May Records

Some phonograph records are musical events. Each month TIME notes the noteworthy.

Symphonic, etc.

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS : SYMPHONY IN F MINOR (B.B.C. Symphony; composer conducting; Victor: 8 parts). Well-knit, rugged contemporary symphony by England's No. 1 composer.

LORD BERNERS : THE TRIUMPH OF NEPTUNE (London Philharmonic; Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham; Columbia: 4 parts). Trickily instrumented, clever suite originally designed for one of Choreographer Balanchine's concoctions.

MARC BLITZSTEIN: THE CRADLE WILL ROCK (Piano and vocal chorus; Musicraft: 14 parts). Musical highlights of the

Broadway show recorded by the original cast with Composer Blitzstein at the piano. What was vastly effective as musical scene painting (TIME, Dec. 13), is noisy & facile as music pure & simple.

BEETHOVEN: AH, PERFIDO! (Philadelphia Orchestra with Kirsten Flagstad; Eugene Ormandy conducting; Victor: 4 parts). Today's No. 1 operatic voice is more perfectly suited to Wagnerian declamation, but the recording engineers have done magnificently.

MOZART: DIVERTIMENTO No. 15 IN B FLAT MAJOR (Joseph Szigeti & chamber orchestra; Columbia: 8 parts). Violinist Szigeti, rated tops by connoisseurs, gets all there is out of Mozart's melodic delicacies. The accompaniment is spotty.

WAGNER: SIEGFRIED (Excerpts edited by Leopold Stokowski; Philadelphia Orchestra; Stokowski conducting; Victor: 5 parts). Typical Stokowski abridgement preserving a few of the opera's salient pages.

TCHAIKOVSKY: PIANO CONCERTO IN B FLAT MAJOR (London Philharmonic; Columbia: 8 parts). Virtuoso war-horse brilliantly played by Dutch Pianist Egon Petri.

GUSTAV MAHLER: ICH BIN DER WELT ABHANDEN GEKOMMEN (Contralto Kerstin Thorborg and Vienna Philharmonic; Bruno Walter conducting; Columbia). A beautiful item added to the meagre list of available Mahler discs.

BACH: ENGLISH SUITES IN E & D MINOR (Yella Pessl, Harpsichordist; Victor: 10 parts). Bach played on one of the instruments for which he wrote.

MOZART: QUARTET IN E FLAT FOR PIANO & STRINGS (Hortense Monath and the Pasquier Trio; Victor: 6 parts). Fine-grained, carefully-tooled performance of one of Mozart's important, though seldom played, compositions.

Popular

I LET A SONG Go RIGHT OUT OF MY HEART (Duke Ellington; Brunswick). Ellington at his pre-recession best. Probably more acceptable to lovers of melody than lovers of heat.

FRENCH FOLK SONGS FOR CHILDREN (Sung by Louis Chartier with accompaniment; Decca). Album of three records, 13 songs. Musical charm plus educative value.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK and ONE BIG UNION FOR Two (Vocalion). The currently highly popular Garment Workers' show tunes. The needleworkers' gift to the phonograph needle well played by Bob Sylvester and Cab Calloway.

DA DA STRAIN and WOLVERINE BLUES (Louisiana Rhythm Kings and Benny Goodman's Boys; Hot Record Society, 308 Fifth Ave., Manhattan). These rare and exciting discs, recorded in 1929, are repressed by the Society to illustrate "the rise of the Boogie Woogie and the emergence of the Chicago Style." Boogie woogie is characterized by heavy offbeat bass and repetitive melody.

I DON'T BELIEVE IT, MY HONEY'S LOVIN' ARMS, KEEP SMILING AT TROUBLE, AT SUNDOWN (Bud Freeman Trio; Commodore Classics, 144 E. 42nd St., Manhattan). Jess Stacy (like Freeman, now with Benny Goodman's band) and George Wettling (with Red Norvo) make some of the most exciting hot chamber music currently played.

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