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Review

Author(s): David Blake


Review by: David Blake
Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 107, No. 1486 (Dec., 1966), pp. 1068-1069
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/952886
Accessed: 26-03-2015 02:41 UTC

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GRAMOPHONERECORDS
WELLL Lady in the Dark; Down in the Valley. AustinMiskellsingswith,forthemostpart,a fine
Gertrude
Lawrence,Quartetand Orch/Joy senseofstyleand a fresh, almostyouthful lyricism.
VICTROLA Q VIC 1225 (20s 6d) His enunciationis usuallyclear,thoughthereis
This is a saddeningrecord. Back in Germany's sometendency to mannerisms. More disturbing is
decadenttwenties Weill'startly talenthit
astringent thetendency to overfasttempi. Campion'sFair,if
offthemood of themomentwitha depthand at youexpectadmiring becomesmerely a gabble,while
timesintensity that was more than topical and Dowland'spavane-ayre Flow mytearsloses much
local. It oughtto havebeena talentwiryenoughto of its noble melancholy.Lute and voice are not
weatherindustrial Americaand itscommercialized alwaystogether.I find-and suspectthatMiskell
technocracy-in which,indeed,itmight havefound found-theluterubatooccasionally excessive;but
finematerial forsatire.It didn't.LadyintheDark theseare minorreservations in an otherwise de-
is an adequatevehicleforGertrude Lawrence'snot lightfulrecordingwhichI wouldrecommend ifonly
inconsiderableshowbiz technique; but in wit, for Miskell'ssplendidlyfelt In darkness,which
vivacityand occasionalpathosit is streetsbehind revealshis considerabledramatic powers,besides
Cole Porter, letaloneGershwin.If inthisscorethe he displaysin thelighter
thelyricalflexibility songs.
edge is rubbedoffsophistication, in the school PETER ASTON
opera Down in the Valleyregionalnaivetyis im-
properly tartedup. Copland's'giftto be simple', DITTERSDORF Double-Bass Concertoin E;
Ives's'commonheartofhumanity', cannotsurvive SinfoniaConcertante in D; Oboe Concertoin G.
thisgutterpress treatment.Perhapsone could not Mannheim ChamberOrch/Meier
hopeforthatkindofintegrity froma non-American. SAGA0 SPAN Q PAN 6002 (12s 6d)
Evenso, one might reasonably haveexpectedthata I wishI could say thattheDouble-BassConcerto
musicianof Weill'sintelligence wouldhaveleftthe of Dittersdorfconvincedme thatconcertos forthis
genrealone. instrument are a good idea. The all-important
WILFRID MELLERS matterof intonation is overcomeherequitesatis-
factorilyandthesoloist,HansKaspar,is remarkably
agile. But in spiteof some prettyenoughmusic,
CAMPION and DOWLAND Lute songs. Miskell thisconcertois notsomething one wouldlistento
(tenor),Leeb (lute) often!The sameis trueoftheconcertante forviola
HMV0 HQS Q HQM 1035 (25s 3d) and double-bass, theAllegroofwhich(although the
FiveCampionsongsfromRosseter's1610bookand resourcesoffermore scope) is, if anything, less
six Dowlandsongsmakeup thisprogramme which interesting.But theAndantino has realcharmand

of Hungary
MUSICA HUNGARICA
Edited by Bence Szabolcsi and Mikl6sForrai
LPX-SLPX 1214-17 ?5 I Is 8d
and valuable in the whole historyof
". .. to describethis issue as beingthe most significant
recorded musicis certainlyno exaggeration." Recordsand Recording
BART6K: Kossuth-SymphonicPoemt
Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra
FirstSuite forOrchestraOp 3
Symphony Orchestraofthe HungarianRadio & Television/Gy.Lehel HungarianState Orchestra/
J. Ferencsik LPX-SLPX 1203-04 55s IOd
BART6K: Rhapsodyfor Piano and OrchestraOp I
Concertifor Piano, Nos I, 2, 3
G. Gabos, piano-SymphonyOrchestraofthe HungarianRadio & Television/Gy.Lehel
LPX-SLPX 1250-51 55s IOd
t Firstperformancein the UK on the 6th of December, RoyalFestivalHall.
Wholesale: Southern
England: Midlands: Scotland:
Robert Maxwell & Co CRD Disc ImportsLtd The GramophoneShop
WaynfleteBuildings 119 New Bond Street 16 JohnDalton Street 1017ArgyleStreet
1-8St Clements,Oxford London,W I Manchester2 Glasgow C3

