ADVERTISING INDEX Key No. Page No. the slow movement yields an unpleasantly overintensity and a touch of tonal coarse- Akai America Ltd. 73 thick sound), and cuts a few bars here and ness (which actually may be more the fault 1 Allison Acoustics Inc 91 there. The new German complete edition of of the recording). The older Berliners play American Audioport Inc. Cover III 's works has restored the original with more restraint, authority, and tonal re- Analog & Digital Systems 26 youthful form, but none of these gentle- finement, and they are apparently less 2 Angel Records 89 Audio Dynamics Corp. 34 men seems to have looked into that. closely and more sweetly recorded. But 4 Audionics, Inc 112 To my mind, Beissel gives, hands down, while both ensembles perpetuate the old Audio Technica U.S. Inc 93 the better performance: more precisely minor error of relying !wavily on works 5 Audio Warehouse 104 phrased, more sharply articulated, more originally intended for cornetti (or, in Ger- forwardly recorded (a little treble cut tames man, Zinken) only the Berliners commit the Bang & Olutsen 74 a certain fierceness in the string tone). He musicologically major sin of using-in old Bose Corp. 10 isn't usually any faster in tempo than Ger- music-a . It's admirably played and Bozak, Inc 13 6 British Industries 21 des, but the effect is livelier because all the recorded here, which of course only makes 7 BSR (USA) Ltd 25 little notes are played, not just winged. it sound all the more glaringly anachronis- Buying Guide to Speaker Systems 97 The Gerdes disc might have been more tic. R.D.D. competitive with a little imagination in the 8 Capitol Magnetic Products 105 coupling-say, the first (1840) version of the FRENCH ORCHESTRAL MINIATURES. Classified Ads 114, 115 rather than the familiar B Chamber Orchestra of the Leningrad Columbia Records 23 Consumer's Guide to 1855 revision, and instead of Philharmonic,GennadyRozhdestvensky, Four -Channel Sound 95 's overworked curtain -raiser. With cond. WESTMINSTERGOLD 'NGS 8310, $3.49. 9 Crown International 93 Szell and other choices around, these jour- Imam. Paris 32. Muutauo: for Small Orches- neyman performances have little appeal. tra: No. 1, Op. 43 (Le Printemps); No. 2, Op. 49 (Pasto- rale); No. 3, Op. 71 (Serenade); No. 4, Op. 74; No. 5. Op. 10 Discount Music Club 113 Turnabout offers rough-and-ready read- 75. Pouwic: Deux Parches e: un intermede. SAVO: 11 District Sound 104 ings of the two early operatic - Trois petites pieces montees. Dixie Hi -Fidelity 104 lively if hardly as distinguished as Beissel's 48,49 17 Dual work in the . The Compleat Wag- Itis interesting that, in the non -Russian nerite will probably already have Ja- contemporary music that has made it to 12 E lac Division, nowski's more polished versions of these disc in the Soviet Union, France is by far Benjamin Electronic Sound Co 101 (Angel S 35879, with some rather trashy the best -represented country, and there are 40 Electro-Voice, Inc. 24 Elpa Marketing Industries 86, 87 marches), although he abbreviates the stillcertain French works recorded by 13 Empire Scientific Corp 106 jangly coda of Des Liebesverbot. (I'm not Melodiya that are available nowhere else. I complaining, just reporting.) D.H. think it is quite obvious that the simplicity and the ironic use of popular materials Harman-Kardon 14,15 14 Heath Co 27 characteristic of a certain strain of French WESERN: Five Movements, Op. 5-See music, well represented in the miniatures Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht. on this Westminster Gold/Melodiya re- 15 Icelandic Airlines 103 lease, hit a special nerve in the Russian sen- 16 Illinois Audio 113 18 International HiFi Distributors 112 sibility. WEILL: Symphonies (2).For a feature re- Certainly, the works here receive fine, view. see page75. well -polished performances from Gennady 25 Jennings Research Inc Cover IV Rozhdestvensky and the Leningrad Phil- harmonic Chamber Orchestra. At times 30 Kenwood Electronics 16 Rozhdestvensky's approach seems too pol- ished, especially in some of the Milhaud 20 Lafayette Radio Electronics Corp II "little" symphonies. The dreamy, plush at- 41 Lansing, James B., Sound, Inc. mosphere he creates in the opening of the First makes it sound like a different piece fromthe composer's much faster version on Marantz Co., Inc 61 21 Maxell Corp. of America 33 Candide (CE 31008). But in other ways 22 McIntosh Laboratory 91 Rozhdestvensky, who is working with a 23 Memorex Corp much better orchestra than Milhaud's Lux- Music Listener's Book Service 94 emburg Radio Orchestra, untangles the ANNAPOLIS BRASS QUINTET: Works by Bach, consistently intriguing instrumental com- Nakamichi Research (U.S.A.) Inc. 107 Coleman, Dahl, East, Engelmann, Finck, plexities even more convincingly, and he is Holborne, Le Jeune, Schein. Annapolis helped by some splendid engineering-note 24 Phase Linear 102 Brass Quintet (two trumpets, horn, trom- the contrabass solos in the Second and 26 Phonogram, Inc. 65 bone, bass trombone). CRYSTAL S 202, Fourth Symphonies. Notwithstanding the 28 Pioneer High Fidelity Cover II, 1 $6.98. general smoothness of his performances, BERLIN BRASS Quitinr: Works by Anon., Rozhdestvensky does nct shrink from the 29 Radio Shack 97 Arnold, Banchieri, Brade, Giovanni Gab- composer's sometimes abrasive polytonal- Revox Corp 96 rieli,Grep, Holborne, Maurer, Rathaus, ities. 19 RTR Industries 88 Schein. Berlin Brass Quintet (two trumpets, But the conductor is perhaps at his best bass trumpet, trombone, tuba). CRYSTAL S in the sumptuous, very stringy, and rather 31 SAE, Inc 11 201, $6.98. melancholic (especiallyin the second 32 Sansui Electronics Corp. 8, 9 march) Poulenc Deux Marches et un inter- 33 Sherwood Electronic Laboratories, Inc. 29 Specialists will relish the contrasting ap- mede. He is far more successful than Pretre 34 Shure Brothers, Inc. 31 35 Sony Corp. of America 43 proaches and "personalities" of these (Angel S 36519) in strik,ng a balance be- 36 Stanton Magnetics. Inc 2 slightly differently constituted ensembles tween the harmonic and instrumental opu- 37 Stereo Corp. of America 103 heard in closely similar (but nonrepetitive) lence, on the one hand, and the ingenuous- Su perscope, Inc 56.60 programs combining breezy or ceremonial ness of the musical conception, on the Renaissance- or baroque -era pieces with at other. Rozhdestvensky's interpretation of 38 Tandberg of America 95 leastonelarger -scaledcontemporary the characteristic Satie Pieces montees (af- TDK Electronics Corp 12 work-Ingolf Dahl's proclamative Music ter Gargantua and Pantargruel by Rabelais), for Brass by the Annapolis Quintet, Mal- with their fascinating archaic harmonies Uher of America 88 colm Arnold's exuberant quintet by the and their threadbare lines, lacks a certain 17 United Audio Products 48,49 Berlin Quintet. incisiveness, even though he makes the mu- The Americans play with youthful en- sic extremely pleasant tc listen to. Watts 86.87 thusiasm and daring, but with occasional lbert drew his Paris32symphonic suite

98 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE