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RCA's soft-pedaled digitals "Caution" evidently is RCA's digital watchword. Though it utilized Soundstream digital reprocessing techniques with the Caruso reissue series (1977), it didn't release its first new symphonic digital recording until late in 1979. That Bartók concerto and several subsequent releases were issued only on disc until quite recently, when tape equivalents finally began appearing. And disconcertingly, these tapes contain no labeling or other indication that they stem from the same digital masters as the corresponding discs. They do, though, via the usual analog sub-masters for tape production, so I'm told--an assurance I badly needed to avoid risking another misidentification like my embarrassing one just over a year ago with the Barclay-Crocker open-reel edition of Unicorn's Ilya Murometz Symphony. Apparently RCA is not committing itself to special "audiophile" chromium-based tapes at premium prices, but is content-for now at least-to let these ferric-based, standard-priced ($8.98 each) musicassettes find buyers without the abracadabra lure of the "digital" rubric. Fair enough, especially since their disc counterparts now have been raised in price (to $11.98) and the processing is first-rate. In the one direct comparison I've been able to make, the tape edition is an identical sonic twin of the disc, except for a slight mitigation of the latter's high-end fierceness, which actually gives the tape the greater aural appeal. This recording also offers the most novel program of the series: Stravinsky's Sarre du printemps in a solo piano version of near Lisztian brilliance. The Sam Raphling arrangement may be no substitute for the full score, but in Dickran Atamian's bravura performance ( ARK 13636), it sheds revelatory new light on Stravinsky's historic milestone. And thanks in considerable part to the lucidity of its digital origins, the recording also provides a memorable musical experience in its own right. Without the opportunity to make similar comparisons with three other digitally recorded cassettes, I can only suspect that they lack some of the bite and impact of their disc equivalents. But their sonic attractions are top-notch-including a characteristic transparency of inner detail and some less typical high-end sweetness and overall warmth. Thus the expectedly elegant Philadelphia performance of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra ( ARK 1-3421) is a model of detailed clarity. Unfortunately, Eugene Ormandy's reading does not have the rhythmic vitality and dramatic conviction of the best versions, most of which are no longer available in tape editions. Eduardo Mata and his Dallas Symphony obviously set themselves impossible tasks in trying to compete--even digitally--in the star-studded discographies of Ravel's complete Daphnis et Chloé (ARK 1-3458) and Stravinsky's 1919 Firebird Suite (coupled with his Symphony in Three Movements; ARK 1-3459). Only rabid Dallas boosters would claim that these performances rival the most polished, yet Mata and his forces do strikingly well. The choral sections of Daphnis are unusually effective, and both recordings excel in their marked sonic lucidity and evocation of atmosphere. And RCA's Dolby B noise-reduction is fine-at last. Plodding on: Bach-ward... While the general public may be more tolerant, most connoisseurs will find the current big-name Bach releases wanting. Certainly the new Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic Brandenburgs (Deutsche Grammophon 3370 030, two-cassette box, $19.96) do not improve upon the stylistic insensitivities of his c. 1965 versions. Again in the great Magnificat (coupled with Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms; DG 3301 048, $9.98), even the most virtuosic orchestral playing and gleamingly sweet sonics can't compensate for the remoteness of the vital choral parts and the absence of genuine sympathy with Bach style. More surprising is the failure of one of the earliest Bach revivalists, Karl Richter, to profit by the most recent lessons of the New Enlightenment. His latest Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra St. Matthew Passion (Archiv 3376 016, three-cassette box, $29.94)-despite abler soloists and twenty-one years of technological progress-represents little if any advance over his famous old one. There may even be some regression, at least in executant stolidity and overall sluggishness. Three current period-instrument Bach recordings, though far more authentically interpreted, will probably appeal only to specialist listeners. Admirable as they are, they just don't radiate the magic that can transcend the strangeness of echt baroque timbres and styles. Witness the rough and reverberant (yet fascinating) qualities of the replica organ Nicholas Jackson plays in his earnest but sober Christmas program: Orgelbüchlein chorale preludes, S. 603-15, etc. (Spectrum SC 217, $4.50, plus $1.50 for shipping; Spectrum, Harriman, N.Y. 10926). Or the "expressive" mannerisms of the Cologne Musica Antigua's trio sonata in an otherwise rewarding complete Musical Offering, S. 1079 (Archiv 3310 422, $9.98). A better bet to win converts may he the engaging if restrained versions of the S. 1044 Triple Concerto and S. 1067 Second Suite by Trevor Pinnock's English Concert with flutist Stephen Preston (Archiv 3310 410, $9.98). ... and sideways Paradoxically (for purists), the most magnetic Bach attractions this month are transcriptions. Not Stokowskian inflations, however, these are legitimate re-scorings with changed timbres of the kind habitually practiced by Bach and his contemporaries. Jean-Pierre Rampal's novel metamorphoses of the S. 525-30 Trio Sonatas for organ into sonatas for flute and harpsichord (RCA Red Seal ARK 1-3580, $8.98) are delightful-both in themselves and as new slants on the original versions. My only complaint is that Rampal's fluting is given greater sonic prominence than Robert Veyron-LaCroix's equally deft harpsichord playing. The incomparable harpist Nicanor Zabaleta returns in inspired rearrangements for harp and strings of Bach's organ solo transcriptions-S. 973, 976, 978-of Vivaldi violin concertos. Less startling but also delectable are Handel's Concertos Op. 4, No. 5, and Op. 7, No. 4, with harp substituted for organ. Garcia Navarro conducts the English Chamber Orchestra (DG 3301 114, $9.98). Heinz Holliger excels with the oboe d'amore part in the presumed original version of the S. 1055 Harpsichord Concerto (DG Privilege 3335 410, $6.98). But the other reconstructions here (S. 1056 for flute; S. 1064 for three violins) are no match for Neville Marriner's more recent versions (Argo KZRC 820). -HF ----------------- (High Fidelity, Mar 1981) Also see: |