Reviewed by RICHARD FREED, DAVID HALL, GEORGE JELLINEK, PAUL KRESH, STODDARD
LINCOLN ERIC SALZMAN
P.D.Q. BACH (see PETER SCHICKELE)
BARBER: Piano Concerto, Op. 38. COPLAND: Piano Concerto. Abbott Ruskin (piano); M.I.T. Symphony Orchestra, David Epstein cond. TURNABOUT 0 QTV 34683 $3.98.
Performance: Good solo work
Recording: Poor
Samuel Barber's 1962 Piano Concerto, for all the brilliance of its solo writing and the craftsmanship lavished on its musical architecture, does not, for me, jell as a totality. I hear echoes in it of the First Symphony's dramatic rhetoric, the Violin Concerto's lyricism, and the Dance of Vengeance from Medea, but no genuine synthesis, either in this well-played new version or the very formidable decade-old one with John Browning (who gave the world premiere) and George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra.
The youthful Copland concerto, on the other hand, remains superb entertainment, vital and striking in the declamatory-lyrical first part and exhilarating in the jazzy second part.
Here I had the marvelous Bernstein/New York Philharmonic collaboration with Cop land at the piano, done for Columbia, to com pare with the Turnabout disc. Despite the brilliance and drive of Abbott Ruskin's pianism (which is even more evident in the Barber) and the brave efforts of David Epstein's M.I.T. players, there is no serious rivalry to
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the Columbia version. On the Turnabout disc, obtrusive room coloration muddies up a good deal of the close-textured piano writing in the Barber and is exacerbated in the Copland by a lack of presence for the solo instrument. Better recording production work might have achieved happier results. D.H.
BEETHOVEN: Modlinger Tiinze (WoO 17); March in B-fiat Major (WoO 29). Consortium Classicum. Deutsche Tiinz,e (WoO 42). Werner Grobholz (violin); Werner Genuit (piano). Liindierische Tanz,e (WoO 15). Werner Grob holz, Dietmar Forster (violins); Hellmar Stiehler (cello). Duo in G Major (WoO 26). Robert Dohn, Renate Greiss (flutes). ELEFUNKEN 6.42133 $7.98, 4.42133 $7.95.
Performance: Ingratiating
Recording: Very good
This is Volume III in Telefunken's series of Beethoven dances. Volume I (6.41935, 4.41935) comprises twenty-four minuets, and Volume II (so far issued here only in cassette form, 4.41996) is devoted to the contredanses, the orchestral German dances (WoO 8), the Triumphal March from the mu sic to Kuffner's Tarpeja, and the Minuet of Congratulations-all performed by the Philharmonia Hungarica under Hans Ludwig Hirsch. This newest (and presumably final) installment forsakes the orchestra in favor of more intimately scored pieces-and more tasteful interpretations. Here the Modling (or Viennese) dances are played by a septet made up of two violins, double bass, and various winds; the waltzes, minuets, and Landler that make up this cycle, though, are not given in their original sequence-not that that matters much. The one-minute march is the reason ably familiar one for pairs of clarinets, horns, and bassoons. While virtuosity is not the point in this material, the performances are all quite stylish; everything is carried off with an appealing blend of sweetness, crispness, and good humor, and the recorded sound is very good indeed. R.F.
BLOCH: Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh). Douglas Lawrence (baritone); Rabbi Abner Bergman (speaker); Utah Chorale and Utah Symphony Orchestra, Maurice Abravanel cond. ANGEL 0 S-37305 $7.98.
Performance: Authoritative
Recording: Good
Maurice Abravanel's credentials as an authoritative interpreter of the music of Ernest Bloch were presented some time ago in the form of his fine Vanguard Cardinal disc of Schelomo (with Zara Nelsova) and the Israel Symphony (VCS-10007). This new recording of the Sacred Service for Sabbath Morning, obviously prepared with a great deal of loving care, is well conceived, deep-felt but never overindulged, and quite appealing in its own right. There is, however, the fervent Bern stein recording to be reckoned with ( Columbia MS 6221). While Abravanel needn't yield to Bernstein in the matter of conviction, it must be said that the New York Philharmonic, the New York choruses (drawn from both a synagogue and a church), and, most of all, the rock-firm, commanding Robert Merrill as baritone soloist are much more impressive than their Utah counterparts. Sonically, too, the eighteen- or nineteen-year-old Columbia recording strikes me as at least the equal of the new Angel, with greater clarity and impact at almost every point. R.F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
BRETAN: Ten Romanian Songs; Six Hungarian Songs. Ludovic Konya (baritone); Ferdinand Weiss (piano). ADVENT 5016 $7.98.
BRETAN: Nine Romanian Songs; Nine Hungarian Songs. Ludovic Konya (baritone); Martin Berkofsky and Ferdinand Weiss (pianos). MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY MHS 3572 $4.95 (plus $1.25 handling charge from Musical Heritage Society, Inc., 14 Park Road, Tinton Falls, N.J. 07724).
Performances: Excellent
Recordings: Good
Nicolae Bretan (1887-1968), a prolific Romanian composer of vocal music, is not one whose name is likely to be greeted with familiarity away from his native land. As a matter of fact, he seems to have suffered neglect even there until recently. These recordings, produced under the supervision of the com poser's daughter, Dr. Judith Bretan Le Bovit, may now lead to some belated recognition of this gifted musician.
Two facts about Bretan are essential to the understanding of his art. First, he was a native and lifetime resident of Transylvania, that much-disputed border province with its mixed Hungarian-Romanian-German cultural and linguistic traditions. Second, he was a singer, a prominent baritone, and one-time manager of the opera house at Cluj, capital city of Transylvania. These two recitals combine Hungarian and Romanian poetic settings, invariably created with the skill of a composer who thoroughly understands the singing voice.
But there is more to be said in Bretan's favor. His settings are always appropriate in subject and mood. If the Romanian songs (to texts by such poets as Mihail Eminescu and Gheorghe Cosbuc) are more effective, it is be cause they are generally lyrical, pastoral, nature-inspired creations, with a direct appeal.
Many of the Hungarian songs are based on the solemn and pessimistic texts of Endre Ady (poet of Bartok's Op. 16 cycle). They are severe, declamatory, and less likely to meet with a similar direct response. Unfortunately, the producer chose to alternate the Hungarian and Romanian songs in what appears to be a haphazard sequence instead of striving for some unification and continuity. But this is my only real criticism of these records.
Bretan's songs are emphatically vocal, with uncomplicated piano accompaniments-at times chordal, at other times with the right hand doubling the vocal line. His idiom is an amalgam of German, French, and Italian styles enriched by folkloric allusions. Harmonically he is firmly rooted in the world of Schumann, Gounod, and Verdi, hardly ever bringing to mind the vocabulary of Wolf or Faure. And yet, in the full knowledge that these songs belie their twentieth-century origin, I do not hesitate to recommend them to song enthusiasts and to praise their melodic attractiveness and word-setting mastery.
Baritone Ludovic Konya (no relation to tenor Sandor Konya) sings with profound understanding of the poetic texts, sensitivity, lovely tone quality, and a beguiling mezza voce. His pronunciation is also exemplary.
The piano accompaniments are excellent. The miking is close, with clear and warm conics, but some of the song endings are cut off too abruptly. G.J.
BYRD: My Lady Nevells Booke (see Best of the Month)
CHAUSSON: Poime, Op. 25 (see SAINT SAENS)
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
CHOPIN: Scherzos: No. 1, in B Minor, Op. 20; No. 2, in B-Rat Minor, Op. 31; No. 3, in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39; No. 4, in E Major, Op. 54. Shura Cherkassky (piano). HNH 4022 $7.98.
Performance: Elegant
Recording: Excellent
It is good to have Shura Cherkassky recording again; his discography has never been very large, and it has been too long a time since there were any additions to it. I have been hoping for years that he might get around to redoing the two big Tchaikovsky concertos (with the Second perhaps uncut this time), but, frankly, I had not thought in terms of Chopin. On a Deutsche Grammophon record of the polonaises, issued in Europe eight or nine years ago but apparently never in this country, Cherkassky's playing was inconsistent-sections charged with poetic insight alternating with others disappointingly stiff or superficial. In the four scherzos, however, he offers nothing but pleasure off the deepest sort. He seems to breathe the music, with an elegant spontaneity and aristocratic clarity beautifully matched to the works' own character. Indeed, this is one of those records where everything is so right that there seems little point in trying to catalog virtues. The re cording itself (produced by Tudor in Switzer land, mastered for HNH by Robert Ludwig) is of demonstration quality, and Peter Eliot Stone has provided exceptionally thoughtful annotation. I would not like to have to choose between this and the similarly excellent versions of the scherzos played by Vladimir Ashkenazy on London CS 6562 and Antonio Barbosa on Connoisseur Society CSQ 2071. It may be noted, though, that both Ashkenazy and Barbosa are a little broader of gesture than Cherkassky (also somewhat less crisply recorded). R . F.
