ANALYTICAL NOTES AND FIRST REVIEWS (Those marked with an asterisk (*) are additions to the H.M.V. Connoisseur Catalogue or Columbia Collector's List) HIS MASTER'S VOICE Edwin Fischer and Chamber Orchestra : Concerto in F minor (Bach). Das Donnerwetter (K.534) (Mozart). H.M.V., DB4679-8o (12 ins., 12s.).

Most pleasing, in both performance and recording. There is the good N.G.S. Bartlett of ten years ago, but (notably in the sustentation of the slow movement and the athletic vim of the finale) this goes beyond it ; and as to the Decca of one year ago, though it is not to hand, a re-reading of my notes (August, 1939, p. ro6 : Borowsky and Lamoureux) does not bring to memory any particular gleam of quality, style or recording that would be likely to put it above this excellent example—one of the best—of Bach playing. There is more than the common hearty bustle in the first movement. One has long ago settled down to expect a rather high average of plodding, in any such music, more's the pity. Fischer, whose Bach has so often been soundly satisfying, finds what seem to me good levels of both pace and power, breadth and delicacy. The first movement early takes to triplet expansion of the idea, and then to its support by some of that soft passage-work that so happily prepares for another presentation of the one thought. Herein the piano (presumably, in the original, a violin) should discourse like a philosopher. Fischer, one feels, is that. If there be an instant of hurry, that is all I find in debit. It is a slight movement— table-talk, if you like. All the more reason why it should be carried off with an air. I think it was Rosa Newmarch who used the phrase " patient endurance" for the spirit of the slow movement—thinking of that mood in the cantatas. Lovely curves are in order, and the piano tone must sustain. How we missed that quality in the old recording days, when every note was a more or less spiky failure ! There are one or two bits of tonedovetailing here which I greatly admire : one of the main cadences, t in. from the end, in particular. By " dovetailing" I mean joining one note to another so that the necessarily fading end-of-tone of the first (this is the piano's supreme weakness : every note begins to fade the instant it is sounded) is matched, for volume, by the note that follows it. If you match starts of notes—especially in slow time—you will never get a perfect cantabile. It is this aural attention and muscular discrimination that one toils for, in learning to play the piano (I speak for myself: great players toil too, but they get there infinitely faster). After forty years, how long the road still to be trod, how short and uncertain the distance won !

The finale tackles a larger area of ideas and figuration, though it does not lose the spice of epigram, to back up which a sharperset feeling is in order (it is a splendid contrast to both the others : not as sometimes one feels, rather too much like No. 1). Concision, decision, go together. There is no room for show, no need to hurry : perhaps no excuse for even the tiniest blemish in a chord, as once we get ; but that is trifling. What is important is the sense of Bach's trim, calm all-seeing architecture, and the pleasure of hearing string orchestra and soloist as a united family. Fischer's combination, at its exhilarating best, as here, takes a lot of beating.

The Mozart is another of those dance-pieces written in Vienna. This one is an excited affair, with a specially chic middle section, in which the woodwind changes the scene, as Mozart so wonderfully can, in a few bars. Tone-colour and pitch, a few melting harmonies, and you can conjure up any kind of scene you like, contrasting with the thunderstorm which the rest of the music suggests, against (perhaps) a background of court diversion thus interrupted.

The orchestra puts this forth in perfectly appropriate colouring, and the delightful recording frames the finished picture to admiration.

B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra (Boult) : Marche Slave, Op. 31 (Tchaikovsky). H.M.V., DB3971. (12 ins., 6s.).

