Recordings in Review

38 entation; disafilecting, even downright repellent in its outbursts of brass Recordings in Review and percussion, which are meant to convey the clashes of strikers and palace guards but lack either the mu sical materials or the sheer momen stereo at the Source thrrp, thrrp they impart to the notes they grace, underscoring the ominous tum to suggest anything but organ atmosphere Beethoven is striving to ized noise. BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5. Ernest What is most disturbing of all, per Ansermet conducting the Orchestre convey. As a sample of stereo technique, haps, is the lack of any musical de la Suisse Romande. London CS progression—in idiom or vocabulary, 6037, $4.98. this work is especially revealing, be cause the Beethoven No. 5 is not, in scope or resource—beyond the Sev enth ("Leningrad") Symphony which FOR THOSE WHO wish to sample stereo the common sense, "orchestrated," that is to say, possessed of orchestral this almost matches in length (sev at the source, I can think of no better enty minutes plus) but not in sub beginning than this. Whether the in elements disassociated from musical significance. Thus, what the tech stance. (I omit subtlety from the list tention is to acquire a library of of absent qualities for the plain rea records where none had existed pre niques enhance—and mightily—^are not surface, but substance. We are son that it is not coin in his realm.) viously, or a collection of stereo to Nor is it particularly related to the supplement the monaurals of the conscious throughout of the orches tra as a combination of entities, kind of social end the work is meant past, Ansermet and Beethoven com to serve: the blatant resort to noise prise a combination which will grati rather than merely a mass of sound in itself, and never more so than in strikes me as anti-musical in es fy special interests as well as general sence, whether contrived for one ones. the still marvelous transition from movement three to four, where tim self-serving purpose or another. It I put it "Ansermet and Beethoven" is, in short, Shostakovitch's musical rather than the other way around, pani and strings (at the left) build to a climax dominated by the brass judgment to which I take exception, for the knowledge is pretty general not his political motivations. nowadays of the musical experience in the middle. Most monaural ver sions add a second work to the play Stokowski and his able orchestra that is Beethoven's "Fifth." The project a convincing image of Shos question is: What kind of Beethoven ing time of the Fifth, but London has wisely given itself all the lati takovitch's creation, insofar as one is provided by his interpreter, in this can estimate such results without a case Ansermet? My immediate an tude necessary—though the second side plays only fourteen minutes— score for guidance. It is, certainly, swer would be: The best I know one of the best recordings to Capi of since the overpowering produc to make its effort a convincing one. Cheap at the price, in my view. tol's credit, with massive bass and tion of Toscanini. flamboyant brass volleying and thun Misinterpreters of this cornerstone dering to the right and left of the concept of the symphonic literature Shostakovitch Ko. 11 stereositter (pronounced stereOs- fall into two categories: those who itter). Four sides are, of course, ex are incapable of making it all that SHOSTAKOVITCH: Symphony No. 11. cessive for an hour and fifteen min it is, and those who try to make it Leopold Stokowski conducting the utes' music, but compression onto something it is not. Ansermet, of Houston Symphony Orchestra. Cap three sides would have required a course, is by long experience much itol 8448, $4.98. break midway in one of the move too much a professional to fall into ments, no sequence being short the first category, and this recording WHATEVER ONE'S view of Shostako- enough for combination on a single shows him much too great an artist vitch as a composer—that he is elo side. to stumble into the second. Rather quent, trite, vigorous, bumptious, it shows what happens when a per inspired, blatant, journalistic—there former of experience and resource is something to support it in this first Twentieth Century Classics becomes completely possessed by the recording of his latest symphony to spirit of a work; he becomes the reach America. Those who heard a SCHOENBERG: "Verklaerte Nacht," instrument of Beethoven's purpose broadcast last spring of Stokowski's VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: "Fantasia on rather than vice versa. introductory performance in Houston a them,e hy Thom,as Tallis." D.imitri For those who demand specifics, it had a fair foreshadowing of what Mitropoulos conducting the strings may be added that