CILEA: Adrian Lecouvreur
(see Best of the Month )
(Continued overleaf)
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The Joys of Purcell
- Howard Crook; - Jeffrey Dooley
ONE of the joys of the early days of early-music-making in New York City was the combined musicianship of countertenor Russell Oberlin and tenor Charles Bressler. When they stopped performing together, no one ever quite replaced them. That is, until now.
A new Nonesuch disc of airs and duets by Henry Purcell introduces the team of Jeffrey Dooley and Howard Crook, and they come as close as perhaps anyone could to reproducing the splendors that Oberlin and Bressler created together.
Unlike Oberlin, Dooley is a falsettist, and Crook's voice is somewhat lighter than Bressler's. But the important thing is that each voice is beautifully produced, and, while their individual timbres are easily distinguished, the blend is superb. The listener is able to follow either line separately and still enjoy the exquisite ensemble. Both singers have a supple coloratura and know how to toss it off lightly without destroying a musical phrase; both have excellent diction and a sensitive approach to textual meaning and word coloration. The result is breathtaking.
The instrumental support on the record is artfully done: pitches and rhythms are secure, and everything is clearly articulated. Edward Brewer's harpsichord playing deserves a special mention; his continuo realizations are imaginative and complement the vocal lines without ever intruding on them. Do get this record-and hope that these artists will give us a little more of the same soon.
-Stoddard Lincoln PURCELL: Airs and Duets. The Fairy Queen: Let the Fifes and the Clarions; Hark! The Ech'ing Air; One Charming Night.
Love's Goddess Sure: Sweetness of Nature; Many, Many Such Days. Welcome to All Pleasures: Beauty, Thou Scene of Love. Hail, Bright Cecilia: In Vain the Am'rous Flute. Come Ye Sons of Art: Sound the Trumpet. Lord, What Is Man? Fly, Bold Rebellion: Be Welcome, Then, Great Sir.
Thesaurus Musicus, Book V: Lovely Albino's Come Ashore. If Ever I More Riches Did Desire: Here Let My Life; Me, O Ye Gods. Deliciae Musicae.
Book II: If Music Be the Food of Love. Arise My Muse: Hail, Gracious Glorianna, Hail. Pleasant Musical Companion, Book III: Saccharissa's Grown Old. Jeffrey Dooley (countertenor); Howard Crook (tenor); David Carp (recorder); Dennis Godburn (recorder, bassoon); Louise Shulman. Daniel Reed (violins); Mary Springfels (viola da gamba); Edward Brewer (harpsichord). NONESUCH H-71343 $3.96.
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COPLAND: Piano Concerto (see BARBER) DONIZETTI: L'Elisir d'Amore. Ileana Co trubas (soprano), Adina; Placido Domingo (tenor), Nemorino; Ingvar Wixell (baritone), Belcore; Sir Geraint Evans (bass), Bulcamara; Lillian Watson (soprano), Giannetta. Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, John Pritchard cond.
COLUMBIA M3 34585 three discs $20.98.
Performance: Good
Recording: Excellent
Donizetti's captivating comic opera L'Elisir d'Amore has not lacked effective representation on records since the advent of the LP.
There have been five "complete" recordings so far, and while only one of them came close to uniform excellence (a London version now reissued as Richmond 63524), the others all managed to surpass routine competence. Columbia's addition joins the ranks of the latter group. It is enhanced by rich and gleaming sound, and it is lively and quite enjoyable.
Chorus and orchestra are joined in a well-prepared performance under John Pritchard's neat, precise, and sympathetic leadership. The recording was made during the opera's recent Covent Garden staging, and it has almost the same cast (Jose Carreras sang the role of Nemorino at Convent Gar den). In all likelihood, the unevenness of the cast was less evident in the stage performance: physical attractiveness, liveliness of action, and histrionic skill can go a long way toward smoothing out the edges of rough vocalism. Records, on the other hand, have a way of spotlighting such matters.
In any case, there are praiseworthy contributions from Ileana Cotrubas and Placido Domingo. The soprano offers a charming, intelligently characterized minx of an Adina, on the impressive vocal level previously attained by Hilde Gueden ( Richmond) and Mirella Freni (Angel), but in no way exceeding it. The tenor is in his usually pleasing and dependable form, though at this stage of his career I find his tone a shade too heavy for Nemorino, a role that calls for more delicacy in phrasing and a lighter, more malleable stream of sound. In the bit role of Giannetta, Lillian Watson is better than most of her recorded competitors.
With the low voices comes disappointment.
First-rate singing actors that they are, Ingvar Wixell and Sir Geraint Evans project vivid and stage-wise characterizations: a blustery peacock of a Sergeant Belcore and a resourcefully larcenous yet lovable Dulcamara.
But, unfortunately, neither artist displays the pure and centered Italian sound Donizetti had in mind for this music.
Technical excellence and completeness are the solid virtues to weigh here against those of the Richmond set, in which the singing is ear-caressing but there are minor cuts and signs of sonic aging. I should also point out that Lon don 13101 has the superb Nemorino of Luciano Pavarotti and the far from ideal but still extraordinary Adina of Joan Sutherland. It is complete, excellently conducted and record ed-but again with a Belcore and Dulcamara who are unsatisfactory. G.J.
FAURE: Impromptu No. 5, Op. 102; Nocturne No. 13, Op. 119 (see LISZT)
GIULIANI: Guitar Concerto No. 2, in A Major, Op. 36; Guitar Concerto No. 3, in F Major, Op. 70. Pepe Romero (guitar); Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner cond. PHILIPS 9500 320 $8.98, 7300 598 $8.98.
Performance: Expert
Recording: Quite good
These are Giuliani's "other" guitar concertos, the one we always hear being No. 1 , in A Major, Op. 30. That work, well represented on records, is a real charmer; its two successors, I would think, are to be enjoyed primarily by the most devoted aficionados of the instrument. The Second Concerto, which runs on for fully thirty-two minutes, is pleasant enough but offers nothing really memorable, and almost all of the color is supplied by the guitar itself, with the orchestra made up of strings alone. The Third, evidently modeled after the late piano concertos of Mozart, is a little shorter and a little more appealing, thanks in large part to effective use of a flute, timpani, and pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets. The expert performances are all anyone could ask, and the recorded sound is quite good. R.F.
HINDEMTTH: Sonata for Double Bass and Piano. Gary Karr (double bass); Harmon Lewis (piano). Three Pieces for Five Instruments. Julian Spear (clarinet); Malcolm McNab (trumpet); Israel Baker (violin); Buell Neidlinger (double bass); Zita Camo (piano). Suite "1922," Op. 26. Zita Carno (piano). GSC 6 $6.98.
Performance: First-rate
Recording: Good
GSC is a West Coast record company operated by three musicians who take part in the recordings (Julian Spear, the clarinetist in this performance of the Three Pieces, is the "S" of the group); its catalog so far seems to be limited to Hindemith's chamber and solo works, of which this disc constitutes Volume 6. The Three Pieces may well be appearing on records for the first time with this release.
Both the other works offered here are also included in the Da Camera Hindemith series is sued by the Musical Heritage Society, but the new performances outshine those versions and GSC's sound is much brighter too. All three of the performances gathered here are first-rate, as the names of the performers would suggest, and the recording is quite good. An attractive and valuable package. R. F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
LISZT: Sonata in B Minor. FAURE: Impromptu No. 5, Op. 102; Nocturne No. 13, Op. 119. Vladimir Horowitz (piano). RCA ARL I-2548 $7.98, 0 ARSI-2548 $7.98, ARK1-2548 $7.98.
Performance: Best Liszt
Recording: Fine
Liszt and Faure may appear to be strange bed fellows, but Vladimir Horowitz plays the intimate and reflective music in the Liszt-and there is a great deal of such music in the B Mi nor Sonata-with the same delicacy and poetry that he brings to Faure. Indeed, the avoidance of rhetoric is a hallmark of this performance; for simple, poetic fantasy and depth of feeling, it is clearly ahead of most of the competition. Not that Horowitz neglects the darker forces of strength and demonism, for here they are twice as powerful for being set against a surprising gentleness and a passion ate lyricism.
