Music: July Records

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

Symphonic, Etc.

Ravel: Introduction and Allegro (Laura Newell, harpist, John Wummer, flautist, Ralph McLane, clarinetist, the Stuyvesant String Quartet; Columbia: three sides). Elegant French fancy work, in its best needling to date. The harp and strings have been working the other side of the street, as the New Friends of Rhythm.

Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty (Sadler’s Wells Orchestra, Constant Lambert conducting; Victor: six sides). Beautifully recorded excerpts, some new on discs, from one of the great classic ballets.

Tchaikovsky: Song Recital (Maria Kurenko, soprano; Victor: four sides).

Sad, rather redundantly Slavic collection, sung by a Russian veteran. Only two of the ten have been satisfactorily recorded before.

Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D Major (“London”) (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham conducting; Columbia: six sides). Pillman Sir Thomas as usual prescribes 18th-Century music for what ails you. Tops in recording.

Paganini: Caprices Nos. 1-12 (Ossy Renardy, violinist, Walter Roberts, pianist; Victor: six sides). Acrobatics recalling the composer-fiddler’s centenary (TIME, June 10 ). A maybe for fiddle fans, a might-could for others.

Debussy: Iberia (Piero Coppola and Paris Conservatory Orchestra; Victor: five sides) and Strauss: Death and Tranfiguration (Albert Coates and London Symphony Orchestra; Victor: six sides).

Dollar-a-disc repressings.