I have been for years hoping to add this title to my gaffes, Englished as Slaves' March, but in vain. Won't some kind journalist oblige a fellow-slave ? Its origin as an occasional piece, written in 1877 for a concert got up by Nicholas Rubinstein, to benefit wounded soldiers, makes it decidedly the opposite —a march reminding those who fought Turkey of native themes, and so of the freedom for which they fought. Presumably the tunes are Serbian, or of other Southern Slavonic provenance. With a differing connotation, it is thus appropriate to-day. Russia's help secured what measure of success Serbia could get out of this trouble, and so we find the Russian national anthem making, appropriately, a bass, after we have had the opening lament, which has a rich dark colour of its own. This is worked up into a higher range, suggesting, perhaps, the triumph that is more certainly forecast towards the end. Before the end of side x comes a trio tune of a dance-order. Early on side 2 the Russian anthem roars out in the bass. Perhaps we have rather more than we need of that first theme? The next bit is welcome, with its cheerful insouciance, backed up again by the Russian anthem. The coda is just a good rowdy maffick. The recording achieves a reasonable degree of vigour-without-coarseness. There was a Decca (Berlin) recording in May, r939, I see, but I have no comparison by memory, so will leave these two to some probable future Second Notice.

Sadler's Wells Orchestra (Walton) : Ballet Suite, The Wise Virgins (Bach-Walton). C3178, 9. (12 ins., 8s.).

This new Wells ballet was given an excellent descriptive page in the Musical Times for June. It would be difficult to condense the full description and comment, so, as I have not seen the production, I borrow a phrase or two from W. McN. I think these discs contain not quite the whole of the music which Walton has re-orchestrated from Bach cantatas for the " masque-like presentation of the parable." The first record contains, according to the titling : What God has done is rightly done ; Lord, hear my longing ; See what His love will do. C3 179 has : Ah, how ephemeral ; Sheep may safely grace; Praise be to God. There appear to be one or two other items used in the ballets : Nos. 1 and 2, respectively the famous chorale Wachet auf (Sleepers, wake), and a bass air from Cantata 142. What God has done (No. 3) is repeated as No. 8. The music, I read, was chosen by Constant Lambert. There are the bridegroom, the bride, and her sorrowing parents, but he comes to her" in a vision, escorted by angels." The foolishness of the unwise virgins is somewhat literally interpreted, with laughter in the spirit (hence the choice of the sprightly opening number, and of No. 6 Ah, how fleeting). Both these are of the frequent Bach type in which a hymn-tune is decorated, standing out more or less prominently the while, or between interpolations. Here the chorale characterises the serious, the accompaniment and interlude the more frivolous, set of attendants ; as, Mr. McNaught remarks, in the choralepreludes " heaven and earth frequently join issue, maestoso against scherzando." After the brisk, endearing No. i we have an organ chorale-prelude, Herzlich tut, orchestrated. On side 2 comes a tenor air from Cantata 85, Seht was die Liebe tat (See what His love). Here the Bachian oboe is most sweetly employed, while " the company is beautifully recumbent in sleep, and the bridegroom approaches the bride."

The second disc begins with the opening chorus from Cantata 26, Ah, how fleeting. I find the orchestration a little shrill. The Sheep air finds the bride being decked, and going to her bridal, attended by the wise virgins. Old devotees of the N.G.S. will remember a delicious little record of part of this music, which comes from a secular Cantata, Was rnir behagt. The final pages show the bridal procession returning, to the music of the finale of Cantata 129, Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott. Very little of this music appears to have been recorded in any form : I note, apart from the Sheep extract, the tenor air which is used for No. 5, See what His love. It is thus very agreeable to have, in any form, further portions of the cantatas, many of which are neglected. The recording appears to give a good account of the music (I have not seen Mr. Walton's score), and though I suppose some of the matter might be made to sound a little blander, greet the two records with cordial appreciation, thankful for the widening of Everyman's opportunity to develop his insight into the spirit of Bach in works which are not nearly so accessible, as far as performances go, as the orchestral or even the precious and revealing organ works.

Philadelphia Orchestra (Ormandy) : Suite from Dido and Aeneas (Purcell, re-scored Cailliet). Score (vocal), Oxford. H.M.V., DB3975, 6. (12 ins., 12S.).

