PORTLAND. OREGON. SUNDAY OREGONIAN, SEPTEMBER IS, 1946 Unusual Choice Offered Here are three pianists play­ Rachmaninoff ing individual versions of flie same music before three excel­ lent symphony orchestras.-What a selection! Albums Listed The pianists themselves are interesting personalities. List is the GI who made a hit with Unusual Selection Truman. Stalin and Churchill at the conference. He Offered in Discs is a young American, born in , raised in Cali­ fornia, and now an experienced BY HILMAR GRONDAHL artist. Sandor (pronounced Music Editor, The Oregonian Shandor) is a Hungarian-Amer­ For some time now Holly­ ican who studied in his native wood has been cooking up a land with Kodaly and the late romantic life story of the late Bela Bartók. He has a phenom­ great Russian pianist-composer, enal memory and a flair in the Sergei Rachmaninoff. The pic­ Magyar vein. Rubinstein is the ture is ready for release now, older and better-known- concert we hear, which means that artist of the three, one of the Rachmaninoff will soon be a top-notch artists of the day. household word, and his music Because he is the performer will be whistled, arranged, and i in the movie, one imagines that imitated as never before. the Rubinstein album will be The story current when this asked for more than tlie other movie was first planned was two. It happens to be our pref­ that Arthur Rubinstein was to erence also, although there is play the piano sequences for a much to recommend either of fee of $85,000. This is no small the other two. sum for doing the second con­ Performance Compared certo in toto plus a few small pieces. There is a pulse and drive, Whether in anticipation of and passion and soaring lyri­ this Hollywood release, or to fill cism about the Rubinstein per­ gaps in their catalogs, or both, formance which comes closer to the recording companies have Rachmaninoff’s own perform­ gone to town, and phonophile ance than any other existing at this moment finds himself version including the Moisei- faced with three albums of the vitch album. For a calm appre Rachmaninoff C - minor piano ciation of the musical valuefi- concerto by as many perform­ and a sane straightforeward ers. Decca offers Eugene List presentation of them one will and the Philhar­ find the List performance quite monic under Wallenstein; Co­ satisfying. On the other hand, lumbia offers Gyorgy Sandor Sandor goes at the music with a and the New York Philhar­ sense of improvisation and lib­ monic under Rodzinski: Victor erty which distorts the original offers Artur Rubinstein and ideas. To put it briefly. List con­ the NBC orchestra under siders the score more or less Golschmann. objectively, Rubinstein plays it, from an inner perception, and Sandor splashes around throw­ ing sound and color rather self­ consciously in all directions but without too good a feeling for design and pattern.