Jongen Boo-boo
I'm afraid that Paul Kresh's review of the Jongen Symphonie Concertante (April) is an embarrassing example of sloppy spadework, Mr. Kresh states that "it was only just now that he (Virgil Fox) won the exclusive rights from the publishers to make this first recording." That would have been true if this review had appeared eight or ten years ago. This "new" Angel recording is nothing but a re release of Capitol SP 8573, which I have enjoyed for years. Billed as a "sound spectacular" in the original release, it still deserves Kresh's description of the sound quality as "breathtaking," but its age explains why "Angel did not take advantage of the opportunity to release this one in quadraphonic sound."
WILLIAM B. HUMBLE, JR. Knoxville, Tenn.
Mr. Kresh blushingly replies:
Reader Humble puts his finger neatly and unerringly on the problem: the sound was simply so impressive that it never dawned on me that it might be an old recording-but there it is, squirreled away in fine print on the liner. Perhaps even more impressive than the sound, however, were the dozens of letters of correction sent in by sharp-eyed readers. My red-faced thanks and congratulations, then, to Messrs. Humble, Turner, Sassaman, Dunkley, Kaempf, Geoghegan, Barney, Hahn, Hastings, Peck, Rutledge, Weber, Hawthorne, Finke, Dursthoff, Singer, Johnson, Stickney, Wilson, Gordon, Hudson, DuPont, Allen, Levitzky, Miller, Jones, Bell, Bonar, etc. etc.
The Classical House
Your attempt to produce a list of classical selections that can seduce the younger generation away from rock is a valiant try but is doomed to failure. Your neophyte will no sooner learn to like Stockhausen and John Cage than you will let it slip out that Vivaldi and William Byrd are classical too, and he'll have to start all over again. Just because a listener happens to like Beethoven we should not insist that he like Baroque and twelve tone. You are trapped because the one word "classical" covers a wide variety of music.
WILLIAM B. JORDAN; Scotia, N. Y.
The Editor replies:
In the classical house are many mansions; if it were not so, how else could it accommodate such a wide variety o people? Look upon it as a strength, not a weakness. And the idea is not to "seduce away," but to broaden horizons.
Distaff Opera
As to records of operas by woman com posers (Letters, April), there is more than just an overture by Dame Ethel Smyth. On American discs there are two operas by Peggy Glanville-Hicks, The Transposed Heads and Nausicaa, on Louisville (545/6) and CRI (175), respectively. And another Australian, Margaret Sutherland, is the composer of The been issued by the Australian label of HMV. This record can be obtained from August Rojas Imports, 836 South Detroit St., Los Angeles. I am sure there are other examples, and I look forward to finding them listed in your correspondence columns.
JOSEPH COOPER; Los Angeles, Calif.
Heralding Bax
It was a pleasure to read Richard Freed's review of Arnold Bax's First Symphony (April). For many years the British musical scene was impoverished by the availability of very few recordings of works by Bax, and the American scene was indescribably worse. I hope Mr. Freed's review will have a two-fold result: first, that the other available recordings of Bax's works will be mentioned from time to time, and second, that the availability of recordings of these works will encourage some of our leading symphony orchestras to pre sent the works of Bax to the musical public and hence to the recording studio.
DENIS W. H. MACDOWELL; Morgantown, W. Va.
The Definitive Bix
In his review of Dill Jones' recent album "Davenport Blues" (March), Joel Vance errs in claiming that Bix Beiderbecke's four piano compositions have never "been recorded together." All four have been recorded at least twice, first by the Metropolitan Jazz Octet in 1959 ("The Legend of Bix," Argo-now Cadet LP 659) and second by Bunny Berigan in 1938 (recently reissued on RCA Vintage Series LPV 581) on two consecutive days. Of course, Jess Stacy recorded a coupling of In the Dark and Flashes in 1935 (latest reissue on Prestige 7646). He finally recorded In a Mist in 1950 for a Columbia 10-inch LP.
This latter tune has been recorded by many other jazz musicians, ranging from Jimmy McPartland to a group led by Michel Legrand for a special Columbia recording.
