THIS is the seventh consecutive year in which STEREO REVIEW has offered its readers its selection of the most outstanding records of the year. The records have been chosen from among those reviewed in our January through December 1972 issues, and because of the necessary lapse of time between the release of a record and the appearance of a published review of it, records that made their way onto the market toward the end of the year are not among those eligible. We will catch up with them in the voting for the best records of 1974.
The award-winning records and honorable mentions have been chosen, as in the past, by polling the critical and editorial staffs of the magazine. Votes are asked for and accepted only on the basis of artistic and technical quality, and the awards have only a coincidental, if any, relation to sales figures, real or imagined.
With the current talk about vinyl shortages and cutbacks of releases, a public recognition of artistic quality unrelated to sales becomes more important than ever. Record companies must be convinced anew that there are reasons other than that of the fastest possible dollar to release records, and that the effort to do something new and fine is not a mere charitable contribution to be withdrawn when times get tough, but a kind of artistic research to foretell, and perhaps even to decide, what sort of music Americans will be listening to in years to come.
Present attention to the new and fine may help to convince the companies that such a future is worth the investment. That is the major reason for these awards.
-James Goodfriend, Music Editor
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Record of the Year
The Red Back Book (Gunther Schuller, conductor). ANGEL S 36060.
PUCCINI: Turandot (Zubin Mehta, conductor). LONDON OSA 13108.
THE WESTERN WIND VOCAL ENSEMBLE: BRAHMS: The Complete String Quartets Early American Vocal Music. NONESUCH ( Cleveland Quartet). RCA VCS 7102.
H-71276.
ROY BUCHANAN: Second Album. POLYDOR PD 5046.
HARRY NILSSON: A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. RCA APL 1 0097.
Honorable Mentions
BACH: The Complete Variations for Harpsichord (Igor Kipnis, harpsichord). ANGEL SB 3796.
THE BEE GEES: Life in a Tin Can. RSO SO 870.
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concertos (Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano; Sir Georg Solti, conductor). LONDON CSA 2404.
BIZET: Carmen (Leonard Bernstein, conductor). DEUTSCHE GRAM MOPHON DG 2709 043.
VIKKI CARR: Canta en Espanol. COLUMBIA KC 31470.
COWARDY CUSTARD (Noel Coward): Original London Cast. RCA LSO-6010.
ELLA FITZGERALD: Ella Fitzgerald Loves Cole Porter. ATLANTIC 1631.
GERSHWIN: George Gershwin's Songbook (William Bolcom, piano).
NONESUCH H 71284.
Awards for 1973
SCHUBERT: "Trout" Quintet (Jorg Demus, piano; members of the Collegium Aureum). BASF KHB 20314.
NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND: Will the Circle Be Unbroken. UNITED ARTISTS UAS 9801.
ART TATUM: God Is in the House. ONYX 205. STEELEYE SPAN: Parcel of Rogues. CHRYSALIS CHR 1046.
THE HARDER THEY COME: Original-Soundtrack Recording (Jimmy Cliff, vocals). MANGO SMAS 7400.
MARILYN HORNE: Rossini Arias. LONDON OS 26305.
LEO KOTTKE: My Feet Are Smiling. CAPITOL ST-11164.
MOTT THE HOOPLE: Mott. COLUMBIA KC 32425.
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Yevgeny Mogilevsky, piano;
Kiril Kondrashin, conductor). MELODIYA 'ANGEL SR 40226.
RAVEL: Valses Nobles et Sentimentales; Une Barque sur l'Ocean; Le Tombeau de Couperin (Pierre Boulez, conductor). COLUMBIA M 32159..
LOU REED: Berlin. RCA APL 1-0207.
ROCHBERG: String Quartet No. 3 ( Concord Quartet). NONESUCH H 71283.
ROLLING STONES: Goats Head Soup. ROLLING STONES COC 59101.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Greetings from As bury Park, N.J. COLUMBIA KC 31903.
RAMEAU: Castor et Pollux (Nikolaus Harn oncourt, conductor). TELEFUNKEN SAWT 9584/87-A.
ROSSINI: William Tell (Lamberto Gardelli, conductor). ANGEL SEL 3793.
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. Posth. D. 958; Impromptus (Alfred Brendel, piano). PHILIPS 6500415.
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Stephen Sondheim): Original Broadway Cast. COLUMBIA KS-32265.
STRAVINSKY: Petrouchka (Charles Mackerras, conductor). VANGUARD VSD 71176.
VIVALDI: L'Estro Armonico (Neville Marriner, conductor). ARGO ZRG 733-4.
STEVIE WONDER: Talking Book. TAMLA 319 L.
ROY WOOD: Boulders. UNITED ARTISTS UA-LA 168-F.
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Also see:
BEST OF THE MONTH -- SELECTION OF RECORDINGS OF SPECIAL MERIT (Feb. 1974)