Classical music (new releases) (High Fidelity, Nov. 1977)

-----David Zinman--J. C. Bach with individuality and eloquence

BACH, J.C.: Sinfonias. Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. David Zinman, cond. PHILIPS 6780 025, $15.96 (two discs).

Sinfonia in E hat, Op. 9, No. 2. Sinfonias, Op. 18: No. 1, in E flat; No. 2. in B fiat; No: 3, in D; No. 4, in D; No.5, in E; No. 6, in D. Sinfonia concertante in F (with Thomas Inder muhle. oboe; Herre-Jan Stegeriga, cello).

BACH, J.C.: Sinfonias, Op. 18: No. 2, in B flat; No. 4, in D; No. 6, in D. Tantalum: Don Quichotte Suite. Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. Karl Mtinchinge-, cond. [James Mallin son, prod.] LONDON CS 6988, $7.98.

I don't know whether [charm Christian Bach. Johann Sebastian's thirteenth son (and eighteenth of twenty children), was a triskaideca-phobe or phile, but he certainly was startlingly different from not only his parents, but his ancestors and sib lings: the first of a strictly Lutheran family to become a Roman Catholic. the first of an ancient German line to become-at least temperamentally and artistically--an Italian. A spoiled favorite of his father, he wasn't quite fifteen when the latter died and the responsibility for his musical training passed to Carl Philipp Emanuel in Berlin. But within a few years, before he was twenty, he was magnetically drawn south to Italy, where he found himself far more "at home" not only in Catholicism, but with distinctively Italian rococo musical styles and ideals. And it was these affinities he steadfastly retained when he finally settled in England some eight years later to become music master to Queen Charlotte, com poser/accompanist for George III's flute-playing. and one of the first to recognize the genius of the child Mozart.

Nowadays, even though his hit operas have been long forgotten. J. C. Bach is not badly represented on records by instrumental works. But too many of them, like the flute sonatas, tend to reinforce the impression that this London (or English-or, more properly. Italian) Bach was basically a rather lightweight, however pleasant composer.

So it's salutary to be reminded that the composer young Mozart admired so whole heartedly did indeed create more substantial works, such as the best of his some sixty sinfonias (or, on occasion and inter changeably, overtures). Three of the six in Op. 18, the odd-numbered ones, are particularly interesting today in that they anticipate the coming of stereo in calling for double orchestras. Zinman's is. to my knowledge, the first integral Op. 18 in SCHWANN: Munchinger has recorded the set in two separate installments (1974 and 1976), and only the second disc, with the three even-numbered sinfonias for a single orchestra, has appeared so far in this country. The Zinman album has the further ad vantage of including one of the relatively better-known sinfonias from Op. 9. plus an engaging if less substantial two-movement sinfonia concertante for oboe and cello.

Munchinger fills out the second side of his disc with a rather staid version of Telemann's Don Quichotte ballet suite, which offers little competition to the superb Marriner/Argo recording (ZRG 836, October 1978).

The conductors' approaches differ even more markedly. Munchinger is genial and relaxed in contrast to Zinman's nervously tense vivacity, but even London's warmest recording of the richly expressive Stuttgart ensemble's playing can't compensate for the lack of any real personality in the readings. If Zinman sometimes rushes the livelier passages overenthusiastically, he has far more individuality, is more tenderly moving in the extraordinarily eloquent slow movements, and is given more exciting. vividly live recorded conics. And there is notably piquant oboe-playing by Thomas Indermuhle throughout the sinfonias as well as in his co-soloist role in the sinfonia concertante.

-R.D.D.

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Critic's Choices

The best classical records reviewed in recent months

ALBINONI: Concertos (12), Op. 7. Negri. PHILIPS 6147 138 (2), Oct.

BACH: English Suites. Gould. COLUMBIA M2 34578 (2), Oct.

BACH: Flute Sonatas. Stastny, Tachezi, et al. TELEFUNKEN 26.35339 (2), Oct.

BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 7. Richter. ANGEL S 37266, Oct.

BEETHOVEN: Symphonies Nos. 2, 4. Ferencsik. HUNGAROTON SLPX 11891, 11894, Oct.

BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique. Munch. HUNGAROTON SLPX 11842, Oct.

BRAHMS: Ein deutsches Requiem et al. Karajan. ANGEL SB 3838 (2), Sept.

BRAHMS: Orchestral Works. Abravanel. VANGUARD CARDINAL VCS 10117/20 (4), Oct.

CHOPIN: Piano Works. Zimerman. DG 2530 826, Oct.

DAOUIN: NOMS. MARCHAND: Organ Works. WHS. SAGA 5433/4 (2), Oct.

DUSSEK: Piano Sonatas, Vols. 1-2. Marvin. GENESIS GS 1068, 1069, Sept.

GERSHWIN: Porgy and Bess. Dale, Albert, Smith, DeMain. RCA ARL 3-2109 (3), Sept.

GRANADOS: Goyescas. De Larrocha. LONDON CS 7009. Piano Works, Vol. 1. Dosse. Vox SVBX 5484 (3). Oct.

HAYDN: Piano Works, Vol. 4. Ranki. HUNGAROTON SLPX 11625/7 (3). Oct.

HAYDN: Symphonies Nos. 44, 49. Barenboim. DG 2530 708. Symphonies Nos. 82-87.

Barenboim. EMI/CAPITOL SLS 5065 (3). Oct.

HINDEMITH: Organ Sonatas (3). Baker. DELOS FY 026, Sept.

Ives: Concord Sonata. Kalish. NONESUCH H 71337, Sept.

KHACHATURIAN: Gayane Suites. Tjeknavorian. RCA RED SEAL CRL 2-2263 (2), Oct.

SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 8. HAYDN: Symphony No. 104. Karajan. ANGEL S 37058, Oct.

STRAUSS. R.: Burleske; Violin Concerto. Frager, Hoelscher. Kempe. ANGEL S 37267, Oct.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 4. Abbado. DG 2530 651, Oct.

BAROQUE CONCERTO IN ENGLAND. Black, Bennett, Dobson. CRD 1031, Sept.

HEINZ HOLLIGER, Aurele Nicolet: Works with Oboe, Flute. PHILIPS 9500 070, Oct.

PETER HURFORD: Chorale Variations for Organ. ARGO ZRG 835, Oct.

WILHELM KEMPFF: Bach, Handel, and Gluck Arrangements. DG 2530 647, Sept.

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BARTOK: The Wooden Prince, Op. 13. New York Philharmonic, Pierre Boulez, cond. [Andrew Kazdin, prod.] COLUMBIA M 34514 $7.98 (SQ-encoded disc). Tape: 110 MI 34514. $7.98.

BARTOK: The Wooden Prince, Op 13: Suite; The Miraculous Mandarin, Op. 19: Suite. Minnesota Orchestra Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, cond. [Dennis D. Rooney, prod.] CANDIDE OCE 31097, $4.98 (QS-encoded disc).

The young Bartok seems to have had a pessimistic attitude toward relations with the opposite sex, to judge by the three theater pieces that are the main works of his thirties. Bluebeard's Castle maintains that it is woman's nature to kill man's love for her by probing too deeply into its motivations: The Wooden Prince that only suffering can teach her to love him for himself, rather than for his physical and social at tributes; The Miraculous Mandarin (if I read it right) that mutual love carries its own death warrant for the man. Was this choice of themes merely part of a late-Romantic Central European fashion, or did it spring from some deep need in Bartok him self? Perhaps it hardly matters, since we do not have to subscribe to the message of any of the three works in order to admire the rich (and startlingly different) music that they drew from him.

Boulez has now completed his impressive account of the trilogy with this recording of the complete score of The Wooden Prince. One can see why this ballet was left till last, since it is by all odds the least effective in theatrical terms and the most hampered by its plot. Where Bluebeurd does seem to say something eternally relevant about human relationships and Mandarin, though its scenario has ceased to shock to day's jaded audiences, still triumphs through the uncompromising vitality of ifs score, The Wooden Prince falls between a good many stools. Its synthetic fairy-tale scenario (by Mims, the librettist of Blue beard) is in essence as sentimental as any third-rate Victorian novel or mass-market movie, and its music (still more to the point) seems never to know quite which world it belongs to. Together with the Hungarian melos that gives such unity to Bluebeurd's Castle, extensions of Strauss and Debussy rub shoulders awkwardly with patches of the new allegro barbaro idiom that Bartok was to use so much more consistently in the Mandarin score.

Yet it is a big, abundant work that any one who loves Bartok's music will want to have on his shelves, inconsistencies and all.

And if that is so, he will probably want the whole score, as Boulez has recorded it, rather than the abbreviated version (mis leadingly called a suite) that Bartok pre pared in order to rescue at least some of the music for concert performance. This omits a few fairly brief passages from the early part of the score, the preparatory action leading up to the Princess' dance with the wooden doll that the Prince has misguidedly used to decoy her, and a chunk out of that dance itself. The most damaging loss of all is the whole of the action between the Prince's despair at being abandoned for a puppet and his ultimate union with the Princess: this includes the climactic pas sage in which the mysterious Fairy who controls the entire action persuades all nature to bring him its gifts.

