Reviewed by: RICHARD FREED DAVID HALL GEORGE JELLINEK PAUL KRESH STODDARD
LINCOLN ERIC SALZMAN
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
J. S. BACH: Eighteen Chorale Preludes (BWV 651-668). Alban Singers; Peter Hurford (organ). ARGO ZRG 843/4 two discs $13.96.
Performance: Sensitive
Recording: Spacious
The chorale preludes copied as a group in the manuscript in the East Berlin Staatsbibliotek (Ms. Bach P 271) are affectionately known among organists as "The Eighteen." In contrast to the chorale preludes in the Orgelbiichlein, miniatures written for didactic purposes, these are full-blown compositions, revealing Bach's mastery of contrapuntal skills and instrumental technique. Playing the organ of All Souls Unitarian Church, Washington, D.C., Peter Hurford offers us a magnificently conceived reading of these wonderful works. The registration is carefully chosen to illuminate the complexity of Bach's'part-writing and to feature the original chorale melody. Avoiding the almost-cliche and annoying detache techniques so frequently used in Baroque organ performances today, Mr. Hurford adopts a flowing legato style of playing that is nonetheless clear in its articulation and subtle in its rhythmic control. Over this plastic structure, the square chorale melodies form a stunning contrast of monolithic strength. Especially fine is Hurford's molding of those highly embellished settings in which the original melody is subjected to every ornate division imaginable. And he incorporates all that minute detail into the overall line without sounding mechanical.
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Explanation of symbols:
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Monophonic recordings are indicated by the symbol.
The first listing is the one reviewed; other formats, if available, follow it.
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Each chorale prelude is preceded here by a choral setting sung by the Alban Singers. Al though Bach himself wrote choral settings of all the chorales involved, those are not used in this album. The choral settings here are earlier ones, presenting the melody in a simpler language than that employed by Bach and with a special freshness in their modality and an almost Renaissance concept of chordal progression.
The album also includes copious, interesting notes (by Stephen Daw) which are full of information on the source of the melodies, the various vocal settings, and Bach's settings for organ, and which include a brief analysis of the compositional technique used. - S.L.
J. S. BACH: Italian Concerto (BWV 971); French Overture (BWV 831). Igor Kipnis (harpsichord). ANGEL S-36096 $6.98.
Performance: Stately
Recording: Thick
J. S. BACH: Suite in C Minor (BWV 997); Italian Concerto (BWV 971); Two-Part Inventions (BWV 772-786); Fantasy in C Minor (BWV 906). Lionel Party (harpsichord). DESMAR DSM 1008 $6.98.
Performance: Brilliant
Recording: Clear
J. S. BACH: Toccatas in D Major, E Minor, and G Major (BWV 912, 914, and 916); Prelude in A Minor (BWV 922); Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 903). Blandine Verlet (harpsichord). PHILIPS 6833 184 $7.98.
Performance: Rhapsodic
Recording: Bright
These three excellent discs of indestructible music by Bach will give the listener a fine sampling of what is going on in the world of harpsichordists. Igor Kipnis, widely known through his many records and concert activities, is certainly one of the finest performers we have today. His playing over the years has mellowed, and from the glowing performances on this disc it is evident that he has reached a wonderful stage of maturity and confidence. His reading of the Italian Concerto is beautifully poised; the outer movements reveal the important structural clarity be tween solo and tutti, and the difficult slow movement is lyric and effusive. The opening of the French Overture is noble in its double dotting, but when this style returns after the intervening fugue the nobility is somewhat lost in a tempo too rapid for the fussy up-beat figuration. Kipnis employs the full panoply of French rhythmic and brings them off nicely in the dance movements. Also, he is not afraid to add ornaments and divisions in the many repeats and da capos. Despite some rather muddy sounds resulting from the six teen-foot stop (I do wish he would reconsider the use of this almost obsolete sound), the complex music comes off with admirable clarity in the artist's hands.
The young Chilean harpsichordist Lionel Party is a first-prize winner of the Leipzig International Bach Competition. He has fingers galore and possesses a brilliant technique.
This is displayed almost to a fault in the Italian Concerto where the music is often blurred because of excessive speed and enthusiasm.
Such an approach, however, is appropriate for the C Minor Fantasy and results in a kind of Scarlatti brilliance. Mr. Party's musician ship is heard to best advantage in the Two-Part Inventions. Faced with this highly abstract music with no direction from the com poser in terms of tempos or dance rhythms, he has found a convincing affect for each piece rather than presenting them as a collective lump. We must also thank him for including a reading of the C Minor Suite, a rarely heard creation intended for lute. He, brings it off superbly as a major harpsichord work.
Finally, there is the young French harpsichordist Blandine Verlet, who presents a youthful Bach at his most rhapsodic and reveals her penchant for the improvisatory style. The challenge of the toccatas is to achieve a balance between the free recitative-like sections and the highly ordered fugal writing. Ms. Verlet solves this problem with a disarming simplicity that contrasts her poetry and imagination with a keen sense of structure and form. Here is a new personality on the scene to watch and listen to. -S.L.
BARTOK : Bluebeard's Castle (see Best of the Month, page 81) BEETHOVEN: Missa Solemnis in D Major, Op. 123. Heather Harper (soprano); Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano); Robert Tear (tenor); Hans Sotin (bass); New Philharmonia Chorus; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini cond. ANGEL 0 SB-3836 two discs $13.98.
Performance: Devout
Recording: Boxy
In an age in which the term "artist" is used casually as a synonym for "performer," Giulini is one of the great figures who remind us of the word's true meaning. His recording of the Missa Solemnis, which ought to have been an Event, has many moments of sublime beauty, but overall it is less persuasive than I had hoped and clearly less so than the Klemperer and Bohm versions. As a shortcut description of this performance, one might say that Giulini emphasizes the work's devotional aspect and plays down the dramatic; the trouble with that is that there seems to have been no separation of the two in Beethoven's concept, and here the sections that should be the most stirring are for the most part barren intermezzos between the more meditative ones, which are most affecting indeed. The exultant quality of the Gloria, which should open like a sunburst, is dissipated by Giulini's deliberate pacing, and so is that of the fugal section at the end of the Credo. Everyone sings and plays very well-Heather Harper especially but the whole seems somehow less than the sum of its parts. The sound itself is not of much help. - R.F.
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas: No. 8, in C Mi nor, Op. 13 ("Pathetique"); No. 21, in C Major, Op. 53 ("Waldstein"); No. 26, in E-fiat Major, Op. 81a ("Les Adieux"). Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano). LONDON CS 6921 $6.98.
Performance: First-rate
Recording: Likewise
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas: No. 8, in C Mi nor, Op. 13 ("Pathetique"); No. 14, in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 ("Moonlight"); No. 21, in C Major, Op. 53 ("Waldstein"). Rudolf Firkusny (piano). LONDON SPC 21080 $6.98.
Performance: Rugged
Recording: Close-up
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas: No. 8, in C Minor, Op. 13 ("Pathetigue"); No. 14, in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 ("Moonlight"); Na. 23, in F Minor, Op. 57 ("Appassionata"). Bruno-Leonardo Gelber (piano).
CONNOISSEUR SOCIETY CSQ 2113 $6.98.
Performance: Romantically intense
Recording: Good
These three discs among them offer not only the five most popular Beethoven piano sonatas, but, in terms of interpretive style, some thing for every taste. You can choose be tween the Schnabel-like ruggedness and intellectuality of Firkusny and the unabashed romanticism of Gelber, or, if you are looking for a near-ideal synthesis of the two approaches, there is the well-nigh infallible musicality and fleet-fingered virtuosity of Ashkenazy.
In terms of recorded sound, the Ashkenazy disc is just fine for my taste, with body, brilliance, and a comfortable room ambiance.
Firkusny gets a really close-up miking job that turns out well within its particular frame of sonic reference. Heard in two-channel play back, the Gelber recording seems distant in comparison with the others, but there is a more effective instrumental presence when the two rear channels are brought into play.