Purcell is perhaps not easy to esteem rightly. He was unlucky, living so short a life in so poor an age. Dramatically, he was a genius. In some other respects he faltered : perhaps, at moments, paltered. The allegro of the overture counts for little—mere heartiness, in rather feeble imitation ; but the slow introduction draws a solemn hand across its age, and lifts a curtain upon mystery : mark how it rises, and its uneasy harmonies. Next comes the duet between Dido's maid Belinda and another woman, which is taken up by the chorus. This, in Greek fashion, comments on the action, encouraging hero and heroine to pursue their love without the fear which oppresses Dido. The prelude to the sorceress' incantation follows. This shares a phrase and a feeling with the slow Introduction to the work. As elsewhere, the music is touched up, cosmetically, and rather thickened, harmonically. The witch, of course, is to scheme, with her evil sisters, the ruin of the love affair. The Echo Dance of Furies is a delicious end to their machinations, and to Act x : the calling and answering effects are exquisite. Here is the pure genius again, working with complete ease.

On the other disc are the short preface to the opening of Act 2, the scene in the grove where the lovers come to hunt and picnic. We switch to the start of Act 3, the bluff music of the dockside, with a touch of that English good-humour in which Purcell was so rich. The last scene given begins with Dido's recitative, as she feels the approach of death. The great air on its ground bass is then played, but with too lingering a rubs to for my liking ; and again there is a little change in some harmonies. The air is taken very slowly—dragged, and so to my mind partly spoiled. I don't like this, overpowered as it also is by the scoring. The music is one of the great simplicities of art, which should not be over-painted and drawled thus, however apt the recording is, as here, to the scoring. Barbirolli's version, on DB373o (see May, 1939, p. 515), was far better. No, this is not the way to bring home to us Purcell's hearttouching power ! I always think the final chorus, " With drooping wings," the most perfect scene-closing thought, and musical expression of it, in any opera—the tenderest, most poignant elegy ever written, perhaps. You get this in the complete Decca recording of the work.

COLUMBIA London Philharmonic Orchestra (Weingartner) : Mephisto Waltz (Liszt) ; Overture, The Ruins of Athens (Beethoven). Col., LX897, 8. (12 111., 52s.).

This is another work that I must Second Review, when I can get around to it. The H.M.V. recording (Boston) was noticed in November, 1936, and A.R. dealt with Kilenyi's piano discs in July of 1930, p. 61. Faust and Mephistopheles visit an inn where villagers are enjoying themselves. The devil raises another tune on the peasant's fiddle whilst Faust makes the pace with the landlord's daughter. The amorous nightingale is heard, Faust and the maiden run off, and the devil's dance is left triumphing. That last side is slightly comic, now. Liszt worked too hard at the hurdy-gurdy. Pardon ! I love the old man, even in his most roué-ish vein of diablerie, but the make-up is so thick. The music is, of course, not well described merely as a waltz ; it is a symphonic poem, with easily-labelled elements : the instrument-tuning, the rustic (meant to be) waltz, with several themes, fairly fully treated ; then the amoroso cello strain, to which passion rises. Vivace fantastic° brings Mephistopheles to the fore ; more amoroso, followed by a reminiscence of the beginning, showing the countryfolk now stampeded by devilish art. The evil one (fantaslico) raises his hand, there is a pause the nightingale sings, the harp cadenzas and the scene closes in. In both suavity and rhythmic intensity I enjoyed the performance, and the recording's velvety sheen comes very near to my idea of perfection.