While a reviewer is perfectly justified in criticizing a performance, it is presumptuous to write that an artist should not interpret the music in any manner he deems appropriate.
The very essence of jazz is in the interpretation of the material. Each new performance becomes capable of giving further insights into the original composition. The listener, then, may define for himself the definitive version of it.
THOMAS P. HUSTAD; Toronto, Ontario
Mr. Vance replies:
When I wrote that the Dill Jones album was the first time the four piano pieces had been recorded together I meant as piano performances. I know that there are several orchestral versions, and I believe all those Mr. Hustad cites are band efforts.
I agree that jazz is (partly) the interpretation of material, provided you have some idea of what the material is so that you can appreciate the variations. We may accept the Beiderbecke performance of In a Mist as definitive (although he altered it slightly for publication). So too with the Stacy coupling of Flashes and In the Dark because he plays what Bix wrote--which Jones does not do. All that Scott Joplin wanted was for pianists to play his rags as notated and at the tempo the composer specified. Bix deserves the same treatment, for his piano pieces are not "jazz" of the kind Mr. Hustad is talking about. True, there is jazz in them, but they are a mixture of many styles, and I doubt that even Bix knew exactly what they were. Therefore I think they are less open to interpretation. They should either be played as compositions--as notated-or be subject to variation at the hands of more qualified pianists. I am not, by the way, gunning for Dill Jones; he is a good musician.
His intentions were noble in doing the Bix piano pieces, but I fear he was miscast.
Opiracy
I think that Fred Posner is having us on (Letters, April). Every opera he complained was not available on records is, in fact, readily available on "private" labels. I can't conceive of an opera aficionado not knowing how to get them. For instance, Caballe in La Donna del Lago is MRF-58; Caballe in Caterina Comaro is MRF-99-S; Caballe in La Straniera is MRF-35-S.
He wants to know, "Who owns a copy of Le Prophete?" I do, with Horne and Gedda; it is MRF-65. He asks, "Why doesn't someone record Domingo and Verrett in L'Africaine?" That opera, with Domingo and Verrett superbly recorded at the San Francisco Opera performance of a season or so ago, is BJ RS-131-4. It is the equal of any commercial recording. Robert le Diable is not avail able in the version he wants, but there is an Italian recording with Scotto, Malag ii, and Christoff on EJA-436. It isn't very good. Also available are Verdi's Alzira (ugh!), A roldo, Gerusaleme, II Corsaro, and Stiffelio.
For those who didn't like Martina Arroyo in Sicilian Vespers, there is a superb one with Callas and Christoff. There is another Caterina Cornaro with Leyla Gencer, and a superb Maria Stuarda (really unbelievable) with Caballe and Verrett. There's even a not-very-good Rienzi. And there are literally dozens more.
RALPH NATHANSON; Oakland, Calif.
Beautiful Losers
I really enjoyed J Marks' two tours through the "Hall of Obscurity" (February 1974, December 1972). 1, too, have often peeked through the keyhole into obscurity's hall. For instance, one of my all-time favorite groups is Crowbar, whose albums have shown that rock music need not follow any formula nor be slick and polished. Their first album, "Official Music" (Paramount PAS 5030), features the one and only King Biscuit Boy, Richard Newell, a man you would think is too young to know the blues the way he does. Crowbar went on to make a second album, "Bad Manors" (Paramount PAS 6007). It certainly was bad manners to forget Crowbar and Biscuit.
ALAN P. ALLEGRA; Boston, Mass.
Sinatra Sound
Congratulations to Rex Reed on a direct hit with his review of Frank Sinatra's come back album (February). Sinatra should have definitely waited until he had better material, for the stuff he used was way below his usual previous standards. When considering all the great arrangers Frank might have used, Mr. Reed should have included ex-Dorsey arranger Nelson Riddle. It was Riddle who be came the major sound architect for the buoy ant Sinatra, thus ending Frank's miserable slump on April 30, 1953. Nelson Riddle did more for Frank Sinatra than any other arranger the singer ever had; Riddle's swinging brass-and-string sound pushed Sinatra's de livery into a greater rhythmic thrust, and Frank's feeling for contrasting material be came more pronounced.