I much prefer Liszt's passion to Faure's cool, but Horowitz, the quintessential lyric artist, could mine poetry out of a Czerny exercise. Actually, the Faure Nocturne No. 13 is a late work charged with a great deal of emotion not very far beneath the surface. Horowitz has the best surface in the business, but, never content to leave it at that, he has pushed beneath to produce a very persuasive advocacy for this rare work-as well as a tremendous version of the familiar Liszt. E.S.
MOZART: La Clemenza di Tito (see Best of the Month )
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
ORFF: Trionfo di Afrodite. Isabella Nawe, Renate Krahmer, Regina Werner (sopranos);
Eberhard Buchner, Horst Hiestermann (ten ors); Karl-Heinz Stryczek (baritone); Reiner Suss (bass); Radio Chorus, Leipzig; Radio Chorus, Berlin; Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig, Herbert Kegel cond. PHILIPS 9500 150 $8.98.
Performance: First-rate
Recording: Superb
Carl Orff's ritual theater triptych beginning with Carmina Burana and continuing with Catulli Carmina reaches its true culmination in the Trionfo di Afrodite. This work celebrates life's fulfillment as symbolized by a stylized Graeco-Roman wedding ceremony, with texts drawn from Catullus, Sappho, and Euripides (a paean to Aphrodite from the surviving fragment of his tragedy Philoctetes).
Such being the literary sources, Philips should certainly have provided texts and translations, but that is one of the few reservations I have about this record.
In many respects Trionfo di Afrodite is the part of the triptych that wears best through repeated hearings. The song and dance elements are beautifully balanced and the use of melisma--so characteristic of the Mediterranean melodic style-is extremely artful throughout. The work runs the gamut from the fun and games enjoyed by the wedding guests to the ecstatic intimacy of the bridal pair to a concluding orgiastic outburst of the entire assembly under the spell of "all-powerful Aphrodite." Tremendous demands are made on the soloists and choruses alike, and they are backed up by a huge and varied orchestra augmented by guitars, pianos, and some two dozen percussion instruments.
Around two years ago Herbert Kegel and his East German forces gave us, also on Phil ips, an altogether enthralling realization of Catulli Carmina, and that feat is repeated here on a far grander scale. The bass soloist in the 1974 Supraphon recording does score some points over his Leipzig counterpart, Reiner Suss, in the elaborate spoken passages in Section V, but the more exuberant Philips performance is decidedly superior overall and the recorded sound is superb. D. H.
PURCELL: The Indian Queen; Masque, from Timon of Athens. Honor Sheppard, Jean Knibbs (sopranos); Alfred Deller, Mark Deller (countertenors); Paul Elliott, Malcolm Knowles (tenors); Maurice Bevan (baritone); instrumental soloists; Deller Choir; The King's Music, Alfred Deller cond. HNH 4035/6 two discs $15.96.
Performance: Gentle
Recording: Lovely
The Indian Queen (not to be confused with The Fairie Queen) was a thunderous Restoration spectacle about the Incas and the Aztecs.
It was written by John Dryden and Sir Robert Howard in 1664 and revived in 1695 with mu sic by Purcell. Such epics as this one, al though called operas, made extensive use of music only in certain scenes: generally formal masques, celebrations, supernatural scenes, and the like. The masque from Timon of Athens was a similar sort of enterprise: a self contained, mildly dramatic scene-a confrontation between the followers of Cupid and those of Bacchus-inserted in a Restoration version of Shakespeare's potboiler.
In spite of the unlikely and artistically confining circumstances, these "incidental" scores contain some of Purcell's most beguiling music, and a good deal of it is in the album at hand. Purcell was careful to keep his theater music in his clearest, most popular style, but his artistic and theatrical instincts constantly take the lead and lift the music up to the highest plane. This is an unbeatable combination in theater music; one only wishes that there was some way to get these scenes onto the contemporary stage.
In lieu of that, a recording can serve as our Theater of the Mind's Eye, and this one al most fills that bill. It was lovingly prepared by Alfred Deller, who appears here primarily as a conductor, leaving most of the singing to others. The voices are beautiful and elegant.
My only complaint is that the whole thing is suffused by a certain delicacy, a gentle, languishing tone that I cannot believe is fully apt for the very popular and theatrical character of the music. It is only time that retroactively puts qualities of fragility and tastefulness into music whose strengths are, in great part, directness and vigor. With this reservation, I still recommend the disc as a whole, particularly the Timon of Athens music, which I had not heard before and which is an utter delight from beginning to end. Oh yes, the contest be tween love and wine is a standoff. E.S.
RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 3, in A Minor, Op. 44. Aleko: Intermezzo; Women's Dance. London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn cond. ANGEL 0 S-37260 $7.98, 4XS-37260 $7.98.
Performance: Volatile
Recording: Good
RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 3, in A Mi nor, Op. 44; The Rock, Op. 7. Rotterdam Phil harmonic Orchestra, Edo de Waart cond.
PHILIPS 9500 302 $8.98, 7300 596 $8.98.
Performance: Lyrical
Recording: Very good
Given these two latest recordings, Stokowski's high-powered 1975 reading for the Desmar label, and the two Philadelphia Orchestra versions-one with Ormandy, the other with the composer himself--there can be no complaint that Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony is not well represented on discs. Previn's reading is volatile in the end movements as well as in the grimly satanic middle section of the slow movement. Edo de Waart elects a more studied, lyrical approach, rich in detail and nuance, and it is abetted by truly out standing sonics. Previn, like Stokowski, takes the first-movement repeat, while De Waart together with Ormandy and Rachmaninoff omits it. De Waart's very convincing performance of the impassioned, somewhat Tchaikovsky-like The Rock makes for a better filler than the sensual but rather bland Aleko excerpts chosen by Previn. The Previn recording is very spacious in its ambiance, perhaps to the detriment of some of the climaxes of the symphony. Four-channel playback makes for comparatively little enhancement here.
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John Browning's "Pictures"
IT is astounding, perhaps even alarming, that I so fine a pianist as John Browning has done so little recording of late, and it was most enterprising of Delos Records to snare him for an imaginatively assembled collection of mu sic by Modeste Moussorgsky. The major work is the Pictures at an Exhibition, in a version Browning himself produced as a result of hearing Vladimir Horowitz's unpublished arrangement and after "careful study" (as he says in a modest jacket note) of both the Ravel orchestration and Pavel Lamm's authoritative edition of Mussorgsky’s original.
Browning's revisions consist of "occasional doublings, changes of register, and coloristic embellishment," as well as "a contrapuntal augmentation of the Promenade motif" in The Great Gate of Kiev. It is a superb performance-quite grand in scale, utterly convincing in every section, and very well reproduced. I think I prefer it to any other piano version now available, including Sviatoslav Richter's remarkable 1958 live recording from Sofia (Odyssey Y 32223), the allure of which is reduced by muffled sonics.
Browning's disc is filled out by an apparently unique recording of Mussorgsky’s intriguing two-movement Sonata for Piano Duet (with Browning taking both parts via overdubbing), plus the early Impromptu Passione and both the composer's own and Rachmaninoff's arrangements for solo piano of the celebrated Hopak from The Fair at Sorochinsk. The al bum is a winner on all counts, I think, and is just possibly the piano record of the year.
-Richard Freed
MOUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition; Sonata for Piano Duet; Hopak (two versions); Impromptu Passione. John Browning (piano). DELOS DEL-25430 $7.98.
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All told, I'm not sure that either of these versions is the one I would choose to live with. The composer's own is of unique historical value. Stokowski, despite his stress on the non troppo element in the slow movement, remains for me the most exciting interpreter. For sonics it's a choice between the vividness of the Stokowski Desmar disc and the gorgeous warmth of the Philips. D.H.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
SAINT-SAENS: Violin Concerto No. 3, in B Minor,, Op. 61. CHAUSSON: Poeme, Op. 25.
FAURE: Berceuse, Op. 16. Isaac Stern (violin); Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim cond. COLUMBIA M 34550 $7.98.
Performance: Convincing
Recording: Top-drawer
SAINT-SAENS: Violin Concerto No. 3, in B Minor, Op. 61; Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28; Havanaise, Op. 83. Pierre Amoyal (violin); New Philharmonia Orchestra, Vernon Handley cond. MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY MHS 3738 $4.95 (plus $1.25 handling charge from Musical Heritage Society, Inc., 14 Park Road, Tinton Falls, N.J. 07724).
Performance: Competent
Recording: Cramped
Isaac Stern in fine form, France's top orchestral aggregation, Daniel Barenboim as conductor, and recorded sound that combines a fine spaciousness with good presence for soloist and ensemble alike-what more could you ask? The brilliant virtuosity and rhetorical flourishes of the Saint-Satins B Minor Concerto and the hothouse passion of the Chausson Poeme (inspired, it is said, by Turgenev's Song of Love Triumphant) become more than usually convincing in this new Columbia recording. The only thing I can't fathom about the release is the inclusion of Faure's rather inconsequential three-and-a-half-minute Berceuse on a side that could easily have accommodated, say, Ravel's Tzigane. Be that as it may, this Stern/Barenboim collaboration is still thoroughly enjoyable and absorbing.
