Record Reviews

By John M. Conly

Bartók: Mikrokosmos (Two versions. Yol. 1: Edith Farnadi, piano; Westminster XWN-18182:12". Completo: Georgy Sandor, piano; Columbia SL-229: three 12”). Bela Bartók began composing the 153 piano studies that comprise Mikrokosmos when his son Peter, hardly out of infancy, first showed signs of musical talent. Peter developed at variance with the implied aim, becoming a noted soundengineer rather than a pianist, and Mikrokosmos outgrew its initial scope, becoming a sorl of guidebook to twentieth-century musical construction. Like Bach’s Inventions and the Art of the Fugue, it has musical content that quite outshines its instructive utility; it is fascinating to listen to. It is a little more fascinating as played by Miss Farnadi, unabashedly grown-up, than as played by Mr. Sandor, who makes it sound like exercises. Both are abetted by excellent piano reproduction.

Bartók: Complete Piano Music, Vols. 1-4 (An dor Foldes, piano; Decca DL-9801/9804: four 12”). How many volumes this series will run to I do not know; there may be only one more to come. The works are assembled according to length and convenience rather than chronology. Foldes, a friend of Bartók’s, is a leading interpreter of His piano works; his playing here is absolutely easy, unaffected and convincing, though conceivably there could be deeper intellectual penetration. The recording (by Deutsche Grammophon) is good also. It is hard to carp at so grand an undertaking, but hard too not to find imperfections in it; they are bound to be present. I will settle by saying that they are overweighed by the unity and integrity of the performance.

Beethoven: Sonatas No. 21, “Waldstein,” and No. 30 (Byron Jam’s, piano; RCA Victor LM-1978: 12”). This is the second “Waldstcin” in three months to come from a very young pianist and take rank at once with the very best; the other was by Jacob Lateiner for Westminster. I can best describe the difference between them by saying that though I enjoy the Jam’s, I can cut it off at will; whereas if I start the Lateiner, the suspenseful continuity keeps me with it to the end. Of the otherworldly Opus 109, I should put the Jani’s version just behind that of Myra Hess (and he is better than she in the finale).

Mahler:Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Felix Prohaska conducting Alfred Poell, Lorna Sydney, and Vienna State Opera Orchestra; Vanguard VRS-478: 12”). Through variable groove-sparing. Vanguard has managed to get old VRS-412/3,1 two disks, on this single with no loss of fidelity, and equalized to the RIAA curve. RIAA curve or no, Miss Sydney’s pretty mezzo still wobbles, but Dr. Poell and Mahler’s mighty singing brasses sound great.

Mendelssohn: Concerto in E Minor with Mozart: Concerto No. 4 in D (David Oistrakh, violin; Eugene Ormandy conducting Philadelphia Orchestra; Columbia ML-5085: 12”). Playing practically into the microphone, Oistrakh pours such a richness of tone into these two works that their dancing spirits are wellnigh drowned, along with t he sound of the Philadelphians. My favorite performance of the Mendelssohn remains that by Francescatti, and of the Mozart that by Grumiaux.

Mendelssohn: Incidental Music toA Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sir Adrian Boult conducting Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra; Westminster W-Lab-7308: 12”). The only other complete version I know of is the aging Decca by Fricsuy, which cannot compare sonically with the new Westminster Laboratory Series recording. Boult and the disguised London Philharmonic have a very good time indeed with this, and so will their listeners.

Orff: Catulli Carmina; Trionfo di Afrodite (Eugen Jochum conducting soloists, Bavarian State Radio Chorus and Orchestra; Decca DL9824 and DL-9826: two separate 12”).

With this pair Decca completes the recording of the trilogy Trionfi, begun with Carmina Burana, which is deservedly the hit piece of the three — much more varied, vital, and tuneful than the other two. Of these, Trionfo di Afrodite, a sort of neo-classic charivari, to verses of Sappho, Euripides, and Catullus, is the livelier. Its companion piece is all to Catullus’s poems, and deals with low fidelity in the Kinseyan sense of the term. There is another version of Catulli Carmina on a Vox disk, neither better nor worse than the Decca. .Jochum and his singers perform those works enthusiastically, and the engineering is exemplary.

