May Records

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

SYMPHONIC, ETC.

Sibelius: En Saga; In Memoriam; The Bard; Pelleas and Melisande Suite; Valse

Triste; Prelude to The Tempest (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham conducting; Victor: 14 sides). Volume VI of the definitive Sibelius Society set, magnificently performed and recorded. These miscellaneous pieces, ranging from Op. 9 to Op. 109a, are nearly all bleak, bardic, Nordic, at times sound as relevant to contemporary Finland as an air-raid alarm.

Schumann: Symphony No. I ("Spring") (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky conducting; Victor: 8 sides). Opening with a trumpet call like a daffodil, this romantic work unfolds exuberantly. Best recording to date.

Smetana: Quartet No. I ("From My Life") (Curtis String Quartet; Columbia: 7 sides) and Dvorak: Sextet in A Major (Budapest String Quartet, with John Moore, second cello, and Watson Forbes, second viola; Victor: 8 sides). Polka-dotted nostalgia by old Bohemia's greatest composers; the Dvorak for the first time on records.

Chopin: Mazurkas, Volume II (Artur Rubinstein, pianist; Victor: 10 sides). A Chopin specialist continues a roundup of the 54 many-faceted Polish dances (TIME, Jan. 8).

Schubert: Symphony in C Major (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Frederick Stock conducting; Columbia). Dr. Stock gallops through a great symphony,* finishes in eleven record-sides instead of the twelve required by Bruno Walter, Victor's entry (TIME, Nov. 6). But Walter wins on all-around form.

The Symphony Orchestra (Decca Little Symphony, David Mendoza conducting; Decca: 22 sides, with explanatory pamphlets). Four albums of pieces in which the members of the string, woodwind, brass and percussion families are easily identifiable.

POPULAR

Say It (Frances Langford; Decca). Buck Benny Rides Again provides the month's sweetest.

Flight of the Flagship (American Airlines, General Records). Exciting two-faced documentary disc of a scheduled supper-to-breakfast. Long Island-to-Los Angeles transport flight. Fine operations' sound effects "recorded on location": teletypes giving weather data, radioed flight reports, beam signals. Children should cry for it.

Oh! Frenchy (Fats Waller; Bluebird). More resuscitation of Middle Period popular music, with Pianist Waller's own peculiar, headlong interpretation.

Ballad For Americans (Victor). Two-disc album of the patriotic spine-tingler first heard on the Pursuit of Happiness radio program (TIME, Nov. 20). Discounting the influence of Poets Whitman, MacLeish, Anderson and Composer Kurt Weill (Knickerbocker Holiday) on the script and score of Messrs. Robinson and Latouche, even sophisticated listeners should get a kick out of this hopeful musical U. S. history. Paul Robeson, as the Voice Nobody Knows until the last stanza, sings bravely.

* Columbia calls it Schubert's Seventh, Victor his Ninth.

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