The Musical Heritage Society disc, on the other hand, is a disappointment. Most of the great virtuoso fiddlers have had their innings with the Rondo Capriccioso and the Havanaise, and there are at least three currently available recordings (including the new Stern) that offer superior performances of the concerto. Pierre Amoyal is a competent violinist, but here he is too closely miked and the sound seems definitely cramped overall. D.H.
SAINT-SAENS: Symphony No. 3, in C Minor, Op. 78 ("Organ"); Wedding Cake for Piano and Strings, Op. 76. Daniel Chorzempa (organ, piano); Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Edo de Waart cond. PHILIPS 9500 306 $8.98, 7300 597 $8.98.
Performance: Refined and lyrical
Recording: Very good
If you have tired of the super-charged, block buster approach to the Saint-Saens
Organ Symphony, then this is the disc for you. Edo de Waart's reading is
an affectionate and painstaking one, notable for its sensitive nuances and
attention to detail in the more delicately textured episodes of the opening
movement and throughout the middle movements. 
ISAAC STERN A convincing collaboration
with Barenboim.
I'm not about to throw away my Litaize/ Barenboim/Chicago Symphony recording of the symphony (Deutsche Grammophon 2530 3 619), but for a contrasting treatment this new one will do very nicely.
The Wedding Cake valse-caprice--a delightful matrimonial piece d'occasion some what akin to Gottschalk's salon music-gets a fine performance here with organist Daniel Chorzempa displaying fine prowess at the piano keyboard. The recording is altogether splendid throughout. D.H.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
PETER SCHICKELE: Portrait of P. D. Q.
Bach. Missa Hilarious. John Ferrante (bar gain-counter tenor); Harris Poor (basso blot to); Ransom Wilson, Diva Goodfriend-Koven (tape recorders, hand flutes, corrugahorn, nose flutes); Early Anderson (trombonus in terruptus); Duh Brooklyn Boys Chorus; New York Pick-up Ensemble, Peter Schickele cond. Eine Kleine Nichtmusik. New York Pick-up Ensemble, Peter Schickele cond.
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Poulenc and G Stravinsky: An Odd Coupling Makes Sense
----Soprano Judith Blegen: radiant solos
Music on sacred texts with an ecumenical appeal seems to bring out the very best in Leonard Bernstein as a conductor and often as a composer as well. I had been hoping for some time that he would get around to recording Poulenc's Gloria and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, though it would not have occurred to me to pair these works, as Columbia has now done. The coupling makes fine sense, actually, for there is a great deal more that they have in common than separates them, and both performances are supercharged (but not overcharged) with the sort of fervor that cannot fail to be communicated and shared, whether by the listener or by Bernstein's committed co-participants.
The radiance of Judith Blegen's solos in the Poulenc, the sassy instrumental interjections in the choral sections of that work, the rhythmic acuity of the Stravinsky-all contribute to an impression of electrifying freshness.
Both works are, after all, at least in part swaggeringly joyous glorifications, and in Bernstein's realizations exultation and exaltation become one. There is a little hardness to the sound, there is some conspicuous pre-echo in the "Quisedes" of the Poulenc, and the chorus on the Stravinsky side is occasionally overwhelmed by the instrumental mass, but in general the bright, scrubbed quality of the re cording makes all the lines beautifully clear.
This is the sort of aural excitement that doesn't fade, but rather is self-renewing with each exposure.
-Richard Freed
POULENC: Gloria. Judith Blegen (soprano); Westminster Choir; New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein cond. STRAVINSKY: Symphony of Psalms. English Bach Festival Chorus; London Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein cond. COLUMBIA M 34551 $7.98.
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Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments. John Solum (flute); Leonard Amer (oboe); Lorin Glickman (bassoon); Theodore Weis (trumpet); William G. Brown (French horn); Neal Di Biase (trombone). A Consort of Christmas Carols. Duh Brooklyn Boys Chorus, James McCarthy dir. VAN GUARD VSD $7.98.
Performance: Sophisticated schlock
Recording: Very good
Those who have followed the career of P.D.Q. Bach since Prof. Peter Schickele began unearthing the Baroque abominations of J. S. Bach's youngest (and least) child will know what to expect from this disc. Others can only be warned to brace themselves. The composer of the Concerto for Horn and Hardart, the Schleptet in E-flat Major, and the cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn evidently applied his peculiar talents to more scores than even Prof. Schickele at first suspected. His Missa Hilarious, with its pig-Latin Kyrie, its "sock-it-to-me" Gloria, and its Swiss yodels and Spanish ole's ingeniously juxtaposed with passages of the Donna Nobis Pasta and Angus Dei ("She's the prettiest cow I've ever seen, and I have seen a few"), is a major work that in its own frantic way is an answer to the Missa Solemnis of Beethoven--or anybody else's attempt to set a Latin text to mu sic. The Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments, on the other hand, is a work perhaps more representative of the composer's good-humored, somewhat besot ted character. The Consort of Christmas Carols, finally, sounds as though a demented Benjamin Britten had risen from his grave to take revenge on every boys' choir that ever harangued a harmony. In the remarkable O’ Little Town of Hackensack, Duh Brooklyn Boys Chorus chirps excitedly over Santa's appearance with his nervous reindeer in the New Jersey skies of first Tenafly, then Secau cus, and finally Hackensack itself. Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John is a tippling trifle, and Good King Kong Looked Out works its will on counterpoint in ways from which mu sic may never quite recover.
Eine Kleine Nichtmusik is attributed on the jacket not to P. D. Q. Bach but to Prof. Schickele, and it is noteworthy how similar they are in their approach, considering the nearly two centuries that separate them.
Schickele is perhaps the more daring of the two, interspersing the Mozartean strains of his serenade with sly references to works of Franck, Dvorak, and Stravinsky, as well as Foster's Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair and even Dixie, which the New York Pick-up Ensemble ain't just whistlin'.
Prof. Schickele's ad libiter remarks, some of them apparently left on the disc inadvertently as the result of inebriated editing, are not always as witty or diverting as the music.
But then something is bound to deteriorate in he brain of a man who holes up at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople and devotes his entire life to studying the works of Johann Sebastian's most attenuated progeny.
It's amazing that the poor chap can still even find his way to a microphone. P.K.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
SCHUBERT: Songs. Die Junge Nonne (D. 828); Der Konig in Thule (D. 367); Gretchen am Spinnrade (D. 118); Gretchens Bitte (D. 564); Scene from "Faust" (D. 126); Suleika (D. 720); Suleikas Zweiter Gesang (D. 717); Raste, Krieger! (D. 837); Jager, Ruhe von der Jagd (D. 838); Ave Maria (D. 839). Elly Ameling (soprano); Meinard Kraak (baritone, in D. 126); Dalton Baldwin (piano). PHILIPS 9500 169 $9.98.
Performance: Charming
Recording: Good
Any collection of Schubert songs is welcome-especially if the singer is Elly Ameling. These are the songs of what might be called Schubert's heroines: Gretchen or (Marguerite) from Goethe's Faust, Suleika from the West-ostlicher Divan (a Goethe collection, although the poems in question are said to have been written by Goethe's friend Marianne von Willemer), and Ellen from Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake. Some of these songs, such as Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel and the Ave Maria, are ultra-familiar; others, such as the dramatic scene from Faust (re corded here with Meinard Kraak and an un named chorus), are very little known. Familiar or unfamiliar, they are sung with equal charm and grace by Elly Ameling. This music is a simpler world than ours but it is also a place in which modern alienation is already an undertone, and it is this mixture of simple lyricism and underlying anguish that makes the Schubert songs so appealing and which is so well captured here. E. S.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
SCHUMANN: Fantasia in C Major, Op. 17; Etudes Symphoniques, Op. 13. Misha Dichter (piano). PHILIPS 9500 318 $8.98.