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theMinuetis enjoyably grotesque.The Oboe Con- also a brilliantexecutant on thepeasantflute, andit
certoreturnsus to morenormalspheresand proves is a pityhe was notaskedto contribute at leastone
to be an agreeablepiece worthyof morefrequent exampleof instrumental folk music,which,sur-
performance.One is leftwiththe hope thatthe prisingly, is notrepresented at all in thecollection.)
excellentMannheimensemblewillrecordperform- Thereareseveralmildlyinteresting and agreeable
ancesofthemanymoreearlyclassicalcomposers so piecesfromtheperiodfromthemiddleages to the
in thecatalogues.
ill-represented early17thcentury, including somealreadydistinct-
DAVID BLAKE ivelynational16th-century instrumental music,but
it is withthearrivalof theRaik6czitunethatmany
HANDEL Messiah. Harper,Watts,Wakefield, listeners' attentionwillnextbeginto perkup keenly.
Shirley-Quirk/LSO and Chorus/Davis These are followedby some captivating late-18th-
PHILIPS 0 SAL Q AL 3584-6 (114s) centurypieces under the heading 'Verbunkos',
At lastwe havetherecorded Messiahwe havebeen whichoccupya wholeside,and includea close re-
waitingfor. To listento thisversionof the so- lationof the Intermezzo in Kodaly's HaryJdnos.
familiarmusicis almostconsistently a joy and an The 19th-century romantics, struggling more am-
illumination; and I can recall no more forceful bitiously formusicalintegration withEurope,could
demonstration of thetruththatone shouldrespect notmatchthebestoftheirSlavoniccontemporaries,
theconventions of (relatively) old musicnotout of butthewholesidedevotedto excerpts fromErkel's
deference to thepastbutbecause,so performed, the operasshowsa composernotwithout individuality,
musicmakesliveliersenseto us in thepresent.The capable(forinstancein theexcerptfromBdnkBdn,
admirableteam of soloists(I cannot imaginea oneofhismostpopularoperas,stillintherepertory
betterchoice) lilt theirdance rhythms, introduce in Hungarytoday)of combining marked'national'
'inequalities', improvise ornaments as to themanner inflexions withcharming neo-Bellinian warblings.
born:at least,thatis howit sounds,partlyperhaps
becausetheyhave sungthismusiclongenoughto
sensetheidiomspontaneously, and partly(perhaps
more)becauseColinDavis imparts suchmomentum
to thewhole,without impairing thegraceorsubtlety The performances are enjoyable,and the whole
of the parts. One had not associatedhim with album has been verycarefullyprepared,witha
baroquemusic;yet proveshe once again that what separatebook ofwordsofall thevocalpieces,con-
counts is native musicianship,withoutwhich taining(like the accompanying historyand notes)
is
specializedknowledge impotent. Some of his parallelHungarianand Englishtextson facing
will
tempi certainly be considered excessively fast;to pages. The notesincludea greatdeal of biblio-
me theyalmostalwaysjustifythemselves because graphicaldetailwhichit is usefulto have,evenifit
thephrasing and articulation are-given these rela- maynotbe ofmuchinterest to mostEnglishreaders.
tively small choral and orchestral resources-at I wishthoughthatthecompilerhad madesensible
once so sensitiveand so precise. In context,the use of a few abbreviations, whichwould have
momentsof mystery seem the moresublime,the sparedus (and him)a lotoflong-winded repetitions
momentsof jubilationthe morethrilling, and (if (and space).The repetition is stillmoreirritating in
thatis whatyou are after)the louder,too. The theEnglishthanin theHungarian, partlyowingto
is
album sumptuously produced, with a trilingual theshortcomings ofthetranslation. I havenotbeen
descriptive bookletofhighquality. through thiswordforwordall theway,butmaking
WILFRID MELLERS a fairlythorough checkof p.80-94I foundat least
one mistakeon everypage(on p.76forinstancethe
statement thatbars1 to 24 and bars175to theend
have beenomittedfromtheperformance of a lute
MUSICA HUNGARICA fantasiabyBakfarkis theexactoppositeoffacts.It
QUALITON 0 SLPX Q LPX 1214-7 (1lls 8d) is bars25 to 174whichare omitted).
This 4-discset is a kindof pendantto Szabolcsi's The errorsare due sometimes to thetranslators'
Concise Historyof HungarianMusic issued in Eng- inadequateknowledgeof musicalterminology in
lishin 1964,and manyofthepieceson it(about100 eitherlanguage,sometimes to carelessreadingofthe
in all) wereprinted in themusicsupplement to that original,and sometimes to insufficient masteryof
work. Withtherecordshowevercomestheirown Englishto conveythesense(letaloneto reproduce
handsome152-pagebooklet,containinga com- thecondensedstyleof presentation of thenotesin
pletelyre-written and stillmorecondensedhistory Hungarian).Onlyonetranslator forthehistory and
(again by Professor Szabolcsi),plus detailednotes notesis namedin the acknowledgments, but it is
(compiled by Andras Sz6kely) on the original plainthatat leasttwohavehada handinit,oneless
sources,availablepublishedversions,etc, of each skilfulthantheother.Thereare manyinconsisten-
piece. ciesin therendering of frequently recurring formu-
The chronological'sound-anthology' stretches lae in the Hungarian,and in severalplacesI was
fromChineseand Marifolktunes surviving fromthe quiteunableto makeout thesenseof theEnglish
timeof the migration of tribesfromthe east, to withoutreference to theoriginal.Tryforinstance
worksbyLisztand Erkel,whoareallottedthecom- thebarelyintelligible paragraph immediately below
pletefourthdisc betweenthem. Althoughtheset theasteriskin theeditors'foreword, which,I must
has morehistorical thanaesthetic interest, it is far add infairness totheeditors themselves, isa hopeless
fromdevoidof thelatter.A 68-year-old peasant's shot(butnot by anymeanstheworst)at theper-
crackedsingingof 'Repiiljpaiva'(thefolksongon fectly preciseand lucidoriginal.
which basedhisorchestral variations, a fact SinceHungarians dependso muchon translation
Kodtly
curiously not mentioned in thenotes)is extraordi- to projecttheircultureand learningabroad,it is
narilymoving, andhardlylessso is thefolksong 'Az distressing thattheyseemso reluctant to acknow-
hol 6nelmegyek' (also setbyKodily as No 2 in his ledgethe importance of havingsuchworkstrans-
10-volume seriesHungarianFolk Music,forvoice lated accuratelyinto genuineEnglishinsteadof
and piano),sungherein imitation of peasantstyle faultily intothiswretched no-man's-language.
by theethnomusicologist BilintSairosi. (Sirosi is COLIN MASON

1069

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