For this reason there can be no direct comparison between the new Boulez and the Skrowaczewski recordings. If you are enough of a Bartokian to want the whole score, the Boulez is the only version of it currently available apart from an old Bar t6k Society disc, and although memory tells me that that performance moved with a little more spontaneity in some of the narrative passages, there can be no doubt that Columbia has been able to do greater justice to the enormously lavish and elaborate orchestration, with its multiple division of strings and its rich panoply of winds (including two saxophones) and percussion.

Comparing this with the sound Candide has provided for the Minnesota group is instructive, though, and by no means entirely in Columbia's favor: Though there are mi nor discrepancies of balance between the two versions, the Candide recording, made in Minneapolis' highly praised Orchestra Hall, gives a slightly rounder sound, particularly to the strings, with no loss of detail.

As for the interpretations, there too it is a matter of swings and roundabouts. Boulez is the more nuanced, with a more conscientious attempt to follow Bart6k's very precisely indicated rubato: Yet sometimes the relatively unsubtle Skrowaczewski can sound more natural in his choice of tempo, and certainly he gets more unanimous playing from his orchestra in the strongly rhythmic allegro sections than Boulez does from his--and this applies to his account of the Mandarin suite as well as to that from The Wooden Prince. In general Boulez does greater justice to the music's sensitivity, Skrowaczewski to its animal vigor. So the choice depends almost entirely on whether you feel you can afford two full-priced records for the complete scores (plus the Dance Suite on Boulez' Mandarin disc, M 31368), or whether about two-thirds of each combined on a single budget-priced disc will meet your needs.

-J.N.

BEETHOVEN: Quartets for Strings: No. 1, in F, Op. 18, No. 1; No. 2, in G, Op. 18, No. 2. Gabrieli Quartet. [Michael Woolcock, prod.] LONDON TREASURY STS 15398, $3.98.

The London-based Gabrieli Quartet--violinists Kenneth Sillito and Brendan O'Reilly, violist Ian Jewel, and cellist Keith Harvey-plays urbanely but with no lack of drama; indeed, the group's special attention to such characteristically Beethovenesque dynamic distinctions as that between forte and fortissimo adds immeasurably to the vivid vitality of both performances on this resonantly realistic disc. I also admire the precise ensemble, the crisp articulation of passagework, and the unusual prominence of the viola and cello as microphoned. Interpretively, both performances are bright eyed and unaffected, urging the music on ward but rarely slighting the rapt poignancy of such introspective movements as the celebrated Adagio affettuoso of the F major Quartet (taken somewhat quickly but without any feeling of either rushing or casualness).

On repeated hearings I did begin to feel that some of the playing, for all its cleanliness and good musicianship, is a bit hurried and shapeless, particularly when measured alongside such structurally perceptive interpretations as the Vegh Quartet's in the outstanding (and much more ex pensive) Telefunken set (36.35042). The running finale of Op. 18, No. 1, and the first, third, and fourth movements of Op. 18, No. 2, are cases in point. But I don't want to exaggerate. It is high praise to say that the Gabrieli is fully competitive with the excellent budget Op. 18 sets by the Budapest (Odys sey 32 36 0023) and Hungarian (Seraphim SIC 6005). Indeed, it provides worthy credentials regardless of price, and the prospect of a Gabrieli Beethoven cycle is a pleasant one. H.G.

BEETHOVEN: Sonatas for Piano: No. 8, in C minor, Op. 13 (Pathetique); No. 18, in E flat, Op. 31, No. 3; No. 19, in G minor, Op. 49, No. 1. Alfred Brendel, piano. PHILIPS 9500 077, $7.98. Tape: SO 7300 478, $7.95.

Brendel's new Op. 31, No. 3. is fine, but in my opinion less so than his earlier version for Vox (in SVBX 5418). I once characterized that reading as his best Beethoven sonata recording, and it still seems so, now along with the fine Philips remakes of the Waldstein, Op. 110, and Andante favori (all on 6500 762. August 1976). The new performance, while still lively and characterful, is a bit more disjointed rhythmically, and the distant microphone placement, though it results in more vibrant and colorful sound than the close-to Vox's, robs the performance of forceful bass. Only in the last movement, now an appropriately fiery presto, is this account preferable.

The new Pathetique is less stolid than the old one (in SVBX 5420) but also less steady rhythmically. The Grave introduction seems particularly lumbering and ambiguous, but in this instance the added color and vibrancy of the Philips sound is a vast improvement over the tinny, boxy Vox.

Brendel's way with Op. 49, No. 1, remains essentially as it was before: No other pianist has managed as Schnabel did to go be yond the decorative surface of this juvenile and yet potentially affecting little essay.

The Philips sound does add refinement to Brendel's rippling outlook. The pianist's own notes are characteristically informative and thoughtful.

-H.G.

BEETHOVEN: Sonatas for Piano: No. 28, in A, Op. 101; No. 30, in E, Op. 109. Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano. [Richard Beswick and Christophe' Raeburn, prod.] LONDON CS 7029, $7.98 Tape:01 CS5 7029, $7.95.

Many of the Romantic composers created in the shadow cast by "late" Beethoven, and there are few performances that make the connection as apparent as it is here. The Alla marcia of Op. 101 is. of course, the pre cursor of such Schumann inspirations as the F major Novelette and the second of the viola piano Marchenbilder in the same key. Ashkenazy's performance stresses the kinship. His tempo is on the leisurely side, and his rhythm is full of an exaggerated spring and snap with stressful (some may think overstressed) inflections at the endings of large phrases. A similar kind of bright incision pervades the fugal portions of the finale.

--------- Alfred Brendel Lively and characterful Beethoven

The first movement of Op. 101 and most of Op. 109, on the other hand, foreshadow Chopin, and Ashkenazy's playing, while thoroughly scrupulous about following Beethoven's detailed requests, does have a definite Chopin cast to it. The rhythm is slightly languorous and rounded off, the sound clear and contrapuntal enough but still a bit blandly pianistic (a hard thing to describe, but compare Kempff's more plan gent-and, I think, more idiomatic-sonority in the same works). On the whole, these are large-scaled, effective, and valid readings that add interesting commentary to the subject of interpreting both pieces.

The Kingsway Hall acoustics are a trifle overblown but not injurious to the polyphony of either composition.

-H.G.

BEETHOVEN: Songs, Vol. 1. Peter Schreier, tenor: Walter Olbertz and Gisela Franke', piano. TELEFUNKEN 6.41997, $7.98.

Op. 48: Gellert Songs (6). Op. 52: No. 1. Urians Reise urn die Welt. No. 4, Mailied; No. 6. Die Liebe; No. 7, Marmotte

No. 8, Des Blumchen Wunderhold. Op. 75: No. 2. Neue Liebe. neues Leben; No. 3, Flohlied aus Faust. Op. 83. No. 1, Wonne der Wehmut; No. 2, Sehnsucht; No. 3. Mit einem gemalten Bande. Egmont, Op. 84: Freudvoll and leidvoll.

Ich denke dein, WoO. 74. Opferlied, WoO. 126. Die laute Klage, Woo 135. Des Kriegers Abschied. WoO. 143.

For VEB Deutsche Schallplatten in East Germany. Peter Schreier has recorded three discs of Beethoven songs, and this is the first American release from that series, which is comparable in extent (though not precisely equivalent in content) to Fischer Dieskau's set, first issued as DC 139 216/8 and also as part of the Beethoven bicentenary series. Of the latter, however, only the first disc remains available (DG 139 197), while from the baritone's still earlier two-disc mono Beethoven project for Electrola only a single disc (the original E 90005 plus a few songs from E 90006) is now listed as an import (1C 053 01138).

Beethoven's songs are a less than consistently sublime aspect of his output, mixing a few unquestioned masterpieces with a modicum of conventional settings and some early trivia. (The opus numbers are often misleading: e.g., both Opp. 52 and 75 contain songs dating back to 1783.) Thus an extensive recorded survey is probably more than most listeners will want-while those with a comprehensive bent would probably like to have everything (there's at least an other record's worth not included in either the Schreier or Dieskau series). What we presently lack is a good single-disc selection of the best Beethoven songs: say, An die (erne Geliebte, the eloquent, ar chaicizing Gellert settings. the best of the Goethe songs, and a few others. Naturally, these plums have been well distributed over Schreier's three discs, and the two avail able Dieskau singles (which duplicate only four songs between them) still omit some fine things.

Be that as it may. Schreier does well with this material. Now and then the voice verges on a Karl Erbish dryness that one has not previously noted in his singing, but it is manipulated with more elegance and dynamic consistency than Dieskau man aged-a particular benefaction to the many lightweight songs, which labor under the baritone's excessive heartiness (cf. the potentially tedious "Urions Heise urn die Welt." where Schreier also spares us five out of the fourteen verses, traversing the re mainder with a more delicate humor).

This is not to suggest that Schreier is weak on the serious songs. I find his re strained treatment of "Wonne der Walnut" more appropriate to the poet's resignation than Dieskau's portentous. tragic approach, and he handles the melismatic return to the opening material more smoothly and expressively. The musicianly playing of Walter Olbertz, though less plan gently registered than DG's Jorg Demus. is always to the point, especially his well timed agogic accenting in "Neue Liebe, neues Leben."