Performance: Idiomatic
Recording: First-rate
Misha Dichter won second prize in the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, but he was the popular favorite throughout. He then made three or four more-than-respectable records for RCA; they are no longer in the catalog, however, and he has not been heard from on disc for a decade or so. He is still only thirty-two, and this new Philips recording is a most auspicious re-entry into the lists. Dichter's Schumann has the grandeur and weight of Arrau's, the spontaneity of Perahia's, and just a touch of impetuosity, which seems thoroughly idiomatic in this material. Like Arrau and Perahia, Dichter integrates the five posthumous variations into his performance of the Etudes Symphoniques; unlike them, but like Vladimir Ashkenazy, he benefits from having his thirty-minute performance fit snugly on a single side, allowing for another major half-hour piece on the other. While Ashkenazy's similar coupling on London CS 6471 is one of the glories of the Schumann discography, I have no reluctance in putting Dichter's new disc in the same class; his interpretations are a bit more exuberant, Ashkenazy's a bit more subtle, but neither is deficient in either quality. R.F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
R. STRAUSS: Aus Italien, Op. 16. Dresden State Orchestra, Rudolf Kempe cond. SERAPHIM 0 S-60301 $3.98.
Performance: All-out
Recording: Excellent
Aus Italien, the least often heard of Strauss' large-scale works for orchestra, was the com poser's first attempt-at age twenty-two-to write descriptive music. All in all, it is not a great work, perhaps not even an "important" one, but it is surely enjoyable enough to be heard from time to time. This recording was first released in Germany a few years ago as part of Rudolf Kempe's complete Strauss cycle, and, if I'm not mistaken, that was the work's first appearance on discs since the 1954 Clemens Krauss version on London.
(That classic performance has been reissued on Richmond R 23210, but the mono sound re ally does show its age.) As we would expect from Kempe's Strauss, the reading here is as persuasive as could be-of a sort that might well convince other conductors to consider programming the piece. The sound of the economical Seraphim pressing compares very well with that of the German EMI original; it is extremely rich, both full-bodied and finely detailed. If there is any ground for complaint about this issue, it can only be a tiny one concerning the labeling.
Some titles just don't take well to translation, and calling this "From Italy" seems about as awkward as referring to Die Fledermaus by the other Strauss as "The Bat." R.F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet, Over ture-Fantasy; Francesca da Rimini. Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy cond.
RCA ARL1-2490 $7.98, 0 ARS 1-2490 $7.98, ARK1-2490 $7.98.
Performance: Noble
Recording: Spectacular
TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet, Over ture-Fantasy. London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult cond: BERLIOZ:Romeo and Juliet: Orchestral Excerpts. Romeo's Reverie and Fete of the Capulets; Love Scene; Queen Mail Scherzo. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Antal Dorati cond. QUINTESSENCE PMC 7045 $3.98.
Performance: Controlled passion
Recording: Somewhat dated
The star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare's tragedy have inspired a whole literature of musical compositions-operas by Gounod and Zandonai, Prokofiev's ambitious ballet score, Tchaikovsky's "overture-fantasy," Berlioz's "dramatic symphony," even Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. Measured by popularity the Tchaikovsky, of course, wins hands down; there are more than thirty recordings listed in Schwann. Indeed, it is hard to believe that any conductor could wring an additional ounce of heartbreak out of this all too familiar work that Balakirev badgered Tchaikovsky into composing in 1869 (and later into revising), yet that is what happens with the new version by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy. With sumptuous orchestral resources at his disposal, Ormandy evidently re-examined the piece and found in it not only the color of the musical swordplay between the clashing Capulets and Montagues and all the melodrama of the sweeping denouement, but a fresh beauty in the poignancy of the love theme and a fine tenderness in the dirge that brings the music to its mournful close. This is an unhurried, spacious, superbly balanced, and exceptionally articulate performance. It is backed, most satisfactorily, by another love story in music-the tone poem set in a windy section of Dante's Inferno where the souls of Francesca and her adulterous lover Paolo are eternally tossed about in the dark.
The Quintessence rerelease offers Sir Adrian Boult's ardent yet restrained treatment of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, but in both sonics and performance it is no match for the Ormandy. The music from the Berlioz sym phony. though, particularly the glittering Queen Mab Scherzo, is handsomely played by the Royal Philharmonic under Dorati, and the Sixties sound holds up well. P.K.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
VERDI: La Traviata. Beano. Cotrubas (soprano), Violetta Valery; Placido Domingo (tenor), Alfredo; Sherrill Milnes (baritone), Giorgio Germont; Stefania Malagii (mezzo soprano), Flora Bervoix; Bruno Grella (baritone), Douphol; Alfredo Giacomotti (bass), D'Obigny; Giovanni Foiani (bass), Dottore Grenvil; Walter Gullino (tenor), Gastone, Giuseppe; others. Bavarian State Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2707 103 two discs $17.98, 3370 024 $17.98.
Performance: Very good
Recording: Excellent
This excellently cast and splendidly engineered La Traviata is undoubtedly one of the best of all recorded versions. In overall merit I unhesitatingly rate it above all others except RCA 6154 (Moffo) and Angel S-3623 (De los Angeles), which continue to retain my long-held affection.
The enticements of the new set are many. Ileana Cotrubas is a thoroughly satisfying Violetta: touching, vulnerable, tragedy-haunted.
SHERRILL MILNES, I LEANA COTRUBAS,
PLACIDO DOMINGO: La Traviata excellently cast.
While she is not a bravura dazzler, she meets the vocal demands of the first act expertly, with neatly executed turns in the "Libiamo" and cleanly articulated runs and a secure E-flat in "Sempre libera." She makes all the dramatic points without excess, though she could have made her "Addio del passato" even more heartrending at a marginally slower pace.
In recent years, Sherrill Milnes has developed a remarkable mezza-voce technique, and Germont is a role in which he can and does put it to excellent use. Although his top register lacks the ultimate tonal refinement, the overall portrayal is distinguished. So is Placido Domingo's Alfredo, which displays his characteristic tonal security and musician ship. And a good group of comprimari rounds out the cast; Dottore Grenvil is particularly well sung (by Giovanni Foiani).
Carlos Kleiber conducts briskly, incisively, and with remarkable precision. His sense of balance and dynamics is unfailing, his overall control is awesome. There is no sagging of momentum, but rather a sense of ever-present tension. On the debit side, he sometimes pushes his allegros to the point where they become uncomfortable for the singers or chorus. He manages to get clear articulation nonetheless, but this kind of unrelenting energy seldom makes the right vocal effect. Two instances will illustrate my point. In the first act, after the "Libiamo," Violetta's sudden indisposition elicits a shocked reaction from Alfredo and the guests, but Kleiber's relent less pacing causes this crucial development to pass virtually unnoticed. Later, at Flora's party, Violetta's arching reiterated phrases ("Ah, perche venni incauta") are similarly deprived of their full dramatic significance. In short, we have masterly conducting here, but the lack of flexibility suggests an insufficient emotional involvement.
The opera presented here is complete on two discs without obsessive literalness about the Urtext. There is only one verse each of Alfredo's "O mio rimorso" and Germont's "No, non udrai rimproveri," and there are no second verses to Violetta's "Ah, fors 'e lui" and "Addio del passato." I applaud this procedure without reservation. I applaud the entire enterprise, in fact, though my fervor is tempered by Maestro Kleiber's own re strained enthusiasm. G.J.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
VILLA-LOBOS: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 3; Mennoprecoce. Cristina Ortiz (piano); New Philharmonia Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy cond. ANGEL S-37439 $7.98.
Performance: Enjoyable
Recording: Quite good
Villa-Lobos composed only five piano concertos labeled as such, but he produced others under different titles. The two here are probably the best, and certainly the most delicious, of the lot. Apparently there has been only one short-lived recording of each before this release, and neither has been around for at least fifteen years. I never got to hear Felicia Blumenthal's Vox record of Bachianas No. 3, but I do remember the old Angel on which Magda Tagliaferro, for whom Villa Lobos composed Momoprecoce (and who was one of Cristina Ortiz's teachers), played that work with the composer conducting, and it had neither the polish nor the spirit that distinguish this new version. The title, as Frederick Fuller explains in his very helpful annotation, "is deliberately ambiguous, meaning 'precocious lad' and also 'young Momus' (the King of the Carnival)." This alternately exuberant and insinuating fantasy of 1929 is more or less an expansion of the Carnaval das Crancas Brasileiras, a suite for piano solo that Villa-Lobos wrote ten years earlier (included in Roberto Szidon's Villa-Lobos package, Deutsche Grammophon 2530 634).
Bachianas No. 3 is somewhat less extrovert, but similarly flavorsome. The four-movement sequence is marked Preludio, Fantasia, Aria, and Toccata, the aria being one of Villa-Lobos' characteristically touching modinhas, the toccata (labeled Picapao, a reference to a bird with habits like those of the woodpecker) dancelike in its vigor. This is about as unlikely a repertoire as one might imagine for Vladimir Ashkenazy's second appearance on records in this country as a conductor, but he seems to be enjoying himself thoroughly, and he is at one with his brilliant young colleague every step of the way. The sound is quite good, ensuring the effective ness of every one of Villa-Lobos' little touches of color, and the whole production is the sort of thing that defies one to listen with out smiling out of pure pleasure. R.F.
