A.0226 (12in., 5s. Crimi (tenor) : 0 mio piccolo Tavola from Zaza (Leoncavallo) and Spirito gentil from La Favorita (Donizetti).

A.0225 (12in., 5s. 6d.)— -Vladimir Hosing (tenor) : Lord Rendal (arr. C. J. Sharp) and Over here (arr. C. Wood).

K.05143 (12in., Is. 6c1.).—Eric Marshall (baritone) : Sei vendicata assai from Dinorah (Meyerbeer) and 0 Lisbona from Don Sebastian° (Donizetti).

X.9512 (10in., 3s.).-----Malcolm McEachern (bass) Spanish awake, beloved (Howard Fisher) and The Witch of Bowden (Breville Smith). X.0513 (10in., 3s.).—Roy Henderson (baritone) : na beloved (Cowen) and To the Forest (Tchaikovsky).

X.9526 (10in., 3s.).--Constance Willis (contralto) : Ritouruelle (Chaminade) and The Sandman (Brahms).

X.9524 (10in., 3s.).--Band of H.M. Life Guards : Humoreske, Op. 101 (Dvorak, arr. Retford), Nos. 1, 3, and 3.

X.9525 (10in., 3s.).-----Jelly D'Aranyi (violin) : Allegro from Sonata in D major (Padre Martini, arr. Endicott) and Scherzando, Op. 6, No. 2 (Marsick). .Piano nee., Ethel Hobday.

K.05144 (12in., 4s. 6(1.).----Lionel Tertis (viola) : Elegie (Faure), with piano ace., Ethel Hobilay, and The Holy Boy (John 1 re I a rtcl). -Unaccompanied.

K.05146 (12in., 4s. 6d.).—York Bowen (piano) : Jardins sous la Pluie (Debussy) and Arabesque (York Bowen).

X.951.4 (10in., 3s.).- -The Aeolian Quintet : Berceuse, Op. 38, No. 1 (Crieg) and An den Friihling, Op. 43, No. 9 (Crieg).

X. 9515, 9516 (li lin, :is. each). -The Aeolian Orchestra,' conducted by Stanley Chapple : Three English Dances (Roger Quilter) and Mock Morris (Percy (irainger).

There is some very fine singing indeed in Crimi's two songs. It is hard to hear the words (this is particularly unfortunate in the song from Zaza, where the music is unfamiliar), and once or twice them is just the suggestion of a tremolo. But this is all I have against him. He possesses a magnificent voice which he uses skilfully and artistically. Zaza, though unknown in England, is occasionally played in Italy and Germany. I don't know it, and have no score, although I am told that this song is sung by a despairing lover who compares the loaded table to his own over-burdened heart. But the music is distinctly interesting, the vocal part well written and effective, and the orchestral background anything but perfunctory. With such a big voice the instruments might with advantage have been a little louder. Spirit° yenta is well sung, too, thought as a song it does not attract me so much. It and the opera from which it comes are, of course, by Donizetti, not Verdi.

It is a risky thing for a foreigner to sing British folk-songs to British audiences. Rosing can speak good English, which is something, and he has taken two beautiful and well-known tunes. But he spoils Over here by tearing emotion to tatters. The words and music are far more poignant if left to make their own effect. He is happier in Lord Rendal, thought again the very slow singing of the last part of each verse makes the song drag. l'm quite sure, too, that Lord Rendal never said : "A rope to hang her, Mother!" as Hosing makes him say it. Still, this song as a whole is not unsuccessful.

Eric Marshall's voice has a very agreeable quality. It is not great in volume, but I rather welcome a tenor who doesn't yield to the temptation to bawl. His records, however, failed somehow to grip me. If these songs are to produce their effect they must, 1 think, be sung with greater dramatic conviction. But I offer this suggeStion with a good deal of hesitation, as I am not familiar with DihOrah or Don Sebastinno, except for a few isolated numbers. It struck me that bath songs lacked interest, though possibly a really great singer could carry them off. The orchestra is not so successfully recorded as usual.

