Record Reviews

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5; Aria: Abscheulicher from Fidelia (Herbert von Karajan conducting Philharmonia Orchestra; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano; Angel 35231: 12”). The Fidelia aria is a marvel of controlled beauty and tonal purity. The Karajan Fifth is the best on microgroove, but still not satisfactory. This magnificently simple music, so self-explanatory to listeners, still evades conductors. Toscanini played it right for records, but in 1939. Of nineteen subsequent LP performances, not one can be called good. Opportunity knocks on the door, but no one seems to answer.

Britten: Saint Nicholas (Benjamin Britten conducting Peter Pears, Aldeburgh Festival Choir and Orchestra; London LL-1254 : 12”). Christmas is icumen in, but even if it weren’t, you should have this lovely intimate cantata, delightful in July as in December. As a musical storyteller, Britten is infallibly compelling. To test your resistance, play Band 2, the boy-voice waltz depicting the good saint’s birth. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Chopin: Waltzes (Artur Rubinstein, piano; RCA Victor LM-1892: 12”). Other pianists have played all these for records — most notably Guiomar Novaes and Dinu Lipatti— and perhaps more warmly, but with less air of a challenge met. Rubinstein takes them on headlong. It is exciting, and the sound likewise.

Mozart: Symphony No. 36, I “Linz” (Bruno Walter rehearsing and leading the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York; Columbia SL-224: two 12" with score, and notes by Neville Card us).

Unself-consciously Dr. Walter demonstrates the task of a conductor, and it is almost incumbent upon you to buy and listen. A conductor does not simply wave his hands. Here at work, for you to hear, are a fond and unbreakable patience and determina: tion which will engross you and, if you are a gracious listener, humble you a little, to your own benefit. Dr. Walter is to be thanked. It does not matter if you already own a “Linz” Symphony; this is something different.

Shostakovitch: Symphony No. 5 (Artur Rodzinski conducting Philharmonic Symphony of London; Westminster SWN-18001 : 12”). Splendidly recorded, this pleases me mainly, and oddly, because it cuts Shostakovich down to size. Treated analytically, what emerges is a symphony not great but good and, shorn of its pretensions, appealing.

Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel; Death and Transfiguration (Arturo Toscanini conducting NBC Symphony Orchestra; RCA Victor LM-1891: 12”). This Death and Transfiguration was taped from a broadcast and is adequate in all ways. The Till is something special, in that it is the best sonic portrait of an orchestra in performance that I ever have heard. Every glinting overtone of every note of every instrument is audible. Perhaps no performance ever quite sounds this way to an audience in a concert hall, but I don’t care: at the risk of being heretical, I think this is better. The reading is brisk, less lyrical than that of Furtwängler on HMV, but enchanting all the same.

Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty (Antal Dorati conducting Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra; Mercury OL-3-103: three 12”). Mercury’s Sleeping Beauty is absolutely complete, and comes encased in silver lamé. No other Sleeping Beauty can make this claim. After which facetious comment (made more or less mandatory by the pretensions of the production), it is only fair to add that the orchestral sound is undeniably beautiful and realistic and the interpretation, although decidedly sec (“dry” sounds too harsh; English has limitations), is convincingly balletic. Included in the album are some very fetching drawings by Oliver Messel. What more could you want?

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 (Artur Rodzinski conducting Philharmonic Symphony of London; Westminster W-LAB-8001: three 12" sides). Westminster “Lab” series are premium-priced records: $7.50 for two sides, $11.50 for three (the fourth is left blank). Wider groove-spacing permits greater dynamic and frequency range, as well as cutting down the minutes of music per side. The difference can be heard, on good equipment. Apart from which, Rodzinski always has excelled at this symphony, and the London Philharmonic, even under a pseudonym, is worth hearing undistorted. Probably the best Tchaikovsky Fifth available, if you can spare the money.

Verdi: Aida (Jonel Perlea conducting Zinka Milanov, .Jussi Bjoerling, Fedora Barbieri, Leonard Warren, Boris Christoff; Rome Opera House Chorus and Orchestra; RCA Victor LM-6122: three 12”). Patently this was made and remade till all faults were winnowed out. With them went some of the zest that infuses a live continuous performance. What remains is the best Aïda on disks, which could have been still better but which makes most others sound like amateur productions. Big, convincing recorded sound.

Critic’s Choice (twelve selections in performance by John McCormack, Fritz Kreisler, Ernestine SchumannHeink, Elisabeth Schumann, Samuel Barber, Alexander Kipnis, I’ovla Frijsh, Pierre Bernac, Mary Garden, Rosa Raisa, Toti dal Monte, and Feodor Chaliapin; RCA Victor LCT1158: 12”). In the second “Critic’s Choice” disk, Paul Hume of Washington, D.C. (recipient of a famous note from President Truman), was the critic chosen to choose notable performances on old Victor singles for transfer to LP. His choices would be seconded by many a veteran phonophile. I have not room to list them, bul they are typified by Rosa Raisa’s Suicidio! from La Gioconda, and Toti dal Monte’s Sul fil d’un sqffio etesio from Falstaff. That should give the flavor.

Eliot, T. S., and Rawstborne, Alan: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (Robert Donat, reader; Alan Rawsthorne conducting Philharmonia Orchestra: Angel 80002: 10”). This beguiling piece1 of aelurophilia identifies at once T.S.E.’s favorite species. There may be Hollow Men but there are no Hollow Cats, unless Buslopher Jones, the obese and pompous Clubcat, fills the description. Certainly the valiant old Gumbie, the gaudy Theatrical Gus, the nocturnal Jellicles and Old Deuteronomy do not; all art chock-full of feline virtue. Cat-lovers will revel in the reverent whimsies of the poet, especially as recited by cat-lover Donat and set to music by cut-lover Rawsthorne.

Thomas, Dylan: Under Milk Wood (BBC actors, directed by Douglas Cleverdon; Westminster-Argo RG-21: two 12”). The myriad facets of human nature, from tragic to tawdry, here are taken by this great and angry little boy of a poet and set in a magic verbal kaleidoscope from which there is no escape till its hypnotic spin is done. Purportedly we hear the thoughts of a Welsh village from dawn to dusk; actually we get thirtyone pertinent fancies of Dylan Thomas, and I can think of no way I would rather be berated or befuddled, as the case may be. The stature of this you must judge for yourself, but you will not be bored by the task.

The Fabulous Mae West (Mae West, contralto; Tito Coral, tenor; vocal quartet and orchestra, Sy Oliver conducting; Decca DL.-9016;: 12”). History is not invariable just or even observant, so it may be that Mae West never will get credit for an important attempt to improve Western Civilization. What she has tried to do is to clean up sex. She won’t succeed, but the songs on this record, perhaps her parting effort, are a gay, all-out and utterly inoffensive effort, and very funny into the bargain. In addition to w hich, she sings very well.

Seeger: Goofing-Off Suite; American Folk Songs (Pete Seeger, guitar, mandolin, chalil, and tape recorder; Folkways FP-43-2: 10”).

Attendance at a Tanglewood season inspired the veteran folk-singer to improvise on some themes of the Masters, with results some will think sacrilegious but Ten joyed enormously. His treatments of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring and the Beethoven Ninth are particularly engrossing. Thc folksongs, on the overside of the record, arc authoritative but discolored by the years’ abrasion of the voice.