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COLLECTIONS
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
ACADEMY OF ST. MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS: A Tribute to Holland. Van Bree: Allegro for Four String Quartets. Ricciotti: Con certino No. 4, in F Minor. Vivaldi: Concerto Grosso in D Major (RV 562a, P. 444). Locatelli: Introduzione Teatrale, Op. 4, No. 5. Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner cond. PHILIPS 9500 171 $8.98.
Performance: Superb
Recording: Superb
Of all the ensembles playing Baroque and Classical music today, to my mind the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields as directed by Neville Marriner is the most outstanding. The Academy's performances are clean, vigorous, and straightforward, displaying a consistently high degree of musicianship. Although the instruments and style are both thoroughly modern, Marriner's knowledge of early performance practices makes itself clearly felt. His readings are a perfect compromise between historical and contemporary tastes: the authentic shape of the music is there, but with out the merely fussy details.
What is most delightful about the present album is the programming. All the pieces are associated in some way with Holland, and particularly with Amsterdam. While such a collection could have turned out to be a musical bore, this sparkling array of festive works by a Dutchman, two resident Italians, and a distinguished Italian visitor is quite the opposite. Bernardus van Bree's fresh and beautifully crafted Allegro for Four String Quartets is a first-rate Romantic work in the most jubilant tradition of Mendelssohn. The Carlo Ricciotti concertino, long attributed to Pergolesi, is certainly worthy of that genius. The Vivaldi Concerto Grosso in D Major, which the composer used to display his virtuosity as a violin soloist during a 1738 visit to Amsterdam, is a scintillating pre-Classical affair. And the Introduzione Teatrale by Locatelli, who settled in Amsterdam in 1729 and remained there until his death in 1764, would be a worthy overture to the finest opera buff a or comedy of the period.
We need more records planned this way.
After all, Bach never expected the Brandenburgs to be played in one sitting, nor did Bee thoven plan his sixteen quartets as an integral cycle. S.L.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: French Orchestral Works. Debussy (arr. Busser): Pe tite Suite. Satie (arr. Debussy): Gymnopedies Nos. 1 and 3. Satie (arr. Poulenc): Gnossienne No. 3. Roussel: Sinfonietta, Op. 52. Poulenc: Deux Marches et un Intermede. English Chamber Orchestra, Aviva Einhorn cond. HNH 4027 $7.98.
Performance: Melting
Recording: Excellent
This charming record of French music per formed by the excellent English Chamber Orchestra and described, somewhat mysteriously, as a production of Discos Ensayo, Spain, has been issued here by HNH Records. It is altogether a very attractive production. The Debussy, a four-hand keyboard work orchestrated by Henri Busser, is an effective piece in the 'composer's early style. This sort of ar ranging was popular at the time; the Satie works here were orchestrated by Debussy and Poulenc as an expression of their gratitude toward the man who "invented" modern French music. Poulenc's own Two Marches and an Intermezzo-written as dinner music for a banquet!--are very much in the Satie tradition. Roussel's Sinfonietta is the odd piece in this company; it is a late work (1934) in a rather straightforward, neo-Classical style. All of this music is very well played in a gentle, affectionate, and affecting manner.
Good recording, too. E.S.
PHILIP JONES BRASS ENSEMBLE: In Switzerland. Howarth (arr.): Basel March; The Cuckoo; The Old Chalet; Variations on "The Carnival of Venice"; Berne Patrol. Horovitz: Music Hall Suite. Civil: Tarantango. Koetsier: Petite Suite. Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, Elgar Howarth cond. HNH 4037 $7.98.
Performance: Neat and natty
Recording: Excellent
The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble is a group of itinerant musicians who toot their melodies with considerable skill for the entertainment of audiences all over Europe. In the program they offer here, recorded on tour in Switzer land, trumpets, flugelhorns, trombones, percussion, and an occasional cuckoo join in lively, precise performances of such original material as Joseph Horovitz's Music Hall Suite, a kind of miniature musical circus all in itself, complete with cyclists and a "soft shoe-shuffle," that reminded this listener of some of the more sardonic moments in William Walton's Facade. The ensemble's conductor, Elgar Howarth, has supplied some pretty arrangements of Swiss regional tunes from Lucerne and Berne, marches from Basel and Zurich (which certainly keep things moving), and a set of virtuoso variations on The Carnival of Venice. For atmosphere there's a little suite by Jan Koetsier consisting of five tiny movements each as neatly turned out as a tourist cuckoo clock. The cuckoo itself is heard in a piece appropriately enough called The Cuckoo-which couldn't be more Swiss if it ticked. P.K.
JOHN McCORMACK: A Legendary Performer. Handel: Semele: O sleep! Why dost thou leave me? Mozart: Don Giovanni: Il mio teso ro. Bizet: The Pearl Fishers: Mi par d'udir an cora. Donizetti: Daughter of the Regiment: Per viver vicino a Maria. Bimboni: Sospiri miei andate. Parkyns: Le Portrait. Schumann: The Singer's Consolation. Rachmaninoff: When Night Descends. Tosti: Venetian Song. Bartlett: A Dream. Balfe: Come into the Garden, Maud. Lehmann: Ah! Moon of My Delight; Bonny Wee Thing. Trad. (arr. Hughes): The Next Market Day; A-Ballynure Ballad; The Bard of Armagh. John McCormack (tenor); Edwin Schneider (piano); Fritz Kreisler (violin, in Rachmaninoff); various orchestras and conductors. RCA CRM1-2472 $7.98.
Performance: Classic
Recording: Good, with reservations
As a follow-up to the first release (Enrico Caruso), RCA has continued its new Legendary Performer series with one disc each devoted to Arturo Toscanini and John McCormack.
All the old recordings involved have been re stored by the new Stockham/Soundstream computer process, which is explained in the annotations. The procedure is ingenious, and it will be appreciated by those who are techno logically inclined. My main concern is with the end product.
Let me begin with the most important factor: John McCormack is a legendary performer indeed. Most of the selections here (originally recorded between 1910 and 1920) are classics, cherished examples of technical virtuosity, absolute ease of tone production, mastery of dynamic shading, immaculate intonation, and clarity of enunciation.
Comparing the new release with Victrola discs 1393 and 1472, which contain several of the more important selections (Handel, Mozart, Donizetti, Bizet), one notes first that the new disc was produced at a .higher volume level. More important, there is none of the veiled quality characteristic of the Victrola pressings; the singer not only appears to be closer to us, his voice is more clearly separated from the orchestral background. In contrast to the homogenized neutrality of the Victrola sound, the new disc offers a more lifelike sound with sharper contours. But the change is not all to the good. There is distinct back ground rumble throughout, and it can reach disturbing proportions in such delicate moments as the pianissimo close of the Donizetti aria. Veteran collectors, with ears trained to filter out unwanted noises, may not find this too detrimental. Unless you fit into this category, I urge you not to take the extravagant sales claims too seriously. In any case, McCormack will not let you down, in whatever format.
G.J.
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Karajan and the nine Beethoven symphonies
HERBERT VON KARAJAN'S second integral set of the nine Beethoven symphonies with his Berlin Philharmonic, released late last year, was recorded by Deutsche Grammophon in the orchestra's own concert hall instead of the Jesus Christus Kirche used for the earlier one. Released in 1962, that first set had in the interval remained pretty much on top of the heap among Beethoven symphony cycles on discs (I admit to unfamiliarity with the recent Solti and Haitink sets, either or both of which may have some points of decisive superiority) in terms of a combination of high-quality sound and consistently compel ling interpretations. Overall, the new Karajan set is significantly better. The uniformly excellent sound is darker and richer than before, with a "burnished mahogany" quality redo lent of New York's Carnegie Hall and particularly striking improvements in presence of the upper string tones and cleanness of the bass transients. Most of the interpretations are also superior, but a few things in them make me glad that I still have the 1962 recordings which, fortunately, remain available singly.
The differences between the two performances of the First Symphony are essentially marginal, except that Karajan has omitted the first-movement repeat this time and instead gives the whole movement a slightly more relaxed pace. The slow movement receives super-elegant treatment with respect to nuance and transparency of texture. Overall, though, I still prefer the somewhat brighter sound and more light-handed approach of the earlier version.
The new No. 2 wins hands down over its predecessor, with wonderfully fiery performances of the outer movements and flawless readings of the inner ones.
