Gramophone Notes
ONE of the least successful sides of gramophone recording has always been the recording of piano solos. Certain vices inherent in the instrument seem to be accentuated in the discs so that it is very rare to find anything which gives real pleasure. At best it seems hard to get a sustained note so that the music seems to be played by a guitar, at worst a ukulele effect is added and the staccato ping of the struck chord dies away gradually losing pitch.
Part of these troubles are due to the gramophone which we put up with in our homes ; their motors are allowed to get dirty and so cease to revolve at uniform speed ; all sorts of resonances which should not exist lurk in untuned sound- boxes or faulty tone arms. Often an improvement may be noticed when vaseline or other grease is applied to all tone arm joints so as to block up holes and make the tube airtight. A great deal more is due, however, to the fact that pianos vary in suitability for recording and that executants them- selves are not always as happy in their methods from the recording point of view as from the concert hall point of view. Cortot, for example, uses a piano which may or may not be perfect in a concert hall, but about its deficiencies when heard on the gramophone there can be no doubt ; and this is a tragedy since not only is Cortot one of the greatest living pianists but we are given more of his renderings than we are of anyone else's. It is probably difficult to persuade a pianist to use a different piano for purposes of recording, but it must be impossible to induce him to be a different pianist himself, and here is a further cause of tragedy from the gramo- phone's point of view. A good example has just arisen in the case of Bach's Preludes and Fugues ; Miss Harriet Cohen has done one set for Columbia and Mr. Howard. Jones has done another ; now in the concert room Miss Cohen, most people would agree, is the more sympathetic interpreter of the two ; but on the gramophone Mr. Howard Jones has been very much more successful.
His four records comprise Nos. 10-17 of Book I. of the " 48 " and I would go so far as to say that they are the best piano records I have ever heard. A very exacting critic hearing them on my E.M.G. Mark X said, " why, that is not a gramophone, it is a piano." I think they are indispensable in any good collection of discs. Columbia would earn our gratitude once more by producing a complete collection of the whole forty-eight played by the same as co-executant.
Strangely enough Cortot has done for H.M.V., in the same month, what is probably his best set of piano records to date. Three discs of Schumann's Etudes Symphmigucs contain on them a wealth of intelligently played music and these, with the Bach already considered, would make an excellent foundation for a library of piano music. It should also contain a set of Schumann's Carney& of which there are three versions from which to choose, and I suggest that a very good exercise for an enthusiast would be to go to Keith Prowse, or Imhoff's, and listen in turn to the Polydor version, Cortot on H.M.V. and the new Godowsky lately given us by Columbia. These three versions will teach a great deal about the varieties of interpretation and, for our purposes more important still, the varieties of recording.
New records contain several sets of outstanding merit and among them one of the best Mozart symphony recordings, Toscanini's orchestra conducting No. 85 in D, known as the Haffner, on five sides. This may be bought fearlessly:without a preliminary hearing. As much almost can be said of the three discs upon which Parlophone give us the 39th Symphony; buy at least No. 11,005 with the last two movements ; it costs only 4s. Gd., which is an added reason for getting. it.
The summer has given us two quite outstanding. quartets. One is H.M.V.'s recording of the Flonzaley Quartet playing Mozart's D minor Quartet. This has also been recorded by the Lener and a most valuable experience can be bad by con- trasting the two recordings. Beethoven can afford to be rugged and most people will quite definitely prefer the new rendering. The Lener for all their perfections seem a little sweet by its side. There are only two discs so that they may be bought even at the high price of 8s. Gd. each. The other recording of quite exceptional merit is the Mozart G major, this time played by the Lener. Only a pedant will deny the beauty of this rendering while the recording maintains a specially high level. Indeed, these two sets deserve to be put in the small class at the very top along with Thibaud, Cortot, and Casals in the Schubert and Haydn trios. Indeed, the outstanding quality of the recordings mentioned in this article are a very satisfactory indication that the big com- panies are still improving their standard.
JOHN LANGDON-DAVIES,
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