Ashkenazy's dramatic, yet disciplined, traversal of the Pathetique and the fine sense of atmosphere he brings to the opening pages of Les Adieux (Beethoven preferred the Ger man Lebewohl to the customary French titling) are very impressive. The nimble virtuosity of the latter's final movement reminds one that this music came from the same period that saw the creation of the brilliant Emperor Concerto and the Harp Quartet. But, fine as Ashkenazy's reading of the Waldstein is, it doesn't measure up in imaginative quality to Alfred Brendel's recent version on Philips.
Firkusny scores in the way he works out developments, as in that of the first movement of the Pathetique, which fairly explodes into its reprise. Superbly urgent, too, is his treatment of the opening movement of the Appassionata, and his emphasis of contrast in expression and dynamics throughout the finale lingers in the mind long after hearing.
For all the immediate sense of drama and coloration Gelber achieves, I find his readings wear the least well. His hyper-dramatic handling of the final movement of Op. 27, No. 2, is a prime instance in point. But matters of personal taste are involved here, and others may feel differently. I, though, would make a point of acquiring the Ashkenazy disc-judging from this as well as the earlier three in the series, I believe his sonata cycle when completed will be an outstanding achievement.
- D.H.
----------- MILTON KATIMS, Still a superb solo violist
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7, in A Major, Op. 92. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 706 $7.98.
Performance: Rather breathless
Recording: Brilliant
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7, in A Major, Op. 92; Egmont Overture, Op. 84. New Philharmonia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski cond. LONDON SPC 21139 $6.98.
Performance: Broad–gauge
Recording: Very good
To my great regret the immensely talented young Carlos Kleiber does not repeat in Beethoven's Seventh the stunning success he achieved in the Fifth. He seems to be trying to emulate the dynamism of the justly famed Toscanini readings here, but, unlike the Maestro, and despite extreme dynamic contrast and headlong tempos in the fast movements, he does not let the music "breathe." This Beethoven Seventh is lithe and muscular, but, for my taste, there is not quite enough meat on its bones. Good, clean, recorded sound, however.
If Kleiber's reading has the clean lines of the sculptures of Barlach or Lehmbruck, Stokowski's is virtually a Rubens kermesse in tonal richness and vitality. His Philadelphia re cording was, along with Toscanini's New York Philharmonic rendition, the best of the 78-rpm era, and here, to my mind, he achieves something almost as fine. The first movement, with a superb introduction, is simply glorious.
Some may complain that the slow movement is more andante than allegretto, but one is quite disarmed by the sheer beauty of the orchestral playing. More justified would be criticism of the paucity of repeats in the scherzo, the drastic pull-up at the very end, and the exaggerated prolonging of the famous cello/double-bass interruption midway in the finale. But even these annoying details tend to fade away in the face of the vitality of the reading as a whole. The Egmont is magnificently dramatic and superbly played, a prime object lesson in tasteful and effective use of fluid tempo. The old wizard still has what it takes! D.H.
BLOCH: Suite for Viola and Orchestra. Milton Katims (viola); Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Henry Siegl cond. Schelomo. Laszlo Varga (cello); Westphalian Symphony Orchestra, Siegfried Landau cond. TURNABOUT TV-S 34622 $3.98.
Performance: Excellent
Viola Suite
Recording: Very good
BLOCH: Suite Symphonique; Symphony for Trombone and Orchestra. Howard Prince (trombone); Portland Junior Symphony, Jacob Avshalomov cond. COMPOSERS RECORDINGS, INc. CRI SD 351 $6.95.
Performance: Adequate to splendid
Recording: Serviceable to good
Best known and most often played with its original piano accompaniment, Ernest Bloch's Viola Suite is one of the classics of the literature. Though not Hebraic in inspiration, it is highly charged and colorful music of romantic post-impressionist persuasion. The Turnabout recording is the first release in this country of the orchestral version, which offers the music in even more highly colored dress. It is aurally fascinating, though it seems a bit diluted in the rhythmic impact that only the solo piano can bring to the second movement scherzo. Milton Katims has gained a fine reputation as a conductor (of the Seattle Symphony), but he has lost none of his prowess as a solo violist. He plays superbly here, ably abetted by his concertmaster in the conductorial role, and the whole performance is beautifully recorded.
In the Schelomo performance, Laszlo Varga's cello work is excellent, but the all-important orchestral role comes through rather weakly. Memories of Feuermann and Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra, not to mention at least two of the currently avail able stereo recordings, simply will not permit me to recommend this version.
CRI's issue of the Suite Symphonique and the Symphony for Trombone and Orchestra is a welcome new addition to the recorded can on of Bloch's work, even if the pieces are not overwhelming masterpieces. The suite is in Bloch's romantic neo-Classic manner with al most Rachmaninoff-like references to the Dies Irae in its later pages. The briefer and more effective Symphony for Trombone and Orchestra offers more of Bloch's declamatory style and brilliant writing for the solo instrument. Howard Prince puts on a magnificent show of virtuosity and sterling musicianship, and Jacob Avshalomov leads his young players in vigorous performances that come off better in the sharper and more refined Trombone Symphony than in the massive sonorities and intricate polyphony demanded in the suite. The sound is good, considering what seems to have been a somewhat limited acoustic ambiance. D.H.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
CHARPENTIER: Louise. Ileana Cotrubas (soprano), Louise; Placido Domingo (tenor), Julien; Jane Berbie (mezzo-soprano), the Mother; Gabriel Bacquier (bass-baritone), the Father; Michel Senechal (tenor), Noctambulist and King of the Fools; Lyliane Guitton (so prano), Irma; Eliane Manchet (soprano), Camille ; others. Ambrosian Opera Chorus; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Georges Pretre cond. COLUMBIA M3 34207 three discs $20.94.
Performance: A-minus
Recording: Good
Charpentier's Louise, something of a shocker in 1900 with its exultant praise of "free love" in the face of bourgeois values, is hardly more "modern" today than Puccini's La Boheme, which depicts the same Paris milieu without any crusading undertones. And yet there is something about the conflict of generations that lends Louise a certain timeliness. It is an opera that lacks the musical magic of La Boheme, but it yields riches of its own kind: a libretto of considerable literary merit, free of bombast and all artificiality, characters that are recognizably human and real, and a passionate tribute to Paris-at least the. Paris of 1900-and its irresistible magic.
Columbia's new recording, the opera's first in stereo, supersedes the classic but incomplete and sonically dated version by Ninon Vallin and Georges Thill and a long-deleted good mono set under Jean Foumet (Epic 6018). Both older sets were Paris-made products, imperfect but thoroughly idiomatic.
Those challenges are only partly met by Columbia's otherwise fine and thoughtful effort.
I certainly have no objection whatever to the Louise of Ileana Cotrubas, who is a sensitive and musicianly artist, whose singing is pure in tone and affecting throughout, and whose command of French ought to please all but the most chauvinistically inclined. Placido Domingo brings his characteristic ardor to the role of Julien, but his rich tenor sound is Italian, not French, despite a satisfactory way with the language. A leaner, more pointed, more Gallic timbre would have been a better match with Miss Cotrubas' tones-but then operas are cast with at least one eye firmly fixed on sales potential. The Gallic ingredients, however, are abundant in the richly characterized Mother of Jane Berbie, who is just about perfect, and in Gabriel Bacquier's moving portrayal of the Father. Equally convincing in anger and tenderness, Bacquier here accomplishes a triumphant singing-acting feat, a few effortful notes in the top register notwithstanding.
Michel Senechal excels in his double role.
The numerous supporting characters representing the fanciful Charpentier creations of Parisian night life are done with varying degrees of competence by what I presume to be members of the Ambrosian Chorus, but the seasoned hand of Georges Pretre assures a smoothly flowing performance. The recorded sound is good and atmospheric, though the guitar accompaniment in Julien's Serenade is virtually inaudible. G.J.
DANIEL-LESUR: Andrea del Sarto (excerpts).
Gabriel Bacquier (baritone), Andrea; Andree Esposito (soprano), Lucrece; Daniele Perriers (mezzo-soprano), Spinette; Alain Vanzo (tenor), Cordiani; others. Ensemble des Choeurs de l'O.R.T.F.; Orchestre National, Manuel Rosenthal cond. INgDITS ORTF 995 037 $7.98 (from HNH Distributors Ltd., P.O. Box 222, Evanston, Ill. 60204).
