Reviewed by:
RICHARD FREED
DAVID HALL
GEORGE JELLINEK
PAUL KRESH
STODDARD LINCOLN
ERIC SALZMAN
BAX: Fantasy Sonata for Viola and Harp; Sonata for Viola and Piano. Emanuel Vardi (viola); Margaret Ross (harp); Abba Bogin (piano). MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY MHS 3613 $4.95 (plus $1.25 handling charge from Musical Heritage Society, Inc., 14 Park Road, Tinton Falls, N.J. 07724).
Performance: Eloquent
Recording: Very good
MHS has been our chief supplier of Bax, in the form of recordings from the English Lyrita catalog. That this disc was recorded in New York by MHS itself is worth noting, for it was, after all, when the music of Carl Nielsen finally began to be recorded outside of Den mark that it took its place in the "permanent" international repertoire, and one now hopes for as much for Bax--whose Tintagel alone, one would think, would assure him the world wide popularity his music has so far failed to command. In any event, the two works offered here are as meaty and expressive in their intimate way as the symphonies and tone poems are on their grander scale. The harp, in the Fantasy Sonata, is neither accompaniment nor embellishment, but full participant in a dialogue whose depth and shifting moods easily sustain its nearly half-hour length. The viola-piano sonata might also have been headed "Fantasy," for it is very much in the same vein, though with a more pronounced folk flavor in spots and even more pervasively introspective. Both works are given the most eloquent performances, and the sound is very good indeed.
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Explanation of symbols:
= reel-to-reel stereo tape
= eight-track stereo cartridge
= stereo cassette
= quadraphonic disc
= reel-to-reel quadraphonic tape
= eight-track quadraphonic tape
Monophonic recordings are indicated by the symbol
The first listing is the one reviewed; other formats, if available, follow it.
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BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, in E-flat Major, Op. 55 ("Eroica"); Coriolan Overture, Op. 62. London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink cond. PHILIPS 6500 986 $8.98, 7300 459 $8.98.
Performance: Cheerful
Recording: Clear and charming
This is part of the Haitink Beethoven cycle on Philips that grew out of a successful series of concerts with the London Philharmonic in 1974. The outstanding qualities here are cheerful good humor, clear thinking on a tidy scale, and consistency. The fearsome Beethovenian thunderbolts appear out of basically sunny skies; the Funeral March is meditative instead of tragic, the scherzo romps right along, and the finale is festive. If that is the way you like your Beethoven, this is the re cording for you. E.S.
BERLIOZ: Harold in Italy, Op. 16. Donald McInnes (viola); Orchestre National de France, Leonard Bernstein cond. ANGEL S-37413 $7.98.
Performance: Urgent
Recording: Very good
BERLIOZ: Harold in Italy, Op. 16. Pinchas Zukerman (viola); Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim cond. COLUMBIA M34541 $7.98.
Performance: Atmospheric
Recording: Good
BERLIOZ: Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14. Orchestre National de France, Leonard Bernstein cond. ANGEL 0 S-37414 $7.98.
Performance: Brooding, savage
Recording: impressive
The views of Berlioz's Harold in Italy set forth in the new recordings by Leonard Bern stein and Daniel Barenboim are about as sharply contrasted, interpretively and sonically, as I could imagine. While Bernstein chooses to emphasize the impassioned aspect of Harold/Berlioz's response to his Italian experiences, it is the delighted sightseer-poet that emerges in Barenboim's reading. Particularly effective in the latter is the slower-than-usual tempo in the opening pages, which enhances the grandeur of this musical mountain scene. The third-movement mountaineer's serenade comes off deliciously by virtue of both the playing and the placement of the all important solo winds. Both Barenboim and Bernstein make a wild affair of the final brig ands' episode. On the whole, it is Bernstein's reading that is the more urgent and involved, Barenboim's the more detached.
The soloists' timbre and manner of performance match the respective conductors' conceptions-Zukerman's viola-protagonist sings in a high, clear, volatile tenor, while McInnes' instrument is the more throatily romantic.
The recording qualities too both befit and to some extent determine the character of what emerges from the loudspeakers. The multiple miking seems quite evident in the Columbia disc, what with the prominence of the winds in the opening pages and in the serenade and the somewhat overbearing horns-as-bells in the processional. The Angel sound is, to my ears, especially good in terms of stereo depth perspective and the solid bass line, as well as the lifelike low-end transients in the orgiastic finale. While I'm not about to throw away my now-venerable Menuhin/Davis Harold (Angel S-36123), the two new readings definitely have their own special and quite different merits.
Bernstein's second go-around with the Fantastique benefits in very large measure from superb recording. The reading is ultra-romantic, almost sulphurous in the intensity of feeling evoked throughout the opening movement. The ballroom scene is just a shade heavy-handed for my taste, and the "Scene aux champs" assumes an atmosphere more threatening than usual. The two final movements are done in the most dramatic Bernstein manner, and I must confess that the Witches' Sabbath almost did have my hair standing on end.
Something close to a surround effect is achieved in four-channel playback, at least as I had my system balanced, so that the bells punctuating the Dies irae seemed to emerge from the back ceiling with the most eerie effect. And I have never heard the always astounding collegno "fire and brimstone" bit toward the very end sound quite so terrifying.
The low percussion transients here will give any set of speakers a workout.
On both releases, the pressings I received for review had execrable playing surfaces, as bad as New York City streets with their multiplicity of potholes, bumps, and excavations. I think the record buyer should be getting a better product for his money. D.H.
BLANK: Two Songs (see WILSON)
BLOCH: Suite Hebraique (see MARTIN)
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
BRAHMS: Serenade No. 1, in D Major, Op. 11. Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, Bernard Haitink cond. PHILIPS 9500 322 $8.98.
Performance: Tops
Recording: Excellent
A delectable disc of delectable music! I'm sure that the young Brahms never heard any thing like the Concertgebouw players at the little provincial court of Detmold. The principal wind players do themselves proud, Haitink has just the right feel for the bucolic and occasionally darkly romantic atmosphere of the score, and the acoustics of the Concertgebouw Hall, abetted by the Philips recording team, lend a splendid overall glow. Only Stokowski's memorable Decca recording from the early 1960's (regrettably unavailable at present) is in the same class as this one. We should be grateful to Haitink and Philips for their achievement. D.H.
BRAHMS: Songs. Zigeunerlieder, Op. 103; Der Tod, Das 1st die Kiihle Nacht; Immer Leiser Wird Mein Schlummer; Feldeinsam keit; Standchen; Liebestreu; Madchenlied; Sapphische Ode; Ruhe, Sussliebchen im Schatten; Die Mainacht; Von Ewiger Liebe. Christa Ludwig (mezzo-soprano); Leonard Bernstein (piano). COLUMBIA M 34535 $7.98.