On the debit side, one must mention a tendency for the microphone to exaggerate Schreier's sibilants, and Telefunken's inadequate presentation: only German texts (run on, rather than line by line), no ranslations, and no dates for the songs (important for the reason given above). A record issued for general sale in the American market at full price should do better than this.

-D.H.

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---- Peter Schreier--- Spotty Beethoven consistently well done

----- Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonard Bernstein-A competition in which Bloch loses

BEETHOVEN (arr.): Songs of Various Nationality, WoO. 157. Accadema Monteverdiana, Denis Stevens, dir. NONE SUCH H 71340, $3.96.

BEETHOVEN (WT.): Folksong Set tings. Accademia Monteverdiana, Denis Stevens, dir. VANGUARD EVERYMAN SRV 356, $3.98.

Scottish Songs, Op. 108: No. 5. The sweetest lad was Jamie; No. 23, The shepherd's song. Irish Songs, WoO. 152. No. 1. The return to Ulster; No. 2. Sweet power of song; No. 20, Farewell bliss and farewell Nancy. Welsh Songs. WOO. 155: No. 1. Sion the son of Evan: Na 4. Love without hope; No. 7, 0 let the night my blushes hide.

Scottish Songs, WOO. 156: No. 10. Glencoe: No. 11. Auld lang syne.

The folksong settings that the Scottish dilettant George Thomson commissioned from Beethoven may not be ethno-musico logically sound, but the instrumental prel udes, accompaniments, and postludes are covered with the master's fingerprints: in ventive textures (for piano, violin, and cello), striking harmonic turns, ingenious melodic developments.

Some of the tunes are familiar indeed "God save the King," "Auld lang sync," "The Minstrel Boy" (to new words as "The Soldier")-but the interest is primarily in their surroundings, especially as these professional, brightly and sensitively articulated performances give equal weight to voices and instruments. The singing is not as assertive, as self-conscious as in some earlier. now unavailable recordings (notably those involving Fischer-Dieskau), and this is all to the good. Since Beethoven apparently composed many of these set tings without knowing what the words would be (in many cases they were still being written, by poets also under Thomson's commission), he didn't go in for much finely detailed word-painting.

Though this isn't the Accademia Monte verdiana's expected line of country, the group performs with fine style. The voices are firm and pleasant, the singers phrase 2 with grace and strength (and, of course, with idiomatic diction), the instrumentalists match them. Both discs are well re corded and include the texts as sung (a number of stanzas are left by the wayside no great loss) and annotations. Those who own DC's Beethoven editions will find three duplications on the Vanguard disc, five on the Nonesuch; several songs on each disc are first recordings.

-D.H.

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 2, in D. Op. 36*; Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b*. BBC Symphony Orchestra' and London Sym phony Orchestra', Colin Davis, cond. PHILIPS 9500 160, $7.98. Tape:4IR 7300 525, $7.95.

These are, objectively considered, fine performances-cleanly played, judiciously paced, idiomatic as to sonority and phrasing, and devoid of eccentricity. But the one ingredient conspicuously missing is, at least for this reviewer, an important one:

Davis' account of the symphony never conveys the lightness of touch (which can fully coexist with solid weight) and the soaring lyricism that provide needed foil for the fiery drama. Indeed, for all the strength and integrity, the playing hardly gives the impression of being on the verge of bursting into flame. The deficiency of humor and intensity is missed less in Leonore No. 3. but other accounts (Solti's, to cite one of the most recent) have conveyed a stronger sense of the theater, more hushed calm in the introduction, more blazing excitement in the finale.

Philips gives us a compact. classically apt, beautifully balanced sound with plenty of rugged bass, and Davis observes the repeat in the symphony's first movement.

-H.G.

BLOCH: Schelomo. SCHUMANN: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, in A minor, Op. 129. Mstislav Rostropovich, cello; Orchestre National de France, Leonard Bernstein, cond. [John Mordler, prod.] ANGEL S 37356, $7.98 (SQ-encoded disc). Tape: sit 4XS 37356, $7.98.

Although Schelomo is generally taken as an invitation to interpretive license, my impression from several conversations with the composer is that he held a different view. My feeling that he imagined a rhapsodic (but controlled) solo cello juxtaposed against a somewhat less intense orchestra is borne out. I think, by the score itself: Expressive markings for the soloist are much more numerous and precise than those for the orchestra.

Both Rostropovich and Bernstein are known for placing a highly individual stamp on everything they perform. And in the cellist's case, at least, I was interested to note how scrupulously Bloch's directions are followed, not so much literally as with expressive intensification that falls just short of exaggeration. Moreover, he holds these details together in an extremely impressive total conception of the piece. Bernstein's orchestral conception, however, in a sense turns it inside out, for he tries to outdo Rostropovich's already intense reading. The result. to my ears at least, is a garish orchestral performance that completely throws the piece out of focus. There is even a time, in the pin vivo section between Nos. 31 and 33, when Bernstein whips the orchestra into something like a 1930s Hollywood version of "Oriental" music.

Much as one may he swayed by Rostropovich. then, I would look to other versions for an over-all realization. Janos Starker's reading with the Israel Philharmonic under Mehta (London CS 6661) is impeccably musical, though a shade cool for my taste.

Leonard Rose and Ormandy's Philadelphians ( Columbia MS 6253) are beautifully matched. but I have heard the soloist play this piece with more expressive power in concert. Finally. Zara Nelsova's recording with Abravanel and the Utah Symphony (Vanguard Cardinal VCS 10007) may well represent the closest approach to Bloch's intentions. Her solo performance is con trolled but still expressive, and Abravanel has long been one of the most sympathetic Bloch interpreters.

In the Schumann concerto, both cellist and conductor indulge themselves to an ex tent that only the most ardent fans could tolerate. P.11.

BRAHMS: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24; Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35. Garrick Ohlsson, piano.

[Suvi Raj Grubb (Op. 24) and David Mottley (Op. 35), prod.]

ANGEL S 37249, $7.98 (SQ encoded disc).

Ohlsson's more recent recordings have given evidence of rapid and considerable growth, both pianistic and interpretive.

While these demanding compositions like wise document his development--especially in the realms of greater tonal subtlety and rhythmic suppleness-I am afraid that, when measured against the best previous recordings (Fleisher. Solomon. and Petri in Op. 24. Arrau and Backhaus in Op. 35). these sturdy. Craftsman-like interpretations leave much to be desired.

There is less to fault in Ohlsson's treatment of Op. 35. These variations on Paganini's famous Twenty-Fourth Caprice were originally conceived as technical exercises (they go considerably beyond that, of course), and Ohlsson's technique permits him to use very little sustaining pedal. with resultant gains in clarity and articulation.

He is particularly impressive in clarifying the typical Brahmsian threes-against-fours, and his octave glissandos have impact and focus. Yet hear how much more scope and interest Arrau (Philips 9500 066) brings to the same patterns without losing one iota of virtuosity. In these finger-twisting miniatures. Arran's rhetorical theatricality works like a charm. and his sonority also has more weight and diversification. Backhaus' 78-rpm account was more like Obis son's in its straightforward approach to the notes, but again there was a degree of tonal poise and sheer effortlessness apparently beyond Ohlsson's present reach.

The Handel Variations may pose less of a purely digital problem (though they are difficult enough in their own less showy way), but infinitely more is demanded of the performer in terms of long-range planning. The architecture, like that of Beethoven's even longer Diabelli set. relies on minute subtleties of pacing and tempo relationship: the player must know when to move for ward-and precisely how much—and when to provide repose. While there are many de tails to be savored. it is simply not enough to present each variation for itself.

In fairness, Ohlsson frequently recognizes that some probing is in order, but he seems unable as yet to translate this into specifics. Again, the spare pedaling bares a lot of rhythmic interplay and the steady, ac curate fingers produce many examples of attractive bell-like sonority, but the com poser's logical dramatic argument never unfolds as it did in Fleisher's superbly gauged. masterfully timed reading. (When is Odyssey going to reissue it?) Many of Ohlsson's tempos arc just a little square, and sometimes the sound he produces in forte or fortissimo is slightly hard and flat.

The final three variations never achieve the desired piling up of dramatic intensity, and the sturdily played fugue has moments of lagging impetus.

Clear piano reproduction in both performances. Ohlsson, incidentally, omits the restatement of the Paganini theme before Book II of Op. 35.

-H.G.

BRUCH: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, No. 2, in D minor, Op. 44; Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46. Itzhak Perlman, violin; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, cond. [Suvi Raj Grubb, prod.] ANGEL S 37210, $7.98 (SQ-encoded disc).

Bruch's still infrequently played Second Violin Concerto has amassed all of three recordings (though the Third has yet to receive its first!). He may have been an uneven master, but it doesn't necessarily follow that the most obscure works are the least worthy. After Heifetz revived the virtually unperformed Scottish Fantasy in the late 1940s, it rightly came to rival the First Concerto in popularity. The recently unearthed two-piano concerto (Angel S 36997, September 1974) similarly turned out to be a work of substantial value and eloquence.

My enthusiasm for the D minor Violin Concerto, however, can be expressed as "modified rapture." The work begins promisingly enough with a dark, brooding introduction that carries the mood of the G minor Concerto to even greater emotional range. Alas, the promise is not kept, and be fore long the first movement runs afoul on an idea that seems a virtual cribbing of the main theme of the G minor's last movement. And whereas the G minor's finale provides a sustained dramatic capstone, that to the D minor is lamed by repetitiousness and its end comes more as a mercy than as a fulfillment.