Performance: Impressive
Recording: Excellent
Daniel-Lesur-the hyphenated form is correct, and the composer never uses his actual given names, Jean Yves-is almost unknown in this country. Born in Paris in 1908, he was with Messiaen and Jolivet in the group called Jeune France. Like so many of his confreres he is (or was) an organist. He has also been associated with French radio and television for many years.
These credentials might suggest some sort of modernism, possibly ultra. Nothing of the sort. Andrea del Sarto is an operatic version of a highly fictionalized account of the life of the Italian painter by the French Romantic playwright Alfred de Musset, and it is-in both words and music-heart-on-sleeve thud-and-blunder Romanticism of the most unabashed sort. The tragic intensity is a little overbearing but otherwise effective in this excellent performance and recording from the archives of French radio. No texts. E.S.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
DVORAK: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 ("American"); String Quartet in A-fiat Major, Op. 105. Prague String Quartet. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 632 $7.98.
Performance: Magnificent Recording: Virtually perfect DVORAK: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 ("American"); String Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97. Walter Trampler (viola, in Op. 97);
Guarneri Quartet. RCA ARL1-1791 $6.98, 0 ARS1-1791 $7.98, ARK1-1791 $7.98.
Performance: Well-played but dryish
Recording: Quite fine
That DG intends to give us the complete cycle of Dvorak's quartets with the Prague Quartet is good news indeed, for their incomparable recording of Dvorak's big Quartet in G Major, Op. 106 (DG 2530 480), still strikes me, as it did when released two years ago, as "simply one of the most stimulating chamber-music recordings yet offered from any source." Certainly, there has been a real need for an authoritative account of Op. 105, which is actually the final work in that cycle (though as signed an earlier opus number than the G Major), and this is unquestionably it. As they did in the G Major, the members of the Prague Quartet delight in the music's earthy qualities without allowing the slightest hint of the earthbound; they convey a sense of spontaneity and happy urgency which carries with it an undercurrent of nervous excitement bordering on abandon--but always under the most subtle control. The real surprise, though, is the totally unexpected freshness with which the more familiar work in F Major comes across: there are not, as there were in this group's Op. 106, conspicuous departures from traditional notions of phrasing, but there is, again, that undercurrent of demonic ex citement that makes every phrase glow with life, and the whole coheres more convincingly than ever. Since the recording itself is just about perfect, I cannot imagine a valid reason for denying oneself the extraordinary pleas ure this record affords.
The Guarneri performances are quite hand some and accomplished, but they are several degrees cooler than the ones from Prague.
The adjective that still pops into my mind when listening to this ensemble's recordings is "dry," which in this case applies more to the chosen style of performance than to the quite fine sonic frame provided by RCA.
Tempos are always well chosen, playing is on the button, but there is not that magical pulse-
beat, lambency, or the other almost mystical qualities that turn the Prague performances into impassioned and irresistible celebrations.
For a fine version of the quintet, I would recommend the one on London by members of the Vienna Octet, coupled with the endearing Op. 48 String Sextet. R.F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
ELGAR: Sea Pictures, Op. 37. NYSTROEM: Songs at the Sea. Birgit Finnila (contralto);
Geoffrey Parsons (piano). BB LP-38 $7.98 (from HNH Distributors, P.O. Box 222, Evanston, Ill. 60204).
Performance: Eloquent
Recording: Splendid
Birgit Finnila, one of the all too few real contraltos around now, brings a creamy, sumptuous voice, an elegant style, and a most effective regard for the meanings of the words she sings to her assignment here, and her own eloquence is matched by sensitive, refined playing from the more than dependable Geoffrey Parsons. What more could anyone ask? Well, one might ask for an orchestra. The anonymous annotator lends point to the juxtaposition of .these two song cycles by mentioning Nystroem's involvement with English music, but he does not mention that both of these works were composed for voice and orchestra. Sea Pictures is available in that form, with Janet Baker and Barbirolli (Angel S-36796), but the Nystroem cycle has not been available here since the early Sixties, when Westminster withdrew its disc of the Swedish recording by Aulikki Rautawaara (to whom the work is dedicated) and Tor Mann. I rather miss the orchestra, but I cannot imagine either work more persuasively sung and would not have thought so much could be made of the accompaniment on the piano. The recording, like everything on this label, is simply splendid. -R.F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
FIBICH: Quintet in D Major, Op. 42; Trio in F Minor. Karel Dlotili); (clarinet); Zdenek Tylsar (horn); Fibich Trio. SUPRAPHON 1 11 1617 $6.98.
Performance: Superb
Recording: Very good
Zdenek Fibich (1850-1900) was the Czech composer whose brief Poeme for piano used to be played in all sorts of arrangements and was adapted as a popular song in the 1930's (My Moonlight Madonna). He is otherwise al most totally unknown outside his own country, and his name has not appeared in Schwann since exerpts from his opera The Bride of Messina were offered on the Colosseum label some fifteen years ago. But Fibich occupied a position of some importance in Czech music, and the two extremely attractive works presented here might well inspire curiosity about his other music. The Trio in F Minor was composed in 1872 but remained unpublished until after Fibich's death; the more substantial Quintet in D Major is a much later work (1893) but uses materials from various earlier ones. Both are Romantic works in the Schumann-Brahms vein, exemplary in craftsmanship and melodically abundant, with the Czech element prominent only in the scherzo of the quintet (a movement adapted from a piano sonata of 1871). The presence of both clarinet and horn enhances the warm coloring of the quintet, whose finale is especially endearing.
The Fibich Trio, which was organized less than ten years ago, evidently took its name out of deep affection for this composer's mu sic, and it is clearly shared by the two wind players in the quintet. The performances are as dedicated and eloquent as one could imagine, and both the sonics and the actual pressings represent Supraphon's finest technical work to date. R.F.
GLUCK: Operatic Excerpts (see Collections Janet Baker)
HAYDN: String Quartets, Op. 50, Nos. 1-6 (see Best of the Month, page 82)
LE JEUNE: Missa ad Placitum.
TITELOUZE: Quatre Versets sur "Veni Creator." Michel Chapuis (organ); Deller Consort, Alfred Deller cond. HARMONIA MUNDI HMU 251 $7.98 (from HNH DistributOrs Ltd., P.O. Box 222, Evanston, Ill. 60204).
Performance: Bland
Recording: Empty
Collectors of Renaissance music will welcome this disc, and many libraries will be able to fill a gap in their late French Renaissance Masses. All the notes are clearly sung, enabling one to hear music that previously has only been seen. But don't expect a fresh performance of an inspired masterpiece. Le Jeune's music, although finely wrought, hews to the conventional formula of the period, and the performance, although cleanly executed, sounds very much like the Deller Consort always sounds.
More welcome are the austere Quatre Ver sets sur "Veni Creator" by Titelouze. Obviously used to fill out the disc, this awesome work, grandly executed, whets the appetite for more of the French Renaissance organ school, which eventually flowered in the organ Masses of Couperin.
S.L.
LIIDHOLM: Nausicaa Alone (see PETTERSSON)
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
LOEFFLER: Deux Rhapsodies for Oboe, Vio la, and Piano.
MOZART: Quartet in F Major for Oboe and Strings (K. 370). John Mack (oboe); Daniel Majeske (violin, in Mozart); Abraham Skernick (viola); Stephen Geber (cello, in Mozart); Eunice Podis (piano, in Loeffler). ADVENT 5017 $7.98 (from Advent Records, 4150 Mayfield Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44121).
Performance: Superb Recording: Exceptional Of the few works of Charles Martin Loeffler we hear at all, none seems more original or more generally intriguing than the Deux Rhap sodies. This music has been missing from our catalogs far too long, and it is a pleasure to welcome it back in so expert and persuasive a presentation as it receives here. From the sound of it, Mack, Skernick, and Podis have been in love with the work all their lives and must have performed it together many times; it is an extremely beautiful and well integrated performance, and Skernick's marvelous "real viola" sound is a special pleasure in itself.
The over-side account of the Mozart quartet by the four first-chair members of the Cleve land Orchestra is similarly distinguished, and the exceptionally fine sound and utterly silent surfaces achieved by the Cleveland-based company justify the "import" price. A superb production. R.F.
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Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935), from a 1919 etching by Frank W.