THE Eroica remake is quite different from the 1962 version, and my feelings about it are mixed. The first-movement tempo here is the same as Toscanini's in his 1953 recording, but the music doesn't seem to breathe the way the Italian maestro let it. Karajan's earlier reading was a shade slower and altogether grander in effect. On the other hand, the Marcia Funebre and the thematic disintegration in the final part of the second movement come off better than before. With the scherzo, I again prefer the tauter 1962 version, but the improved sonics make a telling argument for the new finale, which in pacing is some what more relaxed and flexible than the older one. Karajan's infinite care with interpretive nuances and the Berlin players' superb responsiveness make the valedictory pages just before the jubilant close genuinely affecting.
Symphony No. 4, that prototype of all the lyrical-heroic symphonies to come, fares beautifully in both recordings. The newer one is a little easier in pace, the earlier a stunning virtuoso affair (in the opening and closing movements especially).
So far as I'm concerned, Karajan's new Fifth is better on all counts than his 1962 version. A less hasty way with the opening movement makes for cleaner articulation and more effective tonal drama, whereas the scherzo and finale profit from an urgency and tension in phrasing that was lacking before.
The Pastoral got something of a once-over lightly from Karajan in 1962; his new approach is warmer and more relaxed. The brook music is marvelously transparent in texture, and the orchestra really does kick up a splendidly spine-tingling storm to interrupt the peasants' merrymaking. This Pastoral may not suit Bruno Walter fans, but within its own frame of reference it is a good one.
With minor reservations, the Seventh Symphony in the new set is interpretively one of the best of the lot, and it is superbly per formed from start to finish. If it weren't for Karajan's insistence-here as in 1962-on treating the famous allegretto tune in legato rather than dotted style, I would rank this reading of the work with the classic Toscanini/New York Philharmonic version of 1936. And I also wonder about the rather strong horn coloration in the chord that opens the allegretto.
Until the finale, the Eighth here is a triumph of combined virtuosity and musicianship, but in the finale virtuosity for its own sake seems to get the upper hand. Karajan's blistering pace becomes virtually a presto-to the music's detriment. His earlier reading of the finale is superior.
The ever-problematic Ninth remains problematic. I for one, have never heard a recorded performance of it with totally satisfying performance and sound throughout all four movements. Having recently compared a half-dozen versions I had at hand, I would say that Karajan's new set offers by and large the best sonic realization of the finale that I have heard, as well as a very fine musical realization (aided by a splendid chorus and a beautifully matched quartet of soloists). But I have yet to hear any other singer, either in concert or on records, who can match Richard Mayr's magisterial rendering of the bass/baritone solo part in Felix Weingartner's mid-Thirties Vienna recording.
Karajan's new first movement gains from the improved sound, but I prefer the swifter and tighter scherzo of 1962, in which he ob serves the initial repeat. In neither recording, to my mind, does Karajan take the measure of the Ninth's slow movement. I sense precious little heart or real tenderness in his readings of these pages. The later one is more refined, though the important violin figuration in the third variation--which gives this episode its very special character--is inexplicably sup pressed to near inaudibility. On the whole, de spite some relative sonic deficiencies in parts of the 1962 recording, I am inclined to stick with that Karajan Beethoven Ninth as op posed to the new one. Of course. I can also turn to those by Szell, Furtwangler, Toscanini, or even Weingartner; but, in the end, I fear that my imagination will have to continue to supply the "perfect" performance.
-David Hall
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BEETHOVEN: Symphonies: No. 11, in C Major, Op. 21; No. 2, in D Major, Op. 36; No. 3, in E-fiat Major, Op. 55 ("Eroica"); No. 4, in B-flat Major, Op. 60; No. 5, in C Minor, Op. 67; No. 6, in F Major, Op. 68 ("Pastoral"); No. 7, in A Major, Op. 92; No. 8, in F Major, Op. 93; No. 9, D Minor, Op. 125 ("Choral"). Anna Tomowa-Sintow (soprano); Agnes Baltsa (contralto); Peter Schreier (ten or); Jose van Dam (baritone); Wiener Singverein. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2740 172 eight discs $63.84, 0 3378 070 $58.88
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Souvenir Horowitz
CERTAIN records are not meant to be reviewed. This is one. To those who were at Vladimir Horowitz's Golden Jubilee Concert with Eugene Ormandy and the New York Philharmonic on January 8 of this year, the disc will be a remembrance--though not a duplication--of what they heard then.
This reviewer was not in that Carnegie Hall audience, and hence approaches the record with a different point of view. But, even for many who were not at the concert, the disc is beyond reviewing. There are some who will take it, even before hearing, as the received word on the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto.
There are others who will be so dazzled by the pianism that they will hear no criticism of the whole.
In truth, the piano playing is consistently dazzling, the problem being that one hears too much of it. What Horowitz plays, and what RCA has given us, is a work for virtuoso piano solo-with occasional orchestral accompaniment. So far as dynamic balance is concerned, this is evident from the start, for when the opening melody shifts to the orchestra, it is the sound of the piano figuration that still dominates the scene. But quite beyond such matters of recording (it could not have sounded that way in concert no matter how much Ormandy held the orchestra down), there is neither real interplay of piano and orchestra nor unanimity between them. Horowitz accelerates and snaps off the ends of phrases, retards the middles, transposes ac cents, rushes, and generally storms along his own course (hitting a few dozen extra notes in the process), while the orchestra plays its notes and tries both to keep up and stay out of the way. One might think it the result of the pianist's long absence from the orchestral concert stage, except that Horowitz has had something of a reputation for cutting up orchestras and conductors right from the beginning of his career. Complicating the matter is the fact that what we hear is not the concert performance, but the concert performance spliced together with passages recorded after the concert.
The results of all this are interesting. The constant presence of the piano tends to make Horowitz's dynamic range seem less than it really is. The great climaxes are not nearly so climactic as they should be, for the sound of the piano surmounting the orchestra is much less striking if it has been there all along. Horowitz is all consistently driving nervous energy, the moments (and they are only moments) of relaxation coming across like energy held in check, and the whole thing begins to sound very neurotic after a while. The piece itself becomes fragmented and the lack of coordination between keyboard and orchestra makes it sound at times rather startlingly modern: solo instrument against an only secondarily related background. Terrific excitement is purchased at the cost of just about everything else.
IN short, then, this is one of the great record ed ego trips of our time. Pianists as well as non-pianists will gasp, not so much at Horowitz's technique per se, but at the way his prodigious powers are put in the service of such personal ferocity. Truly, it is a great pianistic document. It is not a great musical document. That it is worth the purchase i beyond saying, but if it's the Rachmaninoff Third you want to hear, look rather to Mogilevsky or Ashkenazy.
-James Goodfriend
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3, in D Minor, Op. 30. Vladimir Horowitz (piano) New York Philharmonic, Eugene Ormandy cond. RCA CRLI-2633 $7.98.
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NOSTALGIA AND FANTASY: Latin American Art Songs. Villa-Lobos: Melodia Sentimental. Guastavino: Cuando Acaba de Llov er; Prestame Tu Panuelito; Ya Me Voy a Reti rar; Las Puertas de la Mariana. Ramon y Rivera: El Araguaney. Ley: Balada del Tiempo Mozo; Copla Triste. Plaza-Alfonzo: Palma Verde, Garza Blanca. Leon: La Campesina; Cancioncilla; Ayes y Ensuenos; Serenata. Fabini: El Nido. Cluzeau-Mortet: Mar de Luna. Sas: Triolet; La Fuente. Guarnieri: Den Bau. Carmina Gallo (soprano); Jaime Leon (piano).
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES OAS-001 (English notes), 0EA-001 (Spanish notes) $5.00 (from Pan American Development Foundation, Suite 622, 1625 I Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006).
Performance: A rare bouquet
Recording: Very good
The strangest people seem to be getting into the record business these days. The Smithsonian Institution has been issuing old musicals, and now the Organization of American States has started a "Technical Unit on Mu sic" as part of its Department of Cultural Affairs and is issuing "non-profit" albums of material recorded in Latin America. Their first release, issued in both Spanish and English versions (the difference is in the language of the album covers, not of the songs them selves), offers Colombia's operatic soprano Carmifia Gallo and pianist Jaime Leon in eighteen songs by ten Latin American com posers. Gallo's is a well-trained voice, and she applies it with feeling and intelligence to a program of music that is novel as well as beautiful. Though her voice cannot match the rich sweetness of, say, a De los Angeles in similar material, Gallo manages to triumph over her vocal shortcomings by the application of intense passion and insight into every thing she undertakes.