Of the three recordings, this new one strikes me as a stylistic compromise be tween the terse, glittery (and harshly reproduced) Heifetz mono effort (RCA LM 1931) and the broader, more musically sympathetic but violinistically somewhat rough hewn Menuhin edition (Angel S 36920).

Menuhin and Boult, even granting the soloist's occasional pinched tone and awkwardness. play with the most conviction and thus make the strongest case for the work. Perlman's smooth, creamy fiddling, however, is adroitly seconded by his conductor and richly recorded.

The same may be said for the overside Scottish Fantasy, a suave and agreeable performance in which Perlman's lush approach provides an especially persuasive languor to the introductory phrases. My favorites for this piece remain the dark, burnished Oistrakh/Horenstein (London CS 6337). the earlier Heifetz version with Stein berg (in RCA ARM 4-0946-a bit more expansive and reposeful than the stereo re make). and the fervent, intensely poetic Chung/Kempe (London CS 7695). Grumiaux and Wallberg (Philips 6500 780) are in some ways the most classical and refined of all, and they get the clearest engineering among these excellent versions. The Angel disc (SQ-encoded) is a trifle soft in focus in comparison with the others.

-H.G.

BRUCKNER: Symphonies Nos. 4, 7, 8. For an essay review, see page 93.

CHABRIER: Orchestral Works. Paris Opera Orchestra, Jean-Baptiste Mari, cond. [Greco Casadesus. prod.] ANGEL S 37424, $7.98 (SQ-encoded disc). Tape: ire 4XS 37424. 57.98.

Esparia Habanero. Joyeuse marche. Le Roi malgre lui Fête polonaise: Danse slave. Suite pastorale Comparison' Paray, Detroit Sym. Mer. SRI 75078 Confirming the promise of his Pierne-program Angel debut (S 37281. September), Mari passes an even more searching test of quintessentially Gallic stylistic authenticity in this characteristic Chabrier program, which wisely excludes those works like the Gwetuloline Overture, where he had momentarily succumbed to the lure of Wagnerism.

Espana is of course done to death by every virtuoso conductor. but what foreigners, even Spaniards, can match the elasticity, vibrancy, and proud grace of an idiomatically French reading like this one of Mari's? And it is primarily from native interpreters that foreigners can learn the true flavor of Chabrier's other orchestral pieces-not only the brilliantly festive showpieces, but also such enchanting mood and scene evocations as the Habanero and the "Idylle" and "Sous boil" from the Suite pastorale (orchestral versions of four of the ten Pieces pittoresques originally written for piano solo). The only other recent all-Chabrier program by a French conductor (Louis de Froment's. Turnabout TV-S 34671) lacks both the vivacity and refinement to offer any real competition to the justly famous Paray /Detroit Mercury recordings of 1961. now available again in the Golden Imports series, showing remarkably few signs of sonic aging.

Even Mari can't supersede Partly, but he does provide a distinctively individual yet no less idiomatic approach. at its best no less fiercely vital, yet lighter, more graceful and piquant. And of course the Paths--Marconi engineering demonstrates what progress has been made since 1961, most notably in transparency and vividness-to say nothing of the enhanced authenticity of auditorium ambience when these robust enough stereo sonics are expanded in quadriphonic playback. Then, too, while the Paris Opera Orchestra is by no means as polished as Parity's Detroit Symphony. its tonal qualities are far more characteristically "French." Now I'm hoping that Mari will proceed to a long overdue resurrection of some of Vincent d'Indy's oeuvre beyond the familiar, however delightful. Symphony on a French Mountain CIMAROSA: II Matrimonio segreto. For an essay review, see page 95.

Dvorak: Quartets for Strings: in E, Op. 27/ 80; in E flat, Op. 51. Prague Quartet. [Franz-Christian Wulff, prod.]

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 719, $7.98.

The confusing double opus numbering of the E major Quartet is a function of the publisher Simrock's attempt, in 1888. to "pass off- the 1876 composition as one of Dvorak's more recent efforts. The com poser's protest against this chicanery had more than an element of embarrassment that folks might think he still wrote like that. In looking for justification of his apparent harsh criticism of the score, I find the opening allegro of routine melodic inspiration by Dvorak's standards. (By any others it would probably he considered brimful of good ideas.) The darkly passionate Andante con moto is more clearly the work of the mature master, its mood reflecting its origin at a time of bereavement (of a baby daughter). If the scherzo is neither the first nor last in music history to have a trio more vigorous and agitated than its main section, the basic materials of the two lend themselves awkwardly to the juxtaposition. The finale is somewhat rambling in form, though it has one interesting idea--an almost Brahmsian leitmotiv.

The E flat Quartet, Op. 51. is delectable by any standard. The opening theme of the second movement is so heartbreakingly beautiful that I can't complain how little it lends itself to development. I'm happy to hear it repeated a few times, alternating with a central faster dance section (the whole Elegia is in fact a dumka). Something as mournfully lovely is found in the second subject of the first movement, while the finale is a vivacious expression of pure joy.

It is hard to believe that this DG coupling actually fills a notable gap in SCHWANN: but there it is. The E major has a long history of phonographic neglect, and the fine mono performances of the E flat by the Lefler.

Busch, Boskovsky. Netherlands, and Buda pest Quartets are all gone. In stereo there was a pretty fair E major by the Dvorak Quartet on Crossroads and a truly lovely E flat by the Vlach on Artia, but these can now be had only as Supraphon imports (SUAST 50528 and 50463, respectively). The only competitive listing is the Kohon's brashly efficient but terribly wiry-sounding versions of both works (included in Vox SVBX 549).

The Prague's interpretations are handsomely sturdy yet resilient, well played in slightly aggressively reverberant sonics.

Since both middle movements of the E flat are marked Andante con moto, I can under stand the temptation to make the third movement something of an Adagio: this means, however, that that wonderful dumka tune in the second movement is pushed a little for my taste-but then, only the lingeringly gentle Boskovsky performance on London really savored it to the full.

-A.G.

------Itzhak Perlman and Jesus Lopez-Cobos-Smooth, creamy fiddling adroitly accompanied

Dvorak: Symphony No. 7, in D minor, Op. 70. London Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. [Christopher Bishop, prod.]. ANGEL S 37270. $7.98 (SO-encoded disc).

Comparison:

C. Davis/Concertgebouw Phi. 9500 132

This warm, refined reading of Dvorak's most Brahmsian symphony is a fascinating foil for the equally fine but utterly dissimilar Philips recording by Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw (April 1977). Each has a distinct interpretive flavor and points of superiority that balance and counterbalance.

In this case an "ideal" performance--i.e., one that synthesizes the merits of the two does exist, in the form of a recent broadcast performance by Giulini and the Concertgebouw, superior to either of these commercial recordings.

Chinni, who seems of late to have entered a new phase of his career, presents a sunny, plastic. subtly wrought interpretation that nevertheless moves along with a kind of firm geniality and keeps a firm sight on the total architecture. He se cures responsive, suave playing from the London Philharmonic, and the reproduction, sleek and resonant, lets the lines sing while putting detail in a slightly soft-focus subordinate position. Switching to the Phil ips recording, one is immediately struck by the sharper, more direct sound and by the tougher, bolder (and, save for the Poco adagio second movement, faster) outlook of Davis. Time and time again, Davis resolutely urges his players past a detail or episode that Giulini lovingly caresses. and the darker, grittier sonority of the Concertgebouw adds to the muscle of Davis' reading.

One is forced to assess the strength and fierceness of Davis' way as opposed to the gentler, but hardly laggardly, hand of Giulini.

Giulini's Concertgebouw performance, however, was a little freer rhythmically than the LPO recording, and he utilized the gorgeous dark sonorities of the Dutch orchestra with an imaginative resourcefulness that Davis' more matter-of-fact treatment eschews by its very nature. Moreover, the broadcast performance unearthed a wealth of instrumental detail (and, I admit, a few horn bobbles!) unheard in either of the records under consideration. Were that account available to the general record collector, it would be my clear favorite; since it is not, I must reaffirm the excellence of the Davis record and confess a preference for Giulini's more humane, rhapsodic approach. I would also urge a sampling of the Chinni disc in an imported version: Experience tells me that European EMI records are often mastered with more bite, brilliance, and dynamic range than their American counterparts: while nothing about the Angel pressing is unpleasant to the ear. I suspect that there may well be more color and detail in the master tape than I have yet heard.

-H.G.

ELGAR: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 85, Enigma Variations, Op. 36. Jacqueline du Pre, cello: Philadelphia Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra', Daniel Barenboim, cond. ['" recorded in con cert, November 1970; Paul Myers, prod.]

COLUMBIA M 34530, $7.98.

With all due respect to the outstanding pre-LP accounts of the Elgar cello concerto, modern recordings of distinction have not been lacking either. Of these the Du Pre/ Barenboim, the first issue of a 1970 concert performance, must go to the top of the list.

