April Records

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

Opera:

Pelleas et Melisande by artists of the Paris Opera and Opera-Comique conducted by Piero Coppola (Victor, $10.50)--A surprisingly coherent recording of Debussy's elusive, misty music. Tenor Charles Panzera is an excellent Pelleas; Soprano Yvonne Brothier could learn much from Mary Garden, still greatest of Melisandes.

Symphonic:

Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony by Willem Mengelberg and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra (Columbia, $10) --Tchaikovsky dedicated this symphony to Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck, the wealthy widow of a railroad engineer, who for years supported him without ever meeting him. Conductor Mengelberg's touch is deft and powerful, far transcends any of his recent performances with Man- Manhattan's Philharmonic.

Mozart's Symphony in D by Arturo Toscanini and Manhattan's Philharmonic-Symphony (Victor, $6.50)--A superlative performance of the Haffner symphony (socalled for the Salzburg burgomaster it was written to please). One of the season's best.

Chamber:

Brahm's Quartet in B flat by the Lener String Quartet of Budapest (Columbia, $10)--Brahms in a solemn, pastoral mood treated by the Leners in the lush, romantic fashion characteristic of their gypsy confreres.

Piano:

Schumann's Carnaval by Sergei Rachmaninoff (Victor, $6.50)--Miniature portraits of people and situations at a costume ball. Lightly and charmingly played by Pianist Rachmaninoff.

Songs:

The Rose of Tralee and Ireland, Mother Ireland, I Feel You Near Me and A Pair of Blue Eyes (Victor, 2 records, $1.50 each)--De luxe recordings of the Song o' My Heart ballads sung by John McCormack as he does in the cinema. Already these have been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese.

To My Mammy and When the Little Red Roses Get the Blues for You (Brunswick)--Neither the tunes nor the sentiment can boast originality but Al Jolson sings them in his most propulsive manner. A second-best Jolson record is Looking at You and Let Me Sing and I'm Happy, both from the cinema Mammy.

The Woman in the Shoe and Wrapped in a Red, Red Rose (Brunswick)--The Brevities Male Quartet bids fair to rival the Revelers (popular Victor quartet) with their original rhythms and harmonies.

Under a Texas Moon and When I'm Looking at You (Brunswick)--Chester Gaylord, "The Whispering Serenader," has a smooth baritone way which lends itself excellently to recording.

Cooking Breakfast for the One I Love and When a Woman Loves a Man (Victor)--Fannie Brice sings the first in her ladylike Yiddish dialect, the second is in the My-Man mood.

University of Maine Stein Song and St. Louis Blues (Victor)--Maine's famed son, Rudy Vallee, sings and plays his school song which, incidentally, is one of the best. Too pretty is his crooning version of Handy's hot-blooded Blues.

Dance Records:

Sing, You Sinners and In My Little Hope Chest (Brunswick)--Composer W. Franke Harling (his opera: A Light from St. Agnes) wrote these tunes for the cinema Honey. The first, best of the month's output, is played with rare jubilance by Tom Gerun and his band.

Lucky Little Devil and Everybody Tap (Victor)--Bernie Cummins and his New Yorker Hotel Orchestra offer praiseworthy arrangements of two good tunes. Particularly beguiling is the saxophone choir.

Song of the Bayou and Black Eyes (Brunswick)--The first is an excellent Ben Bernie version of the Victor Company's $5,000 prize piece; the second is from a folksong played in every Russian cabaret.

Thank Your Father and Good for You, Bad for Me (Columbia)--Flying High tunes by the famed De Sylva, Brown & Henderson combination, ably played by the Knickerbockers.

Lazy Lou'siana Moon and The Moon is Low (Columbia)--Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians take their jazz sentimentally and at snail's pace but his instrumentation is teasing, appealing.

Kickin' a Hole in the Sky and Cooking Breakfast for the One I Love (Columbia)--Best tunes from the cinema Be Yourself, played by the Ipana (Toothpaste) Troubadours.

Other good dance tunes: Keepin' Myself for You and Until Love Comes Along (Brunswick), Sing, You Sinners and In My Little Hope Chest (Victor), Puttin' on the Ritz and With You (Brunswick), The One Girl and Happy Days Are Here Again (Columbia), The One I Love Just Can't Be Bothered with Me and Blue, Turning Gray Over You (Victor).

Cosima's Reward

In Manhattan last week Conductor Arturo Toscanini abruptly stilled the applause which followed a Smetana symphonic poem, tapped on a cellist's stand for attention and, instead of two trifling Mendelssohn pieces listed on the program, played with his Philharmonic-Symphony the tremendous, soaring funeral march from Wagner's Goetterdaemmerung. In Philadelphia, St. Louis, Berlin and a score more music centres, were similar scenes and sounds, a world-wide requiem by Wagner.

In the Bavarian village of Bayreuth that night, while millions of her country-folk heard the grave music broadcast over the nation, a spare, withered old lady lay peacefully in death. Although no one kept watch over her as over the bodies of kings and statesmen, the old lady did not appear to be alone. On her coffin lay a faded photograph of 50 years ago. Next day when she was carried the 40 miles to Coburg the photograph went too; stayed close to her when she was carried into the city crematorium and a string quartet sounded the measured strains of the Pilgrim's Chorus. The picture crackled and burned with her as the Parsifal passion music played imploringly and her son, a fast-aging man of 60, looked on.

So, last week, perished all that was left of Cosima Wagner, widow of the great Wilhelm Richard Wagner, illegitimate daughter of the great Franz Liszt. Efficient, domineering, she it was who managed the last years of Wagner's life, bore his children, softened his surroundings that Goetterdaemmerung and Parsifal might be written undisturbed. Cosima more than any of his disciples was dogmatically fanatically sure that Wagner was the world's greatest genius. Her life was a dedication to the propagation of his cult. Her last reward was thus in a sense her own handiwork, being played to eternity by the colossal march to which Wagner himself was buried. Her ashes were laid in the Wahnfried garden near the great smooth slab which marks her master's resting place.

Gershwin Plans

In Manhattan last week word crept out that Jazzman George Gershwin ("Rhapsody in Blue") had abandoned the idea of writing an opera based on S. Ansky's play, The Dybbuk. Unbeknownst to him an Italian, one Ludovico Rocca, recently finished an opera on the Dybbuk, heard of Gershwin's intention, threatened trouble if he proceeded with it. Ever fertile-minded, Composer Gershwin is now seriously planning a chorale with Lincoln's Speech at Gettysburg as the libretto. First, however, he will finish the score for a new musi-comedy, go then to Hollywood to do the music for the first Gershwin sound film. Also imminent: the publication of a collection of light Gershwiniana, tunes like "Swanee;" "I Was So Young, You Were So Beautiful;" "Lady Be Good;" " Strike Up the Band."

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

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