The Week's RECORDS

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 35, 10 February 1939, Unnumbered Page

The Week's RECORDS

. ie ig is indeed rarely that we hear or read the actual views of conductors on_ the value of recorded music, therefore some remarks made by Bruno Walter last year are of great interest to gramophone owners who take their hobby seriously. M. Walter said:-‘‘What would we not give for records of Mozart, Chopin or Beethoven; even of Liszt and Brahms? We listen hungrily to verbal descriptions of their playing, told to us by people who yet know only from hearsay how they played. Recording is a great blessing, and the engineers have as great a responsibility to make it more and more real, as has the gramophone company to see that the recording of works of great musical geniuses is not neglected."’

The gramophone company is doing its part as proved month by month in the record releases, and one of the latest major works to appear is Haydn’s Military Symphony, No. 100, in G Major, played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under Bruno Walter (HMY. D.B. 3421-23). When Haydn went to England his visit was arranged by an indefatigable impresario and _ violinist, named Salomon. For his concerts in London, Haydn composed a set of twelve symphonies. These were all performed for the first time in London, and they have since been known as the "Salomon Symphonies." The one styled "Military" owes its name to the use in the orchestra of a rather larger array of the noisy instruments than was usual in Haydn’s day. The big drum, cymbals, and triangle, are all energetically employed. There are the usual four movements, all perfectly elear and straightforward, which call for no special analysis in this review. Needless to say, this newest and most authoritative recorded version of Haydn’s Military Symphony is unhesitatingly recommended ito gramophiles. Bruno Walter has said that he always tries to approach even the oldest and most hackneyed work as though it were a new composition, and this were the first time he was playing it. In that spirit the Military Symphony was recorded with a result that must be heard to be believed. New ‘Salome’ Records The dreadful story of Salome has attracted artists of almost every order throughout the ages, but none has realised the grim horror of the tragedy with the intensity with which Strauss’s music sets it before us. His one-act music drama was written to a German version of Oscar Wilde’s French play, and appeared in Dresden at the end of 1905. The final scene, except for a muttered exclamation of horror from Herod, and a whispered defence of her daughter by Herodias, is given to Salome herself, And at the very end Herod, revolted by the kiss which she presses on the dead lips of John the Baptist, commands his’ soldiers to "kill that woman,’ and they crush her to death beneath their shields. The Australian soprano, Marjorie Lawrence has recorded ‘some of Salome’s solos on two new records (HMYV. DB 4933-34), The titles are self-explanatory: "Thou Wouldst Not Suffer Me to Kiss Thy Mouth," "Thy Tongue Speaks No More," "Wherefore Didst Thou Not Look," and "I Have Kissed Thy Mouth."