NIGHTS AT THE ROUND TABLE By W. A. CHISLETT

FROM CHINA, HUNGARY, RUMANIA AND U.S.S.R. Passport to China; Authentic Chinese Folk Songs and Dances. Chinese National Song and Dance Ensembles conducted by Chenkheng Yin and Tsu Te Fang. Artia Q ALP112. Gypsy King in Hi-Fi; Authentic Folk Songs and Dances of Hungary. Featuring Sandor Lakatos, Sandor Jaroka, Istvan Lukacs, Jozsef Fatyol, Sari Vorosy and Maria Berei. Artia Q ALP111. Rumanian Folk Songs and Dances. Lautaru Barbu conducted by lone! Budlsteanu and Nicu Stanescu. Artia Q ALP105. The Red Army in Hi-Fi. Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble conducted by Boris Alexandrov. Artie Q ALP101. (All 12 in. 30s. plus Os. Pd. PT.).

The first thing to say about this very interesting group of records is that although they are American "Cultural Exchange" presentations they were recorded in Europe, even that of Chinese music. They are luxuriously packaged in thick cardboard containers which are more like albums than the ordinary sleeves.

"Passport to China" includes a lot of interesting notes about Chinese music in general and instruments in particular but nothing about the six pieces played, which is a pity, for I am no expert on Chinese music. I take this to be modern. Some of it suggests Western influences quite strongly and in places it is markedly akin to much of the popular music of Russia. The most prominent of the instruments are reeds, plucked strings, gongs, drums, cymbals and other members of the percussion family. There are also voices, male and female, solo and in chorus, and here I note particularly that there is rather less of the singing with cramped muscles and strained vocal chords than is the case in the older music of China. This is an interesting, exciting and in places quite fascinating record.

With "Gypsy King in Iii=Fi" we are on more familiar ground, but first of all attention should be called to odd discrepancies between the details of the artists as listed on the front cover and which are given above and those given in more detail inside and on the labels. Tv,.0 singers, Iren Meszaros, soprano, and Janos Csik, a pleasant voiced baritone, are included in both of the latter but not in the former. Mariz Berei is mentioned on the former but not on either of the latter; on the other hand there are in fact soloists who are not mentioned at all in two of the tracks, one of which may be Mario Berei. This is all unnecessarily confusing.

Sandor Lakatos, who plays nightly at Budapest's Astoria Bar, leads his Gypsy Orchestra on the first side and the leader on the reverse is Sandor Jaroka. How much is due to the playing and how much to the recording it is difficult to say, but the former achieves more pleasing and agreeable results as heard through the loudspeakers than the latter. Some top cut is desirable to tame the fierceness of the second side.

Much of this music goes back many years and snatches of melody, if no more, will be familiar to most via Liszt or Brahms. Best known Only One Girl which is charmingly sung by Sari Voros, but even more attractive to me are My Sweetheart mows in a Meadow in which the singer is Janos Csik, and the wild dance Verbunk with Fatyol as clarinet soloist. Fatyol exhibits his virtuosity also in Variations for Chardas, along with Lukacs who performs incredible feats on the cimbalom. All in all then this is much the mixture as before, but not quite, for I have heard many similar selections over the years that did not give the feeling of authenticity l whereas this one most certainly does.

There is a strong family resemblance between "Rumanian Folk Songs and Dances" and the preceding record, as is only to be expected. The gypsy element is well to the fore but there is also a suggestion of the Orient. Most of the ten numbers are orchestral; in only two

A Dance on the first side and Sledge with a Little Bell on the second side-are there solo voices.

The Lautaru Barbu is named after a nineteenth-century soloist whose virtuosity impressed greatly no less an authority than Franz Liszt. A Lautaru is an orchestra, here about fifty strong, based on more or less normal strings, clarinets and trumpets but including as well instruments, primitive and otherwise, which are of native origin and only known locally. The music ranges between the languorous and the wild and exciting, often in the same piece, and most of it is either descriptive of the countryside, as Mountains, Mountains, Beautiful Pine, A Bud, As in a Breeze and Kalushary Nightingale, or concerned with the daily life and activities of the people, as Three Times I hoofed the Horse and Old Cart. Imitative effects, particularly bird calls (often on the fiddle) are greatly used

In the main the melodies are unfamiliar, but now and then one recognises a snatch and recalls perhaps something made familiar by Bart61c. The recording is good, a certain shrillness in places being probably natural and intended, and if this is felt to be overkeen it can easily be corrected by a little top cut.

With "The Red Army in Hi-Fi" we come to what may well prove to be the most universally popular of these four records. The Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble is very well known and highly popular in many countries. Formed on a very small scale in 1928 but soon to expand greatly, it was directed by A. V. Alexandrov until his death in 1946 when his son Boris Akxandrov took over. Here, of course, all the items are vocal, solo or choral, and the accompaniments vary between balalaikas and an orchestra of substantial size.

The first side might well have been chosen for the express purpose of dispelling the notion which is common in the West that the vast bulk of Russian songs are sad and gloomy. The first four are very lively and cheerful, two of themThe Song of the Rookies and Direction Praguebeing marching songs and the other two-When Flowers bloom in May and Harvest Song-tell of the joys of the respective seasons. Then comes The Sun has Set, which depicts a scene by a campfire where migratory workers are resting after their day's labours. Partly hummed and sung very quietly it breathes the spirit of peace. It is treated like a patrol. The last band on the first side contains the folk song Suilk°, said to have been Stalin's favourite song and certainly one of the loveliest songs to come from Georgia.

On the second side I Loved Tou and Annie My Soul are charming love songs, Johnny went to Malacky tells of a lad's adventures on his first trip away from home, Fatherland is an old Cossack folk song in praise of the beauties of the homeland, Winter Evening is a beautiful evocation of the pleasures of the fireside, the very fetching Under the Appletree recounts the scenes of love, sadness, happiness and despair which the old tree has seen in its long life and the lilting Talisman, in triple time, is set in a harem. One of the Sultan's wives has given him an amulet to protect him from the "Evil Eye". Not all the songs are of Russian origin, some come from Hungary or Czechoslovakia. The singing is highly virtuosic in places and very beautiful throughout, and the recording is of excellent quality.