Record Reviews

Britten: Curlew River

Benjamin Britten and Viola Tunnard directing instrumental and choral ensemble, with Peter Pears, tenor; John ShirleyQuirk, Harold Blackburn, and Bryan Drake, baritones; and Bruce Webb, boy soprano; London OSA-1156 (stereo) and A-4156

“A Parable for Church Performance" is the designation Benjamin Britten gives his newest large-scale work. Curlew River is an adaptation into English of a Japanese No play, with its symbolic setting and action transferred to the Fens of England. But there are traces of Orientalism in the music, and certainly in the story, which is about a madwoman seeking her lost child across a strange river, only to find that he is dead and his tomb has become a miraculous shrine. The religious element in the story is reflected more strongly in the score than the dramatic; Curlew River unfolds its tale slowly and without much sense of climax. To one listener, at least, it has a faintly contrived quality absent from such masterful works as the War Requiem and Cantata Misericordium. The performance itself is beautifully done, with the chanting voices of monks, acolytes, and pilgrims providing the aura of religious mystery which Britten knows so well how to achieve.

Music for Two Pianos

Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir, duo pianists; London CS-6434 (stereo) and CM -9434

Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir are a dazzling, precise twopiano team from Israel. They play with tremendous verve and vigor, and their abilities are well displayed in the four selections of this record — Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 2,Opus 17; Milhaud’s Scaramouche Suite; Poulenc’s Sonata, 1918 (Revised 1939); and Lutoslawski’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini. Milhaud’s sparkling Scaramouche never sounded better, and the Lutoslawski Variations, apparently making its debut on records, is exciting to hear. Its composer is a Pole, born in 1913, and the Paganini theme he uses is the familiar tune already worked over by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and others. But Lutoslawski makes some delightful new explorations, and the Eden-Tamir team scintillates every step of the way.

Zarzuela Arias

Montserrat Caballé, soprano, with orchestra conducted by Eugenio Marco; RCA Victor LSC-2894 (stereo) and LM-2894 This is Montserrat Caballé on native grounds, and on grounds, moreover, that no one except a native is able to tread. The zarzuela is a characteristically Spanish form of operetta, the equivalent of the Viennese operetta, the French opéra bouffe, and (why not?) the American musical comedy. Only a Spaniard can sing this music properly, and it would be hard to think of a more adept one than Miss Caballé, who lavishes upon these pleasing songs all her superb vocal equipment, including the floating pianissimo for which she is famous. The composers, Arrieta, Chapí, Serrano, Vives, and others, are scarcely known outside Spain, and the songs deal mostly with stock theatrical situations. But with their rhythms and with a singer of Miss Caballé’s attainments, they are graceful and lovely to hear.

Songs of the Auvergne

Madeleine Grey, soprano, with orchestra conducted by Elie Cohen; Angel COLC152 (monaural only)

Few vocal recordings are as famous as this, and few as worthy of inclusion in Angel’s Great Recordings of the Century series. Madeleine Grey made her celebrated recording of these uniquely evocative folk songs from the massif central of France in the 1930s. Sung in the Auvergnat tongue, with arrangements by Joseph Canteloube, the Chants d’ Auvergne represent the authentic voice of a region and a people, in an era when so many folk songs are contrived and artificial. The accompanying booklet presents the words in their original dialect, along with English and French translations. The record also includes Miss Grey’s exquisite performances of Maurice Ravel’s Chants Hébraïques and Chansons Madécasses, with the composer at the piano.

Peter Weiss: The Persecution and Assassination of Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade

Peter Brook directing Royal Shakespeare Company, with Ian Richardson as Marat, Patrick Magee as de Sade, Glenda Jackson as Charlotte Corday, John Steiner as Duperret, Susan Williamson as Simonne Evrard, Clifford Rose as M. Coulmier, and others; Caedmon TRS-312S (stereo) and TR-312: three records Marat/Sade—to use the short form — comes through with remarkable clarity on records. In fact, Peter Weiss’s spectacular play about the French Revolution, laid in a lunatic asylum, becomes more of a play of ideas than a bizarre charade, without the visual distraction of its gibbering, grimacing inmates. Whether those ideas are strikingly original or provocative is another question, but they at least make for some highly dramatic confrontations, with Ian Richardson (Marat) and Patrick Magee (de Sade) setting forth conflicting revolutionary philosophies pointedly and precisely. Sound effects, such as the gasps of de Sade while he is being whipped by Charlotte Corday, help to convey the theatricalism of the original, and Richard Peaslee’s neo-Brechtian songs come through more sharply in the recording than on the stage. A text, stage directions, and production photos add the final touches of realism.

What Now My Love

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass; A & M Records SP-4114 (stereo) and LP-114

It is no secret that Mr. Alpert and his assorted brass players and percussionists are the hottest thing in the record business since . . . well, the last hot thing. This record demonstrates the reasons for their success — a smooth blend of brassy sounds over a running bass that stands somewhere between the Dixieland and Latin styles. The treatment works brilliantly with “If I Were a Rich Man,” from Fiddler on the Roof, with one trumpet joining another to build to a powerful climax. It also produces a glowing brass chorale effect in “It Was a Very Good Year.” Some of the other numbers seem more contrived. But even for those who generally prefer to leave popular music rather than take it, the Tijuana Brass offer amiable listening.