January Records

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

SYMPHONIC, ETC.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 (Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting; Victor: 12 sides). In the doghouse of official Soviet displeasure since 1936, when Joseph Stalin cracked down on modernistic music (TIME, Feb. 24, 1936), 33-year-old Dmitri Shostakovich climbed out again by writing this symphony in honor of the October Revolution's 20th anniversary (1937). The symphony, finest work to date by Soviet Russia's No. 1 TIME, January 8, 1940 composer, shows Joe Stalin to have been a sound music critic. In it, Composer Shostakovich leaves all clattering tricks behind, works fine melodies up into surging climaxes. Magnificently performed and recorded.

Ernest Bloch: Quartet (Stuyvesant String Quartet; Columbia: 12 sides). Composed in 1916, when musical Zionist Bloch was hurling his Hebraic thunderbolts with youthful fervor, his lone quartet has waited until now for its first (a fine) recording.

Mendelssohn: "Reformation" Symphony (Columbia Broadcasting Symphony, Howard Barlow conducting; Columbia: 8 sides). A converted Lutheran, Jewish Composer Mendelssohn wrote his "Reformation" Symphony to commemorate the Lutheran credo's 300th birthday. Conductor Barlow gives its neat, tuneful phrases their first modern recording.

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (Munich Philharmonic, Siegmund von Hausegger conducting; Victor: 14 sides). Written in the years 1891-94, shortly before Austrian Composer Anton Bruckner died, his 9th symphony remained unperformed for nine years, never became popular outside Austria. But present-day concertgoers are be ginning to find its long, leisurely spans of melody well worth cocking an ear at.

Verdi: Otello (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Wilfred Pelletier conducting, with Lawrence Tibbett. Giovanni Martinelli, Helen Jepson and other artists; Victor: 12 sides). A much abridged edition of Verdi's great Shakespearean opera, so well recorded that you can almost hear the dust blowing off Tenor Martinelli's aging vocal chords.

Chopin: Mazurkas, Volume I (Arthur Rubinstein, pianist; Victor: 10 sides). Twenty of Chopin's 41 Mazurkas (more to follow in Volume 2) carefully tooled by a leading Chopin specialist.

POPULAR

Katie Went to Haiti (Leo Reisman; Victor). Gertrude Niesen does about as well by this Cole Porter frolic as Ethel Merman does in the show, Du Barry Was a Lady.

Darn That Dream (Tommy Dorsey; Victor). Mr. Dorsey does about as well by this de Lange ballad as Benny Good man did in the (late) show, Swingin' the Dream.

I've Gone Off the Deep End (Mildred Bailey; Vocalion). Torch-song-of-the-month, Bailey-of-the-month.

Between 18th and 19th on Chestnut Street (Will Osborne; Varsity). A dusky novelty of particular interest to Philadelphians who do and do not know they have a darktown.

I Hear a Dream (Joe Sudy; Bluebird). Best recording of the best tune in Gulliver's Travels.

Walter Winchell (George Clark; Varsity). A Calypso tribute from "The Duke of Iron," comparable to "The Lion's" recent bow to Bing Crosby (TIME, July 10).

I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly Roll (Eddie Condon; Commodore Music Shop). Unflagging attack by a good new band on a good old song.

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