Record Reviews

By John M. Conly

by JOHN M. CONLY

Bach: Four Suites for Orchestra (HermannScherchen conducting English Baroque Orchestra: Westminster WX-2201: two 12″) • There are other good versions of the Suites on records, but none I like nearly so well as this. Scherchen can bring out instrumental voices without sacrificing integration, and impart verve without mangling rhythms; throughout there is an exciting freshness and rightness about the performance, and the engineers have done their part excellently also.

Beethoven: Violin Concerto (Nathan Milslein, violin; William Steinberg conducting Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Capitol P-8313: 12″). Thoughtful and strong, this probably now is the best all-around recording of the concerto on the market. Its only real deficiency is in tonal beauty. Milstein is all right, but the orchestral sound is a little raw, and I do not think it is the engineers’ fault; it may be the hall’s, in part.

Beethoven: Sonatas No. 23, “Appassionato,” and No. 8, “Pathétique” (Artur Rubinstein, piano; RCA Victor LM-1908: 12″). Except when I have just played this “Appassionatu,” I cannot believe that it’s as good as it is. But it is. Rubinstein’s technical virtuosity and thunderous power would be astounding by themselves; when they are applied with such utterly unerring musical aim to Beethoven’s mighty purposes, the result is something almost overpowering. Performances like this are not heard often in a lifetime. Even Rubinstein himself, in the “Pathetique” on the overside, sounds a little pale by contrast, though this, too, ts a fine performance. Astutely, Victor’s technicians have eschewed subtlety and shoved the piano right into your living room. An extraordinary experience for any man’s $3.98.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A (Erich Leinsdorf conducting Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; Columbia-Entre RL-G622: 12″). Perhaps for $1.98 one shouldn’t complain, but I will, for this came within an ace of being the best Beethoven Seventh on records. With less fire and a lesser orchestra than Toscanini’s, Leinsdorf still contrives a fine, fond, driving performance, and his Rochesterians reflect the exhilaration. But the record has some of the worst pre-echo ever to deface an LP, though the sound otherwise is good. If the botch resulted from hasty processing, contingent on the low price, I think someone at Columbia showed abominable judgment and small consideration for music lovers.

Debussy: Twelve Etudes (1915);D’un Cahier d’Esquisses (Waller Gieseking, piano; Angel 35250; 12″). It has become fairly common doctrine that Gieseking can play Debussy as no one else can, when he is of a mind to, and here he obviously is. The Etudes, usable as exercises by virtuosi, are really little fantasies of enormous charm and stinging vitality, and I cannot imagine them executed to greater effect than here. Further, and I mean no slur on Angel’s earlier efforts, Gieseking’s piano in this disk is done full justice by the microphones: it is as rich and subtle as it ought to be. In truth, a memorable recording, which becomes more impressive each time it is played.

Mozart:The Abduction from the Seraglio (Ferenc Fricsay conducting Ernst Hafliger, Maria Stader, Josef Grcindl, other soloists; RIAS Chorus and Orchestra; Decca DX133: two 12″ with libretto). A cleverly truncated version of this piece of jollity, handsomely done, even to snatches of dialogue that keep the plot afoot. Clever edit ing, a good pace, and some particularly fine singing by the Swiss Ernst Hafliger. More Mozart bicentennial lagniappe.

Rachmaninoff: Four Piano Concertos; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Serge Rachmaninoff, piano; Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy; RCA Victor LM-6123: three 12″). All of these but the Third Concerto have been transcribed to LP individually earlier. The original recording dates range from 1929) (No. 2), through 1934 (the Rhapsody), 1940 (No. 1 and No. 3), and 1941 (No. 4). To my ear, the 78-rpm sets sounded just as good, but if you don’t own them, buy those by all means. Nobody ever played Rachmaninoff like Rachmaninoff, and the microphones always treated him well. Good notes by Abram Chasins.

Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Night Ride and Sunrise (Anthony Collins conducting London Symphony Orchestra; London LL-1276: 12″).

Sibelius: Symphonies No. 4 and No. 5 (Eugene Ormandy conducting Philadelphia Orchestra; Columbia ML-5045: 12″). Both these disks, celebrating Sibelius’s ninetieth birthday, are good, but they present a problem. Collins’s Fifth Symphony overweighs Ormandy’s, wherein the granite is almost smothered in tonecolor, but Ormandy’s Fourth is superb (tone-color being appropriate here) and of much more value than Night Ride, though the latter is well played. Well, you’ll like either if you don’t hear the other. (Meanwhile, what preoccupies today’s two best Sibelius interpreters, Sir T. Beecham and Thomas Jensen?)

Walton:Troilus and Cressida— Scenes (William Walton conducting Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Richard Lewis; Philharmonia Orchestra; Angel 35278/L: 12″). Walton seems to have gone back for his style to Handel, or the Mozart of Idomeneo— recitatives, and tuneful, oratorical arias. The almost Byronie libretto of Christopher Hassall fits this structure handsomely, and we have as the outcome a dark purple melodrama quite psychologically sophisticated enough for any modern ears. Fine stuff, and magnificently recorded.

Josef Hofmann : Golden Jubilee Concert, 1937 (Josef Hofmann, piano; Columbia 5ME-4929: 12″). Here was (he is living, but in retirement) probably the greatest pianist, qua pianist, of our century. In his later career, he would release no recordings. We owe this one, excellently clear for an amateur endeavor, to sundry of his friends and to Goddard Lieberson of Columbia Records, who persuaded him to let it be printed. For piano enthusiasts it is an absolute must, if only for the six Chopin selections (including the “Minute” Waltz and the “Butterfly” Etude) that comprise its main fare. But it will serve to enlighten and amaze any who listen.