Performance Stimulating
Recording: Very good
Recorded in Vienna some years ago (date and locale are unspecified), this is an unconventional and somewhat controversial recital.
There is, to be sure, nothing extraordinary about the program: some of the best songs of Brahms are included, and they form an utterly beautiful sequence. Christa Ludwig has al ways been an exceptional interpreter of the mellow moods and flowing lyricism of the Brahms melodies. She was near her top form on this occasion: her rich, dusky tones pour out freely, with a lovely sustained legato and exemplary enunciation.
With Leonard Bernstein at the piano, one need not belabor the point that he is a "collaborator" instead of an "accompanist." His take-charge presence is immediately established in the Zigeunerlieder, a group of fiery gypsy songs, which he propels in a manner that overpowers both the songs and the singer. Unquestionably, there are places where his dynamic pianism makes for exciting results. But it can be too much of a good thing: in Die Mainacht, the piano intrudes on the singer's spinning the glorious phrase "Und die einsame Trane rinnt"; it makes for an overdriven and too theatrical climax in Von Ewiger Liebe; and it transforms the singer in Stiindchen from an interested observer into an involved participant. With all these reservations, however, I find this an uncommonly stimulating release. G.J.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7, in E Major.
WAGNER: Siegfried Idyll. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2707 102 two discs, $17.96, 3370 023 $17.96.
Performance: Passionate
Recording: Supercharged
This most lyrical of the Bruckner symphonies tends to become bland in spots in most performances, but not here. Though adhering to the orthodox tempos throughout, Karajan and his Berliners deliver the most impassioned reading of this music I have ever heard, and I wager that others who hear it either will be totally enthralled or will reject it out of hand as altogether too "hot" for the essential character of the score. I find this combination of performance and all-out engineering precisely to my taste, especially in the great slow movement. For the celebrated chorale theme, Karajan elicits sound from the Berlin strings that I have heard equaled only by Stokowski's Philadelphia Orchestra in the mid-1930's.
And, by this attention to details of line and rhythm, Karajan brings exceptional character and vitality to the usually fou-squarish scherzo. Only in the finale do I sense a slightly la bored quality-the pacing might have been just a hair quicker. Be that as it may, in my opinion this is the best Bruckner Seventh yet.
As for the Siegfried Idyll, Wagner's intimate birthday/Christmas tribute to Cosima is gorgeously decked out in Karajan's refined reading and Deutsche Grammophon's sound.
But in this particular package it seems anti climactic. Karajan's magnificent Bruckner Te Deum performance would have been more appropriate since it shares thematic material with the symphony's slow movement-and why, by the way, has no one thought to couple the Idyll with a fine performance of the Wesendonck Songs?
D.H.
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9, in D Major. Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan cond.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 828, $8.98, 3370 828, $8.98.
Performance: Solid
Recording: Superb
Herbert von Karajan's reading Of the Ninth is very solid, mainline, powerful Bruckner, with ...
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Rodrigo's Concierto Again
COMPOSER RODRIGO, GUITARIST ROMERO: An exceptional musical experience.
JOAQUIN RODRIGO, Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, and Heitor Villa-Lobos have all set the guitar to singing as a solo instrument in dialogue with a full symphony orchestra, but only Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez of 1939, with its incisive rhythms and insinuating melodies, has ever really caught fire with the public. Angel Romero was the guitarist at the piece's American premiere (at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964) and recorded it with the San Antonio Symphony for Mercury some years ago. There have been numerous other recordings by such outstanding soloists as Julian Bream and John Williams, but Romero's new quadraphonic version, with the London Sym phony conducted by Andre Previn, is the best of all. Both soloist and orchestra exploit the folk themes and the colorful, intricate scoring for all they are worth; it is as if the guitarist wished to pay tribute with a definitive performance to the work that first brought him international fame.
AFTER hearing the Concierto de Aranjuez, Andres Segovia suggested to the composer the idea for the Fantasia para un Gentilhom bre, which is based on material from the guitar anthology of Gaspar Sanz. The score is dedicated to Segovia, who first performed it (in San Francisco in 1954) and later recorded it, but here again Romero's vigorous interpretation, the spectacular accompaniment under Previn, and the stunning sonics provided by Angel-especially in four-channel playback add up to an exceptional musical experience.
With its street dances, fanfares, persuasive rhythms, and final spirited canario (a dance from the West Indies), the Fantasia is a fitting, though lesser, companion piece for the Concierto.
-Paul Kresh
RODRIGO: Concierto de Aranjuez; Fantasia para un Gentilhombre. Angel Romero (guitar); London Symphony Orchestra. Andre Previn cond. ANGEL D S-37440 $7.98.
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... dimensions of vision and passion that put it in the top ranks of recorded performances.
Once or twice, Karajan messes with the orchestration of what is billed as the "original edition"-a matter that will, no doubt, cause outcries among the faithful. More serious, perhaps, is the surprising roughness here of the Berlin Philharmonic's playing. But these shortcomings did not really interfere with my appreciation of the very big-scale strengths of this performance. The recording meets Deut sche Grammophon's usual high standard, and over an hour of music has been expertly packed onto a single disc.
E. S.
FRESCOBALDI: Toccatas and Capriccios. Toccata Prima (Libro Secondo); Partite So pra ('Aria della Romanesca; Toccata Nona (Libro Primo); Capriccio Cromatico con Li gature al Contrario; Canzona Seconda (Libro Secondo); Toccata Prima (Libro Primo); Bal letto Terzo; Toccata Duodecima (Libro Pri mo); Capriccio Sopra !'Aria "Or Che Noi Rimena," in Partite; Ancidetemi Pur d'Ar chadelt Passagiato; Capriccio di Durezze; Toccata Nona (Libro Secondo). Lionel Party (harpsichord). DESMAR DSM-1013 $7.98.
Performance: Fairly good
Recording: Excellent
Recorded with the cooperation of the Depart ment of Musical Instruments of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, this disc features two ancient Italian instruments: a harpsichord by Zenti (1666) and a spinettino (1540). The Zenti, a fine example of Italian harpsichord building, possesses a crisp, bright, and clear sound that becomes more at tractive the more one hears it. The spinettino is difficult to judge because its frail condition will not permit it to be tuned at pitch. It is tuned so far below pitch here that its sound is muffled and lacks any sustaining power. Fres cobaldi is a natural for these machines, and the Zenti responds enthusiastically to all of the music played on it. The spinettino, on the other hand, is only happy with the Balletto Terzo and makes a farce of the toccatas, especially the Toccata Duodecima, which is writ ten in a sustained organ idiom.