For some listeners the coughs and the dry acoustic ( Philadelphia's Academy of Music. I gather) will be obstacles. but I find that the circumstances of the recording help assure musical tautness and unity and both bite and massiveness in the orchestral texture. Du Pre's tone may not be captured at its loveliest in the upper reaches (as ii was in the studio recording made some five years earlier with Barbirolli, Angel S 36338), but her intonation is thoroughly respect able and her control over the running figurations in the scherzo is breathlessly ex citing.

The sometimes gushy vibrato of the earlier recording is considerably subdued, and the later performance shows an even more striking development in musical vigor, intensity and drive of line, and inwardness of soft playing. Du Pre and Barenboim have worked out a conception of the concerto that, though varied between striking extremes of fast and slow. relates each sect ion into a more coherent overview than is evident in the version with Barbirolli (though Sir John has to his credit an even better-conducted performance. with Andre Navarra for Pye). The Philadelphia Orchestra plays majestically, and thanks are due to all concerned in prying this treasure loose for commercial issue.

The overside Enigma Variations, a succulent-sounding new studio recording.

documents one of Barenboim's best recent efforts. He is a lone poet in his element when dealing with the nobly affectionate sections (Nos. 1, 5, 12), though "Nimrod" (No. 9) could have begun a bit softer to al low full head to its climax. He is all graciousness in the light No. 3, and his "Dora bella" (No. 10) is so delectably played, its syncopal ions so subtly pointed, as to evoke memories of Beecham. A bit more "devil" might have helped in the uproarious Nos. 7 and 11, where timpani and brass are some what lacking in presence.

Barenboim's Enigma, complete on one side and coupled with another substantial Elgar masterpiece, is something of a best buy among current SCIIWANN entries. How ever, now available at Musical Heritage Society's budget price is the 1975 Lyrita recording by Andrew Davis and the New Philharmonia (MI IS 3628), excelling in all those sections where Barenboim falters (though brisk and offhand where Barenboim is warm and enveloping) and having as coupling the most scintillating Falstaff I've heard on records.

-A.C.

FALL*: The Three-Cornered Hat (complete ballet). Teresa Berganza, mezzo-soprano; Boston Symphony Orchestra. Seiji Ozawa. cond. [Rainer Brock, prod.]

--------------- Carlo Maria Giulini A warm, refined reading of Dvorak's most Brahmsian symphony

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 823. $7.98.

Tape: ee 3300 823. $7.98.

Comparisons:

DeGaetani. Boulez/N.Y.Phil.

Berganza.Ansermel/Suisse Romande Col. M 33970 Lon. CS 6224

This triply promising Tricorne turns out to be a three-cornered disappointment. Teresa Berganza. who sang the two brief solos so well in the famous 1961 London version conducted by Ansermet (who had led the original Ballets Russel production in 1919), now shouts more than she sings, with little trace of the ideal sultriness. and there is no suggestion at all that her second ("Cuckoo") air comes from an off-stage source.

--------- Andrew Davis--Grieg conducting bordering on melodrama

Still worse. Ozawa's reading is more brutally than balletically energetic, often rhythmically stilted or even stiff, and it gives scant indication of genuine personal involvement in or relish of the music. Per haps most disconcerting of all, both the tonal-color range and the sonic warmth of the Bostonians' playing are unconscionably handicapped by ultra-robust but not particularly vivid recording (in the well-processed cassette as well as the disc) in the constricted acoustical ambience of what seems more like a studio than an auditorium. Presuming that the recording was made in Symphony Hall, this is a technical feat-and error-of no mean order.

The Berganza/Ansermet/London version is still available and still magical. Bat for the score's full timbral scintillation and rhythmic intoxication, for a hauntingly evocative mezzo-soprano soloist, and for arrestingly vivid recording-even when the completely spellbinding enhancements of quadriphony aren't available-the DeGae tani/Boulez/Columbia version (August 1976) is unmatched.

-R.D.D.

FAURE: Elegie-See Lab: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.

GRIEG: Peer Gynt Suites: No. 1, Op. 46; No. 2, Op. 55*. Songs*. Elisabeth Soderstrom, soprano; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Andrew Davis, cond. [Paul Myers, prod.] Co LUMBIA M 34531, $7.98. Tape: 00 MT 34531. $7.98.

Songs: From Monte Pincio, Op. 39, No. 1; A Swan. Op. 25 No. 2; The Way of the World, Op. 48, No. 3 (orch. A. Davis); The Princess (orch. A Davis); I Love Thee. Op. 5. No. 3.

This enticing Grieg program includes not only the sung version of Solveig's Song, hut also her rarely heard Lullaby in the second Peer Gynt Suite. And for extra good measure Elisabeth Soiderstrom adds-also in Norwegian-three familiar and two unfamiliar Grieg songs, a repertory sadly neglected nowadays. Given artists of such distinction as Soderstrom and conductor Andrew Davis, and the essential inclusion of both Norwegian texts and English translations, this is unquestionably a valuable release, enhanced by extremely vivid recording.

Nevertheless, I must note that I enjoy Peer Gynt, and indeed most of Grieg's mu sic, only when it's done wholly straight forwardly in simple, folkish, open-air manner-as by such native Norwegians as Fjeldstad and Grilmer-Hegge or, more recently, as in the salty-fresh Vox versions by Ahravanel. And I stubbornly cling to the possibly illusory memories of Norena singing the great "From Monte Pincio," Frijsh singing "I Love Thee," and Flagstad singing a variety of Grieg songs. By such criteria Davis' readings seem often excessively mannered, over-vehement, even verging on the melodramatic: the bewitching Stider strtim's brilliant voice too often lacks taut vibrato and intensity control. R.D.D.

HANDEL: Sonatas for Oboe(s) and Continuo. Ronald Roseman, oboe; Edward Brewer, harpsichord. [Marc J. Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz, prod.] NONESUCH H 71339, $3.96.

Sonatas. Op. 1: No. 6, in G minor; No. 8. in C minor (with Timothy Eddy. cello). Trio Sonatas (Halley No. 2, in D mi nor; No. 3, in E flat (with Virginia Brewer. oboe; Donald MacCourt, bassoon).

Ronald Roseman consolidates his eminence as one of our finest and most versatile oboists in this welcome return to two of the early ( Halle) Handel trio sonatas, which he first recorded, as second oboist to Melvin Kaplan. for the Washington label in 1961.

This time, with different colleagues, he re places two other Halle trio sonatas with slightly more familiar solo oboe sonatas from Op. 1, for which the harpsichordist's continuo partner is wisely shifted from bassoonist to cellist. The readings are in good present-day baroque-revival style. the performances deft and persuasive, the recordings admirably clean and un-gimmicked.

There are just two minor catches. One is that Roseman's tonal qualities and execu tant authority are so distinctive that he tends to overshadow his colleagues, the over-reticent harpsichordist in particular.

The other is that Handelians already have admirable versions of Op. 1, No. 8, in the great ABC/Seon period-instrument set of the "complete" solo woodwind sonatas (ABCL 67005/3, March 1977) and of the D minor Trio Sonata in the Ars Rediviva's delectable Supraphon set (1 11 1251/3, lune 1975) of no less than thirteen trio sonatas.

But if you don't already know these large scale collections. Roseman's disc well may whet your appetite for them. And even if you do have them, Roseman proffers a couple of Handelian gems they don't include.

-R.D.D.

KHACHATURIAN: Piano Works. David Dubal, piano. [Robert F. Commagere, prod.] GENESIS GS 1062, $6.98.

Sonata: Poem; Gughetta; Sonatina: Dance in G minor; Valse Caprice; Toccata.

Although not as well known in this country as larger scale works such as the Gayane ballet suite or the violin and piano concertos, Aram Khachaturian's solo piano music has a definite attractiveness, and it is well represented on this Genesis release.

Like much contemporary piano music, it tends to stress rhythm, open harmonies.

and sonority, with sometimes harsh hand against-hand configurations winning out over the harmonically oriented melodism characteristic of much Romantic piano mu sic. There is also a rather Les Six-ish side to Khachaturian that can be heard in the banter a la Poulenc of the openings to the 1961 sonata and the 1959 sonatina. as well as in the 1926 Dance in G minor. Yet a warm, simple lyricism, with its roots in the folk music of the composer's native Armenia, also turns up. most apparently in the slow movements of the sonata and sonatina.

Unfortunately, David Dubal's pianism is nowhere nearly as attractive as the repertoire. His articulation in the numerous sections calling for fast passagework lacks evenness. Even worse, he jumbles every thing into an unvaried mishmash so that the separate musical elements never get a chance to assert themselves. In the 1932 Toccata, the recording's best-known work, Dubai sloughs off the exciting, heavily accentuated syncopations at the opening: he also makes little attempt to give tonal definition to Khachaturian's rich chords.

Throughout most of the other works as well. Dubai captures little of the pulse so characteristic of the composer's best efforts.

The disc is nonetheless nice to have because of the works it offers: and the high-register piano sonorities, in which Khachaturian composes almost to excess, have been well reproduced. Excessive surface noise, however, detracted from my enjoyment of the music.

-R.S.B.

Lalo: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, in D minor.

SAINT-Sams: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, No. 1, in A minor, Op. 33.

Fud: Elegie, Op. 24. Heinrich Schiff, cello; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Charles Mackerras, cond. [Rudolf Werner, prod.]

