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Design Review: Volume 3, Issue 4 (January-February 1951)

Gramophone Notes — Some Records of 1950

page 100

Gramophone Notes
Some Records of 1950

The editors have suggested that I might make a list of the most outstanding and musically valuable recordings released for sale in New Zealand during the past year. The task is a fascinating but unenviable one, as fully fifty per cent of the year's many issues have proved to be in the ‘outstanding’ class, and long lists are wearisome.

Omitting mention of any sets previously reviewed in these articles, I therefore submit the following list of records which I believe to be, in each and every case (a) interesting and worthwhile as music, (b) first-class performances, and (c) superlative recordings.

Some may feature comparatively unfamiliar music — but I trust the majority of our readers will be willing to give such music a trial rather than to buy exclusively the better known works of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

(a) Sets

Mozart: Divertimento in D major, K.131. HMV DB 9354–6.

Dvorak: The Golden Spinning Wheel, op. 109. HMV DB 9284–6, both by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Beecham).

Mozart: Concerto in C minor, K.491. Decca AK2075–8, Kathleen Long (piano), Concertgebouw Orchestra (van Beinum).

Brahms: Variations on a theme by Paganini. HMV DB 6909–10. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano).

Bach: Concerto in E Major. HMV DB 9370–2. Gioconda de Vito (violin), London Chamber Orchestra (A. Bernard).

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6 in E Minor. HMV C7755–8. London Symphony Orchestra (Sir Adrian Boult).

Dvorak: Quartet in F major, opus 96. Decca AK 2080–2. The Griller Quartet.

(b) Single Issues

Cherubini: Overture, The Water Carrier, HMV C3865. Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra (Schwarz).

Liszt: Les Funerailles, HMV C3872. Gina Bachauer, piano.

Avison, arr. Warlock: Concerto in E minor, Decca K1177, The Boyd Neel String Orchestra conducted by Boyd Neel.

Mozart: Il Seraglio Recitative and aria, “Ah what grief” (Act 2). Elisabeth Schwarzkopt, soprano, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Krips). Columbia LX 1249.

Mozart: Marriage of Figaro-Porgi amor;

Massenet: Manon — Adieu, notre petite table HMV DB 6994, Victoria de los Angeles, soprano, and Orchestra under Susskind.

Caccini: Amarilli;

Buononcini: Deh piu a me non rascondete Decca K2070 Suzanne Danco, soprano — Phyllis Spurr, pianist.

Dinu Lipatti

The news of the death of this brilliant young Rumanian pianist will come as a shock to gramophone collectors who are seriously interested in pianoforte music. Lipatti was in his early thirties and had become an international figure only since the war; though in pre-war days he was known in France and made one or two records of duet music with Nadia Boulanger. I was privileged to hear him as soloist at one of the memorable concerts given at the re-opening of the Milan Scala Theatre in 1946, when he played a Chopin concerto in faultless style. His Columbia records subsequently released do full justice to his art and it is comforting to know that some are still to be released.

Prominent among Dinu Lipatti's recordings are two concertos — the Grieg and the Schumann, made for Columbia with the Philharmonic Orchestra. It is generally agreed that no finer recording of the Grieg has ever been made (and purchasers of these four records will find the spare side occupied by a magically played Chopin waltz). Concerning the Schumann, however, opinion is far less unanimous, Lipatti has treated the concerto as a virtuoso work — and who can say dogmatically that he is wrong? His full-blooded performance carries everything before it, and Herbert von Karajan's vigorous treatment of the orchestra part does nothing to lessen the excitement. You may not agree with such galvanising of a hallowed classic — but for me there is now no other version.

Heading the small group of solo recordings is a grand performance of Chopin's B minor sonata, opus 58. Here again the playing is quite perfect, the recording excellent. Of the slighter pieces I should recommend Liszt's haunting and passionate Sonetto del Petrarcha, No. 104.

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Two potentially valuable sets just released in England are of Bach's Partita No. 1 in B flat (LX 8744–5) and a complete series of Chopin waltzes (LX 1341–6). There is room on our shelves for both these recordings — may their arrival here not be long delayed. Records already available:

Schumann: Concerto (conductor, von Karajan). Col LX 8624–7.

Grieg: Concerto (conductor, Alceo Galliera). Col LX 8579–82.

(With Chopin's Waltz in A flat, op. 34 No. 1.)

Chopin: Sonata No. 3 in B minor, op. 58. Col LX 8560–2.

Nocturne in D flat, op. 27 No. 2. Col LB 63.

Ravel: Alborada del Gracioso. Col LB 70.

Liszt: Sonetto del Petrarcha, No. 104. Col LB 68.

R. Strauss

‘Der Rosenkavalier’ Act 2, Presentation of the Silver Rose and Finale (3 sides each). Irmgard Seefried (Oktavian), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Sophie), Dagmar Hermann (Annina), Ludwig Weber (Baron Ochs), with the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra cond. Otto Ackerman. Columbia LX8693–5. (24s). ‘The Presentation of the Silver Rose’ is not particularly satisfactory as a self-contained recording. It has two main faults. The first is that at the end of the allotted space–three sides–the music comes to a dead stop with no sense of finality at all: and if we pass straight to side 4 we have arrived at a scene about half an hour further on in the opera. The second fault is a plain matter of casting, which seems to have been dictated by ‘box office’ considerations rather than from a desire for artistic completeness. Schwarzkopf and Seefried were a success in the Hansel and Gretel records — let's use them in the Rosenkavalier Presentation score. The result is some ravishing singing, but from a dramatic point of view the feeling is wholly wrong. Seefried is by no means the first soprano to essay the part of Oktavian, but nothing will convince me that Strauss did not intend the role to be sung by at least a mezzo-soprano. Without the score in front of one, or else a detailed knowledge of the action, it is at times impossible to tell which character is singing, and, although the recording is incomparably better, this version does not displace the singing of soprano Elisabeth Schumann and contralto Marie Olizenska in the old HMV set. But turn to the remaining three sides of the new set and you will find enough satisfaction to warrant purchasing the discs immediately. The amusing scene wherein the Baron Ochs, who has been slightly wounded in a quarrel with Oktavian, is propped up in a chair to recuperate, and is visited by the scheming Annina, is sung and played for all it is worth by Ludwig Weber and Dagmar Hermann. Here again a knowledge of what is going on is essential to complete enjoyment, and I have not the space to elaborate details here (see Ernest Newman's Opera nights for a firstrate account). I attended several Rosenkavalier performances at the Vienna Opera in 1946 in which Ludwig Weber was starred as Ochs, and can assure readers that the whole of his wonderful characterization seems to have been caught on these discs. For fine singing and real ‘atmosphere,’ then, these records are highly recommended, and of course the use of two similar types of voice in the beautiful Presentation scene will very likely disturb some of you less than others.

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