RECORDINGS SRL SECTION

IMPRESSIONS

N SPITE of past, or present, stric­ JUNE 1950 tures RECORDINGS joins in univer­ ARTICLES I sal regret at the recent and pre­ mature death of . He was, Clarinet by Kell ROLAND GELATT 47 without question of doubt, a creative Chained King of Instruments. . . .DAVID HEBB 50 spirit, and there are too few of those Complete but Surpassable IRVING KOLODIN 52 in any time for one of his quality to Bach—Instalment Two HERBERT WEINSTOCK . 60 be denied a reasonable life span with­ out leaving a sense of arrested de­ A Proposal from London REMY V. W. FARKAS 64 velopment, of incompletion, behind. Spotlight on Moderns ARTHUR BERGER 66 Kurt Weill, in this opinion, was at his best in his American career in REVIEWS such casual, unpremeditated expres­ Delibes: "Coppelia" and Sylvia" sions as the "September Song" from (Desormiere) "Knickerbocker Holiday" or "Speak 51 Low" from "One Touch of Venus" or Bizet: "Carmen" Suite (Collins) "This Is New" from "Lady in the Dark" and "L'Arlesienne" (Beinum) rather than in the more elaborate measures of "," "Lost in Wagner: "Flying Dutchman" (Krauss) 53 the Stars," or the currently promin­ Beethoven: Symphonies No. 1 and 8 ent (in two recordings) "Down in the Valley." Weill, it seems to me, could (Mengelberg) and No. 7 (Munch) use his native gift and considerable Strauss: "Macbeth" (Swoboda) musical skill to contrive any number Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto (Heifetz) of popular-type songs and produce re­ Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (Ricci) sults as good as all but the best— Kodaly: "Psalmus Hungaricus" (Dorati) [ 54 Gershwin, Rodgers, Porter, Berlin, Kern, and Youmans (America's Six). Berg: "Lyric Suite" (Pro Arte) But when he engaged a serious theme Schonberg: Quartet No. 3 (Pro Arte) —such as "Street Scene," "Lost in Mozart: Symphonies No. 39 and 41 the Stars," or "Down in the Valley" (Rosbaud) —my feeling is that his ideas did not Weber: Konzertstiick (Westermeier) flow naturally and spontaneously, that an intellectual element intruded DEPARTMENTS which made the results synthetic and noncreative. Music to My Ears THE EDITOR 49 There is scarcely room here for a RECORDINGS Reports: Classical LP's and Albums 56 detailed comparison of the Decca and The Other Side THOMAS HEINITZ & JOHN P. Victor products but my inclination is MCKNIGHT 58 definitely to the Decca, which has the Some Highs and Lows EDWARD TATNALL CANBY. . . 62 plus of Alfred Drake's thoughtful, feeling performance of Brack Weaver, Hits and Misses WILDER HOBSON 63 as well as Maurice Levin's sensitive RECORDINGS Reports on Pop Releases 65 conducting and Jane Wilson's per­ Letters to the RECORDINGS Editor 67 sonal charm as Jennie. Were there no competitor RCA's version would be quite satisfactory, save that here three 45 rpms, and with a third as "Take it easy," says the guard. "Try the emphasis is on Marion Bell, as many breaks. to get some sleep." Good advice— Jennie, with William McGraw less Whether that is altogether a bene­ save the fellow's going to be executed dominant as Brack than Drake is. fit, I am yet in doubt—especially in in the morning! What price sleep— Both are splendidly recorded, though that choice bit where the uneasy and/or libretto? Decca's ten-inch LP permits more of Brack, pining in a prison cell, asks —luviNG KOLODIN, the dialogue than is heard from RCA's about an anxiously awaited letter. MUSIC EDITOR.

MAY 27, 1950 45 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED lomLfiArUuL-^ Zostelanetz OmJi^ (fudubvCL

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46 T/ic Saturday Review PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The Saturdap Review qfjliterature

Clarinet by Kelt

ROLAND GELATT

RADITION has encumbered the virgin estate to which this instrument tained with Schubert's "Der Hirt auf clarinet with vows of chastity. had been relegated appeared more dem Felsen" and Mozart's Clarinet T In tone the catechism of this and more intolerable. "If Heifetz Concerto—both listing Kell as solo­ instrument dictates undeflled purity; could let fly at the stuff, I decided I ist. in dynamics, seemly moderation; in could too." Kell stopped treating the It would be stretching a point to say phrasing, cool precision. Reginald clarinet as though it were the pipe that these recordings enjoyed a phe­ Kell, risking excommunication, turned organ's vox angelica. By so doing he nomenal sale, but by 1940 a large clarinet renegade at the age of twenty- precipitated a revolution in clarinet body of musical initiates were en­ five. Sitting at the first clarinet desks playing and became acknowledged as thusiastically Kell-conscious. So much of the London Philharmonic and Roy­ the outstanding exponent of the in­ so, in fact, that when American re­ al Opera (Covent Garden) orchestras, strument. cord-makers turned isolationist in the young Kell had observed at close A year and a half ago Kell left Forties Kelt's subsequent recordings quarters all the great instrumentalists England to take up residence in of such works as the Mozart Quintet, and singers of the world. Noting that America. This month sees the release K.581, or the Brahms Trio, Opus 114, passion and a personal involvement of his first waxing from a New York found a ready market here on import­ with music were traits common to studio, the two Opus 120 clarinet so­ ed pressings. (The quintet was even­ every first-rate soloist or opera star, natas of Brahms (see page 52). It tually added to the domestic Colum­ he was forced to the conclusion that is the latest in an enviable series of bia catalogue.) In total his several the clarinet suffered from too con­ recordings which have made Kell a waxings revealed Kell as a man who fining a respectability. The demure. turntable, if not a household, word to could make meaningful and exciting American music lovers. During the music from an instrument wont to Thirties, when recording activity in sound dull, intractable, and not a lit­ this country chugged along slowly tle prissy. Before he ever set foot in and fitfully and when almost every this country his musical standing was important European waxing automati­ secure, his acclaim widespread. cally found its way into domestic cata­ Reginald Kell was born in 1906 in logues, the Busch Quartet and Reg­ the cathedral city of York. His fath­ inald Kell recorded Brahms's B minor er, musical director of a theatre, handed Quintet, Opus 115, in the London stu­ Reginald a violin at seven. But young dios of His Master's Voice. It came as Kell hated it, and when his father a matter of course that these discs went off to war in 1914 he saw a fine were soon issued by HMV's American opportunity "to chuck the violin un­ affiliate, RCA Victor. The same ob- der the bed." At fourteen he quit school (the legal age in England at that time) and got a job as a machin­ ist in York making dust guards for train axles. Week ends Reginald began to drop in on rehearsals of his father's band, took a fancy to the clarinet, and borrowed an instrument. With a book on "clarinet method" as guide, he started practising in earnest. Despite this tardy initiation, Kell picked up facility with enchanting speed. Within a month he was performing in his father's band, and a year later—realiz­ ing that music was easier to make than dust guards—he went off to a job with a theatre orchestra in nearby Harrogate. To the musically ambitious, York­ —Zinii Arthur. shire's provincialism can be pretty Reginald Kell with pianist llorszowski—"I do not jday llic elarinct; I play uiusie," dispiriting. So Kell, aged twenty, set

MAY 2", 1950 47 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED