Record Reviews

by JOHN M. CONLY

Beethoven: Concerto No. 2 in B Flat; Concerto No. 4 in G (Rudolf Serkin, piano; Eugene Orniandy conducting Philadelphia Orchestra; Columbia ML-5037: 12″). A problem is posed by the conjunction of the second-or third-best Fourth Concerto with a Second Concerto best of all but for a hasty first movement. A suggested solution: hear the CurzonKnappertsbusch No. 4, to which Eondon wisely devoted two whole sides, and then wait for someone to make a No. 2 to match.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” (Fritz Reiner conducting Chicago Symphony Orchestra; RCA Victor LM-1899: 12″). This is the best recorded of all well-played Thirds, if your amplifier has the gain needed to reproduce it; it was taken at rather low level. For both surge and solidity, I prefer the Leinsdorf-Entré, though its sound is less refined; and for interpretative fire the aging Toscanini version still is unmatched.

Berlioz:Symphonie Fantastique (Charles Munch conducting Boston Symphony Orchestra; RCA Victor LM-1900: 12″). This should have been a marvel, judging by earlier Berlioz recordings from the same source, but it isn’t. The necessary theatric thrust is lacking; neither Munch nor RCA’s engineers quite made the grade. Stay with the Ormandy-Columbia version.

Brahms: Violin Concerto (Jascha Heifetz, violin; Fritz Reiner conducting Chicago Symphony Orchestra; RCA Victor LM-1903: 12″). Probably this supersedes all other versions, even the Oistrakh, without being faultless itself. The flaw is in the proportions: no soloist in the concert hall ever sounded so big, or ever dominated the orchestra so much, as in this record. But the error must be laid to the recording director; all the playing is magnificent.

Britten:The Turn of the Screw (Benjamin Britten conducting Jennifer Vyvyan, Peter Pears, David Hemtilings, Olivo Dyer, Arda Mandikian, other soloists, English Opera Group Orchestra; London XLL-1207/8: two 12″). Perhaps the first great psychological supernatural-suspense story was Henry James’s Turn of the Screw. It had a fine plot, which Mr. James almost smothered with words. Mr. Britten and librettist Myfanwy Piper have retrieved it and turned it into something hair-raising, which you must give to your most intelligent friends for Christmas. Anyone will enjoy it, but brains are required for true, deep, horrified appreciation. It must have been almost dangerous for Mr. Britten to immerse himself in the music for this; I know the results spoiled my sleep for a night. The recording has a ghastly clarity, and I suspect the whole thing of being a masterpiece.

Britten:Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra with Tchaikovsky:Nutcracker Suite (Antal Dorati conducting Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra; Deems Taylor, narrator; Mercury MG-50055: 12″).

Britten:Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra with Ginastera, Alberto:Variacioues Concertantes (Antal Dorati conducting Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra; Mercury MG-50047: 12″). Nearly everyone has been recording Benjamin Britten’s instructive sonic showpiece, The Young Person’s Guide, but Mercury is the first to do it twofold: in the talk version with Deems Taylor, and in the concert version with no narrator. In either record you get sonic reproduction that can be described literally and truthfully as exciting. Deems has tailored his narrative (for both the YPG and the Nutcracker) into something slightly too pedagogic for me, though others may relish it. On the reverse of the second version, Mercury presents Señor Ginastera, who would seem to be Argentina’s answer to Reinhold Glière. No slur intended; he may not be Villa-Lobos, but the music is fetching and the reproduction resplendent.

Mozart:Cosi Fan Tutte (Herbert von Karajan conducting Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Nan Merriman, Leopold Simoneau, Rolando Panerai, Lisa Otto, Sesto Bruscantini; Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus; Angel 3522-C: three 12″). If you wish to savor the somewhat crudely funny aspects of the plot of this mixedcouples opera buffo, buy the Columbia English-language version (and very jolly it is, too). The Karajan version is not very buffa, but the incongruously gorgeous ensemble singing with which Mozart topped his operatic hasty pudding is here presented in scintillant glory not soon to be forgotten. Absolutely beautiful.