After these goings-on, Beethoven comes as a shock, though a good deal of it is in light style. I think he was feeling a bit sportive when he wrote it as a commission in 181I. Kotzebue was not at his best in the notion of the pardoned Minerva's revisiting her Athens, and finding what the Barbarian has done to it. Among the thousands of plays I read in my youth (plays were for a time a consuming passion) I remember bits of one or two by Kotzebue—The Stranger, and one about Spaniards in Peru or somewhere. I have not read The Ruins of Athens. I cannot think that Beethoven made much of this mythological panorama. It was not K's strong line, which was charactercomedy and melodrama—device and "situation." The overture starts with an odd little melodramatic swirl, as if Beethoven were feeling the tread of the stage. The next bit is from a duet sung by two desolate Greek slaves. They do not get much of a show, for a trifle of slow march-theme follows quickly. The general run of the overture is now entered upon, with the expected couple of themes, and a good deal of cres. and hearty rum-ti-turn music that doesn't amount to much. I don't think Beethoven ever set much store by it. It was a job, and he turned out something sufficiently good for the occasion. I should have preferred something else as a fill-up.

Louis Kentner and London Philharmonic Orchestra (Beecham): Piano Concerto in A, (K.414) (Mozart). Col., LX894-6. (12 in., 18s.).

A strong, satisfying performance of one of the choicest, most highly individual concertos. It is richly recorded, in fine purity.

The work is one of three concertos written in December, 1782, for the concerts which Mozart got up, as one means of livelihood. A.R. noticed the other recording (Kathleen Long and Ned: September, 1935, p. 148. It then cost only 7s. 6d.). I will put in on the Second Review list.

The recording can be well recommended. I say a word about the soloist later. The themes are of the slickest, most engaging sort. You can easily tell the second subject by the " attention to which the company is pulled up for it. There is after it another theme which, when the piano takes up matters for discussion, is not dealt with—yet. You will enjoy the way the piano at once plays about with the ideas, decorating them, and going off for quite a little cruise on one saucy boat (a new one) until the strings gently draw his attention to No. 2 ; so he takes that up, and so side 1 is filled with this exposition. Side 2 finds a more forcible mood, in free exploration (scarcely development), until there is a piano pause, and we start recapitulation. In the middle of this side there is a capital bit of diversion, on the way to No. 2. About an inch from the end of the side the piano takes up and plays with the theme that we noted that he avoided, first time round. The cadenza comes on side 3.

In the slow moment we find a theme (No. 2) that is fairly surely a recalling of No. i in the first movement (start of side 4). This movement (LX8g5) is one of the best to choose for anyone to whom you want to expound Mozart's deep tenderness : expounding not with words, of course, but by the music's inward persuasion. There are many such movements ; I know few that speak so directly to the heart as this, and speaks what we feel to be a universal language.

The finale's first two themes are purely aphoristic. That second, Three Blind Mice one is an old timer indeed, but anything will do to start the roundabout, and before No. r comes again, at the end of side 5, it has already set going a cheerful train of ideas. A nice place, this turn-over : just as we are going to have a new adventure. T.B.M. come again early on side 7, with new tails. Much fun as they run after them (orchestra, just before the cadenza, which cuts them off.) The coda (the real " tail ") plays the Haydnish game of pause and surprise, before No. winds up.

Kentner is a good though not (so far as this recording shows) a superlative Mozartean. This work needs a slightly more delicate hand for the two outer movements. Its gentleness is not, I hasten to say, abused : indeed, the soloist has an affectionate finger ; it is just that I think someone like Hess would be the ideal pearler for this delicately-strong, perhaps one might say feminine work (in the modern sense).

Columbia Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra (Howard Barlow) : Suite, English Folk Songs (Vaughan Williams, arr. Jacob). Col., Dlir93o, i. ( to in., 6s.).