Benson
MOZART: Quartet in F Major for Oboe and Strings, K. 370(see LOEFFLER) NYSTROEM: Songs at Sea (see ELGAR) PETTERSSON: Concerto No. 1 for String Orchestra.
LIDHOLM: Nausicaa Alone. Elisabeth Soderstrom (soprano); Swedish Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra, Stig Westerberg cond. CAPRICE CAP 1110 $7.98 (from HNH Distributors Ltd., P.O. Box 222, Evanston, III. 60204).
PETTERSSON: Symphony No. 2. Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stig Westerberg cond. SWEDISH SOCIETY DISCOFIL SLT 33219 $7.98 (from HNH Distributors Ltd., P.O. Box 222, Evanston, Ill. 60204).
Performances: Splendid
Recordings: Very good
Swedish symphonist Allan Pettersson (b. 1911) made his first major impact on American listeners in 1972, when London Records issued the Antal Dorati/Stockholm Philharmonic recording of the haunting and unsettling Symphony No. 7 (1968). The present brace of discs gives us a chance to view Pettersson's work in a more formative stage.
The Concerto No. 1 for String Orchestra and the Second Symphony exemplify two major strains in Pettersson's work. The sinewy, athletic aspect is represented in the string-orchestra piece. The slow movement has something of the feel of Benjamin Britten, and the work as a whole reflects to some degree the influence of Pettersson's study with Milhaud, Honegger, and Leibowitz. The Second Symphony marks a breakaway from athletic objectivism and toward an eruptive, frankly confessional outpouring. It has pages of Kafkaesque phantasmagoria and promises of redemption in which we encounter the ghosts of Alban Berg, Mahler, and Bartok.
Ingvar Lidholm (b. 1921) is ten years Pettersson's junior, but he has been a major force on the Swedish musical scene since the end of World War Two. Nausicaa Alone, a brilliant scena for soprano, incidental chorus, and orchestra, finds Lidholm in full command of every technique of advanced twentieth century musical language, but also still endowed with the intensely poetic flair that has always distinguished the best of his work.
Soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom is absolutely gripping in her portrayal of Homer's princess as envisioned in the poetry of Nobel Prize laureate Eyvind Johnson. Stig Westerberg and the choral forces provide excellent sup port in their realization of Lidholm's exacting requirements in the realm of color, dynamics, and rhythm. No less fine is Westerberg's handling of the Pettersson works, especially the String Orchestra Concerto. Excellent recording work throughout. -D.H.
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--------- Hallelujah choristers Menuhin, Fischer-Dieskau, Rostropovich,
Horowitz, Bernstein, and Stern
Concert of the Century?
IF Columbia and Carnegie Hall want to call this "The Concert of the Century," who am I to argue? Still, I can't resist one small question: which century? If they mean the life of Carnegie Hall, they are entitled to claim only 17/20 of a century. The concert, reproduced here in its entirety (although not in the original order), was held on the eighty-fifth birthday of Carnegie Hall, May 18, 1976, as a benefit establishing an endowment fund to assure the future of the great old hall. The artists donated not only their artistic services to this event but also their album royalties.
In view of the worthiness of the cause and the blinding array of superstars, one would have to be a veritable Scrooge to pooh-pooh or bah-humbug this one. But there is no need.
The ultimate performance of everything it may not be, but there is first-class music and music-making here, with a real once-in-a-lifetime: the Fischer-Dieskau/Horowitz Dich terliebe. This wonderfully expressive performance-singer and pianist are a perfect match-is only one side out of four, but it is, as they say, alone worth the price.
The mild heterogeneity of the program has some logic to it. The Beethoven Leonore No. 3 was performed at the hall's opening-night concert in 1891. And the association of Tchaikovsky with the hall goes back to its opening-week festival, when the Russian composer led his own music and included the little-known Pater Noster. The Rachmaninoff movement was a last-minute replacement for a Mozart aria which had to be canceled because of the illness of Martina Arroyo. And with Menuhin and Stern on the podium what could be expected except the Bach Double? The recording has class and more than a bit of the excitement of the event; the charisma comes rattling off the platters. The boxed set includes the Carnegie Hall program for the event. Concert of the Century? Well, perhaps the occasion excuses the hyperbole-and the discs are a treasurable souvenir.
-Eric Salzman
CONCERT OF THE CENTURY: The Eighty-fifth Anniversary of Carnegie Hail. Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72a. Members of the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein cond. Tchaikovsky: Pezzo Elegiaco from the Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50. Vladimir Horowitz (piano); Isaac Stern (violin); Mstislav Rostropovich (cello). Pater Noster. The Oratorio Society, Lyndon Wood side cond. Rachmaninoff: Third Movement from the Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19. Mstislav Rostropovich (cello); Vladimir Horowitz (piano). Schumann: Dich terliebe, Op. 48. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone); Vladimir Horowitz (piano). -J. S.
Bach: Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins (BWV 1043). Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern (violins); Leonard Bernstein (harpsichord); members of the New York Philharmonic.
Handel: Hallelujah Chorus from "Messiah." Oratorio Society; Bernstein, Fischer-Dieskau, Horowitz, Menuhin, Rostropovich, and Stern; members of the New York Philharmonic, Lyndon Woodside cond. COLUMBIA 34256 two discs $15.98, M2T 34256 $15.98.
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REBEL: Les Eliments. Orchestre Lyrique de I'O.R.T.F., Andre Jouve cond. DUVAL: Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba, and Harpsi chord. DIEUPART: Suite No. 3 for Flute, Violin, Bass, and Harpsichord. DE LA GUERRE: Sonata in D Minor for Violin, Bass, and Harpsichord. Pierre Sechet (flute),; Fran tisek Jaros (violin); Jean Lamy (bass viol); Antoine Geoffroy Dechaume (harpsichord). INEDITS ORTF 995 039 $7.98 (from HNH Distributors Ltd., P.O. Box 222, Evanston, Ill. 60204).
Performances: Excellent period style
Recordings: French radio
P.D.Q. Bach lives! Or at least he really lived. Apparently he quarreled with his family and left Germany for France where he took the name of Jean-Ferry Rebel (an obvious nom de plume if ever there was one). We all know P.D.Q.'s famous work The Seasonings, but few know about The Elements. This ballet begins with Chaos in the form of repeated chords containing "all the notes of the octave joined in a single sound"; it continues with more Chaos in the form of a series of unrelated musical ideas perfectly expressive of disorder. Intentional confusion on a scale (!) like this is not to be taken lightly, and our hero himself is hard put to keep it up. Nonetheless, this overture is a monument; even the celebrated moderns have rarely if ever achieved an equal level of incoherence.
This recording, one of a series from French radio tapes, represents French music of the generation after Lully. That makes it roughly contemporary with Johann Sebastian Bach (P.D.Q. Bach may actually have lived earlier than previously thought). Charles Dieupart, although French, lived, worked, and wrote suites in London, and was greatly admired by J. S. Bach, which explains why the latter called some of his suites "English." Dieupart's contribution to this record is excellent.
On the other hand, the music of Francois Duval and Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre is relatively minor stuff-no P.D.Q. Bach on this overside. But there are some exceptional performances; the chamber works are all ex tremely well played in high Baroque style on eighteenth-century instruments. - E.S.
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade, Op. 35. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski cond. RCA ARL1-1182 $6.98, 0 ARS1-1182 $7.98, ARKI-1182 $7.98.
Performance: Has its points
Recording: A bit over-reverberant
A masterly reading of Scheherazade with a virtuoso ensemble can do wonders to remind one of Rimsky's remarkable accomplishment.
Certainly Stokowski, together with Beecham, Monteux, Ansermet, and Rostropovich, has done much to reaffirm the vitality of this music when it has shown signs of becoming a disastrously faded affair.
I wish I could say that this, Stokowski's fourth recording of Scheherazade, measured up to his two 78-rpm versions with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the super-techni-color job he did in 1964 for London. The new reading has all the familiar Stokowski hallmarks, including some touching up here and there (the cymbals at the dynamic peak of the first movement were not scored by Rimsky), there is truly superb solo wind playing, and Erich Gruenberg (who was also featured in the Lon don recording) provides splendid solo violin work. But I must say that the Royal Philharmonic, here at least, is no match for the 1964 London Symphony in razor-sharpness of at tack and super-powered climaxes. Where the new recording does score is in an exquisitely played slow movement-and here, as in the Kalandar Prince music, the solo winds have their day.
