Musical Times: January 1921

The Editor has handed me some interesting correspondence from readers who welcome the prospect of a monthly review of gramophone records. One of the writers touches on a point of importance. He warns me in a friendly way that what gramophone users require is candid information as to what records are satisfactory from a musical point of view. He says

To suggest that a record of a song by Mozart is one of the best records merely because Mozart was one of the greatest composers, seems silly to those of us who have tried the record and disliked extremely the metallic quality of the singer’s voice.

He thinks, too, that it is high time we began to be able to understand why some orchestral records are so very much better than others, even where the same players and recorders are concerned. He ends by supposing that frank discussion on these matters will annoy the makers of records, but imagines (quite rightly) that I shall not trouble about that.'

If the makers of records are as sensible and businesslike as I believe them to be, they will welcome any amount of fair discussion. The gramophone is still a long way short of perfection, good as it is. The maker who gets his best foot foremost towards the ideal is the one that is going to collar the best of the trade. The use of the instrument among musicians and educational workers will develop in proportion to the enterprise and perseverance of the makers. The latter know this quite well. A review that doesn’t frankly distinguish between the good and bad is of no use to the maker in the long run, because it soon ceases to carry weight. Indiscriminate praise is as futile as indiscriminate honours. ‘ When everyone is somebody, then no one is anybody.’

Harpsichord records are handicapped by the fact that the instrument is obsolete, and its music unfamiliar. Nevertheless, there should be many musicians to whom the four records recently issued by H.M.V. will be welcome. They are double-sided, and consist of :

(1.) ‘Nobody’s Gigge’ (Farnaby) and three English folk-dances ; HMV : E 203
(2.) Scarlatti’s Sonatas in D and A ; HMV : E 204
(3.) Couperin’s ‘L’Arlequin’ and ‘Tambourin, a Purcell Gavotte, and a Bach Prelude; HMV : D 490
(4.) A couple of Bach fugues. HMV : D 491

The least interesting is the Scarlatti. The Farnaby and folk-dances are delightfully quaint. The French pieces are old friends, the Purcell Gavotte ought to be, and the Bach Prelude is. fine though unfamiliar. The two fugues are not from the ‘48.’ They are capital specimens, and the one in D has a splendid cadenza. Mrs. Woodhouse is the player. The tone is a kind of compromise, the peculiar stringy rustle of the harpsichord having mostly disappeared, the result being suggestive of a pleasant old pianoforte in in exceptionally good state of preservation. The batch as a whole gives one a great deal of pleasure, the more so as the music is of a type that wears well.

HMV : 2-035500

After these delicate sounds, a couple of pianoforte records by Cortot provide vivid contrast. Liszt’s ‘La Leggierezza’ and Saint-Saens’ ‘Waltz-Study’ are pretty much of a muchness as music, and there is little to choose between the records on the score of effectiveness. If my preference is for the former, it is because of the delicate beauty of some of the scale-passages. The pearly clearness of these just makes the Liszt the better of two excellent records (H.M.V.). HMV : 2-035500 HMV : 2-035501

HMV : C 957 HMV : C 980

Despite occasional want of balance—no doubt inevitable—Elgar’s Sonata for pianoforte and violin, played by Misses Marjorie Hayward and Una Bourne (H.M.V.) is a success. It is in two double-sided records, (1) the first movement and Romance, and (2) the Finale, divided. The gramophone plays strange tricks, some of which are pleasant surprises. I have heard the Sonata performed on several occasions by our best players, but the pizzicato chords in the Romance have never reached my ears so clearly as they do via this record. Another point: I enjoyed the Sonata when hearing it at first hand, but since the gramophone has reproduced it for me not less than a dozen times I like it even better. How far previous knowledge of a work of this kind is necessary in order to get the best out of the gramophone I do not know. Obviously, familiarity with the music enables one to make good certain deficiencies, such as the want of balance mentioned above. No doubt manufacturers will some day be able to ensure that a sonata for violin and pianoforte shall sound less like a violin solo with an occasionally important pianoforte accompaniment. Yet another point : Why should not metronome marks be placed on works of this type, and indeed on practically all records ? The dial on the gramophone could easily bear the figures most used, say, from 50 to 120, graded in fives or tens. HMV : C 957 HMV : C 980

HMV 2-053142

A brilliant vocal record is Galli-Curci’s ‘Una Voce’ from ‘The Barber ’ (H.M.V.). Its opening makes one wonder that strains so threadbare can still have any attractive power, but long before the vocal fireworks are over one has to admit that the magic of the human voice is shown nowhere more convincingly than in this ability to make such worthless material enjoyable. HMV 2-053142

The Flonzaley Quartet’s playing of Grainger’s ‘Molly on the Shore’ has been recorded by H.M.V. with only fair results. A good deal of the jolly effect of the music comes through, but the lower strings are frequently vague and lacking in tone. This is a case where one may say that one enjoys the music in spite of the record. HMV : 03076

Edward German’s ‘Gipsy Suite’ (H.M.V.) is a good orchestral reproduction. I have heard only two of the four movements—the Menuetto and Tarantella, on a double-sided. A surprisingly large proportion of instrumental details emerge, especially from the clarinet and flute, a rapid chromatic gurgle by the latter being a specially enjoyable feature. The Tarantella is the better movement of the two— German at his effervescingest. HMV : D 473

The Æolian Company has sent a batch of new records from which I choose four for mention this month. Rosing’s ‘ Vesti la Gubbia’ (AEolian-Vocalian) is quite startling in its power and intensity of expression. It is more moving than I should have imagined any kind of mechanical reproduction could ever be. I forget for the moment whether Rosing can sing in English. If he can, the Æ-V. should record this performance in the vulgar tongue, for the benefit of the many who have not heard ‘ Pagliacci,’ or who do not know Italian. Aeolian Vocalion : A-0101; Aeolian Vocalion : A-0205

The record of the London String Quartet’s playing of Mozart’s Quartet in D is especially satisfactory in that it gives us the musical texture with unusual clearness. The violoncello part is much more distinct as a whole than that in the Flonzaley record mentioned above. Is this because the music in the Mozart is lyrical rather than bustling? Evidently certain types of rapid bass parts do not record well. Is it a matter of pitch, pace, or tone, or a bit of all three? This Mozart record would have been better if the players had not overdone their pp. Still, even the softest passages are distinct. The four movements are on two records. I have heard only the third and fourth—Menuetto and Finale Allegretto. These should meet the needs of the correspondent quoted above, as they give us the best music well reproduced.

Apparently the violoncello suffers only in ensemble playing. Here is a record of Saint-Saens’ Le Cygne,’ played by Felix Salmond, in which the tone of the instrument is very full and characteristic. On the other side of the disc is a no less faithful reproduction of Popper’s Gavotte No. 2—a piece of music so poor that one reverses a remark used above, and decides that one enjoys the record in spite of the music.

For a final item I choose a record that should be popular at festive gatherings when something jolly is required. ‘The Guards’ Patrol,’ played by the band of H.M. Life Guards, is a capital medley of well-known tunes joined in rough-and-ready counterpoint. Those who still have any use for the somewhat faded glories of the Overture to ‘ Raymond ’ will find them well treated on the other side.