Stylistically Frescobaldi's music poses some of the most difficult problems in the en tire keyboard repertoire. The rhapsodic sections of the toccatas and cadential passages of the canzonas must be played freely, with broad arpeggiations, free rhythms, and added ornamentation and divisions; the contrapuntal sections must be played strictly and clearly; and the dances must bounce. Lionel Party has evolved a free style that is convincing in the right places, but its blanket application to every piece and section strips the music of the contrast that is its very essence. For example, in the Toccata Nona (Libro Primo) the ricer-car-like central section does not stand out enough from the outer improvisational sections, and in the canzonas the effusive cadential flourishes are not sufficiently free to function as points of articulation between the strictly imitative sections. The sparkling rhythms of the dances leave the feet unmoving. Nonetheless, there is enough fine playing here to make the record worthwhile. And the real value of the disc lies in the splendid sound of the Zenti, so accurately caught by engineer David Hancock, the beautifully re produced photograph of the instruments on the album cover, and the visionary music of Frescobaldi. - S.L.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
HANDEL: Concertos No. 1, in B-fiat Major, No. 2, in B-flat Major, and No. 3, in G Minor, for Oboe and Strings; Concerto Grosso in G ' Major, Op. 3, No. 3; Sonata A 5 in B-flat Major for Violin and Strings. Heinz Holliger (oboe); Kenneth Sillito (violin); English Chamber Orchestra, Raymond Leppard cond. PHILIPS 6500 240 $6.98.
Performance: Fabulous
Recording: Alive
Here is a joyous festival of the exuberant, youthful Handel joyously and exuberantly played. The outstanding feature of the disc is the exquisite work of Heinz Holliger. Disregarding the current taste for a highly articulated line in Baroque music, Holliger offers a seamless legato of long sinuous lines exquisitely molded by subtle dynamic nuance. To this he adds tasteful and imaginative divisions and ornamentation supported by a sure feeling for where and when not to ornament. The English Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Raymond Leppard furnishes lively and perfectly balanced accompaniments, keeping the tempos bouncing without falling into dog trot or skittishness. Although these works appear rather barren in score, when performed by these forces they take on a sparkle that will disperse the thickest gloom. -S.L.
HANDEL: Judas Maccabaeus. Ryland Davies (tenor), Judas Maccabaeus; Felicity. Palmer (soprano), Israelitish Woman; Janet Baker (contralto), Israelitish Man; John Shirley-Quirk (bass), Simon; Wandsworth School Choir; English Chamber Orchestra, Charles Mackerras cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ARCHIV 2710 021 three discs $26.94, 3376 011 $26.94.
Performance: Correct
Recording: Excellent
Ah, the English singer and the Handel oratorio! This recording has all the most up-to date trimmings: scholarly edition, Baroque performance practices, top soloists of a new generation, chamber orchestra, knowledge able direction, gorgeous sound, and, best of all, the imprimatur of a Deutsche Grammophon Archiv production. Has English oratorio performance changed that much since the grand old days (ca. 1880) of the great choral festivals? Not really. In fact, what we have here is vintage Olde English Oratorio, the kind that we read about in the music criticism of G. B. Shaw and other observers of the late-Victorian scene. What could be more typical of this species than stately Dame Janet Baker producing the most glorious contralto tones this side of Anglican heaven? Or the stately language she sings in, High Mashed Potato? Most of the work is sung in this curious tongue, though unfortunately it is not one of the languages in the program booklet, which gives only the French, German, and English translations of the text.
Judas Maccabaeus is one of the few Han del oratorios to maintain its popularity over the years. It was Handel's idea to retrieve his flagging fortunes by symbolically celebrating the martial achievements, actual or anticipated, of the English against a rather serious rebellion and invasion from the North. Works of this sort, with their sentiments of piety, self-righteousness, militarism, and jingoism, require a Handel to make them tolerable. Judas does not maintain as consistently high a level of inspiration as Messiah-or, for that matter, Theodora or Serse or Giulio Cesare.
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The Bartok Quartet Playoffs
above: Sandor Vegh, Paul Szabo, Sandor Zeldy, George Janzer, etc.
SINCE not enjoying things is not a thing I enjoy, recurring encounters with the Guarneri Quartet always prompt, first of all, the hope that my past negative impressions will turn out to have been unjustified. After listening to their new set of the six string quartets of Bela Bartok, however, I fear that once again I am not converted. But this particular encounter has also brought with it an opportunity to explore two other Bartok quartet cycles issued in recent months and to reassess the current discography of the six works. And that, thanks to one superb set of performances, has been the purest delight.
Since we are about the business of serious criticism, and not vulgar cliff-hanging along who-done-it-best lines, I will say at once that the superlative attaches to the Vegh Quartet's recording. Listening to these masterly interpretations has reawakened my sense of the masterliness of the music itself. I did not have the Vegh's much older (long deleted) mono set at hand for comparison in detail, but my re collections of Vegh performances years ago suggest that in its new version, first released in Europe about four years back, the Hungarian ensemble has vastly increased its grasp of Bartok's many-faceted genius.
It is, indeed, the sheer musical and emotional comprehensiveness of these Vegh readings that give them the edge over both the Juilliard Quartet's Columbia set and the Fine Arts Quartet's now unobtainable (and, in any case, somewhat wanly recorded) Concert Disc versions. The Juilliard set has been the standard in this repertoire for years, and there are probably those dedicated Bart6kians, especially of the more determinedly modern ist variety, who will continue to prefer it.
There is no more strikingly single-minded statement on disc of the music's leaner, tougher aspects. On the other hand, the early-1960's perceptions of the Fine Arts players have a lyrical, likable musicality that can still, poor recording or not, command adherents among those lucky enough to own the discs.
What the Vegh Quartet has now achieved is a set justly balanced among all the music's qualities. Far richer than the Juilliard set in color and atmosphere, and thus a closer realization of Bartok's never-forgotten folk-art roots, it also has the brilliant panache and implacable drive that the Fine Arts group recording as always, for some incomprehensible reason, for a minor label and under less than ideal conditions-could not quite capture on disc. As a result, I find the claims of at least the last five quartets to constitute the peak of the composer's musical achievement more fully justified here than in any previous recording.
THE Vegh's superiority, palpable enough next to ensembles of the Juilliard and Fine Arts rank, becomes almost embarrassingly clear-cut in comparison with the work of the Guarneri and New Hungarian quartets. The New Hungarians, though musicianly enough in an unassuming way, are, I am afraid, sim ply not in the contest technically. Purely as string players, they sound as if they are having the devil of a job just getting through the ...
--justly balanced among all the music's qualities ---
... notes (which are admittedly taxing enough to stretch the technical abilities of even the finest performers).
As for the much-vaunted Guarneri Quartet, what can I say but that I simply don't under stand its reputation? Apart from the single virtue of intermittent polyphonic clarity, these performances seem to me to combine all the characteristic shortcomings of a chronically overrated group. The tone is without depth or variety, the dynamics without range.