E. J. MURPHY; Pensacola, Fla.
Completeness: Annees and Diabellis
In a March review of Alfred Brendel's new recording of the Deuxieme Annee--Italie of Liszt's Annees de Pelerinage, Richard Freed states that "there has been no complete domestically available recording of the Annees de Pelerinage since the retirement of Edith Farnadi's Westminster set several years ago." Mr. Freed is mistaken. Gunnar Johansen has recorded all of the Annees on Artists Direct, and they are available from him. The Annees are Liszt Albums 5, 6, and 7 in Johansen's catalog, and they may be ordered, for $6.00 each, by writing to Gunnar Johansen, Blue Mounds, Wisconsin 53517. The records have great surfaces and fabulous tone.
Mr. Johansen is the only pianist who has ever recorded the complete Liszt works, including even the Fourth Mephisto Waltz, for which he was given the unfinished manuscript in 1924 by Liszt's valet at the monastery where the valet was spending his last years.
G. E. PERRY; Reedsburg, Wis.
Richard Freed's review of the Telefunken album of Diabelli Variations (March), asserts that "What is perhaps most remarkable about this Telefunken release is that no one has done it before.. . . Collectors may wish Telefunken had followed Diabelli's example and released the Beethoven work and Part II separately." There are many fine recordings of the Beethoven Diabelli, and Mr. Freed failed to mention the superb recording by Julius Katchen, which has been reissued on London STS-15036. Also, there was a previous re lease of Part II by the Musical Heritage Society (1396), with Hans Kann at the piano.
TOMMY JOE ANDERSON; Morgantown, W. Va.
Mr. Freed replies: I feel pretty foolish about forgetting Johansen's Liszt, particularly since my familiarity with the catalog is a point on which I've always felt especially assured. In this case I did indeed know about the Johansen Annees, and had intended to refer to those discs, if only to mention that they are mono and available only by mail. (I knew also that a Vox Box of the complete Annees would probably be out by the time my review was in print, but did not refer w that, either, since I was not certain of the release date.) As far as the Diabelli Variations coverage is concerned, I was correct in stating that "no one has done it before"-that is, no one had issued the Beethoven and the "Part II" assortment as a single unit, as Telefunken has done-but Mr. Anderson is certainly right in pointing out that MHS had anticipated my suggestion (and most economically, too, by getting all that material on a single low-priced disc). I have since obtained the disc and can report that, while the playing is arguably less stylish than Buchbinder's and the documentation unarguably less lavish than Telefunken's, it is more than adequate. No slight to Katchen was intended; the recordings of Beethoven's Op. 120
I did name were cited only by way of illustrating the point that there are several versions of that mighty work superior to Buchbinder's good one.
Yellow Bricks
Noel Coppage's review of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John (March) is an inexplicable mass of vulgar stupidity. With the reputable authority of an ostler he insults Nigel Olsson, Bernie Taupin, and Elton John, not to mention the recording engineers. Who does he think he is? Does he consider himself to be so knowledgeable in the field of music as to mock the work of such a great musician? A thorough apology is in order; is he man enough to admit he made a mistake?
ROBERT STEWART; Kinmundy, Ill.
Man enough, Mr. Coppage admits to mistakes only when he makes them.
Jupiter's Cough
David Hall's review of Bernstein's rendering of Hoist's Planets (January) intrigued me enough to buy the recording even though I already had the Mehta version. Indeed, it is a beautiful and sensitive performance. How ever, I wonder if Mr. Hall noted the cough and the following mistake in the trumpet section near the end of "Jupiter" that managed to find their way onto the record. Is it not enough to have to put up with ticks, pops, and hiss without having to listen to someone's mistakes as well? Granted, musicians are not perfect, but that is what tape editing is all about.
RICHARD D. TAUBOLD Urbana, Ill.
