. Malcolm Sargent, gives uS at last the long-awaited completion POAELILILISIIELICItiletiietlissli sili sist siieliiisiisei iii iiitii siti tities

of the recording of all the Beethoven concertos. Written when Beethoven ‘was 24, it marked the composer’s earliest appearance on a Vienna platform as a soloist, when, in 1795, he gave the work its first performance. Schnabel’s version is as delicate and beautiful as everauthoritative,. accurate, and as. . ably played as is humanly possible, this version of the concerto may rank: as a standard for all time. \ As if to emphasise the loss to: music be the recent death of Alexander Glazounoy, the recording of the great Russian’s Concerto in A Minor, Op. 82, for violin and orchestra, by J ascha Heifetz and the London Philharmonic

Orchestra, under John Barbirolli, comes with a pathetic apropriateness. This work was completed at St. Petersburg in 1904, and dedicated to that eminent violinist, Leopold Auer, the teacher of Heifetz, in fact. Who, then, more appropriate to record the bookcoming as it does soon after his recordings of the Mozart and the Vieuxtemps Concertos? Here is colourful music jn very truth-and soloist and orchestra approach their task witb gusto. As a Russian, Heifetz makes this concerto his very own, and the work is perfectly realised at his hands. Of these three marvellous records, the sixth and final side is occupied by Glazounoy’s "Meditation," Op. 32. Perey Grainger’s famous British folk settings, "Molly on the Shore" and "Londonderry Air," will be welcome additions to any library, Dr. Ormandy’s men performing them with remarkable feeling and ingenuity. We have to thank Richard Crean and the London Palladium Orchestra for a bewitching waltz medley, "The Golden Valse." an expert arrangement by Winter. Vocally, records of the utmost interest continue to pour forth in a spate of riches. Beautiful, effective and touching is Elisabeth’s version of "Evening Prayer," "Folk Song," and Sandman’s song from Humperdinck’s "Hansel and Gretel." The nigbtingale effect in the folk song is a feather in the hat of the soloist. Miliza Kor-

jus is in great yoice in Dell Acqua’s "The Swallow" ("La Villanelle’), and Strauss’s: waltz song, "Thousand and One Nights." Welcome additions to recorded songs ‘are Essie Ackland’s "singing of Eric Coates’s "The Fairy Tales of Ireland" and Jensen’s "Gentle Zephyrs," Richard Crooks, tenor, in Haydn Woods’s "Garden of Happiness’ and Day’s "Arise, O Sun," John McCormack in "Shannon River" (Morgan), and "I Met An Angel" (Morgan), and Peter Dawson in "The Air Pilot" (Garratt).