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 793, $7.98.

This is the record debut of a young (only twenty-four) but surprisingly mature Austrian cellist, Heinrich Schiff, who has only recently jumped into the spotlight of the European concert world. And, rather surprisingly for an interpreter who first won fame (substituting for Rostropovich) in a contemporary work, Lutoslawski's cello concerto, he turns out to be one of the in creasing number of virtuosos distinguished by powerful Romantic empathies and affinities. Probably that's the reason he doesn't hesitate to risk comparisons with the reigning masters in such staples of the late-nineteenth-century cello repertory as the Lalo and Saint-Satins First Concertos and the ever-popular Faure Elegie-the same programming as that of the well-nigh definitive Rose/Ormandy of 1971, on Columbia M 30113, to say nothing of the Cassado/Perlea Vox disc (STPL 510 920) of 1960 and, minus the Faure, the Navarra/ Munch version for Erato, originally (1967) on Epic and currently available from Musical Heritage Society (MHS 3023).

I'd hesitate as yet to rank Schiff with the best of his rivals. Rose in particular. but he makes a generally favorable impression and displays exceptional assurance for a youngster. He is open to criticism mainly for the somewhat excessive contrasts between the virility of his bravura passages and the heartfelt fervency of his lyrically expressive ones. In any case. Schiff is not the only attraction here. I don't think I've ever heard the orchestral accompaniments of these works played and recorded with more dramatic force and conviction than conductor Mackerras and engineer Naegler provide.

-R.D.D.

MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, in C minor (Resurrection). Carol Neblett, soprano; Marilyn Horne, mezzo; Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra. Claudio Abbado, cond. (Rainer Brock, prod.)

DEUTSCHE GRAMMPHON 2707 094, $15.96 (two discs, manual sequence). Tape: 00 3370 015. $15.96.

The latest contender in the increasingly fierce Resurrection rivalry sets a few world records, as it were. One is for softest string playing: Abbado proves that it's really possible to get from ff.( to pppp in some six bars (before No. 16) only to reach a discernibly distinct ppppp with mutes on after No. 24 later in the first movement. Another surpassing feature is the off-stage brass in the finale, farther away than ever before on discs and almost unnoticeable if you're paying less than complete attention. Finally. the Chicagoans take the prize for complete, natural glissandos (e.g., the concertmaster just before the mezzo's "Ach nein! Ich Hess mich nicht uhweisen" in the fourth movement). Too often, American (and some European) orchestras play slides. even those specified by the com poser, with clumsy embarrassment.

Not unique in the work's discography.

but surely praiseworthy, is the sensitive treatment of such a poetic moment as the first movement's bucolic episode from Nos. 8 to 9 (marked noch etwas longsamer), the subtle way the first bassoon creeps through the texture at the scherzo's No. 31, the dignity of the moderately paced march in the finale (though again and again I hark back to Klemperer's terrifying deliberation on Angel SB 3634), the observance of poco ritardando three bars before No. 27 in that movement where many others make an extreme ritard, and the clearly balanced organ at the very end.

The extent of the musical limitations in Abbado's performance is about the same as in the average Mahler Second but greater than in the really enduring ones (i.e.. Klemperer's. Bernstein's on Columbia M2 32681.

Haitink's on Philips 802 884/5, Walter's on Odyssey Y2 30848). Abbado's obsession with an almost classical lightness causes many problems. The Landler is a little brisk and doesn't die off enough at the end: the staccato phrasing is less piquant than with Haitink. The scherzo is cool, lacking both malice and moonshine, and the end movements lack dramatic thrust in sufficient degree. The finale particularly is vitiated by underplaying the sehr zuruckhaltend at No. 2. various forward pushes between Nos. 8 and 9, and the fierce impact of the brass writing prior to the flute-and-trumpet "birdsong" episode. Likewise, the two vocal soloists, while competent and pleasant to listen to, do not scale the heights of many of their competitors.

The set has a prominent sonic problem as well: the extremely low level of its mastering. Some of those awesomely quiet pas sages have to compete with surface swish.

Moreover, the cutting (with exceedingly and visibly-variable groove spacings) may pose problems for some pickups, especially in the quiet passages. Otherwise, the re lease is impressively engineered in terms of delicately filigreed play of light and shade.

This is a less immediate and enveloping acoustic than we heard in DG's last Chicago Mahler recording, Giulini's Ninth (2707097, July).

-A.C.

MOZART: Quartet for Oboe and Strings, in F, K. 370; Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, in A, K. 581. Lothar Koch, oboe; Gervase de Peyer, clarinet; Amadeus Quartet. [Gunther Breest, prod.] DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 720, $7.98.

There have been some outstanding performances of this music on records, but the present coupling compares favorably with the best of them. Both soloists, in fact, have essayed their respective works on disc be fore, though the venerable Amadeus-long associated with Mozart-seems to be represented for the first time.

Gervase de Peyer's new reading of the clarinet quintet improves upon his Angel reading with the Melos Ensemble (S 36241).

There is a darker ensemble color from the strings and a greater sense of personal involvement than can he heard in that excel lent account, and though the renowned British clarinetist favors a flatter, more restricted type of sonority than Guy Deplus (with the Danish Quartet, in Telefunken 56.35017) or Harold Wright (with a some what loose-limbed Marlboro string ensemble on Columbia MS 7447), there is insinuating lift, profile, and character to his phrasing. Another point of interest is De Peyer's interpolation of a small roulade just before the finale to the last movement, a de tail that I have grown accustomed to through several of his live performances of the work. (Its authenticity, according to De Peyer. is established by an early edition and without checking it out, it sounds fine to me.) The oboe quartet is perhaps the finest of those works Mozart composed during that decade when he withdrew from the string quartet proper, and oboist Lothar Koch makes an excellent "first violinist." He negotiates all the roulades and somersaults in his bravura part with consummate pizzazz and virtuosity and (in contrast to the superb but idiosyncratic Pierre Pierlot, with Grumiaux et al., Philips 6500 924) produces a lush sound without any annoying vibrato. I haven't heard his earlier version with members of the Berlin Philharmonic for some years, but my impression is that the collaboration with the Amadeus is a hit tighter structurally and more economical.

DG has discreetly miked the Amadeus at a moderate distance. As a result, it sounds suaver, and clearer, than it has for some time on records. A superb release.

-H.G.

-------- Gervase de Peyer and the Amadeus Quartet-Mozart with lift and character

OFFENBACH: Gaits parisienne (arr. Rosenthal). La Fille du Tambour-Major: Over ture. Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra, Manuel Rosenthal, cond. [John Mordler, prod.] AN GEL S 37209, $7.98 (SO-encoded disc).

Tape: S 4XS 37209, $7.98; 41'.8XS 37209, $7.98.

Sousa: Stars and Stripes (ballet; arr. Kay).

Marches (arr. Rogers): King Cotton; El Capitan; Semper Fidelis. National Philharmonic Orchestra, Henry Lewis, cond. [Raymond Few, prod.] LONDON PHASE-4 SPC 21161, $7.98.

Having complained a year ago about the re cent neglect of "ballet metamorphoses" (November 1976), I'm pleased to welcome new versions of both the most popular work in this genre and another recorded only once in the past.

Angel's new Guile parisienne immediately wins high ranking in the sizable cur rent discography-partly as one of the relatively few versions that include the complete score, partly as the first new recording in some five years and the first in quadriphony, but mainly for bringing back to records the reading of the score's co creator. Manuel Rosenthal (who was once heard in a highly unsatisfactory 1955 mono version for Remington). And, seemingly appropriately, the orchestra Rosenthal uses is that of the Monte Carlo Opera, as close as possible to that of the Ballets Russes of Monte Carlo, which commissioned the work and first performed it under his direction in 1938.

Not surprisingly. Rosenthal's performance-prefaced by a sparkling, quintessentially Offenbachian overture, that to La Fille du Tambour-Major-is distinctive for its balletic authority as well as personal verve, while the recorded sonics are vividly and robustly up to date. (Quadriphony adds some expansiveness, but there is no significant loss in stereo.) The main handicaps are the tonal and executant deficiencies of the Monte Carlo players, who even under Rosenthal, can't match the color and precision of truly first-class orchestras. Hence, my all-'round preference remains the still well-nigh ideal, quite un-faded Munch version for London (SPC 21011). And of course both the best-selling 1954 Victrola and 1959 RCA Fiedler ac counts (the latter available in Iwo different couplings) remain unique for their vivacity.

But this still leaves an important place especially among balletomanes' libraries for the arranger's own version. Its producers deserve our gratitude for jacket notes that not only summarize the ballet's "story," but specify the twenty individual musical sections. The notes include Rosenthal's account of how he came to write the score (as a substitute for the originally designated orchestrator. Roger Desormiere) and how it was first turned down by Massine until Stravinsky's praise for it changed the choreographer's mind.

Hershy Kay's ballet built on Sousa marches and operetta excerpts has had a different history. Still alive and well on the stage, it has been recorded only once be fore. as far as I know-by Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra for RCA Victor in 1958, the year of its first stage production; that more idiomatic performance is currently available in a Gold Seal reissue (AGL 1-1271). Lewis is an able operatic and sym phonic conductor, but neither he nor his British orchestra seems to have any sense of how some of Sousa's best music should sound and swing. It certainly never should sound as brutally blatant and heavy handed as it does here (except momentarily, as in the superbly schmaltzy pus de deux cornet-euphonium duet). And even all the sensational thunders and lightnings of Phase-4 technology can't deafen one to a pervasive tonal and interpretive coarseness. Well, the disc's unexcelled as a lease-breaker.