Mr. Hall replies: My review was based primarily on the quadraphonic issue, which I played back at peak room volume throughout.
The cough and trumpet flub toward the end of "Jupiter" is audible on the four-channel only with a great deal of ear-straining, but a post-review check of the two-channel pressing does reveal that the cough and trumpet flub are quite audible there. I cannot decide whether the two-channel mastering was done from a different master tape, or whether the "mix down" simply eliminated the reverberation and cancellation effects, thereby fully exposing the flaw in point. If I had been the tape editor, I would certainly have made an effort to smooth out the trumpet attack, but I probably would have let the cough stay as a bit of the "human element."
Tapes and Tape Equipment
Ralph Hodges' "Your First Tape Recorder" (March) omitted one fact and included one misleading statement. (1) One of your advertisers produces a good-quality tape recorder that offers all three tape formats in one machine. That is the Akai X-2000SD. I have been very satisfied with my unit. (2) The Schwann catalog does not list any reel-to-reel pre-recordings. To get a listing of all currently available prerecorded tapes in all formats you would need to use the Harrison Tape Catalog, similar to Schwann but limited to the tape formats.
WILLIAM R. BAUCUM; Independence, Calif.
Mr. Hodges replies: Mr. Baucum and I each take a point. He's right about the absence of reel-to-reel listings in the Schwann catalog, and I should have mentioned the Harrison Tape Catalog. However, the X-2000SD, along with all Akai's other interesting combi nation machines, has recently been dropped from the line. The various eight-track portable recorders readers have brought to my attention have likewise been discontinued, and, as far as I can tell, this category of equipment has become extinct.
Refreshing Reilly
Lest your Mr. Peter Reilly feel that he has no fans remaining, let me hasten to reiterate that I remain one. How well I remember my introduction to his fine style. On a dreary day at the doctor's office I chanced upon a battered old copy of STEREO REVIEW in the reception room, and by good fortune the first thing that came to my attention was Mr. Reilly's review of "Golden Oldies" by the 101 Strings--I believe that I can still quote him verbatim: "I feel that this is one of the most significant pieces of popular music to come along for quite a while, and I urge my readers to obtain a copy as soon as possible since this will doubtless become a collector's item."
EARL GRIFFITH Ironton, Ohio
A little Reilly every day makes the doctor go away. Victoriana I was interested in the April letter from Steven Ledbetter discussing Sir Arthur Sullivan's incidental music to The Tempest. I own a copy of the EMI-Odeon recording referred to, and must agree with Mr. Ledbetter that the performance by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, superb though it is, suffers from the absence of the vocal pas sages. One of the treasures of my collection is an old mono disc under the Unicorn label (UN LP 1014) which I purchased about twenty years ago. It is, I believe, the very first recording of Sullivan's Tempest score, and is virtually complete, including all the vocal parts. The performance-a good one--is by Patricia Brinton, soprano, with the Vienna Orchestral Society under F. Charles Adler.
The disc is filled out on the second side with three excerpts from Sullivan's incidental mu sic to Henry V III (1878). It is a shame that these fine, atmospheric pieces have not been perpetuated on an up-to-date recording.
And while we are on the subject of Victorian English music, why has no record company, even in these times of resurrection for the most obscure composers, paid attention to the surprisingly attractive music of Sir William Sterndale Bennett?
RICHARD K. PATTERSON; Hyde Park, N. Y.
Victorian ballad , fans are directed to page 85.
Mozart's Biographer
Martin Bookspan's "Basic Repertoire" column (March) was as interesting and in formative as it usually is. However, I would like to point out an error. Physicist Albert Einstein, although a music lover and amateur violinist, did not write a biography of Mozart.
The name should have read Alfred Einstein.
This Einstein (b. 1880) was a German music critic and scholar who settled in the United States in 1939.
JOHN E. LOVELESS; Warwick, R. I.
For Folk's Sake
In reviewing Mother Maybelle Carter's album (March), Noel Coppage seems to feel that if a recording isn't as close to divine perfection as is humanly (or is it humanely?) possible, it cannot be worth paying real money for. He remarks in passing that there must be some value in M.M.C.'s being a "legendary figure," though it doesn't surprise me that he won't say how or where.