RCA's recording is basically very lovely and splendidly transparent in texture, but I did find myself becoming a little too aware of room reverberation at moments of highly contrasted dynamics. - D. H.
SATIE: Songs and Piano Pieces. La Diva de l'Empire; Gnossiene No. 2; Le Piccadilly; Three Songs-Les Anges, Les Fleurs, Sylvie; Je Te Veux; Elegie; Hymne-Salut Drapeau!; Chanson; Tendrement; Pieces Froides-Airs a Faire Fuir No. 2; Chanson Medievale; Poudre d'Or; Two Songs from Genevieve de Brabant-Air de Genevieve, Petit Air; Gymnopedie No. 1; Je Te Veux; Vexations. Meriel Dickin son (mezzo-soprano); Peter Dickinson (piano). UNICORN RHS 338 $7.98.
Performance: Charming
Recording: Okay
Mixing Satie songs with his piano music is an excellent way to appreciate the rather limited charms of the French composer's music. Sa tie's songs, not nearly as well known as his keyboard music, seem to divide into two prin cipal types: a café or music-hall chanson style and a serious milodie style. The latter, mostly represented by early and obscure works, reveals a little-known aspect of Satie's music; several of these songs are apparently record ed here for the first time in this album called "An Erik Satie Entertainment." Meriel Dickinson's mezzo-soprano is not an extraordinary instrument, but she conveys a lot of feeling for this music and a lot of charm. The lack of any texts, however, is a problem. Peter Dickinson is a capable pianist, and the solo music, including one each of the Gnossiennes, Pieces Froides, and Gymnope dies, is well treated. The final cut is the Vexations, which was made famous by John Cage and friends who took seriously Satie's direction to play the piece 840 times and spent the better part of a weekend at it. Since this notion does not seem to have recommended itself to any record company (imagine a forty-record set of Vexations), the Dickinsons and Unicorn have ingeniously contrived to put the final chord in a locking groove at the end of side two, which, left to its own devices, will repeat a good bit more than 840 times before self-destructing. No doubt, Satie would have approved. - E.S.
SCHUBERT: Piano Quintet in A Major (D. 667, "The Trout"). Samuel Rhodes (viola); Georg Hortnagel (double-bass); Beaux Arts Trio. PHILIPS 9500 071 $7.98, 7300 481 $8.98.
SCHUBERT: Piano Quintet in A Major (D. 667, "The Trout"); Quartettsatz in C Minor (D. 703). Emil Gilels (piano); Rainer Zepperitz (double-bass); Amadeus Quartet. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 646 $7.98.
Performances: Beaux Arts more homey
Recordings: Philips richer
The most beguiling and masterly of all Haus musik, Schubert's Trout Quintet has never lacked fine recorded performances, beginning with Schnabel and the Pro Arte in the middle Thirties and extending through Curzon and the Vienna Octet in the late Fifties to the memorable Peter Serkin/Alexander Schneider group recording for Vanguard a decade later.
Of the two new recordings at hand, there is no question but that the Beaux Arts group, with Menahem Pressler's splendidly musical and sensitively responsive pianism, runs away with the honors. Here is a performance that "breathes easy" yet avoids the slightest trace of carelessness: one feels altogether comfortable, yet alert and stimulated.
The Gilels/Amadeus performance seems scaled more to a large concert hall than to a home ambiance, and it does leave me uncomfortable and ill-at-ease. The tone is set in a rather over-aggressive opening and is exacerbated by recorded sound that seems some what brittle in the mid-range frequencies and a bit bass-shy to boot-at least compared with the rich and natural sound that Philips offers us. The same sonic deficiency holds throughout the Amadeus Quartet performance of the Quartettsatz.
All things considered, though I do like the Beaux Arts' Trout, I'm not about to give up my Serkin/Schneider record, which offers the homiest and bounciest reading of all. -D.H.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
SMETANA: Memories of Bohemia, Opp. 12 and 13; Reveries. Antonin Kubalek (piano). CITADEL CT 6010 $6.98 (from Citadel Records, P.O. Box 1662, Burbank, Calif. 91507).
Performance: Evocative
Recording: Good
Smetana's piano music has been so roundly neglected that many who love The Bartered Bride and Ma Vlast are quite unaware that he wrote any at all, let alone important works for keyboard. He wrote quite a bit, enough to fill eleven discs in a Supraphon series that circulated briefly some fifteen years ago. Rudolf Firkusny recorded some of the polkas and Czech dances for Capitol before that, but that disc, too, is long gone, and-surprisingly-no one has had the imagination to get Firkusny to do more Smetana. The Musical Heritage So ciety has given us one valuable record of six teen polkas, played superbly by Radoslav Kvapil (MHS 1373), and that would seem to be all we've had available here in the last several years. Antonin Kubalek's new release is enormously welcome, even though it duplicates Kvapil's Opp. 12 and 13 (sets of two somewhat Chopinesque polkas each). Reveries, a set of six contrasting pieces composed in 1875, is certainly a major work, filled with
--- KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN: Sounds that are, on the whole, pleasant
frequent touches of poetry and exultant originality; it culminates in an
especially exuberant "Bohemian Festival" whose first theme may
recall Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody but whose character is thoroughly
and unmistakably Czech.
Kubalek plays with assurance and evident commitment, and his evocative performances have been realistically recorded (though not without a bit of pre-echo and surface crunch).
One minor complaint: because the two sets of polkas are short, the first of the six Reveries follows them on side one, and the enumeration of the bands on side two makes it appear that they contain pieces Nos. 1-5 instead of Nos. 2-6. Buy it anyway. R.F.
STOCKHAUSEN: Ceylon; Bird of Passage. Harald Boje (electronium); Peter Eavos (camel bells, triangles, synthesizer); Aloys Kontarsky (piano); Joachim Krist (tam tam); Karlheinz Stockhausen (Kandy drum, chromatic rin, lotus flute, Indian bells, bird whis tle, voice); Markus Stockhausen (trumpet, flugelhorn); John Miller (trumpet); Tim Souster (sound projection). CHRYSALIS CHR 1110 $6.98.
Performance: Composer-supervised
Recording: Composer-supervised
These are rather typical pieces of Stockhausen's work in recent years with their mixture of ethnic and natural sound sources projected in terms of electronically modulated live sound-mostly percussion with some wind and brass mixed in. Unlike much earlier work of this kind, in which the sounds are highly distorted and junked up, the sounds here are, on the whole, pleasant: bell-like and ritualistic for Ceylon, walk-in-the-woods sound-environment-style for Bird of Passage.
Ceylon is a West German Radio recording and has excellent sound. Bird of Passage, apparently a tape produced by the composer, is a little less impressive but perfectly adequate.
Chrysalis, basically a pop company, provides very little information about these works out side of the statement that Stockhausen wrote Ceylon in 1970 immediately after a visit to a Hindu ceremony. Someone has, however, thoughtfully provided reviewers with a copy of Jonathan Cott's interview-book with the composer which contains a detailed description of the ceremony along with a list of Stockhausen's work up to 1973; Ceylon is not mentioned (neither is Bird of Passage). A bigger problem: the labels of the two works have obviously been reversed. But what the hell.
Stockhausen on a pop label and it even got written up in the New York Times. What more can you ask? E.S.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du Printemps. Lon don Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 635 $7.98.
Performance: Superb
Recording: First-rate
STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du Printemps. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorin Maazel cond. LONDON CS 6954 $6.98.
Performance: Verges on the perverse
Recording: Sonically rich
If Arturo Toscanini in his prime had chosen to add Stravinsky's epoch-making masterpiece to his repertoire, the result might have been much akin to Claudio Abbado's reading here.
There is no question in my mind regarding Abbado's respect for what Stravinsky wrote, and to the music's rhythmic aspects he brings unerring precision, abetted by comparably unerring ensemble work from the London Symphony players. But it is the refinement of line and texture Abbado brings to the intro ductory sections of Le Sacre's two parts that gives this performance special distinction that and a wonderfully detailed and powerful recording from the DG production staff. This record belongs right up there with those of
------- CLAUDIO ABBADO: An especially distinguished Sacre
Solti and Monteux (in the out-of-print Boston Symphony version of 1951) and with the unique documentation by Stravinsky himself.
