August Records

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

SYMPHONIC, ETC.

Samuel Barber: Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12 (Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy; Victor; $1). A booming, Whitmanesque, visceral piece by a 32-year-old Pennsylvanian who uses his heart as well as his head.

Walter Piston: Sonata for Violin and Piano (Louis Krasner and the composer; Columbia; 4 sides; $2.50). Boston Atonalist Piston writes with his head only. For modern music's strong-man violinist Krasner (TiME, Dec. 16), Piston's mental calisthenics are grammar-grade stuff.

Ernst Toch: Quintet, Op. 64 (Kaufman Quartet and the composer at the piano; Columbia; 8 sides; $4.50). Austrian Atonalist Toch takes time out from writing music for Hollywood pictures to do a quiet, methodical job of concert-hall hair-raising.

Brazilian Songs (Elsie Houston with Pablo Miguel, pianist; Victor; 6 sides; $3.50). Sultry, brunette-voiced Singer Houston's inimitable way with Brazil's suave, tropical folk melodies makes this the album of the month. Her famed, tongue-twisting Dansa de cabodo (Frog Song) and primitive, wailing Berimbao (about a dolphin who transformed itself into a youth no virgin could resist) are heady as Negrita rum.

Mozart: Concerto in D Minor (K. 466) for Piano and Orchestra (Rochester Philharmonic with Jose Iturbi; Victor; 7 sides; $4.50). Late Mozart with plenty of Romantic sap. The Rochester Philharmonic, which started recording less than a year ago, again proves it is an outfit to be reckoned with. Pianist Iturbi scintillates at the keyboard, conducts the orchestra at the same time.

Beethoven: Quartet in C Major, Op. 18, No. 2 (Victor; 6 sides; $3.50) and Mozart: Quartet In D Minor (K. 421) (Columbia; 6 sides; $3.50). A pair of superbly tooled chamber-music items, both played by the unsurpassed Budapest Quartet.

Haendel-Beecham: Ballet Suite from the Faithful Shepherd (London Philharmonic conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham; Columbia; 6 sides; $3.50). Since the singing eunuchs of the 18th Century, for whom it was written, went out of style, Haendel's opera The Faithful Shepherd has been a flop. But its stately, gentle ballet music, resurrected by Sir Thomas Beecham, is still as fetching a job of periwigged melody as ever came out of the 1700s.

POPULAR

Waller at the Console (Fats Waller; Victor; 6 sides). Organist Fats, who once played them straight in his father's church in Manhattan, swings lightly such items as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Go Down Moses. Popular record of the month.

It's So Peaceful in the Country (Harry James; Columbia). Sapling Tunesmith Alec Wilder (Neurotic Goldfish, A Debutante's Diary) gets both music and meaning into the ballad of the month.

All Too Soon (Duke Ellington; Decca). Vocal by honey-voiced Mildred Bailey, with Herman Chittison and Dave Barbour accompanying on the piano and guitar.

After You've Gone (Gene Krupa; Okeh). Sensational blasting by Trumpeter Roy Eldridge.

Havana for a Night (Nat Brandywynne, pianist with rhythm accompaniment; Decca; 10 sides). Latin-American album of the month, containing such well-knowns as Vereda Tropical, Aquellos Ojos Verdes, Perfidia, etc.

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