The rhythm, particularly in passages such as the trio of the Fifth Quartet's Bulgarian-style scherzo, is incredibly sloppy, and the articulation is often so spineless that fast movements, such as the same work's finale, emerge as a vague, slithery mass rather than the pungently pointed web of lines and motifs projected by the Vegh players. Contrasts of tempo are either glossed over-compare the finale of the Guarneri's First Quartet, where the alternating "slightly faster" sections often simply aren't, with the Vegh's precise execution of the markings-or, no less frequently, exaggerated out of due proportion. And whenever there is some musical sap in these etiolated interpretations, it always comes from the inner two voices, which leave their first violin and cello partners far behind in bite, impulse, and intensity.
THE Vegh players, I am happy to report, have the luck they deserve in terms of recording quality. The virtues of their music making are captured in dazzlingly vivid sonority, and the imported Telefunken pressings make the RCA and Vox discs sound like sandpaper (not to mention a number of obtrusive studio noises in the RCA). For once, then, the recommendation can be decisive-with one sole qualification: Halsey Stevens' notes for the Guarneri set are immeasurably superior to the labored exegesis (translated into what the booklet optimistically calls English) included with the Vegh recordings. But reading about the music is no substitute for experiencing it undiluted, and that is the pleasure the Vegh Quartet provides.
-Bernard Jacobson
BARTOK: String Quartets Nos. 1-6. Guarneri Quartet. RCA ARL3-2412 three discs $23.94.
BARTOK: String Quartets Nos. 1-6. Vegh Quartet. TELEFUNKEN FK6.35023 three discs $26.94.
BARTOK: String Quartets Nos. 1-6. New Hungarian Quartet. Vox SVBX 593 three discs $11.95.
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Still, it is not a negligible work; its formula writing is tempered by Handel's genius, its slightly forced smiling optimism by expressions of feeling-scenes of mourning and lyrical piety in the best Baroque manner.
The Victorian choir-festival approach robbed these works of a certain vitality, for England in the mid-eighteenth century was a very different place from what it became in the reign of good Queen Victoria. The expression of strong feeling was not foreign to Handel, his musicians, or his public; indeed, the Baroque aria of affect--of which Handel was one of the greatest exponents--was based precisely on the idea of clearly and strongly translating emotions into musical terms. The Victorians kept Handel's music alive but treated him as an Olde English Composer who had had the good sense to anticipate Victorian middle-class manners. Alas, the well-mannered performance survives even unto our own day, now aided and abetted by scholar ship, harpsichords, and other paraphernalia of good taste.
As for this recording, what a fantastic collection of soloists it has! What marvelous singing and playing! What smooth sound! What highfalutin style! What class! But good deportment is not everything in life or music.
What we need here is a little rough, strong, musical behavior, a little force and spirit that might, just once, move us and thrill us and rescue poor George Frideric from the icy clutches of the English class system. This sort of thing may be beautiful, but it is too well be haved by half.
- E.S.
HAYDN: Symphony No. 43, in E-flat Major; Symphony No. 59, in A Major (see Best of the Month, page 111) HINDEMITH: Der Schwanendreher (see MARTIN)
JANACEK: Amarus. Eva Gebauerova (soprano); Jifi ZahradniZek (tenor); Rene TuCek (baritone). SUK: Under the Apple Tree, Op. 20. Bohuslava Jelinkova (contralto). Czech Philharmonic Chorus; Ostrava Jangek Phil harmonic Orchestra, Otakar Trhlik cond. SuPRAPHON 1 12 1678 $7.98.
Performance: Janacek more convincing
Recording: Decent
Both of these beautiful works date from the turn of the century and both are concert cantatas with spiritual subjects on texts from late-Romantic Czech poets. Jangek's Amarus is a bitter-sweet dramatic tale (by Jaroslav Vrchlick) about the hard life of a wretch of a monk, named Amarus, who is undone by earthly love. Suk, who was Dvofik's pupil and son-in-law, made his cantata out of incidental music for a mystical drama by Julius Zeyer.
Amarus is a relatively early work-at any rate earlier than the famous operas. But it al ready has the typical Jangek trademarks: small, repeated motifs and phrases, a direct, plain speech style of great intensity. Suk, on the other hand, uses a more conventional apparatus of choral and orchestral peroration.
Janiieek's work moves from generalized spirituality to a very particular tale of human emotion; Suk moves the other way, from the earthly particular to the mystical generality.
Oddly, perhaps, it is the JanaCek that makes the deeper and more spiritual effect today. I think that the performers believed more deeply in the JaniZek as well, for Under the Apple Tree sounds a bit soggy while Amarus is played and sung with real character. E.S.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
JANACEK: In the Mist; SZYMANOWSKI: Masques, Op. 34. Jan Latham Koenig (piano). PRELUDE PMS 1503 $7.98.
Performance: Very good
Recording: Limpid
The "Premiere Recording" banner across the jacket of this disc does not refer to the repertoire, of course, but to a series introducing "young artists of exceptional talent with an outstanding potential"--no hyperbole in the case of twenty-four-year old Jan Latham Koenig if the performances recorded here may be taken as representative. They show him to be thoroughly "inside" the music of both composers temperamentally, and well equipped technically to bring it to life in the most compelling way. With Firkusny's authoritative Jangek inexplicably withdrawn by Deutsche Grammophon, Koenig's convincing presentations of In the Mist and the remark able two-movement sonata bearing as its title the date October 1, 1905 (subtitled From the Street) are especially welcome, and his evocative realization of Szymanowski's Masques achieves an atmospheric luminosity un matched in either of the other recordings of that work known to me. Unusually fine, lim pid piano sound makes the disc all the more attractive.
The packaging, unfortunately, is botched so as to leave the listener not already familiar with Szymanowski's piano music thoroughly confused about what he is listening to. In addition to obvious typos and misspellings, the contents list on the cover and the disc label both give Masques as a translation of Metopy, an entirely different work better known by its French title Metopes (Op. 29). Prelude has compounded the confusion by giving the Polish titles of the three movements of Metopes instead of those of Masques-and still further compounded it by translating the title of Metopes' first movement ("The Isle of the Sirens") as "Scheherazade," which is the proper heading for the first segment of Masques. It is only in Koenig's own annotation that all the correct titles are mentioned without reference to those printed elsewhere.
Nevertheless, I have only high praise for what is in the grooves of this disc. R.F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
LISZT: Annees de Pelerinage. Lazar Berman (piano). DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2709 076 three discs $26.94.