The music here is almost without exception Iberian or Portuguese in influence, with al most no trace of the Indian elements one hears in the folk music of the countries represented. From Brazil comes one of those haunting melodies by Villa-Lobos, his Melodia Sentimental, which opens the program; a second Brazilian song, the lively Den Bau by Guarnieri, closes it. Argentina is represented through songs by Carlos Guastavino, who favors themes of love and rain. El Araguaney, by Ramon y Rivera of Venezuela, is a seductive dance. Also from Venezuela is Plaza-Alfonso's alluring Palma Verde, Garza Blanca. From Guatemala come rueful treatments by Salvador Ley of melancholy lyrics mourning the loss of youth; from Peru some pretty, impressionist constructions by Andres Sas. Uruguay is represented by Eduardo Fabini and Luis Cluzeau-Mortet, in lovely songs whose romantic subjects are trees and moon lit landscapes. Most spectacular of all are the melodies supplied by the accompanist him self, Jaime Leon of Colombia, among them the ravishing Serenata, a haunting lullaby, and several other first-rate examples of a typically Latin American yet highly personal, never excessively flamboyant style. Leon is also an excellent pianist. Just why the OAS has chosen to supply an English-language al bum cover but no translations of the texts of the songs inside is one of those mysteries that will probably never be solved, like the Mayan alphabet. Anyhow, it's a lovely disc. P. K .
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
FRANTIAEK PO.S.TA7 Double Bass Recital.
Borghi: Sonata for Viola d 'Amore and Double Bass. Martini (arr. Nanny): Plaisir d'Amour.
Fryba: Suite in Olden Style for Solo Bass: Gavotte. Bottesini: Melody. Koussevitzky: Chanson Triste. Cerny: Mazurka. Kuchynka: Canzonetta. Hipman: At the Summer Country side. Militant: Elegy. ICreisler (arr. Poita): Liebesleid. Frantigek Poita (double bass); Jaroslav Horak (viola d'amore in Borghi); Jan Panenka (harpsichord in Martini, piano in Bottesini and works listed thereafter). SUPRA PHON 1 11 1949 $7.98 (from Qualiton Records, 65-37 Austin Street, Rego Park, N.Y. 11374).
Performance: Gorgeous
Recording: Very good
Frantisek Poita, the longtime principal bass of the Czech Philharmonic, is known to veteran discophiles for his participation in recordings of the Dvorak Quintet in G Minor, Op. 77, and Schubert's Trout, both formerly avail able on Columbia's short-lived Crossroads la bel and now circulating as Supraphon imports. Poita's recital proves as enchanting as it was unexpected, not merely as a showcase for his virtuosity or the gorgeous sound of his weathered-looking 1693 instrument (pictured on the jacket), but also because there are some real gems among the little-known items in this collection. The very first work on the disc, in fact-a three-movement sonata for viola d'amore and double bass by Giovanni Battista Borghi-is so downright irresistible that it is all one need hear to be hooked.
The notes do not tell us anything about Hans Fryba, Frantiiek Cerny, Vojta Kuchynka, Silvestr Hipman, or Jaroslav Magtalif, , but all of their contributions-from the minute-and-a-half unaccompanied gavotte of Fryba to Cernr s five-and-half-minute mazurka are the most ingratiating encores imaginable.
Poita indulges himself unabashedly in Plaisir d'Amour, but the reverie this becomes in Edouard Nanny's arrangement for bass and harpsichord is the sort of thing that must tempt the performers to linger and caress it.
Kreisler's Liebesleid, on the other hand, is surprisingly idiomatic, played with a light touch one hardly associates with the double bass. The entire program is impressive, most of it unusually enjoyable; the recording itself is just fine, and the surfaces are the quietest I've yet encountered from this source. Get this one. R.F.
SPANISH BAROQUE MUSIC. De Selma y Salaverde: Canzona a Due XIII; Corrente a 2; Fantasia Sobre el Canto del Caballero; Canzona a Due XI. Hidalgo: Cuydado Pastor; Trompicavalas Amor; Credit Es de Mi Decoro; Tonante Dios! (Recitativo y solo de "Minerva"); De las Luces Que en elMar. Romero: Folio a 2, Romerico Florido; Romance a 3, Hermosas y Enojadas. Valenciano: Ay del Amor. De Navas: La Rosa Que Reyna. Anon.: O, Que Bien Que Baila Gil!;Ya Es Tiempo de Recoger. Montserrat Figueras (soprano); Jan neke van der Meer (violin); Jordi Savall (viola da gamba); Pere Ros (violone); Ton Koopman (harpsichord). TELEFUNKEN 6.42156 $7.98.
Performance: Marvelous
Recording: The best
The outstanding feature of this album is the singing of Montserrat Figueras. A native of Barcelona with some Swiss training, she has devoted much time to the vocal techniques of the Iberian peninsula. Logic has rightly led her to examine the folk tradition rather than the bel canto, and the result is stunning. Her voice is utterly devoid of vibrato and slightly nasal, her intonation is perfect, and her diction is exquisite. The Spanish sense of rhythm invigorates each phrase, and flamenco vocal inflections transform each ornament into a passionate yelp. (What a technique this would be for Monteverdi!) It may be a bit startling at first, but one soon appreciates the control and taste of the singing, not to mention the fine musicianship.
The instrumentalists are also excellent. Ton Koopman's realizations on the harpsichord are inventive and lively, yet do not compete with or obscure what he is accompanying.
The string playing is invigorating and the ensemble excellent.
Unfortunately, even though this is a Das Alte Werke release, Telefunken treats Spanish music the same way it has been treated since heaven knows when. Ordinarily Das Alte Werke albums include texts, informative jacket notes, and details about the instruments being used, but there are no texts here nor any details about the instruments. The mu sic of the Spanish Baroque is virtually un known. Surely it deserves a serious discussion so that we may know who the composers were and what they were writing for. When we hear such wonderful singing of such intriguing music, should we not have a text be fore us? Das Alte Werke aspires to the highest musicological standards for mainstream schools. Why shouldn't the same standards of documentation be applied to the utterly un familiar world of early Spanish music? S.L.
JOAN SUTHERLAND AND LUCIANO PAVAROTTI: Operatk Duets. Verdi: La Traviata: Libiamo ne' lieti calici; Un di, felice; Parigi, o cara. Otello: Gianella notte densa. Aida: La fatal pietra . . . O terra, addio. MOM:
La Sonnambula: Prendi, l'anel ti dono. Doni zetti: Linda di Chamounix: Linda! Linda! . . . Daquel di. Joan Sutherland (soprano); Luciano Pavarotti (tenor); London Opera Chorus; National Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Bonynge cond. LONDON OS 26449 $7.98.
Performance: Good to excellent
Recording: Good
Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti are operatic royalty. As such, their wish to record whatever repertoire they choose amounts to a royal command. But, since the world is full of their devoted subjects and these recordings are translatable into enormous sales, who is complaining? Certainly not I. The music chosen for the latest "command performance" of the illustrious pair consists mainly of congenial repertoire, but it also includes familiar scenes from Verdi's Aida and Otello, two operas not normally associated with these artists. And yet, the choice need not cause consternation: both are tender, intimate duets that call for lyric expression in long-spun legato phrases, precisely the domain in which Sutherland and Pavarotti rule. Therefore, especially considering that the new disc presents freshly recorded material, I approached it with exceptional anticipation.
The opening "Libiamo" startled me. Both singers seemed to be having difficulty staying in tune, and I cannot understand how this obviously unsatisfactory take could have been passed for release. The other two duets from La Traviata go much better, particularly for the tenor, who combines clear and pointed diction with distinctive phrasing. The long scene from Bellini's La Sonnambula is excel lent and makes me wish for a new complete recording of the opera with these two artists.
The pretty Linda di Chamounix excerpt also captures both of them in top form.
The Otello duet is excellent. Pavarotti man ages Otello's low-lying opening phrases with surprising tonal solidity for such a high-placed tenor voice; tenor and soprano trade melting mezza-voce phrases in the "E to m 'amavi" dialogue, and Sutherland's "Amen risponda" is ethereal. The dynamics employed through out are so effectively graded that the question of the suitability of the voices for the music never arises. The final scene from Ai4a, how ever, is at best a qualified success. There are admirable moments for both singers, but Sutherland has two surprisingly weak B-flats and the music becomes rhythmically unsteady as the chorus of priestesses enters. This is, of course, the conductor's responsibility, and Richard Bonynge must also take the blame for allowing Sutherland to lag behind his beat so frequently, with most unfortunate results in the earlier "Un di, felice." Surely, better preparation and additional rehearsals would have improved matters.
But Pavarotti and Sutherland nonetheless manage to create moments of vocal magic that reduce the significance of my reservations. Their "subjects" will not be disappointed in this record. G.J.
Also see:
Source: Stereo Review (USA magazine)