Lorin Maazel's way with Le Sucre is one that reinforces the often-made observation that Stravinsky's score, like Richard Strauss' Zarathustra, has become for conductors of the 1970's what Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade was for those of the 1920's-a mere virtuoso vehicle. Maazel offers what most Stravinsky buffs would consider inconceivable-indeed, impossible, given what is writ ten in the score-a rubato Sacre. If you doubt it, lend an ear to the trombone glissando bits in the "Round Dance" or the odd phrasing of the very opening of the work; or sample the really odd tempo of the timpani ostinato that sets the stage for the "Glorification of the Chosen One." Even London's fine recorded sound, noteworthy here for its stereo depth illusion, can do little to make this reading palatable to me. D .H .
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker, Op. 71. Boys' Choir of St. Bavo Cathedral, Haarlem; Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, Antal Dorati cond. PHILIPS 6747 257 two discs $15.96.
Performance: Spirited
Recording: Powerful
Dorati's third complete Nutcracker (which happens to be the most expensive recording of this music to date) finds him, as before, both elegant and spirited, favoring a crisp line, making the most of the score's dramatic episodes, and never yielding to what must be powerful temptations to sentimentalize here and there. The great Dutch orchestra seems to me somewhat less flexible than the London Symphony was in Dorati's 1962 Mercury re cording-there is a little squareness in the Spanish Dance, the Mere Gigogne number, and the Waltz of the Flowers-but this impression is possibly created by Philips' powerhouse recording, which tends to be down right overpowering at times with excess emphasis on the drums and the low end in general. For the most part, though, one appreciates the exceptional clarity with which details of the enlivening performance come through, and it is good to have the boys' choir Tchaikovsky specified in the Snowflakes scene in-
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The Avant-garde: in Love with Easeful Death
".... all these in memoriams cannot be a sign of health. . . ."
LAST summer, I wrote an article for STEREO REVIEW on "The Great American Sym phony" which provoked a fair bit of reader response. Not about what was in the article, but about what was not. Every single one of the letters was written to plead the case of a composer who didn't get mentioned.
Of course, a short survey cannot possibly include everyone, and there are many reasons why Distinguished People's Composer X, Maverick Modern Musician Y, or Avant-Garde Astronaut Z might have been omitted.
But the real message from those letters was that there are lots of composers out there and lots of contemporary music that does not get the hearing or the recognition that it deserves.
Still, there are a few recordings around, and recent releases from CRI, Odyssey, and Opus One demonstrate the quality of some of this music.
Ralph Shapey (who was mentioned in the article) is as important and influential in new music as, say, De Kooning or Kline is in modern painting. Yet, his music has been little played outside contemporary-music circles, and only two or three works have been re corded. A number of years ago Shapey announced that he was not going to write any more music and withdrew all his earlier works from circulation. The CRI recording of Praise, with Shapey conducting, apparently represents a reversal of that decision.
Praise is, like many of Shapey's works, big in conception. It was begun in 1961 and appears to have been his last completed work before the silence. It is a kind of very unorthodox Hebraic service expressed in strong, modern language. Shapey's music is hard-not hard-edged but firm, strong, and difficult-and it has to be met on its own terms. At least it is here to be met! AGREAT deal of recent new music is religious or meditative in feeling and searches for a certain suspended, timeless quality.
George Crumb's music, like Shapey's, is both static and ecstatic. Makrokosmos, Vol. II has the composer's now familiar array of unusual sounds, including singing, whispering and whistling, plucking and scraping inside the pi ano, and quoted fragments from Boris to Beethoven to the Catholic liturgy. The twelve pieces are meditations on the signs of the Zo diac with titles like The Mystic Chord, Ghost-Nocturne for the Druids of Stonehenge, and Litany of the Galactic Bells, and there are such playing directions as "Like a Nirvana-trance," "Dark, fantasmic, subliminal," and "Prayer-wheel . . . as if suspended in end less time." Well, you get the idea. Robert Miller's performance on Odyssey is superb.
The notion of creating music that resists or denies music's most apparently fundamental quality-time, that is-originated in New York in the early 1950's in the circle around John Cage, an early Western disciple of Zen Buddhism and the ancient Chinese book of divination/prophecy called the I Ching. Probably the principal exponent of this idea of timelessness is Morton Feldman, who, with Earle Brown, David Tudor, and Cage himself, has developed ideas of chance and open form which have been enormously influential in the avant-garde. The Rothko Chapel was built in 1971 in Houston, Texas, by John and Dominique- de Menil and is filled with giant can vases by Mark Rothko. The simple, floating music of Feldman's Rothko Chapel, one of his best works, was written for this space. For Frank O'Hara is dedicated to the memory of the New York School's poet laureate, who was killed in an accident on Fire Island in 1966. Like everything of Feldman's, it creates a beautiful, motionless, passionless musical surface. This music comes from nowhere, goes nowhere, meditates but has no message.
Shapey shouts his song of praise; Feldman's pianissimo just is.
Of all the members of the original Cage group, Christian Wolff has been the least conspicuous-perhaps because he elected an un likely career (for an avant-gardist) as a professor of classics. Apparently 1972 was .a fateful year for him. Lines, written in the early part of that year, has the purity and the timeless ness one would expect of a Cage alumnus.
But Accompaniments for Piano is something else. A text about revolutionary China is sung and declaimed by Frederick Rzewski, who accompanies himself with simple, repeated musical fragments of a certain profile; later he plays drums and cymbal as well as piano. The revolutionary fervor of Accompaniments, part of a definite but little-noticed movement toward an engage avant-gardism in music, is striking, important, embarrassing, intriguing, and exasperating.
Gunther Schuller's Tre Invenzioni and Bruno Maderna's Il Giardino Religioso were both commissioned by the Fromm Foundation for performance at Tanglewood in 1972; they are recorded here with Schuller's Contours as an in memoriam for Maderna, an Italian compos er-conductor who died in 1973. Il Giardino Religioso has some of the suspended, medita tive qualities of the New York School, with time out for one dramatic, driving middle section; it is an effective, intimate work. In contrast, the Schuller compositions-one record ed by Schuller himself and the other taken from a live performance by Arthur Weis berg-are nervous and intense in their odd blend of European and American modern styles.
A very different sort of homage is represented by Andrew Thomas' The Death of Yukio Mishima. It is a theatrical piece in which the Japanese writer Mishima is portrayed by a woman. The work provides a rath er ambiguous commentary on Mishima's garish and widely publicized samurai suicide.
Thomas juxtaposes fragments of Mishima's writings in Japanese and English with a Shakespeare sonnet, and the whole is set in a Western, modern version of gagaku. Whew! Dirge in the Woods is still another in memoriam-for Thomas' Juilliard teacher, Hall Overton. Set to a text by George Meredith, it is a deeply felt but mightily depressing work.
The air of gloom is not dispelled by Lawrence Widdoes' bright, biting From a Time of Snow.
ALL these in memoriams (memoria?) and meditations on death and eternity-Zen Bud dhist, astrological, or otherwise-cannot be a sign of health in the modern-music body poli tic. What is healthy is the fact of the record ings and the quality of the performances and the sound reproduction, which are, where I have not already mentioned them specifically, exceedingly fine.-Eric Salzman SHAPEY: Praise. Paul Geiger (bass-baritone);
Contemporary Chamber Players and Chorus of the University of Chicago, Ralph Shapey cond. CRI SD 355 $6.95.
CRUMB: Makrokosmos, Vol. H (Twelve Fan tasy-Pieces After the Zodiac for Amplified Pi ano). Robert Miller (piano and other instru ments). ODYSSEY Y 34135 $3.98.
FELDMAN: Rothko Chapel. Karen Phillips (viola); James Holland (percussion); Gregg Smith Singers, Gregg Smith cond. For Frank O'Hara. Members of the Center of the Creative Arts, State University of New York at Buffalo, Jan Williams cond. ODYSSEY Y 34138 $3.98.