Performance: Natural Recording: Self-effacing Liszt's Armies de Pelerinage ("years of pilgrimage" or, less literally, "years of travel") consists of musical journal the composer kept between 1835 and 1839 when he traveled and lived in Switzerland and Italy with the Comtesse Mar ie d'Agoult. The pieces written during that time were revised and collated into two sets, which include Au Lac de Wallenstadt, Au Bord d'une Source, Vallee d'Obermann, the Petrarch Sonnets, and the Dante Sonata.
Short, impressionistic pieces and arrangements of songs (by Liszt himself, Rossini, and others) stand alongside big, dramatic works of considerable scope. The final volume of the Annees, however, contains music of a much later date, and, except for the brilliant Jeux d'Eaux a la Ville D'Este, all the pieces are slow and contemplative in Liszt's austere, forward-looking late style.
Curiously enough, it is in the late works that Lazar Berman's new recording makes the deepest impression. I say "curiously" be cause Berman-who has possibly the greatest total command of the piano of anyone living-would seem to be the ideal performer for the earlier, highly romantic and virtuosic works. But I find that although he is in many respects a good Lisztian, the Russian pianist lacks a certain element-fire, demonism, blended otherworldliness and showmanship that is essential in the earlier Liszt. In the late works, the quality becomes truly visionary.
Berman attacks the late music with epic involvement, while letting the Byronesque mus ings of the Vallee d'Obermann remain on the level of lyric poetry-lovely, to be sure, but with slighter proportions.
Let there be no misunderstanding: this is all fabulous playing, not only on a technical but also on a musical level. However, Berman's much-vaunted old-fashioned romantic pianism is really more instinctive and modern than most of his boosters would be willing to admit. The truth is that the old Liszt-to-Busoni tradition involved a very deliberate synthesis of grand passions-including the Faustian intellectual/demonic. Everything is tormented, everything is in question; there is a restless search for peace amid both inner and outer upheaval. Berman's is quite another kind of personality-he is a natural, instinctive lyric poet with a tremendous, easy grasp of any complexity. He is not a lesser kind of musician, only a little different kind from what we have been led to expect. E. S.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
MARTIN: Sonata da Chiesa for Viola d'Amore and String Orchestra.
BLOCH: Suite Hebraique for Viola and Orchestra.
HINDEMITH: Der Schwanendreher. Marcus Thompson (viola, viola d'amore); M.I.T. Symphony Orchestra, David Epstein cond. TURNABOUT QTV 34687 $3.98.
Performance: Very good
Recording: Excellent
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first recording on an American label for both Frank Martin's Sonata da Chiesa and Bloch's Suite HebraIque in its orchestral version. The Martin piece, originally with organ accompaniment in its 1938 version, is an altogether lovely essay in lyrical pantonality, with the sympathetic-string resonances of the viola d'amore providing a fascinating sonic halo around the solo line. It whets the appetite for some of the other twentieth-century scores employing the viola d'amore as soloist, such Mort de Tintagiles by American com poser Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935).
The Bloch suite is a series of colorful chips from that master's workshop. It has long been known in its viola-piano format, especially by way of William Primrose's Capitol disc (now out of print) on which it was paired with the far more important Viola Suite (1919). The Hindemith work, based on old German folk tunes, still strikes me as a rather gnarly score, yet it can be oddly fascinating in a good performance. What with this new recording and earlier ones with Karl Doktor (Odyssey) and Raphael Hillyer (Nonesuch), Der Schwanen dreher has fared well on stereo discs.
Not the least of the many merits of this Turnabout offering is the highly effective ambiance in four-channel playback. The performances throughout are warm and rhythmically vital.
- D.H.
MAXWELL DAVIES: Dark Angels. Jan De Gaetani (mezzo-soprano); Oscar Ghiglia (guitar).
WERNICK: Songs of Remembrance. Jan DeGaetani (mezzo-soprano); Philip West (shawm, English horn, oboe). NONESUCH H-7 I 342 $3.96.
Performance: Gorgeous
Recording: Ditto
More death-obsessed modern music! This plague of morbidity that seems to have over taken the avant-garde is truly unhealthy; new art can thrive only on a vital, life-giving spirit! Peter Maxwell Davies' Dark Angels (un related to the George Crumb work of the same name except that the state of mind seems similar) is a setting for voice and guitar of two poems by George Mackay Brown. The poems concern the drowning of two brothers in the remote Orkney Islands-where Max well Davies himself now lives-and the subsequent desertion of their island home.
The music sounds exquisitely plaintive, but since Jan DeGaetani sings almost no consonants at all, the words are incomprehensible--without reference to the printed texts.
Richard Wernick's Songs of Remembrance are dedicated to the memory of a girl who died at the age of nine. The texts-in the original languages-are from Pythagoras, Horace, Virgil, and Herrick. This might suggest a genteel, literary approach, but Wernick's settings are direct and keening, and again the performance is artful and gorgeous. -E.S.
MENDELSSOHN: Paulus ( St. Paul). Helen Donath (soprano); Hanna Schwarz (mezzo soprano); Werner Hollweg (tenor); Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone); Chorus of the Dusseldorf Musikverein; Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos cond. ANGEL SC-3842 three discs $23.98.
Performance: Good
Recording: Good
The Mendelssohn oratorios seem to have fall en into neglect. One may occasionally come upon a performance of Elijah, but the earlier Paulus has become a stranger to concert life.
For a long while Paulus was highly favored in England, but even at the height of its popularity there G. B. Shaw (predictably) dismissed it as "Sunday school horrors." We now have the first modern recording of Paulus, produced in Dusseldorf, where Mendelssohn conducted the premiere on May 22, 1836.
The influence of the Bach Passions is very strong in Paulus, but the score lacks the sweep and majesty of its models. Mendelssohn's characteristic clarity and symmetry is in evidence, as is his skill in writing brief though pleasing arias and elaborate choruses, but there is no sense of emerging drama in his treatment of Paul's baptism and sufferings.
Among the singers, Werner Hollweg is the most impressive. Helen Donath and Hanna Schwarz perform well, while Fischer-Dieskau is in his current characteristic form. All the soloists excel in articulating their parts with clarity and conviction, but their efforts are not matched by the chorus. Friihbeck de Burgos evidently has a sympathy for this music.
More incisiveness in the choral portions would have helped, but I doubt that any conductor could make up for the music's essential lack of vitality. -G.J.
MOUSSORGSKY: Boris Godounov. Martti Talvela (bass), Boris Godounov; Nicolai Gedda (tenor), Grigori, Dimitri; Leonard Mr& (bass), Pimen; Bolena Kinasz (soprano), Marina; Andrzej Hiolski (baritone), Rangoni, Shchelkalov; Aage Haugland (bass), Var laam; Kazimierz Pustelak (tenor), Missail; Bogdan Paprocki (tenor), Shuisky; HalinaLu komska (soprano), Xenia; Paulos Raptis (ten or), the Simpleton; others. Polish Radio Chorus; Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Semkow cond. ANGEL SDLX-3844 four discs $31.98, 4x4x 3844 $31.98.