Poulenc: Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Timpani with Hanson: Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Harp (Richard Elsasser, organ; Arthur Winograd conducting Hamburg Philharmonia Orchestra; MGM E-3361: 12”). An older recording by E. Power Biggs of Poulenc’s organ concerto was something of a sonic marvel in its day; this one could have been if the Hamburg organ used were not rather ugly in tone. Never mind: the concerto still is a marvel —comprehensible from the first note onward, dramatic and leanly beautiful. The Hanson work, smaller scaled, is a fine companion piece, frankly Romantic and honestly unpretentious.

Scarlatti Orchestra (Thomas Schippers conducting Scarlatti Orchestra of Naples; Angel 35333: 12”). This handsomely recorded, completely charming mélange of eighteenth-century music includes Vivaldi’s Sinfonia “The Holy Sepulchre” and Concerto for Orchestra in C Major, Francesco Durante’s Concertos for Strings No. 1 and No. 5, and Antonio Salieri’s Overture to Axur, Re d’Ormus. All are delightful, particularly the Vivaldi concerto (edited necessarily by Alfredo Casella; some of the original instruments are extinct), with its piquant combinations of strings plucked and bowed. Young Mr. Sehippers, from these shores, appears to know and love the music, and certainly the orchestra does.

Stravinsky: Apollon Musagète; Rénard (Ernest Anserment conducting Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; London LL-1401: 12”). The delicately lovely ballet suite, Apollo and the Muses, is purveyed in beautiful performance and some of the most l ransparent recorded sound T know of. The Benard, except sonically, is a waste of time for anyone who doesn’t speak French, since no translation is furnished.

Surinach: Doppio Concertino with Chavez: Sonatina and Revueltas: Three Pieces for Violin and Piano (Anahid Ajemian, violin; Maro Ajemian, piano; Carlos Surinach conducting MGM Chamber Orchestra; MGM E-3180: 12”). Surinach’s concertino, commissioned by the Ajemian sisters, is brightly Spanish but far more than merely atmospheric. Chavez’s early sonatina is somewhat purposefully Mexican but good and granitic. The Revueltas works impressed me most: flashing wit and sharpness; music that Charles Ives might have written had he been a Mexican inslead of a New Englander. Performances and sound are excellent.

Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 (Julius Katchen, piano; Pierino Gamba conducting London Symphony Orchestra; London LL-1423: 12”). London brags in boldface on the jacket of this recording, and justifiably, about its sonic fidelity. It is superb, making it a pity that the London Symphony isn’t the world’s smoothest orchestra. Young Mr. Katchen is his usual (or unusual) flashing self, and teen-aged Mr. Gamba drives the whole works along at a grand rolling pace. One of the very best versions, beyond a doubt.

Loesser:The Most Happy Fella (Two versions. Complete, with all dialogue: Columbia O3L-240: three 12". Excerpts: Columbia OL-5118: 12". Robert Weede, Jo Sullivan, and others of the Broadway cast, Herbert Greene conducting). Trying a complete recording of a Rroadway musical was the idea of Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia Records, and I think it was a good one. I rather wish he had started with My Fair Lady, but I’ll settle for Loesser’s adaptation of Sidney Howard’s They Knew What They Wanted. It’s a very mild, gentlod-down adaptation, but it held my interest. Robert Weede is fine as the genial cuckolded husband of a mail-order wife; in fact, everyone is fine, and so is the sound. The main criticism I can find to make is that Loesser has here written a folk-opera, and he isn’t quite as good at folkoperas as he is at Runyonesque musical comedies. How many Gershwins can we expect in a half-century? The short form, so to speak, of TMHF is a typical “original cast" selection, and sounds trivial after the complete version. How about My Fair Lady, Mr. Lieberson?