There's still an aching need for a more satisfactory version of the Sousa-Kay ballet and for new recordings of the Gottschalk-Kay Cakewalk. Scarlatti-Tommasini Good-Humored Ladies, the Boccherini Francaix Scuola di Ballo (if the missing score can be found or reconstructed), and other delectable "ballet metamorphoses."

-R.D.D.

PROKOFIEV: Concertos for Violin and Orchestra: No. 1, in D, Op. 19; No. 2, in G minor, Op. 63. Kyung-Wha Chung, violin; Lon don Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn, cond. [James Mallinson and Christopher Raeburn, prod.] LONDON CS 6997, $7.98.

Tape: Oa CS5 6997. $7.95.

Like most violinists who tackle the Prokofiev concertos. Kyung-Wha Chung seems more at home in the more exotically lyrical D major than in the starker, more propulsive C minor, with its-heavier domination of chordal writing, its more jagged melodic line, and its often louder goings-on in the orchestral part. In purely technical terms the C minor seems to require no less than Heifetz (or so the latter's recording, RCA LSC 4010. would suggest-he comes closest, for example, to the startling twenty-minute duration suggested in the score). In addition, Chung's romantic temperament-her shading of tone and use of portamento and rubato--is better suited to the D major.

In general, Chung's work here confirms earlier impressions. In the intimate movements of the D major there is much playing that is affecting and characterful, but in the blazingly sonorous conclusion of the G mi nor her tone spreads uncomfortably. and in the latter work she and Previn, even more than Stern and Ormandy ( Columbia MS (1635). fragment structure by exaggerating Prokofiev's indicated tempo changes for contrasting themes. The LSO provides excellent support, at times outshining the soloist. At No. 34 in the G minor's slow movement, for example, the flutist's lightly filigreed triplets far surpass Chung's just-preceding playing of the same material.

Previn-helped by remarkably open, transparent, and somewhat bass-heavy recording--leaves no accompanying detail unrealized: a number of rhythmic points could be better, though.

In sum, the new issue has much that is interesting. if also much that is problematic.

Milstein's coupling (Angel S 36009) offers a more coolly cultivated alternative-neat, urbane, but somewhat chilly emotionally.

The remarkable Milanova performances (Monitor HS 90101, budget-priced) remain my preference among all couplings of the two concertos at any price.

-A.C.

RACHMANINOFF: Piano Works, Vol. 4. Ruth Laredo, piano. [Andrew Kazdin, prod.] Co LUMBIA M 34532, $7.98.

RACHMANINOFF: Etudes Tableaux (9). Op. 39. Knerften: Liebesleid Liebesfreud (err. Rachmaninoff).

RACHMANINOFF: Piano Works and Arrangements. Garrick Ohlsson, piano. [David Mottley, prod.] ANGEL S 37219, $7.98.

RACHMANINOFF: Melodie, Op. 3, No. 3 (revised version): Humoresque, Op. 10, No. 5 (revised version); Prelude.

Op. posth. Fragments (1917): Lilacs. Daisies. BACH: Partite for Solo Violin, No. 3, in E, S. 1006: Prelude: Gavotte: Gigue. Bizet: L'Arlesienne: Minuetto No. 1.

MENDELSSOMN: A Midsummer Night's Dream: Scherzo.

MUSSORGSKY: Hopak. Kingman: Liebesleid: Liebesfreud.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: The Tale of Tsar Saltan: Flight of the Bumblebee.

SCHUINENT: Die schone Mullerin. Wohin? Tcieketovsev: Lullaby.

Ruth Laredo's approach to the Op. 39 Eludes Tableaux is more intimate than one usually hears. She emphasizes the lyricism and often underplays the massive, sardonic facets of the writing. Ashkenazy (London CS 6822), with what frequently appears to be a more laconic approach, often seems to he taking faster tempos, but this is largely the result of spacing and accentuation rather than mere speed. Both artists present sympathetic views of this problematical (and extremely difficult) music. Ashkenazy's version gets off to a better start with a more whirlwind account of No. 1, and he also holds the interpretive edge in No. 7, where his phrasing better brings out the asymmetrical, jagged references to the Dies Irae chant. Laredo, by contrast, is uncomfortably close to Faure here.

On the other hand, she excels in more tenderly introspective pieces like No. 2, and her gear shifts in No. 3, allied with sharper dynamic contrasts and drier sound, also give her the edge. The biting acoustic similarly helps her in No. 6, where the repeated notes register with more crispness than in Ashkenazy's equally fleet but more resonantly generalized performance. And if Ashkenazy's stark power gives him momentary advantage over Laredo in the "Baba Yaga"-like No. 9, her lithe, elegant account of No. 5 is quite refreshingly free of the usual rhetorical tub-thumping (of which Van Cliburn's performance is an extreme example, though Ashkenazy and Horowitz to lesser degree succumb to this approach).

In the two Kreisler arrangements, how ever. I prefer Ohlsson's performances, which have a greater control of the over-all line and a kind of casual command that easily separates the swirling inner notes from the (more important) melody. He doesn't quite achieve the bold rhythmic outlines and magnificent virility that Rachmaninoff himself brought to these tailor-made bonbons (who does?), but sometimes-as in the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream Scherzo-the difference is so minimal as to be uncanny.

Both recordings are well made.

-H.G.

Saint-Saens: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. No. 1-See Lalo. Concerto.

ScamArn, D.: Sonatas for Harpsichord. Elaine Comparone, harpsichord. [Michael Naida, prod.] MUSICAL HERITAGE MHS 3330, $4.95 ($3.50 to members).

Tape: AM MHC 5330, $6.95 ($4.95 to members). (Add 95c postage; Musical Heritage Society, 14 Park Rd., Tinton Falls, N.J. 07724.) Sonatas: in G minor, K.12 (L.489); in F sharp minor. K. 25 (L. 481); in D. K. 45 (L. 255). in D. K. 118 (L. 122). in F mi nor, K. 187(L. 285); in B minor, K. 197(L. 147): in C. K. 201 (L. 129); in D minor. K. 213 (L. 108); in B minor, K. 409 (L. 150); in F minor. K. 481 (L. 187); in D minor, K 517 (L. 266); in B flat, K. 545 (L. 500).

Elaine Comparone is a Massachusetts-born Fulbright fellow who has studied with Ahlgrimm in Vienna and since 1970 has established herself as an active solo and ensemble harpsichordist. She commands impressively strong-fingered, crisp articulation. which perhaps tempts her into over-vehemence in the more vigorous and bravura passages here.

But if she still has a lot to learn in assured relaxation and grace as well as in personality projection, she is already an imaginative programmer. Possibly she has had the opportunity of studying the late-1976 list, prepared by West Coast Scarlattian Gilbert Van Vranken, of over 100 unrecorded Scarlatti sonatas, for no less than five of the twelve pieces played here are drawn from this list and are hence firsts. (The closest competitor in this respect is Colin Tilney with three other firsts in his Argo ZK 5 of a year ago, so far available only in England.) Comparone's new five are all good ones.

too: the cheerful K. 12, the invention-like K. 25, the ceremonial K. 118, the striding ballade-like K. 187, and the jollily swaggering K. 409.

The instrument used here, built in 1968 by William Dowd on the model of a 1730 N. et Francois Blanche' harpsichord. is not a particularly brilliant one, but it is of the proper size (not too big) for Scarlatti, while still being capable of considerable registration and dynamic variety. It has a distinctive technical feature in its use of "Delrie" jacks and plectra, which provide markedly strong string-plucking action--a characteristic that makes for exceptionally clean-cut and full-bodied tonal qualities. And first rate. Un-gimmicked recording, not too closely miked and hence freer than usual from extraneous mechanical noises, makes the most of these distinctive sonics.

-R.D.D.

SCHUMANN: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra-See Bloch. Schelomo.

SCHUMANN: Piano Works. Claudio Arrau, piano. PHILIPS 6500 395, $7.98.

Papillons, Op. 2; Kinderszenen.

Op. 15; Blumenshick, Op. 19; Romances (3), Op. 28.

Arrau's way with the Papillons miniatures is broad, spaciously relaxed, genial, and affectionate. He eschews some of the sparkle and contrast heard in Richter's rather over drawn interpretation (Angel S 36104) and subdues some of the sarcastic humor of Cortot's (EMI Odeon 1C 147 01544/5). Nor does Arrau favor the crystalline lightness of touch that Perahia brought to this youthful music in concert (his recording for Columbia is due for release soon) or the spontaneity heard from Novaes and Kempff. In its open-hearted, gracious style, though. Arrau offers a masterly account.

The three Op. 28 Romances are even more impressive. Nos. 1 and 3 are swirling and brooding (note the cryptic, phantom like emphasis he brings to the shadowy second trio of No. 3), and even in the popular No. 2, so often treated as another Schubert impromptu, Arrau finds all sorts of psycho logical implications in his more abrupt, detached, but very intense reading. The usual flow gives way to an arresting, quirky angularity, and there are many instances of impressive voicing and color contrasts.