Performance: Well sung
Recording: Good, but not exceptional
Russian musical circles have shown surprisingly little interest in Moussorgsky's Urtext of Boris Godounov, which was withdrawn from the repertoire after the composer's death in 1881. The Bolshoi Theater has been showing the Rimsky-Korsakov edition since it became the official Boris Godounov in 1891 (it was last revised in 1906), while the Kirov in Leningrad has opted for the Shostakovich orchestration of the Mussorgsky score since 1959. It was growing interest in the West (primarily in England and Germany) that eventually led to the Metropolitan's staging of the Mussorgsky original in 1974 under Thomas Schippers and, finally, to this first-ever complete re cording of it, with Martti Talvela, the triumphant Boris of the Munich and New York productions, in the title role.
Mussorgsky himself created two versions of Boris Godounov. The Polish Scene was incorporated into the second to add color and love interest, and the St. Basil Scene was removed, presumably to curtail the opera's excessive length. (The annotations accompanying the new album clarify the changes in great detail.) This recording offers the most complete Boris Godounov imaginable, and the conviction that it is a very long opera in deed is strengthened by conductor Semkow's leisurely, at times languid pacing. It is one of the true masterpieces of operatic literature, but, at the risk of sounding not only terribly unfashionable but downright heretical, I find that the original's sparse and austere orchestral textures militate against its overall effectiveness. In jettisoning Rimsky-Korsakov's changes (which to some extent falsified the composer's harmonic intentions) we have gained in authenticity, but at the cost of a great deal of color and orchestral splendor.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the closing pages of the Polish Scene. Mussorgsky's handling of this torrid moment is embarrassingly inept from the theatrical point of view (and it falls totally flat in the theater), while Rimsky's music exploits the scene's grand theatricality to the fullest.
There is some good singing in the new set, however. Martti Talvela is a very human Boris, sensitively pointing up the guilt-ridden and suffering aspects of the character. His scene with the children is handled with great tenderness, and he knows how to convey majesty without resorting to excessive fierce ness. Vocally, he is in fine estate. So is Nico lai Gedda, whose Dimitri twenty-five years ago was his first recorded role and who now confirms his supremacy among all recorded Pretenders. The Danish bass, Aage Haugland, is a flavorful Varlaam.
The rest of the cast are Polish artists, all good. Though some of Marina's music lies a bit low for Boiena Kinasz, she is generally first-rate, and so are Leonard Mroz, a smooth, lyrical Pimen, and Halina Zukomska, a fresh-voiced and touching Xenia. Bogdan Paprocki was a first-rate Canio and Don Jose a few years ago; the voice has faded somewhat, but he still makes an impact as Shuisky. Andrzej Hiolski sounds like a baritone with a good Italian schooling: he sings both his parts very well, but without the Slavic cutting edge for Shchelkalov and without the insinuating evil for Rangoni. The Simpleton and all the other supporting members of the cast are fine, except for the strident Boyar Khruschov in the final scene. The chorus-stronger in the men than in the women-is not quite on the Bolshoi level but perfectly acceptable. So is the orchestra, but more vital, more incisive leadership is needed.
The long record sides are no doubt responsible for the low-level sound. With the volume turned up I find the reproduction clear and free of distortion, but in no way superior to Angel's 1963 recording of the Rimsky-Korsakov edition with Boris Christoff as the Tsar.
In quadraphonic playback there is more ambience and a sense of palatial space in the big choral passages, but the illusion is marred by a kind of sonic haze and a certain tubbiness throughout. For those interested in Mussorgsky's original, the new recording is the answer, but those who want a vital, exciting Boris Godounov will probably prefer the older Angel set. -G.J.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
MOZART: String Quartet No. 16, in E-flat Major (K. 428); String Quartet No. 17, in B flat Major (K. 458, "Hunt"). Melos Quartet, Stuttgart. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 800, $8.98, 3300 800 $8.98.
MARTTI-TALVELA: A very human Boris
Performance: Elegant
Recording: Excellent
The Melos Quartet's first phonographic en counter with Mozart is so outstandingly successful that it immediately arouses the hope that the Stuttgart ensemble might proceed to the comprehensive coverage it has already given Schubert and Cherubini. The opening movement of K. 428 is as smooth and sinuous as that of K. 458 is robust and crisp-both within a framework of elegance that includes the sensitivity to find a happy mean between understatement and over-expressiveness. The half-brooding intimacy of K. 428's slow movement and the gentler melancholy of K. 458 are realized to breathtaking perfection, with a collective sweetness of tone that is an enhancement rather than a distraction. A catalog of interpretive felicities could be com piled, but it seems sufficient to say that, technically assured and abetted by Deutsche Grammophon's exceptionally well-balanced and lifelike recording, the Melos Quartet simply yields deeper pleasures in these marvelous works than any of its predecessors on LP.
Chamber music aficionados should cherish this release, regardless of duplications in their collections, and listeners who have yet to ex plore the joys of this category of music could not ask for a more enticing introduction to it.
(Now, might the Melos Quartet and DG oblige us with a disc of the so-called "Milanese" Quartets, K. Anh. 210-213? Authenticated or not, they are too attractive to be missing from the catalogs for so long.) - R.F.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3, in D Minor, Op. 30. Earl Wild (piano); Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein cond. QUINTESSENCE PMC 7030 $3.98.
Performance: Ear-opening
Recording: Excellent
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3, in D Minor, Op. 30. Lazar Berman (piano); London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado cond. COLUMBIA XM 34540 $7.98.
Performance: Solid
Recording: Good
The Earl Wild/Jascha Horenstein version of Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto was recorded in Walthamstow Town Hall, London, in 1965.
It is one of the most effective Rachmaninoff performances I have ever heard, and it considerably changed my view of this music. It is not just the fire, clarity, and excitement of the performance, but a whole new way of thinking about the music. The work's phrasing, thematic signposts, and changes of tempo the inner character of each idea and section seem very classical (everything is clearly etched) here, yet it is at the same time full of lution). As a result, the concerto not only seems extraordinarily vivid in this recording, it reveals a surprising amount of inner strength and backbone.
Lazar Berman and Claudio Abbado take a much more traditional approach. Theirs is a strong, solid, even stolid reading that has a kind of earth-bound romanticism but, on the whole, lacks the soaring excitement and challenge of the Wild/Horenstein interpretation. I should mention, however, that Berman does play the extremely difficult and rarely per formed alternative cadenza, and he and Abbado opt for the complete score as published.