WOLFF: Lines for String Quartet; Accompaniments for Piano. Nathan Rubin, Thomas Halpin (violins); Nancy Ellis (viola); Judiyaba (cello); Frederick Rzewski (piano). CRI SD 357 $6.95.
SCHULLER: Tre Invenzioni; Contours. MADERNA: Il Giardino Religioso. Instrumental ensemble, Gunther Schuller cond.; Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Arthur Weisberg cond. (in Contours). ODYSSEY Y 34141 $3.98.
THOMAS: The Death of Yukio Mishima; Dirge in the Woods. WIDDOES: From a Time of Snow. Jeanne Ommerle (soprano); Notes from Underground, Peter Leonard cond. OPUS ONE 28 $4.98 (from Opus One, Box 604, Greenville, Me. 04441).
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... Carreras (tenor); Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Roberto Benzi cond. PHILIPS 9500 203 $7.98.
Performance: A vocal treat
Recording: Excellent
Aria recital discs sometimes follow a new art ist's meteoric rise too soon, before the artist has had time to become familiar with the rep ertoire, before he has reached a certain artis tic consolidation. Jose Carreras did not hurry, and the present debut recital disc-following the tenor's successful participation in several complete operatic recordings-was well worth waiting for. A look at his program testifies to the care and imagination that went into it: unhackneyed Verdi combined with a string of unfamiliar excerpts, five of which are entirely new to records.
Carreras has come a long way since his early successes with the New York City Opera.
In demand everywhere in the world, he inhabits the top tenor hierarchy with Pavarotti and Domingo (not to forget the unforgettable Bergonzi), and the present recital substantiates his eminence. The voice has a sunlit quality God apparently bestows only on Italians or Spaniards who choose Italian opera for their livelihood. It is a natural lyric spinto, brilliant in timbre, well-supported, and equalized with a healthy ring up to the A-natural and a hint of tightness above it (a freely produced high C may not be within his range, but neither was it within Caruso's . . . ). His singing is pure in intonation, with passion and drama built into it but not at the expense of the musical line.
He projects the texts clearly and meaningfully, occasionally with an ardent over-emphasis, but never in a tasteless or vulgar manner.
Anyone seriously interested in Italian opera would want to hear an excerpt from Bellini's student opera, or Donizetti's last one, or from the opera Ponchielli wrote after La Gioconda, or from the once popular Il Giuramento by the hapless Saverio Mercadante, who had the misfortune of being eclipsed by Donizetti in the first half of his life and by Verdi in the second. Needless to say, they are all performed admirably here, with solidly competent orchestral support, and the recorded sound is excellent. -G.J.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
FRANCIS CHAPELET: Organs of Spain. Bermudo: Cantus del Primero por Mi Bequadro; Conditor Alme Siderum. Mudarra: Gallarda.
Arauxo: Tiento de Media Registro de Baxon de Sexto Tono. Casanoves: Paso No. 7. Lopez: Versos de Quarto Tono. Arajo: Batalha de Sexto Tono. Peraza: Tiento de Medio Registro Alto de Primero Tono. Bruna: Variations on the Litany of the Virgin. Anon.: Batalla Fa mosa; Versos Varios ; Himno Sacris Solem nis; Je Vous; Pour un Plaisir; Reveillez-vous. Francis Chapelet (organ).
HARMONIA MUNDI HM 759 $7.98 (from HNH Distributors, Box 222, Evanston, Ill. 60204).
Performance: Brilliant
Recording: A tour de force
Francis Chapelet's tour of Spanish Baroque organs enables us to hear the sound of wondrous machines in Toledo, Ciudad-Rodrigo, Salamanca, Lisbon, Trujillo, and Covar rubias , and, from the standpoint of exotic sound, his disc is extremely rewarding. Lis ten, for instance, to the sweetness of the flute registers on the organ at Toledo, and then listen to the snarling reeds of the same instrument. And the basson stop at Ciudad-Rodrigo is the raspiest sound around except for my neighbor's bad doorbell. The recording engineers have done an excellent job, and specialists will be particularly delighted to hear such extramusical sounds as the chiff on the Ciudad-Rodrigo instrument.
------ Jose CARRERAS A recital well worth waiting for.
The repertoire Chapelet has chosen demonstrates that the organ was not limited to religious functions. Besides the dignified tientos and versos (time fillers during Mass), here are secular dances, transcriptions of French chansons, and two rousing battle pieces. The exciting performances reveal the organist as scholar as well as performer. M. Chaplet is not afraid of rhythmic alterations, free embellishment, or that notorious specialty of Spanish organ music, the double trill in con trary motion. Let us hope there will be more of his tours. S.L.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
JACQUELINE DELMAN: Song Recital. Shostakovich: Seven Songs on Poems by Alexander Blok, Op. 127. Messiaen: Poemes pour Mi. Pergament: Who Is Playing at Night? Martin: Three Christmas Songs. Head: A Piper. Jacqueline Delman (soprano); Emil Dekov (violin); Ake Olofsson (cello); Gunilla von Bahr (flute); Lucia Negro (piano). Bis LP-37 $7.98 (from HNH Distributors, P.O. Box 222, Evanston, Ill. 60204).
Performance: Very good
Recording: Very good
The adventurous and thoughtfully produced Bis label (Swedish imports) has come up with another winner: a recital centered on English born soprano Jacqueline Delman, a Swedish resident since her 1961 engagement with the Royal Opera. She is said to concertize in seven languages; only four are on display here, but she sounds at home in all of them.
----- ALBERT WHITE AND HIS SAN FRANCISCO MASTERS OF MELODY: soothing our savage
breasts
The Shostakovich cycle, written for soprano voice and three virtuoso soloists (violin, cello, and piano), matches the gloomy vision of impressionist poet Alexander Blok with the pessimistic mood associated with the long suffering composer's final years. The seven songs call for different instrumental combinations; only the last one engages all three instruments. That last song, Music, injects a note of optimism on the poet's part, but the composer's expression leaves the gloom un relieved. Yet the sequence is anything but monotonous, and Miss Delman realizes its essence sensitively with fine instrumental sup port. (It is safe to assume, however, that a more passionate interpretation took place when the cycle was introduced in 1967 with Galina Vishnevskaya, David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Moisei Weinberg as participants.) The remainder of this fascinating disc offers a rare representation of Oliver Messiaen as song composer, combining his own brand of song speech with arresting piano sonorities; three brief Christmas songs by the late Frank Martin, who nearly always man aged to be "modern" and songful at the same time; and two welcome entries by the Swedish-Finnish Moses Pergament and English man Michael Head. There is not a familiar item in the lot, yet not one is unworthy of being discovered. And they are all well per formed and transparently recorded here. G.J.
A PALM COURT CONCERT. Moret: Silver Heels. Drigo: Serenade. Herbert (arr. Langley): The Fortune Teller (selections); L'En core. Drdla (arr. Dumont): Souvenir. Heuberger: Im Chambre Separee. Monti (arr. Bar on): Czardas. Piefke (arr. Ascher-Mahl): Kutschke Polka. Faris: Theme from Upstairs, Downstairs. Lincke: Folies Bergere. Berger: Amoureuse. Lincke: The Glow-Worm. Tier ney (arr. Lange): Irene (selections). Gungl (arr. Winter): Casino Dances. Albert White and His San Francisco Masters of Melody. ANGEL 0 S-37304 $6.98.
Performance: Cozy
Recording: Superb
You can scarcely enter a restaurant, a skyscraper elevator, or a dentist's office these days without being greeted by the sound of music, some of it programmed by psychologists determined to see to it that our savage breasts are soothed at every possible opportunity. At the turn of the century, this genteel need was served by salon music. Amid the potted palms, under the glass conservatory windows of courtyards and hotel gardens, la dies and gentlemen sipped their tea to the strains of intermezzos from Viennese operettas, Drigo's Serenade, and The Glow-Worm.
This sort of music has been scrupulously revived in a period program by Albert White and His San Francisco Masters of Melody, a spin-off of their salon-music broadcasts over San Francisco radio. Here is music to which you can relax to the point of stupor while enjoying the languorous strains of a medley from Victor Herbert's The Fortune Teller, the aforesaid Serenade, Drdla's once ubiquitous Souvenir (first jotted down, we are informed, on the back of a streetcar ticket in Vienna), Alice Blue Gown from Irene, and even The Glow-Worm, which, the liner notes disclose, was once danced by Pavlova. This listener was Doused from the tranquility of a deep trance at a certain point by music that seemed strangely associated with another source. It turned out to be the theme from Upstairs, Downstairs. For a moment I could see Mrs. Bridges plain. Then the fans turned slowly again in the old palm court as the thirteen members of Mr. White's ensemble played on in an endless twilight of musical détente. The ambiance is all there. - P. K.