Malcolm McEachern brings a robust bass voice, a good diction, and an energetic style to bear on music that is, perhaps, hardly worth so much trouble. Spanish Gold is well enough, but Stanford has done the same sort of thing so much better. The Witch of Bowden is almost, but not quite, redeemed from the commonplace by a really dramatic rendering ; I liked this song the better of the two. The piano recording in both is distinctly above the average.

Roy Henderson's record is excellent. He uses his voice well, articulates properly, and his interpretation is on the right lines. With all this in his favour we can forgive him for not having a big voice, especially as that is Nature's fault, not his. Cowen's Onaway, awake is not nearly such a fine song musically as ColeridgeTaylor's, but it probably comes nearer to the feeling of Longfellow's words. The singer gets the last ounce out of it without once overstepping the bounds of artistic propriety. If To the Forest is not quite on the same level it is because of a certain lack of abandon at the climax. But this is a fault that experience should remedy, and I shall look forward to Roy Henderson's next record with interest.

Constance Willis is another singer with a good diction—it is pleasant to note how often this remark is appropriate—and her voice is adequate for the purposes to which she puts it. She sings Ritournelle (perhaps the best of Charninade's songs) splendidly. Her rendering of The Sandman is marred by an excessive ritardando at the end of each verse. This also interferes with the phrasing, which is otherwise good.

These three Dvorak Hum,oresques make quite delightful band music. True they were originally written for the piano, but we can forgive bands for trespassing more easily than other people—their own repertoire is so miserably limited. Much, of course, depends on the arranger and the performance, and here there is little fault to find in these departments. The strong tunes and rhythms, which remind one irresistibly of the composer's boyhood among the Bohemian peasantry, make first-rate open-air music for a band to play. The percussion is a little obtrusive once or twice, but that is a detail.

Jelly d'Aranyi always strikes me as the best woman fiddler I have heard. She uses a "Strad," I believe, and that may help her as regards tone, but the consummate technique and the vitality of the interpretation are hers alone. The playing is as feminine as Tertis' is masculine, and where we get a violinist who can be womanly without exaggeration or " gush " the musical result is wholly delightful. Both the pieces are light, lyrical, and charming, and the recording is good—but the playing's the thing.

There is no need at this time of day to insist on the greatness of Lionel Tertis. In this record it is the variety of the tone-colour that strikes me most. At times the instrument is almost a 'cello, at others its agility suggests the violin, but it never ceases to be a

Tertis, in fact, does with the viola all that a skilful singer can do with the voice as regards colour. My readers will probably differ about the Ireland tune. It takes a very strong melody to last through a twelve-inch record without becoming wearisome, however good the playing may be. The recording is first-rate in both these string records.

in Jardine mnts la pluie York Bowen is happiest towards the end, when the sunlight seems to filter for a moment through the clouds. Elsewhere his desire for clearness makes his rendering a little unyielding. His own Arabesque he plays deliciously. It is graceful music, though here and there I find the decorations rather unnecessarily elaborate. But perhaps I'm a horrid " high-brow."

If the Bohemian Quintet wishes to be taken seriously it must give us something more than this. The Grier,- Berceuse, for instance —charming enough on the piano—loses all its delicacy in the arrangement, and An den Friihliny degenerates into something very like second-rate restaurant music. This is largely due to the dullness of the piano part. The lower strings, too, have not enough to keep them going. Cannot the combination show what they can do in work written originally for quintet ? There is still fine music waiting to be recorded.

"Agreeable "is the word I should choose to describe Quilter's English Dances. They are the work of a good craftsman who knows how to manipulate his material, but the material itself is rather thin. The tunes are harmless and the rhythm is well-marked yet varied, but the whole affair seems curiously ineffectual beside Grainger's Mock Morris—a model of how such things should be done. The orchestra apparently felt as I do ; it is only in the Mock Morris that the playing comes to life. The reproduction is good but my records are a little spoilt by surface noise.

P. P.