... When L'Oiseau de Feu was first produced in Paris in 1910 it was atriumph for Stravinsky, and I have no hesitation in saying that the present recording on Decca K 1574-1576 is a triumph for Decca recording engineers, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Ernest Ansermet, who came over here originally with the Diaghilev company in 1920. Particularly was I taken by the smooth delight of ...

... Cbfr Ever Since Paradise (New) AS the new Priestley settled into St. Martin's Lane one parching night it raised a dense cloud of adjectives. It was delightful and witty; it was verbose and pretentious and pompous and boring; it was original and affecting. There was never a clearer instance of comedy forced to appeal over the head of critical authority to the decision of the indi vidual taste. ...

... lli/tilu'lh Ho wens IT is seven years-- too many-- since last we had a Nicholas Blake story. Minute for Murder (Crime Club; Collins; 8s. 6d.) signalises the mysterious Mr. Blake's reappear ance. Where has he been? Whatever the answer may be, he has by some means acquired uncanny inside knowledge of a certain wartime Ministry: he has called it the Ministry of Morale. Censorable secrets, I must ...

... Lips like apple wine. My soul for thee doth pine. You 're older than Auld Lang Syne. Thus Richard Morgan burlesques, with inter ruptions, to the tune of Liszt's Liebestraum, transferring to the wax sheer nonsense with terrific effect. This is one side of a new His Master's Voice recording BD 1 162, played by Spike Jones and His City Slickers. The reverse is devoted to Lincke's The Glow-Worm, ...

... During the past few weeks I have listened to many records that have little to recom mend them artistically. Orchestrations are too elaborate, singers strain to get their top notes the result, rather like life, is a rough and tumble and to what end Therefore, I am delighted to commend to your notice On Her, My Treasure and To My Beloved from Don Giovanni, sung by Aksel Shidtz. Here is a tenor ...

... Elizabeth Bowetis THE JUDGE'S STORY, by Charles Morgan (Macmillan; 7s. 6d.), is a tale of the conflict of good and evil, deep in its implications but containing not one overtly strong scene. Over-subtlety is, in these days, a charge against writing showing any marked degree of control; but it is not a charge the most inert reader, with a preference for the noisy, could bring here. I share ...

... I U TfcL The Blind Goddess (Apollo) Anthony Cookmcin and Tom Titt SIR PATRICK HASTINGS, who has appeared as advocate in many celebrated cases, now invents one for the stage. Might we not have taken it for granted that there would be nothing improbable about the imaginary case? Sancta simplicitas! but, alas, the experienced advocate is not necessarily the accomplished playwright. This legal ...

... Elizabeth Betven reviewing- THE pre-Christmas season brings out, each year, a crop of children's books. There does, of course, already exist a substantial body of children's classics-- long-established favourites which have come down from one generation to another-- and with these any new comers must compete. I do myself think that the works of Lewis Carroll, Mrs. Ewing, Frances Hodgson ...

... (btr rfuL iClxe Ja 1 e (Ah ycli) IT was in one of George du Maurier's cartoons that Lady Georgius Midas re pulsed a street tout offering the synopsis of Dumas's Dam o' Cameleers with the words: We have come to see the acting. We have no desire to understand the play. Fane presents no temptation to moral hypocrisy, but this lady would have known the best way to enjoy it. If the piece means ...

... Cbb Tfe, Richard II (New Theatre) THIS was certainly the time for the Old Vic to give us the most delicately English of all plays. Seeing the countryside agleam in its verse should be as good as a spring journey through the coloured counties. Shakespeare had a very poor opinion of our forbears, the noble knights and barons bold, who iostled for nosition round hanless Richard's throne. Yet ...

... Mr tfe- Ilappy As Larry (Mercury) AT the charming little Mercury Theatre, where one always feels the guest of some gracious eighteenth-century patron of the arts, a number of young poets have been engaged for many moons in gravely invoking the stage's lost muse. It was expected, I think, she would be some sort of veiled figure, moving about hither and thither among dim thoughts, making ...

... Elizabeth ftewehs THE COUNTRYMAN AT WORK, by Thomas Hennell, is published by The Archi tectural Press at 12s. 6d., and has a memoir of the author by H. J. Massingham. The memoir, besides being an ever-welcome piece of Massingham writing, is necessary: Thomas Hennell was killed in 1945, while serving as a war artist in the Far East. He met his death at the hands of terrorists in Java. His ...