Ansermet has this symphony was all about, and the of the New York Philharmonic Or calculated, to a mathematical nicety, recording confirms the view that if chestra. Columbia MS (stereo) the interrelationship of the four it is not all things to all men, it is 6007, $4.98. movements, built backwards (so to as close as a composer can come to speak) from the ending to a con achieving that feat. BOTH SCHOENBERG and Vaughan Wil vincing statement of the beginning. For his countrymen, it is testament liams digressed from the idioms of The joints are secure, the pieces fit, to his concern with the October rev these favorite works as their careers all is congruent and shapely. More olution of 1905 (the four movements progressed, but Mitropoulos is suffi over, it is put together not only with bear the titles "The Palace Square," ciently master of their total creations logic but with a superb command of "January 9," "Eternal Memory," and to convey an essential expression in the musical rhetoric Beethoven uti "Alarm"); to fellow practitioners, an each case. That is to say, where some lized to express his purpose. For a imposing evidence of his ability to might stress the "mystery" in Vaughan detail, I mention the grace notes make the orchestra cry or exult, Williams' "Fantasia," Mitropoulos which the composer employs in the mourn or rejoice; to music lovers knows him also as the strong voice strings during the latter portion of generally, an exercise in alternating of the F minor Symphony, and ac the scherzo (violins first, then vio slow and fast movements (adagio, cords him some of that underlying las). Most times they sound discord allegro, adagio, allegro non troppo). strength here: likewise, in the ant, unpurposeful, and miscalculated. To this critical taste, it is absorbing Schoenberg, where obvious roman Ansermet makes cleanly apparent the in its minutes of brooding and lam ticism might be overdone, Mitropo- PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 39 lous tempers it with some of the pulse which Heifetz imparts to some restraints in Schoenberg's basic na aspects of his effort, especially in ture. the second slow movement (perhaps It might be a tenuous distinction he is working up to an effort with to make, and an invitation to con Beethoven's "Russian" quartets). A fusion to say, that something not more modest shading of tone, a less actually in the given score should profligate hand with tonal gold would be added or subtracted according to better suit the youthful composer's one's knowledge of other works by requirements. What Heifetz provides the same man. But it is also a fact elsewhere in fluency and finesse is that every great composer used the of its own unique quality. Never language differently. Thus, the more theless, the best chamber music man general one's information about a ners belong to Primrose, who is al given literature, the more one has ways audible but never obtrusive. to draw upon in a specific instance. The pickup is rather close, some In these instances, the kind of con what gritty for instrumentalists of centrated, less-than-lush sound Mi- this quality, and not as resonant as tropolous prefers is a real contri I would prefer. Dolukhanova—"a real contralto." bution to the strong appeal of each performance. Russian Songs and Singers were yourself!," "Weary with toil, I Unquestionably the stereo tech haste me to my bed," and "When to nique adds something to the defi SHOSTAKOVITCH: "Frovi Jewish Folk the sessions of sweet silent thought," nition and proportion of the total Poetry" (Op. 79). Nina Dorylak, are comparable in quality to Shos sound (uncommonly clean as realized soprano, Zara Dolukhanova, con takovitch's writing. Because of the in Columbia's Thirtieth Street stu tralto, Alexei Masslenikov, tenor, Russian texts and the weight of dio), especially in the Vaughan Wil and the composer at the piano. Reizen's voice, they have more Slavic liams. This is due not so much to KABALEVSKY: Three Shakespeare than Shakespearean suggestion, but the localization of the three string sonnets. Mark Reizen, bass, with they are beautiful songs very well groups, but rather to the perspective the composer. sung, with a real sense of melodic in sound which provides a wider line expertly sustained. (Rachmani spread, a dimensional relationship MoussoGORSKY: "The Nursery." noff would have been proud to put not possible under previous condi Nina Dorlyak, soprano, with Svia- his name to them.) tions. toslav Richter, piano. Monitor MC All the piano parts are admirably 2020, $4.98. played, though it need hardly be Beethoven for Three surprising that Moussogorsky's writ IF THE EAR IS magnetized to the Shos ing profits more from the range and BEETHOVEN: Trio in E fiat, Op.

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