Wild plays the "easier," more familiar cadenza, and he and Horenstein make the usual cuts (which the composer sanctioned); this is perhaps a mistake in the first two movements, but it is a blessing in the overlong, over balanced finale. -E.S.
SCHOENBERG: The Five String Quartets (see Best of the Month, page 109)
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
SCHUMANN: Etudes Symphoniques, Op. 13; Papillons, Op. 2. Murray Perahia (piano). COLUMBIA 34539 $7.98.
Performance: Idiomatic
Recording: Very good
Murray Perahia's first solo recording was a disc of Schumann's Davidsbiindlertiinze and Fantasiestiicke (Columbia M 32299) that disclosed so striking an affinity for the music of this composer that one can only wonder why Columbia has waited so long to give us more.
The performances on this new disc are on the same level of inspiration, filled with spontaneity, poetry, and passion-in other words, so thoroughly inside the Schumann idiom that there is hardly a suggestion of an interpretive middleman. Perahia's presentation of the Symphonic Studies includes the five posthumous pieces as well as the twelve published as Op. 13; they are inserted at the same points as in Claudio Arrau's Philips recording (6500 130), but with the positions of the first and third of the added numbers reversed. Arrau's more expansive performances of both the Studies and Papillons (Philips 6500 395) exude their own Schumannesque magic, but Perahia's leaner and somewhat impetuous style suits the music no less well than Arrau's quite different one, and the very differences be tween the approaches of these two magnificent Schumann players constitute a virtually irresistible argument for having both versions. Columbia's sound is very good, if a little harder than Philips', but the surfaces on my review copy were rather gritty. -R.F.
SMIT: Songs of Wonder; At the Corner of the Sky (see WILSON)
R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Karl Bohm cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 2530 781 $8.98, 3300 781, $8.98.
Performance: Sobersided
Recording: A mite bass-shy
Strauss' hero as viewed through the mind's ear of eighty-three-year-old Karl Bohm is a decidedly more sober and introspective fel low than the passionate and exuberant one depicted by Mengelberg, Ormandy, and Reiner (Karajan and Haitink take something of a middle ground). However, as might be expected of a veteran Straussian with the high est credentials, Bohm and the Deutsche Grammophon recording team do bring out some marvelous textural details all through the score-the yammering vocalization of the critics is simply superb here, as are the recol lective pages from the end of the battle scene to the conclusion.
I'm not altogether happy with some aspects of the DG recording; I sense a bit of knob twisting for spotlighting purposes just before the battle scene, and, as with certain other DG discs on the American market, I find a lack of really solid bass (or is it pre-empha sized mid-range?). -D.H.
SUK: Under the Apple Tree, Op. 20 (see JANACEK) SZYMANOWSKI: Masques, Op. 34 (see JANACEK) VERDI: Simon Boccanegra (see Best off the Month, page 110)
VIVALDI: The Four Seasons, Op. 8, Nos. 1-4. New Koto Ensemble of Tokyo, Seiichi Mitsuishi, cond. ANGEL S-37450 $7.98, 4XS-37450 $7.98.
Performance: Convincing
Recording: Superb
Vivaldi's Four Seasons played on kotos? It sounds like a doomed experiment on the face of it. The eighteenth-century Venetian scored his calendar of concertos for violin soloist and chamber orchestra, for one thing, and the koto, a distant relation of the zither, is a thirteen-string affair that gets plucked rather than bowed. Yet the six members of the New Koto Ensemble of Tokyo have wrought a kind of miracle of transubstantiation here, and even those who might feel wearied from overexposure to this most popular quartet of concertos will find their treatment a revelation. The koto is the only Japanese instrument capable of singing, as it were, in a Western accent, but to play so difficult a work and remain faithful to it note for note means manipulating the strings and shifting the bridge of each instrument in the midst of performance-a demand ing feat to say the least. Yet the entire performance, under conductor Seiichi Mitsuishi, comes off as effortless, and if some of the pasages still seem to speak in slightly Japanese musical intonations, on the whole it is a convincing, even thrilling reading. What helps to make it so is the remarkable spaciousness of the sound, especially in SQ quadraphonic playback. The album comes with English texts of the four sonnets written as a program for the music and an excellent set of notes by Rory Guy. - P. K.
PHILHARMONIA VIRTUOSI: winning new friends for Baroque music.
WAGNER: Siegfried Idyll (see BRUCKNER)
WERNICK: Songs of Remembrance (see MAXWELL DAVIES) WILSON: Sometimes. William A. Brown (ten or); tape. BLANK: Two Songs. Jan DeGaetani (mezzo-soprano); Arthur Weisberg (bassoon).
SMIT: Songs of Wonder. Martha Hanneman (soprano); Leo Smit (piano). At the Corner of the Sky. Henrik Svitzer (flute); Nora Post (oboe); Leo Smit (speaker); Men and Boys Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo, N.Y., Frederick Burgomaster cond. CRI SD 370 $6.95.
Performance: Excellent
Recording: Good
This recording, entitled "Other Voices," is a collection of disparate pieces of vocal music by three contemporary American composers.
Billy Wilson, the youngest of the three and one of the relatively few black composers to gain prominence in modern "classical" mu sic, has produced a fascinating riff on Some times I Feel Like a Motherless Child, set in an expressive far-out idiom for voice and tape.
Leo Smit is represented by two mystical song sets, one for voice and piano on poems of a twelve-year old girl, the other for speaking voice, instruments, and chorus on American-Indian poetry. Both are rather cool, introverted expressions of great cosmic issues. Allan Blank's two songs are a showcase for the talents of Jan DeGaetani and Arthur Weisberg but are otherwise unexciting. E.S.
COLLECTIONS
JOSE CARRERAS: Opera Arias. Verdi: Il Corsaro: Tutto parea sorridere; Eccomi pri gionero. I Due Foscari: Non maledirmi. Puccini: Tosca: Elucevan le stelle. Rossini: Elisa betta, Regina d'Inghilterra: Della cieca fortuna ... sposa amata. Donizetti: Lucia ding new friends for Baroque music Lammermoor: Final Scene. Jose Carreras (tenor); Samuel Ramey (bass, in Lucia); various orchestras, Lamberto Gardelli, Colin Davis, and Jesus Lopez Cobos cond. PHILIPS 6598 533 $8.98.
Performance: Carreras in fine form
Recording: Generally good
These selections are all taken from complete opera sets (Verdi's I Due Foscari is scheduled for release this year). The musically more interesting side one includes the entire opening scene from II Corsaro--with orchestral prelude, chorus, and a rousing stretta that sounds like an early model for "Di quella pira"-and the third-act aria "Eccomi prigionero," an extraordinarily beautiful inspiration. Jose Carreras displays exemplary tonal beauty and technical refinement in these, perhaps a shade less in the familiar Tosca excerpt.
