December Records

Some phonograph records are musical events. Each month TIME will note the noteworthy*

Opera. Wagnerites will be tempted this month by two double albums as notable as any ever released :

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, recorded at the 1928 Bayreuth Festival (Columbia, $28.50/-)--Wagner's love opera recorded for the first time in accordance with sacred Bayreuth tradition. Able Karl Elmendorff conducts the Bayreuth orchestra; Nanny Larsen-Todsen, recent soprano of the Manhattan Metropolitan Opera, sings a clear, well-styled Isolde.

DIE GOeTTERDAeMMERUNG, made jointly by the London Symphony Orchestra under Albert Coates and Lawrence Collingwood and the Berlin State Opera Orchestra under Leo Blech (Victor, $24)--Recording of Wagner's most dramatic music.

Symphonic. Outstanding records include :

BACH'S BRANDENBURG CONCERTO No. 2, THE CHORAL-PRELUDE--Wir Glauben All' An Einen Gott, PASSACAGLIA IN C MINOR, by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra (Victor, $10)--Fervent readings of music well known to Philadelphians.

RAVEL'S DAPHNIS ET CHLOE, SUITE No. 2 by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony (Victor, 2 records, $2 ea.)--Superb, skirling colors blended in immaculate recording.

FRANCK'S SYMPHONY IN D MINOR, by Philippe Gaubert and the Paris Conservatory Orchestra (Columbia, $9)--An excellent routine reading, adequately recorded and worth consideration by those who have not already purchased the Stokowski Victor records .

TCHAIKOVSKY'S SIXTH SYMPHONY, by Oscar Fried and Royal Philharmonic Orcchestra (Columbia, $7.50)--Effective performance of the popular Pathetique.

Ambitious Jazz:

NEW YEAR'S EVE IN NEW YORK and SKYWARD, by Nathaniel Shilkret and the Victor Symphony Orchestra (Victor, 2 records, $1.25 ea.)--Werner Janssen's picture music may be "merely inconsequential" (see p. 20) but it is entertaining, skillfully woven. A clock strikes, horns blow, there is a drunken suggestion of Auld Lang Syne. Skyward is Nathaniel Shilkret's far-fetched impression of Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd's trans-Atlantic flight .

Songs : WHAT WOULDN'T I DO FOR THAT MAN and MORE THAN YOU KNOW (Victor)--Teary tunes sung by Helen Morgan.

WHAT WOULDN'T I DO FOR THAT MAN and THE RIGHT KIND OF MAN (Columbia )

All but Morgan addicts will find that Ruth Etting sings the same sort of thing with just as much appeal, that her voice records far better.

Foxtrots:

WHEN YOU'RE COUNTING THE STARS ALONE and AT TWILIGHT (Columbia)--Paul Whiteman takes honors with this one.

I'M A DREAMER--AREN'T WE ALL? and IF I HAD A TALKING PICTURE OF YOU (Columbia)--Hits from the cinema Sunny Side Up, done in the sleek Whiteman manner .

LONELY TROUBADOUR and YOU WANT LOVIN' (Victor)--Rudy Vallee's saxophones play meltingly, Rudy croons.

LONESOME LITTLE DOLL and M-A-R-Y (Brunswick)--Pleasant tunes richly scored by Al Goodman .

TIP-TOE THRU' THE TULIPS WITH ME and PAINTING THE CLOUDS WITH SUNSHINE (Brunswick)--Good tunes gilded by Lew Field's organ. Not for dancing.

Waltz:

DANCE AWAY THE NIGHT (Victor)--Written and proudly played in the oldtime manner. Miss WONDERFUL, foxtrot with crazy rhythms, is on the other side.

Records of the Year. Outstanding in 1929 by reason of their combined musicianly and mechanical merits were:

HAYDN'S CLOCK SYMPHONY, played by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony under Arturo Toscanini (Victor, $8).

TCHAIKOVSKY'S FIFTH SYMPHONY, by the Amsterdam Concertgebouw under Willem Mengelberg (Columbia, $10.50).

TCHAIKOVSKY'S ROMEO AND JULIET, by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski (Victor , $6.50) .

RICHARD STRAUSS' HELDENLEBEN, by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony under Mengelberg (Victor, $10) .

Best operatic records were those of Carmen, made by artists of the Paris Opera and Opera Comique under Elie Cohen (Columbia, $22.50) and La Boheme by members of La Scala Opera in Milan (Victor, $19.50)

*Until the recent extensive importations, Eurrope has had a much larger library of recorded music than the U. S. England is particularly interested in "gramophone"music, publishes several magazines dealing with it exclusively. One, Gramophone, is edited by Novelist Compton MacKenzie (Guy and Pauline, Sylvia Scarlett, Sinister Street).

/-Prices listed are for entire albums, which include several records. Where the price is not given, it is 75-c-, standard rate for popular 10-inch records.

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