This is a nice compliment from our American friends. Vaughan Williams wrote this suite for military band, in which form it was recorded by Decca (this is withdrawn : I do not know if since the date of the Enc. of Rec. M. it has again been done in that form). The first side is based on I'm seventeen come Sunday, a modal tune found, Cecil Sharp noted, in the Scots Musical Museum, as re-written by Burns, though set to a different tune from this. The rather pounding style seems to me to suit the brass better than an orchestra ; but the tune is a sweet coaxer when lightly set forth. My Bonny Boy (sides 2 and 3) brings us to the tender root of much beauty in native song, that strong natural pathos that we all acknowledge and cherish, however much we think that too much had been made of other, more jingling aspects of very ordinary folk-stuff, which has become rather a precious cult. Sharp tells us that the earliest note of this tune seems to be in the time of Charles II. " Bird " instead of " boy" is found in an early print ; perhaps this is " bard" —a young girl. This piece suits the orchestra admirably— better, I think, than the band. More of the lively stuff is on side 4—Somerset songs. The playing is on the vigorous side, right enough for much of the music. The recording has the slightly dark tang that these C.B.S.O. discs seem to carry. It is fairly fiery. I wonder if it gets all shades well? Now Mr. Barlow should send us a record or two of American folkery, which is not quite so determinedly modal as most of that which V.W. collects. The modality is native, but for some of us a bit wearing. Pardon, deep-dyed folkists, for our weakness W ,R.A,

INSTRUMENTAL AND CHAMBER MUSIC *Alfred Cortot (piano). Variations Serieuses, Op. 54 and "Songs without Words "—No. i in E major Op. 19 (Mendelssohn). H.M.V., DB3266/7 (12 ins., 12s.)

Being apart from the necessary works of reference at the moment I cannot say whether Mendelssohn's Variations Serieuses has been recorded before : but it would be strange if this work, admittedly Menclelssohn's most notable contribution to pianoforte literature, had been passed by. It was written in 1841, together with two other Sets of Variations which do not rise to anything like the same high level. The theme has a hymn-like flavour with chromatic harmony more akin to the Franck than to the Bach organ chorales. Cortot has pointed out that the term ." serious " is not to be interpreted " boring " : and, indeed, there is nothing faintly approaching that in his beautiful and vivid performance of the work. There are seventeen variations in all and in most of them the theme is treated melodically rather than contrapuntally. The text is reasonably closely adhered too and though several of the variations run into one another the listener should find little difficulty in tracing the course of the theme.

On Part i the first seven variations show a gradual increase of speed up to the ninth variation (Part 2), after which there is a slackening of speed to moderato. This tenth variation is a brief fugal treatment of the theme and the eleventh a very Schumanesque one. The original tempo is resumed in the twelfth variation, to accommodate very rapid note groups. The theme is in the bass for the thirteenth variation and in the fourteenth variation—in the major key—one is given the true Mendelssohnian unction. It reminds one of the final slow move-. ment of the last organ sonata. There is now some increase in the virtuoso character of the piano writing, notably in the seventeenth and longest variation. This ends with a codettaan obvious recapitulation of the theme over a pedal point—and a final presto. Here alone Mendelssohn somewhat disappoints expectation. He seems to be working up for a burst of applause rather than throwing a last and really significant light on his theme—a really enlightening summing-up. There is, however, a little imaginative touch in the last bars that pleasantly surprises one. One cannot say better of Cortot's brilliant performance than that he carries out to the full all that he has written about the work for the benefit of his pupils in his Coors d' interpretation. His dynamic range and fine-pointed staccato bring out the nervous sensibility and romantic imaginative qualities of this fine and powerful work. On the spare side he plays, with great charm and warmth of tone, one of the best known of the " Songs without Words." The recording is as good as any that he has had.

Eileen Joyce. Ballade No. 3 in A flat major Op. 47. (Chopin). Col. DX976. (12 in., 4s.).

There is much that is attractive in Miss Joyce's handling of the A flat Ballade and the recording is better than she had for her July issue. I should like, however, to re-review this disc next month together with those made of this piece by Arrau and Moiseiwitsch fairly recently, and some older recordings. My impression at the moment is that Arrau's version is the best. In the first part of the Ballade Miss Joyce seems a little heavy handed, though she takes a perfectly justifiable view of the emotional implications of the music.

Kitain (piano) Die Fledermaus ( J. Strauss-Godowsky). Col., DX977. (12 in., 45.).

There are no doubt some people who like this sort of transcription and the sheer virtuosity of the playing it requires might, to some degree, fascinate one in the concert hall. But, as recorded, not all the very considerable brilliance and elan of Kitain's playing can reconcile me to what is both a noisy and perverseseeming work. I felt much the same about parts of Rosenthal's Carneval de Vienne and said so. Surely Strauss' charming tunes do not call for contrapuntal ingenuity—unless very delicately applied—and are they not spoilt by the continual blurring of outlines? Someone said that Rosenthal wished to depict, in his transcription, the popping of corks and the resultant fuddleheadedness of the tipsters. This might be fairly amusing in the concert hall but does not make the sort of record I should care to hear again, still less to buy. A quiet movement on Part 2 seems like an oasis in a desert of jangle and blur. This is not Kitain's fault and certainly not Strauss'. And to consider the piece as an original work on a given theme would not make me enjoy it any the more.

Josef Hassid (violin) Gerald Moore (piano accompaniment) : La Capricieuse, Op. Z7 (E lgar). Melodie, Op. 42, No. 3 (Tchaikovsky). H.M.V. B9o74. (so in., as.).

This violinist plays on an instrument with a fulli, but curiously dark, quality of tone. He evidently has plenty of temperament and is apt to give rein to it without always cbnsidering the requirements of the musical phrase. He makes rather too much of a show piece of the Elgar—a piece probably written as a Christmas present for the composer's wife—and it would have benefited by simpler treatment. The Tchaikovsky Melodie comes from a set of three pieces for violin and piano called

Souvenir d'un lieu cher. Besides its characteristic, if repetitive, charm one of its phrases amusingly reminds one of the ubiquitous Trees. The music suits the player better than the Elgar. In this present recording the balance between violin and piano is exceptionally good. It is at all times possible to hear what Gerald Moore is doing ; and as he has a nice little outburst in the Tchaikovsky and is one of the best accompanists before the public, this fact is welcome. It was Josef Hassid, who still in his early teens, recently made a great success with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at a Polish concert in London.

William Pleeth (Cello) Margaret Good (Piano). Sonata in F Op. 99 and Ballade in G minor Op. iL r8 No. 3 (Brahms). Decca K93o-3. (12 in., 12s.).

It was very bad luck on these two young artists that the superb Casals-Horszowski recording of the F major Sonata should have coincided with their own version of the work : and I fear it will be cold comfort to tell them that, in any case, one could not give high praise to their recording. The opening movement might be labelled a piano solo with cello obbligato, so vehemently does Miss Good hurl herself at the keyboard from the word " go " while her unfortunate partner is heard faintly playing to himself in the background. The score, however, marks forte for the cello, who is announcing the first part of the main theme, and piano for the piano ! Then Miss Good's sforzandi have been so over-stressed that the double-forte-z which dramatically precedes the lead back to the recapitulation quite fails of effect. As recorded, the lack of romance in the cellist's lower notes is also very marked. There is some nice sensitive playing in the slow movement but it is taken at too quick a pace, which is fatal when there is so much detail to be fitted in. The codetta at the end of the first section is beautifully done : and it is a pity that the playing of the whole Sonata was not at this level. Surely the break could be arranged to avoid interrupting the lovely modulation to the major key at the recapitulation. It is not easy, but in the H.M.V. recording it is done more happily.

In the Scherzo clear articulation is sacrificed to speed, and the cello specially suffers. Miss Good is properly restrained in the long Trio but is apt to be rather inconsiderate again in the Finale, which is otherwise done with quite a lot of charm and feeling.

This spirited pianist enjoys herself in Brahms' vigorous G minor Ballade—chosen for the fill-up—but here, once more, the middle section would have made more effect if treated rather more expressively. There is a little deterioration in the piano tone on this side—it is good elsewhere—and the cello sounds always a bit dry in the sonata. I feel sure that in their next recording these two excellent artists will recover their form again and not pass records for issue in which the balance, from whatever cause, is so obviously faulty. A.R.