JOZSEF SIMANDY: Songs from Operettas. Songs from Lehar's The Land of Smiles and Friderike, Kalman's The Violet of Montmartre and Countess Maritza, Zeller's Der Vogel-handler, and Oscar Straus' Rund um die Liebe. Jozsef Simandy (tenor); Marika Nemeth (soprano); Chorus and Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television, Andras Sebestyen cond. QUALITON SLPX 16581 $6.98.
Performance Stylish
Recording Very good
Jozsef Simandy is a leading dramatic tenor of the Hungarian State Opera with such roles as Don Jose, Don Alvaro, and even Otello among his regular assignments. Like many Continental singers, he seems completely at home in operetta. Though he does not command the melting manner of a Wittrisch or a Wunderlich, he nonetheless sings these excerpts with full involvement and a sure mastery of the style. The tenor is now sixty, and his voice is not as pure as it once was, yet it is still capable of nice dynamic effects, and only one of the selections (the Hungarian equivalent of "O Mtidchen, mein Madchen") is less than acceptable.
All selections are sung in Hungarian, a language quite appropriate to the operettas of Hungarian-born Let & and Kalman, who regarded these versions as "authentic." As a matter of fact, "Komm Zigany" sounds just perfect in this paprika treatment, while "Gross mir mein Wien" loses none of its charm when the lyrics say "Embrace my Budapest." The truly Viennese melodies of Zell er and Straus, of course, are a different story, but the singer's stylistic command easily bridges the gap. There is no stinting in the full-bodied orchestral accompaniments, and the recorded sound is very good. G.J.
FREDERICA VON STADE: French Opera Arias (see Best of the Month, page 83) 100 YEARS OF BAYREUTH--RICHARD WAGNER. The Flying Dutchman: Senta Ballad (Emmy Destinn, soprano); Mogst du, mein Kind (Paul Knupfer, bass); Wie aus der Ferne (Walter Soomer, baritone). Tannhauser: O du, mein holder Abendstern (Friedrich Schorr, baritone); Rome Narrative (Lauritz Melchior, tenor); Dich, teure Halle (Leonie Rysanek, soprano). Lohengrin: Mein lieber Schwan (Franz Volker, tenor). Die Meister singer von Nurnberg: Was duftet doch der Flieder (Josef von Manowarda, bass); Wahn! Wahn! [Thera!! Wahn! (Hans Hotter, baritone); Morgenlich leuchtend (Wolfgang Wind gassen, tenor). Das Rheingold: Weiche, Wotan, weiche (Karin Branzell, contralto). Die Walkore: Ein Schwert verhiess mir der Vater (Max Lorenz, tenor). Siegfried: Ewig war ich (Astrid Varnay, soprano; Wolfgang Wind gassen, tenor). Gotterdammerung: Wal traute's Narrative (Sigrid Onegin, contralto); Hier sitz ich (Richard Mayr, bass). Parsifal: Ich sah das Kind (Frida Leider, soprano); Das ist Karfreitagszauber, Herr (Josef Greindl, bass). Tristan and Isolde: Einsam wachend in der Nacht (Margarete Klose, con tralto); Liebestod (Birgit Nilsson, soprano). Various orchestras and conductors. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2721 115 two discs $15.96.
Performance: Good to outstanding
Recording: Vintage
Only one of the selections (the Liebestod) in this album was recorded in Bayreuth, and many artists are represented here with recordings predating their association with the Wagnerian shrine. But there is no denying the Bayreuth credentials of the interpreters: all nineteen of them sang there and all deserve a place in Wagner's own Valhalla.
Emmy Destinn, Bayreuth's first Senta, starts the sequence magnificently with a soaring, boldly projected Ballad that triumphs over the primitive (1907) recording. Leider's thoughtful Kundry, Melchior's firm and resonant Tannhauser, and Schorr's mellifluous Wotan stand out among the acoustical recordings and show these artists in full magnitude at the outset of their careers. Bassos Kniipfer and Mayr come off less impressively, but Walter Soomer's noble delivery clearly shows the major presence his Dutchman must have been.
All of these early singers exhibit a remark able command of effortless legato, and in this respect Karin Branzell, Franz Volker, and Margarete Klose, the Bayreuth stars of the 1930's, were their worthy heirs. Manowarda and Lorenz belonged to the ranks of "declamatory" singers. The former's solid delivery suffers from the sound of a noisy master, the latter's un-ingratiating timbre is balanced by the clarity and expressiveness of his enunciation. Hans Hotter's early (1942) Sachs shows him light of voice but already rich in insight.
Side four of the set consists of recordings of the 1950's and 1960's by artists closer to our own time. Windgassen and Rysanek arc heard in characteristic examples of their aft.
and Josef Greindl, a longtime Bayreuth favorite, is in peak form. It is good to hear Astrid Varnay in the impressive vocal estate associated with her early Bayreuth years. And Birgit Nilsson's Liebestod, which closes the sequence, is a classic.
Some of the acoustical discs have been extremely well restored; the sound in the more recent masters varies but, with the single exception of Manowarda's aria, remains generally enjoyable. Brief but informative notes and pictures of the performers complete a very praiseworthy release. - G.J.
THE YIDDISH ART SONG. Engel (arr.): Kaddish of Reb Levi-Itzchok of Barditchev; Listen!; Dear Father. Weiner: The Story of the World; A Father to His Son; Rhymes Written in the Sand; Yidl and His Fiddle. Weiner (arr.): A Tree Stands on the Road; What Is the Meaning Of?; A Nign. Golub: Tanchum. Gelbart: Keep Moving On. Achron (arr.): In a Little Cottage. Milner: In Cheyder; The Hunter. Binder (arr.): Sabbath at the Concluding Meal. Leon Lishner (bass); Lazar Weiner (piano). OLYMPIC OLY-105 $7.50 (from University of Washington Press, Seattle, Wash. 98105).
Performance: Good
Recording: Very good
A couple of years ago, composer Lazar Weiner, who carries on practically singlehandedly the Yiddish musical tradition in this country, accompanied soprano Bianca Sauler in a concert of his settings of Yiddish poetry which were remarkable for their sensitivity and al most total lack of bombast or sentimentality.
Weiner's treatments recalled the impression ism of Debussy more than the emotionality of Eastern Europe, and the whole program, is sued by Naomi Records, was enchanting.
Now Weiner is back at the piano, this time with basso Leon Lishner, for another series of Yiddish art songs. Some of these are folk ballads, and others have been rescued from collections by composers of a vanished time in Eastern Europe. Here is Reb Levi-Itzchok of Barditschev demanding of God that, for a change, his people be chosen for something else besides persecution, but at the same time fervently extolling the great name of the Mon arch of Monarchs. Here are songs of nature, of joy in the midst of poverty, of the hard ships of pale schoolboys in cheder classrooms, of the sorrow felt by devout parents when the Enlightenment sweeps over Europe and steals the minds of their sons away from religion to worldly preoccupations.
There are merry moments, like the ballad of Yidl and His Fiddle, set to joyous music by Weiner himself, but mostly the mood is melancholy, the material more self consciously sententious and not quite as intimate or lyrical as in the earlier collection. Moreover, Mr. Leshner has a powerful bass and a formidable command of the Yiddish idiom in matters of both words and music and can warble like a nightingale when he wants to, but when it comes to so challenging a piece as The Kaddish of Reb Levi-Itzchok, there is too much strength and not enough feeling; his interpretation only made this listener long to hear Jan Peerce perform this one again. There are a number of lovely moments, though, especially in the treatment of What is the Meaning Of?. a tender lyric about the sorrow of aging too young. an affliction that blighted the youth of many a Jewish religious student in those dusty study houses where time stood still until that whole world crumbled. Complete texts are included. -P.K.
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Source: Stereo Review (USA magazine)