October Records

Some phonograph records are musical events. Each month TIME notes the noteworthy.

Symphonic, etc.

Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor (Enrico Molinari, Mercedes Capsir, Enzo de Muro Lomanto and other artists, with orchestra and chorus from the La Scala Opera, Lorenzo Molajoli conducting; Columbia: 2 volumes, 26 sides). Most popular of all melodious old-time Italian operas, lustily performed by some of Italy's lustiest lilters. Judicious pruning has spared all the best bits. Highlight: Soprano Capsir's "Mad Scene."

Mozart: Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne Festival Opera Company, Fritz Busch conducting; Victor: 3 volumes, 46 sides). Though issued last spring to record-collectors, the Glyndebourne recording of Mozart's greatest opera waited until this month for its official release. Perfect teamwork and exquisitely styled singing by Baritone John Brownlee and Soprano Louise Helletsgruber help to make it the year's most notable record.

Darius Milhaud: Chants Populaires Hebraiques (Martial Singher, baritone, with the composer at the piano; Columbia: 4 sides). Six rather arty little songs by one of the famed "Six" of left-bank Paris.

Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (Vienna Philharmonic, Bruno Walter conducting; Victor: 10 sides) and Symphony No. 4 in E Minor (London Symphony, Felix Weingartner conducting; Columbia: 10 sides). Of the month's two Brahms symphonies, Weingartner's Fourth is fine enough to supersede all previous recordings. Walter's First is a good, conservative, slightly draggy performance.

Moussorgsky-Cailliet: Pictures at an Exhibition (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting; Victor: 8 sides). Ever since titanic, rum-nosed Russian Composer Moussorgsky wrote an innocent little set of piano pieces called Pictures at an Exhibition, other musicians have been busy dressing it up in fancy and irrelevant orchestrations. Most famous of these is the late Maurice Ravel's, to which Orchestrator Lucien Cailliet's adds little. Performance and sound-reproduction are excellent.

Borodin: Dances of the Polovetzki Maidens, from Prince Igor (Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting; Victor: 4 sides). Stokowski at his brilliant best.

Bach: Sonata No. 1 in G Major (Ernst Victor Wolff, harpsichord, and Janos Scholz, viola da gamba; Columbia: 4 sides). Often played on the piano and cello, this sonata has rarely been heard on the instruments for which Bach wrote it. Harpsichordist Wolff and Violinist Scholz are persuasive and authentic.

Beethoven: Abscheulicher, Wo Eilst Du Hin? from Fidelio (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting, with Kirsten Flagstad; Victor). A masterpiece of sound-reproduction. But Wagnerian Soprano Flagstad's Beethoven is less extraordinary than her Wagner.

Popular

The Blues in My Flat (Benny Goodman Quartet; Victor), backed by The Blues in Your Flat, is as full of amusement and surprise as its title.

Viennese Waltzes (by Emmerich Kalman and Franz Lehar; Decca). A heart-touching musical trip back to Europe's 20th Century Golden Age. On five ten-inch records Harry Horlick's orchestra evokes a vanished world of kid gloves, claret cup and candlelight. Some of the numbers--most of which come from Kalman's Sari and Gypsy Princess, Lehar's Eva and Zigeunerliebe--were not previously available on U. S. records.

Texas Shuffle (Count Basic; Decca). An excellent example of Basic's exciting counterpoint background.

I Want a Little Girl (the Kansas City Six; Commodore Music Shop, Manhattan's West 52nd St.). Part of the Basie band, without Pianist Basic, insinuatingly records a slow oldtimer. Notable for Buck Clayton's trumpet, Eddie Durham's electric guitar.

Krum Elbow Blues (Johnny Hodges, Vocalion). The Ellington band, under another name as hot, dedicates one to President Roosevelt's new dusky neighbors.

F. D. R. Jones (Hal Kemp; Victor). Harold Rome's rousing barn dance tune from the new Sing Out The News (see p. 30). Foxtrot-of-the-month.

Chicago Highlife and Just Too Soon (Earl Hines; Hot Record Society, 303 Fifth Ave.). The impeccable fingering of Pianist Hines's earlier period revived to good effect.

Louise, Louise (Bob Crosby; Decca). Blues in cold sorgum tempo, with a fine corn pone vocal by Southerner Eddie Miller.

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