Heaven forbid that we should ever disregard and discard that lovely state of imperfection that many excuse by labeling it a "folk tradition." I get so tired of the disc reviews you guys shell out sometimes-this "holier than thou" attitude that if it doesn't rock it can't possibly roll. Who in the world chose N. C. to review folk music? His closed ears don't like the autoharp and that's fine, but hasn't anyone told him about different folks for different folk? That bit of imperfection and unsteadiness only shows me that folk music in some places is still just that: folk music. And I'll wager there's more profundity in Ma Maybelle's simple missed notes than one will ever squeeze out of David Bowie. For folk's sake, live and let, lest you forget!
KAT BRADLEY; Longmont, Colo.
The Editor replies: The idea that clumsy ineptitude, "that lovely state of imperfection," is some kind of proof of the real thing in folk art is for soppy sentimentalists; real folk artists won't buy it. Mother Maybelle Carter is a seminal figure of some age and great importance in American folk music, but she has her had days, and she will perform on them nonetheless because she is a profession al. And she would very likely call anybody a damn fool for praising the "profundity" of her missed notes.
What grips Ms. Bradley is a destructively misapplied charity that is, at bottom, anti-art: it calls for the abolition of all standards and the criticism that expresses them. That way lies chaos: if bad is good, is not worse better? Hardly; not only is it fair to criticize, it is necessary. One antidote for these condescending abstractions about "the folk" might he to remember that stubborn and hard-eyed Young farm boy in the old, film who practiced throwing a baseball through a hole in the barn door for a whole Year so that he might take his revenge on a "three balls for a quarter" vonces sionaire at the State Fair. So much for "imperfection and unsteadiness." The mention of David Bowie is a gratuitous wild shot, but this is not: Noel Coppage was born in Dundee, Kentucky, and his father was, among other things, an accomplished "folk" fiddler, so perhaps the world itself chose him to review its folk music.
Cleo, Large and Small
There was a glaring inaccuracy in Paul resh's review of Cleo Laine's "I Am a Song" (Best of the Month, January). The al bum contains vocals by Miss Lathe with small-group accompaniment on one side and a full orchestra on the other.
Mr. Kresh, however, has got them totally mixed up. He speaks of "a nicely gauged small-group approach to Dimitri Tiomkin's Friendly Persuasion" and others. Then he writes "Enter, on side two, a large studio orchestra, heavy in the strings, for full-dress interpretations of songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein" and others. Large orchestra? Heavy in the strings? Full-dress? Rodgers and Hammerstein's It Might as Well Be Spring, to cite one example, is sung almost entirely a cappella! Admittedly, the liner notes make the same mistake, but that doesn't excuse recklessly copying them for a review.
HARRY FORBES; New York, N.Y.
Mr. Kresh replies:
Another example of the power of suggestion! My listening notes did seem to contradict the liner, so / simply assumed / had listened to the sides in the wrong order when writing my reviews. It all comes of being conditioned to respect the printed word over the evidence of your own senses. My apologies. Hmv'd you like the record?
Quadability
On several occasions lately I have purchased stereo versions of record albums, only to discover later that they had also been re leased in quadraphonic. As a result, I have taken to waiting for the quad versions of many albums, even though I'd be very happy with the stereo versions if I knew for sure that they were not going to be released in quadraphonic. I could wait to see if a four-channel version showed up in Schwann, but some manufacturers haven't been too prompt or consistent in reporting their quad releases to that publication. What I would like to see is a note on the jackets of stereo albums also released in four channel that they are available.
LAURANCE A. CLIFTON; Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Until that great day when everything is released in quad, there are hound to be a few late decisions made after the stereo release.
The gap is narrowing, however, and the industry seems to he making a slouchingly reluctant progress millennium-ward.
Also see:
TECHNICAL TALK--What Is Noise?
AUDIO NEWS--Views and comment on recent developments.
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