Kinderszenen is not successful, to my way of hearing. Save for a steady " Hasche Mann." a suitably pompous "Wichtige Begebenheit," and "Ritter von Stecken pferd," which is given an attractive thrusting rhythm. Arrau bears down too heavily on these cameos, divesting them of charm and spontaneity. The rhythm is spasmodically disrupted by constant emphases and adjustments, and the sonority is much too ample--even, at times, prosaically heavy.

The long, lyrical lines of Blumenstiick are sympathetically savored, though Arrau al most kills the music with kindness. His richly intoned reading lacks the flowing, fragile beauty heard in Horowitz's more delicate account (Columbia M2S 757), becoming (to borrow a phrase from Kinderszenen) "almost too serious." The piano sound is superb throughout richly plangent, pearly and round on top, with plenty of Kass and silent surfaces.

-N.G.

SHOSTAKOVICH: The New Babylon (film score). Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra members, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, cond.

[Igor Veprintsev, prod.] COLUMBIA/MELODIYA M 34502, $7.98.

The very existence of this score was unknown to me until the disc landed on my doormat, so in writing about it I will draw shamelessly on the copious background in formation contained in Royal Brown's admirable liner notes. The New Babylon, apparently, was the first of Shostakovich's long series of film scores, even antedating the arrival of the talkies. As a teenager in Leningrad he had had the formative experience of playing piano accompaniments to silent films, but it was not until 1928, just after his brilliantly satirical opera on Gogol's The Nose had attracted attention, that the chance to compose a score of his own came his way. It was commissioned by the avant garde directorial team of Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, whose group (known as FEX, an acronym for Factory of the Eccentric Actor) was part of the lively wing of Russian creative life that had not yet succumbed to Stalinist realism. A specially composed orchestral score was something of a prestige item in the days of silent movies, and Shostakovich evidently took the task seriously, providing versions for both large and small orchestras. (It is the smaller that is recorded here, but there is no sense of undernourishment: in fact the music's perky and satirical style is probably better matched in this version.) The film's title refers both to the department store where the heroine works and to its broader setting-Paris at the time of the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune (no prizes for guessing which line the film takes in that particular conflict). It gave Shostakovich plenty of scope for his favorite type of parodistic quotation: Among more oblique references to the styles of the Second Empire, there are direct quotations from Offenbach and a rather odd version of the "Morseillaise." There is "Frenchness" of a more recent vintage too-that of Poulenc, Ibert, and Milhaud, who had been drawn by different reasons to the quasi-popular idiom that FEX affected, and Shostakovich with them. But already the opposite pole of Shostakovich's deeply di vided nature, the bleak melancholy that is the reverse of his almost manic high spirits, makes its appearance, notably at the end of the third sequence, "The Siege of Paris." And there are one or two patches of that tender lyricism, usually in waltz-time, that nostalgia for times past would regularly in duce. (The waltz, surely, in Soviet music is as much a symbol of the bourgeoisie as the minuet had been of the eighteenth-century aristocracy.) It is. I think, for this predictable but utterly individual mixture of ingredients that anyone interested in Shostakovich's personality and music will want the record.

The actual bar-to-bar course of the music seems all too often to he dictated by a succession of images that we can only guess at through the notes' brief but helpful description of the movie. The score apparently lay unrecognized--or, at any rate, ignored--in the Lenin State Library in Moscow until shortly after the composer's death in 1975.

Would he have sanctioned its publication and performance in this unabridged form? I rather doubt it. I must say. since his "absolute" music, even at its most diffuse, ob serves stricter canons of coherence than one can find here, and contrasts between and within the seven sequences are less well planned than they would have been in an autonomous work.

But I am glad, for all that, to he able to explore the origins of so much that is individual in his later music-particularly in this stunningly well performed and recorded version. The natural balance of the small ensemble, with its highly individualized timbres (including a locus classicus for flexaton) and unconventional contrasts, is very vividly reproduced, and Rozhdestvensky gets playing of marvelous elegance and energy from his Moscow Philharmonic players.

SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 1, in E mi nor, Op. 39; Scenes historiques, Op. 25. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Berglund, cond. [John William (Op. 39) and David Mottley (Op. 25), prod.] SERAPHIM S 60289, $3.98 (SO-encoded disc).

Comparison-symphony: Davis/ Boston Sym. Phi. 9500 140 After Colin Davis' sumptuous First (June 1977), this new issue has a few disadvantages. The Bournemouth Symphony, though possessed of a fine first clarinet and darkly imposing low brasses, lacks the polish and virtuosity of the Boston Symphony.

Then, EMI's sonics--at least as heard on my Seraphim pressing, which in heavily scored passages sounds like mud splattering from a bog-lack the sparkling translucency of Philips'. And Berglund is less concerned than Davis with nuances of tempo and dynamics.

Nonetheless, the present reading has a sense of impassive authority, a kind of brooding inevitability. Berglund, though some two years younger than Davis, leads a performance of the kind often associated with an older man-not so riveting in de tail, nor ardent in affection, but strong in its sense of deep identification, of organic rootedness. The fast sections of the scherzo and finale may go along almost stolidly, but the grand sweep of the symphony as a whole carries its own involving excitement.

At the Seraphim price, this is a completive version. The first (Op. 25) set of Scenes historiques is an attractive and substantial coupling, though Jalas (London CS 6956) offers the Op. 66 set as well, for the compleat Sibelkan--albeit Op. 25 is less appealingly played and recorded than Berglund's.

-A.C.

Sousa: Stars and Stripes (ballet; arr. Kay); Marches (arr. Rogers)--See Offenbach: Gaite parisienne STRAUSS,J. I and II: Orchestral Works. Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, cond.

[Thomas W Mowrey, prod.]

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2584 008, $7.98.

Arthur Fiedler--Another Strauss treat for Fiedler fans J. STRAUSS I: Chinese Galop. Op. 20. J. STRAUSS II: Perpetuum mobile, Op. 257. Polkas: Im Krapfenwald'I, Op. 336: Tritsch-Tratsch, Op. 214. Waltzes: Emperor, Op. 437; Tales from the Orient, Op. 444; New Vienna, Op. 342.

Der Zigeunerbaron: March, Act 111.

Here's what I--and I'm sure many other Fiedler fans--have been waiting for: not only another of the too rare Bostonian Strauss releases, but one that, unlike last year's otherwise outstanding London Phase-4 waltz program (SPC 21144, August 1976). dips back into the unfamiliar repertory the conductor pioneered in bringing to American listeners' attention. Except of course for the high-voltage Tritsch-Tratsch Polka and the great Emperor Waltz (which Fiedler takes more briskly than anyone except Boskovsky and which he endows with more resplendent sonics than anyone, period), the present selections are heard all too seldom nowadays, at least outside the Viennese Light Music Society's specialized catalog. Yet, believe it or not, apparently only Father Johann's chipper Chinese Ga lop and the son's opulently colored Tales from the Orient Waltz were not recorded by Fiedler for RCA Victor back in the '30, '40s, and early '50s. It's good to have them-the unjustly neglected New Vienna Waltz and the sonic-spectacular Im Krupfenwald'I Polka-Francaise in particular-in typically exuberant Fiedlerian performances now given expansively big, vividly incandescent, yet almost palpably solid recorded sound in an unmistakably authentic Symphony Hall reverberant ambience.

Now, how about new life for one of the earliest Strauss/Fiedler novelties: the Op. 364 Wo die Zitronen bleihn Waltz and the still unfamiliar works in the celebrated "Mr. Strauss comes to Boston" program of 1954?

-R.D.D.

STRAUSS, R.: Don Juan, Op. 20, Macbeth, Op. 23. Dresden State Orchestra, Rudolf Kempe. cond. [David Mottley, prod.]

SERAPHIM S 60288. $3.98 (SQ-encoded disc) Kempe's EMI Strauss series continues to trickle into the domestic catalog. Some of this material is finding its way onto the budget-priced Seraphim label-first his Zarathustra (S 60283) and now this coupling, with Aus Ruben to follow shortly.

This enables Straussians to get at low cost his magnificent, now virile, now poetically eloquent Don Juan (which documents a quantum jump in Straussian authority over his 1964 recording-recently issued on Quintessence PMC 7005--good as the latter is) and obtain as a bonus his even more dramatically exciting and satisfying Macbeth.

Macbeth, the second of the Strauss tone poems and the neglected stepsister of the whole series, gets long-deferred recorded justice, incidentally proving that its neglect never has had a legitimate excuse. It is no masterpiece, to be sure: More episodic than the later tone poems, it represents a com poser (then in his early twenties) far less sure of himself and of his new orchestral-resources explorations than he was to be come. Indeed, Macbeth was one of the few Strauss works to undergo radical revamping-this, on Von Bulow's advice, between its first 1887 and final 1890 versions. But in its final form, and especially as realized with such vital conviction as it is by Kempe, the score is formidably dramatic and evocative with some moments of eloquent, even exalted, lyricism. No Straussian worthy of the name can afford to ignore it.

-R.D.D.

TELEMANN: Don Quichotte Suite-See J C Bach: Sinfonias.

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