The Rossini scene is not very interesting musically, and the Lucia finale is very broadly and squarely conducted by Jesils Lopez Cobos, which takes some of the edge off the good vocal achievements. Moreover, the engineers have relegated Samuel Ramey's important contribution too far to the back ground. This seems like a hurried production.
There are no texts, not even notes of any consequence, only a publicity blurb on the artist. Still, it will please Carreras fans who do not own the complete recordings. -G.J.
MIRELLA FRENI: Opera Arias. Puccini: Madama Butterfly: Un bel di vedremo. Tosca: Vissi d'arte. Turandot: Signore, ascolta! Gianni Schicchi: O mio babbino caro. La Rondine: Chi it bel sogno di Doretta. Mascag ni: L'Amico Fritz: Son pochi fiori. Verdi: La Traviata: Ah, fors'e lui . Sempre libera.
Otello: Ave Maria. Bellini: I Puritani: Qui la voce ... Vien diletto. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro: Dove sono. Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur: Poveri fiori. Mirella Freni (soprano); various orchestras, Franco Ferraris, Leone Magiera, and Antonin Votto cond. ANGEL S-37446 $7.98.
Performance: Fine singing
Recording: Good
Let's dispose of the prosaic elements first. These are not newly recorded selections. Five of them come from a 1965 release (Angel 36268, deleted), two are conducted by Antonino Votto (deceased some years ago), and five by the soprano's husband, Leone Magiera (on dates unspecified). As for the program, if they ever establish a Grammy award for "the most hackneyed repertoire," this will be a shoo-in.
However ... Mirella Freni is such a gratifyingly tasteful and musical artist that her singing is always welcome and certainly should be well represented in the catalog.
Since recording these arias, she has enlarged her repertoire to encompass certain "heavier" roles, but essentially she is a lyric soprano and the present sequence displays her exquisite tone, lovely legato, and subtle expressiveness to good advantage. It should surprise no one that she sings the music of Lib, Butterfly, Lauretta, Susanna, and Suzel beguilingly. Her "Vissi d'arte," though tonally lovely, lacks intensity, however, and the bravura conclusions of the La Traviata and I Puritani excerpts are sung too cautiously. The accompaniments are routine, the sound smooth but unspectacular. - G.J.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
GREATEST HITS OF 1720. Pachelbel: Canon in D Major. Core Sonata No. 5: Gigue.
Bach: Anna Magdalena Notebook: Minuet.
Suite No. 3: Air for the G String. Harpsichord Concerto in F Minor: Largo. Concerto for Vi olin and Oboe: Adagio. Mouret: First Sym phonic Suite: Rondo. Albinoni: Adagio. Han del: Suite No. II for Harpsichord: Sarabande.
Campra: Tancrede: Triumphal March. Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, Richard Kapp cond. COLUMBIA MX 34544 $5.98. MXA 34544 $5.98, C MXT 34544 $5.98.
Performance: Beguiling
Recording: Excellent
This collection of melodic treasures from the eighteenth century is so consistently charming, so refreshingly played, and so brilliantly recorded that it might well win large numbers of new friends for the music of that period.
Baroque music was not all meant to be played in the background at royal dinners and court ceremonies, and the spectacular pieces here command the listener's full attention. The "No. I Hit" is Pachelbel's Canon in D, much more famous now than it was then, and as a sort of musical centerpiece there's the rondo from Mouret's First Symphonic Suite-the theme for Masterpiece Theatre. They've never been played with more élan, and that goes for everything else on the disc as well. By way of liner notes, there's a musical diary of an imaginary "roving reporter" based in Lon don in 1720, which must have been quite a year for music. P. K.
RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT
PIECES FOR FLUTE-CLOCK. Haydn: Seven Pieces for Flute-clock.
Mozart: EM Or gelstucke fur eine Uhr, in F Minor (K. 608); Andante fur eine Walze in eine Kleine Orgel, in F Major (K. 616). Beethoven: Adagio and Al legro for Music Box. Danzi: Quintet in D Mi nor, Op. 68, No. 3. Danzi Quintet. ABC/ SEON AB-67016 $6.98.
Performance: Delicious
Recording: Fine
The Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven pieces on this disc were composed for the Flotenuhr (literally, "flute-clock"), music box, and other mechanical instruments. They have been transcribed most effectively for wind quintet by Frans Vester, the flutist of the Danzi Quin tet, and many of them offer more substance than one might imagine, as well as all of the expected charm. The Mozart items are also familiar in keyboard arrangements, and the centerpiece of the Haydn set is the Gren adier March, which has been recorded more than once in its wind-band setting. Not all the music here is of this derivation, despite the heading of the collection: the major offering is one of the most attractive of the many wind quintets of Franz Danzi, for whom the Amsterdam-based performing ensemble is named. It is even more delicious than the miniatures, and "delicious" suits the performances, too. An enchanting program, very well recorded and accompanied by an intriguing essay by Conrad L. Osborne. - R.F.
PEPE ROMERO: Famous Guitar Music. Tar rega: Recuerdos de la Alhambra; Capricho Arabe. Villa-Lobos: Prelude No. 1, in E Mi nor; Etude No. 1, in E Minor. Lauro: El Ma rabino. Albeniz: Asturias. Sagreras: El Colibiri. Sor: Introduction and Variation on a Theme by Mozart, Op. 9; Sonata in C Major, Op. 15. Pepe Romero (guitar). PHILIPS 9500 295 $8.98.
Performance: Intense and inward
Recording: Excellent
There seem to be two kinds of Spanish classical guitarists-the steely-fingered ones, with a great deal of dash and color, who take a visceral approach even to a Bach transcription, and the gentler, more introspective ones, of whom Segovia is the supreme master, who seem to let you overhear their performances rather than throwing them at you. Pepe Romero is of the latter school, although this Malaga-born virtuoso, who was playing flamenco at the age of six, can unleash quite a spate of Latin temperament in his playing when the occasion calls for it. That is what happens during the passages of fancy finger-work in the Villa-Lobos pieces heard on this program, in Albeniz's familiar Asturias, and in Sagreras' El Colibiri, a remarkable little tour de force in which a hummingbird dashes, flits, and hovers before our very ears. But it is in the second half of the concert, devoted largely to the more abstract works of Fernan do Sor, that Romero really comes into his own as an introspective player of remarkable subtlety and elegance. Pepe Romero, by the way, is one of the celebrated quartet known as the Romeros, members of a family of brilliant guitarists who come from southern Spain but now live near San Diego. Pepe himself heads the guitar faculty at U.S.C. They're lucky to have him. - P.K.
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Also see: Tape Talk, 1983
Jensen Sound Laboratories (1978 ad)
Source: Stereo Review (USA magazine)