SONGS

There was a time when it seemed hard to escape John Ireland's Sea Fever, and yet a new recording reminded me that it had not come my way for some years. This fine setting of John Maseficld's poem deserves a good modern recording and receives it at the hands of Robert Irwin, a baritone new to me—a manly yet sensitive voice. On the other side of H.M.V. B9o73 (3s.), Mr. Irwin sings The Road to the Isles, the words by Macleod and the music presumably arranged by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and her daughter Patuffa. (The label states " Patuffa and KennedyFraser " which is somewhat misleading). The singer gives the effect of sailing away into the distance, singing each verse softer than the last. Gerald Moore accompanies on both sides of what is one of the best song records of recent months. Another Hebridean song comes from Sidney MacEwan now on Columbia DB1942 (3s.). This is An Eriskay Love Lilt. This is coupled with Coronach by Boulton and Barrett (the late Sir Harold Boulton was responsible for collecting and arranging many of these songs, about which there still remains much confusion—as with so much alleged folk music). At any rate Coronach is a lovely song, which should appeal even to those who care for none of these things.

Another newcomer is Bruce Dargavel who gives us a jaunty performance of A Bachelor Gay, that grand song which Tate (the "that " of the famous act—Clarice Mayne and That) contributed to "The Maid of the Mountains," now on tour and shortly to join" Chu Chin Chow "in London may it be equally successful. From the latter show, Mr. Dargavel sings The Cobbler's Song. I have heard better performances of each, but coupled on one record they should prove popular (Columbia DB1941, 3s.). We must go back a few more years to reach " The Arcadians." Lionel Monckton's music has much in common with that of Leslie Stuart. It is music that still attracts the musician- -an example is the skill with which the Overture to " The Arcadians" is put together (Columbia has a good modern recording.) Many must have felt that we could do with a new record of The Pipes of Pan and this is now provided by Helen Hill whose bright soprano was noticed the other month in a vocal arrangement of Weber's Invitation to the waltz. This is a delightful record, especially as it also brings us The Kerry Dance, Molloy's runner-up to Love's Old Sweet Song. This was popularised at the old Boosey Ballad Concerts, and it must be a long time since some of us realised that there is a slow middle section contrasting with the dance. Miss Hill's accompaniment is allotted to an organ and two pianos. (Columbia DB1938, 3s.).

And here is Love's Old Sweet Song recorded once more, though this time as a duet by Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, who this month desert musical comedy in favour of this oldtimer and Maurice Besly's charming The Second Minuet. What has happened to Mr. Besly, whose charming wit and personality for so long graced the profession ? (H.M.V., B9o7o, 3s.). Mr. Booth goes on to couple two popular songs by Oley Speaks— Morning and Sylvia, both admirably done on B9o71, 3s.

Richard Tauber and John McCormack send celebrity performances of well-loved songs. From Tauber we have One Alone from "The Desert Song "—the work of Harbach, Hammerstein 2nd (why is it we never hear of the first of this dynasty ?), Mandel and Romberg, though I take it that it is the last of these that matters here—and Only a Rose from " The Vagabond King" by Friml on Parlophone RO20488 (4s.). McCormack's contributions are two of the Four Indian Love Lyrics by Amy Woodforde-Finden—Kashmiri Song and Till I Wake, accompanied by Gerald Moore on H.M.V. DA 74.6 (4s.). Somebody once said that Mrs. Woodforde-Finden never got nearer the East than Liberty's, but she wrote some attractive melodies as Jack Hylton discovered some years ago. A Regal record (MR3345, is. 6d.) has another song by Frank Quinn—Connamora Dan (not such an engaging character as Texas Dan !) and Seamus O'Doherty singing The Bells of Shandon—Irish songs with little export value. R.W.