Mozart: Symphonies No. 25 and No. 28 (Bruno Walter conducting Columbia Symphony Orchestra; Columbia ML-5002: 12″). Here is indication of the bewildering flood of good Mozart we shall have during the 1956 bicentenary. No one of Walter’s caliber, so far as I know, ever has played these wholly delightful middle-early symphonies for records. This disk should sell steadily for ten years.

Mozart: Symphonies No. 35, “Haffner,” and No. 36, “Linz” (Sir Thomas Beecham conducting Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Columbia ML-5001: 12″). More hardened critics may manage to cavil at the unusually slow tempos of Sir Thomas’s third movements in these two marvelous works, but I cannot achieve even that much detachment. The performances as a whole simply take me in charge, from first note to last; everything seems unarguably right and irresistibly moving. I suppose this is the evidence of genius in action. At any rate, it is exalting. The recorded sound is vivid and fresh.

Mozart: Violin Concertos No. 2 and No. 5 (Arthur Grumiaux, violin; 1 Bernhard Paumgartner conducting Vienna Symphony Orchestra; Epic LC-3157: 12″). Grumiaux, though a marvelous technician, does not outplay Heifetz in the Fifth (“Turkish”) concerto, but he is much better recorded. In the lovely, seldom-played Second, he is without a shadow of competition, making the record a bargain.

Puccini:Madama Butterfly (Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducting Victoria de los Angeles, Giuseppe di Stefano, Tito Gobbi, other soloists, Orchestra and Chorus of Rome Opera House; RCA Victor LM-6121: three 12″). Most beautiful in sound, and in general most handsomely sung of recorded Butterfly’s, this still is not the most convincing, though it does enthrall the ear. One keeps appreciating Miss de los Angeles’s lovely liquid voice instead of apprehending CioCio-San’s horrid fate. All the principals seem too well-bred for tragedy, especially if it is (and it is) a little farfetched. The more new Butterfly’s I hear, the more I like the older Cetra version, with Clara Petrella.

Ravel:Daphnis and Chloë (Charles Munch conducting Boston Symphony Orchestra and New England Conservatory Chorus; RCA Victor LM-1893: 12″). Elaborately album-bound, with fine notes by John N. Burk, this third complete Daphnis falls aurally between the fine, aging performance by Ansermet (London) and the new, stiffer, ultra-hi-fi version by Dorati (Mercury). Munch has the best orchestra, the second-best engineering, and the second-best musical realization. You can’t have everything. But you can’t go far wrong, either, choosing among this splendid trio. Any is far more than satisfactory.

Tchaikovsky:The Swan Lake, Acts II and III (Leopold Stokowski conducting members of the NBC Symphony Orchestra; RCA Victor LM-1894: 12”). Money being as scarce as it is, and Roger Désormière’s inspired “long suite’ having been recorded without any bass at all (for Capitol, in 1950), I think this would be my choice of Swan Lake’s. It is richer, sweeter listening than either of the complete versions, and it has all the parts I want.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique” (Pierre Monteux conducting Boston Symphony Orchestra; RCA Victor LM-1901: 12″). The twentieth recorded version of this work, and (I almost hate to say so) somewhat momentous. For one thing, I am sure this is the best recorded realization of the matchless BSO: its tone is lustrously unmistakable from the opening onward. For another, I fear this is the best modern recorded performance of the symphony, clearly shading even the magnificent Ormandy-Philadelphia job for Columbia, so long so secure. Sic transit.

The Sounds and Music of the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer (RCA E.M.S., with various engineers at the keyboard; RCA Victor LM1922: 12″). RCA’s famous Dr. Harry F. Olson was presiding spirit at ihe creation of the Synthesizer, which is just what it sounds like: a machine that will synthesize tones to any specification punched out on a computer-like keyboard. Here the hardworking engineers have imitated (among other things) a piano playing Nola, a harpsichord playing Fugue No. 2 from The Well-Tempered Clavier, and a woman singing “Sweet and Low.” All are unreal and eerie (albeit impressive as technological feats), but the last mentioned is positively spooky.