poorer. Despite everything, the disc de- ripeexpression and cultivatedrhetoric politan Opera. In that time she became that makes the work sound as grand as renowned for some of the roles repre- servesbeinglistenedtoand(atthe G.M. it possibly can. sentedhere:Orfeo, Fides(in Meyer - budget price) acquired. In the variations we have another ex- beer's Le Prophete), Dalila, and such ample of Casals taking what one would Verdi "villainesses" as Amneris, Azucena, normally regard as a familiar work and and Ulrica. "NEW AMERICAN MUSIC FOR THE setting it on its ear with a performance Louise Homer was born in Pittsburgh FLUTE." BLACKWOOD: Sonata for Flute like no other one has ever heard. Some exactly a century ago, and as a young and Harpsichord. LADERMAN: Sonata passages are stated with a revelation of bride, prepared herself for precisely the for Flute and Piano. SYDEMAN: Duo for what clarity, rhythmic force, and careful career in opera that was soon to be hers: Flute and Piano. WOLPE: Piece in Two interplay of line can bring to this music, "We put five years into two," she said PartsforFluteandPiano.Samuel and other pagesare,atfirsthearing, of her training in Paris. "With the ex- Baron, flute;Easley Blackwood, harp- quite strange. ception of fifteen or twenty minutes of sichord (intheBlackwood); Carol But the greatness of Casals is not that practice daily, the rest of the time was Baron, piano (in the Laderman); Sam- he is always right. Indeed his recordings given to lessons, lessons, lessons! I prac- uel Sanders, piano(inthe Sydeman make clear that he revises his opinions ticedwith my teachers,literally. And and Wolpe). Desto DC 7104, $5.98. and changes his mind frequently. No. his thusI avoided the evils into which the realgiftisthat he always demands a student may fall when she practices too It has been a pleasure getting to know response. It may be love. It may be in- much alone. It was an expensive process, this recording. There is no dearth of con- dignation. Butitcannot be passive in- but itpaid. So many young singers in- temporary music for flute, and a great difference from anyone who is capable jure their voices by unsupervised prac- deal of it has been recorded. Yet much of thought and feeling. R.C.M. tice. Well, now for the result: the sec- of it is of a decidedly inferior quality (I ond year I was singing all the big con- am thinking particularly of the so-called traltoroles, Ortrud, Amneris, Leonora -"contest pieces" from the French Con- LOUISE HOMER: "Profile of the Golden in La Favorita, Dalila, etc., in French." servatory), and theavailable recorded Age Contralto." GLUCK: Alceste: Fatal Itis a similar sense of direction, effi- performances are not always what they divinita;Orfeo edEuridice: Che faro ciency, and buckling -down -to -itthatis should be. Now comes this recording of senza Euridice. HANDEL: Messiah: 0 one of the dominant qualities of this four recent American works (of which thou that tellest good tidings to Zion. album. Louise Homer was a purposeful, I had previously heard only the Wolpe), HUMPERDINCK: Hansel and Gretel: Der American phenomenon; stalwart, domi- allofrealmerit andallbeautifully kleine Sandmann bin ich; Abendsegen; nant,majesticaretheadjectivesher played by Samuel Baron. Hexenlied;Knusperwalzer (with Alma singingbringsto mind.Inthe severe The pieces by Ezra Laderman and Gluck,s.). MEYERBEER: Les Hugue- and classical arias, like the two here by William Sydeman (dating from 1957 and nots: Nobil Signori, salute!; Le Prophete: Gluck, thisstatelinessisavirtue; but 1960 respectively) are both rather light Ah! mon fits. PUCCINI: Madama Butter- it does not serve so well in "softer" ma- in character and not particularly adven- fly:Tuttifiori(with Geraldine Farrar, terial:her Dalila (superbly sung, with turous in style, but they are solid and s.).SAINT-SAENS: Samson etDalila: some unwritten high notes interpolated well written, featuring the virtuosic char- Amour, viens eider ma faiblesse; Mon freely) lacks not only seductiveness but acter of the flute without sacrificing a coeur s'ouvre a to voix; Printemps qui humanity. sense of underlying musical substance. commence. VERDI: Aida; Fulasorte Homer's yearsatthe Met coincided More ambitious is the Sonata for Flute dell'armi (with Johanna Gadski, s.);II with the Caruso era, soitis a pity to and Harpsichord by Easley Blackwood, Trovatore: Mal reggendo; Ai nostri mon- have here only the two Manrico/Azucena completed in 1962. Blackwood is a mu- ti (with Enrico Caruso, t.). Louise Hom- duets from Trovatore; and indeed the sician of extraordinary accomplishments, er,contralto;various orchestras and lesser of two existing recordings of the and this work manifests a musical intel- cond. RCA VictrolaVIC1519, $2.98 Act IV duet. The 1908 version of "Ai ligence thatisat once subtle and pro- (mono only). nostri monti" is on all counts preferable found. The sonata makes use of con- to this 1910 edition. stantly changing temporal groups,fre- The earliest of these records dates from Unquestionably superbarethetwo quently superimposed over one another, 1908 and the last of them was made in Meyerbeer arias and the Butterfly duet which lends the piece a fascinating kalei- 1919. the year Louise Homer completed withFarrar.These, together withthe doscopic sense of rhythmic progress that a string of nineteen seasons at the Metro - Alceste and Orfeo excerpts show her recalls the work of Elliott Carter. The strong,confident,andpolishedstyle, textures, however, are considerably more making the disc one of high value for transparent than those of Carter (at least collectors with a sense of history. in his more recent music), often being The transfers are not of consistently organized according to the contrapuntal good quality. Some are clearly from in- "trio" plan so favored by J.S. Bach: ferior source materials, though the discs two voices taken by the keyboard while are not specially rare, and clean copies the flute takes the third. should not have been too hard to find. Finally, the Stefan Wolpe composition Side 2 opens with a heavy and disturb- is one of considerable complexity which ing swish, and thereare other rough for most listenerswillrevealitsattri- spots here and there. Several collectors butes only gradually. At firsthearing, (including some known to me) could the work seems curiouslyundifferenti- readily have provided better source cop- ated. Small, tonally static cells are ma- ies to make the LP master, and itis a nipulated rhythmically and registrally so pity the producers were so easily content. that they keep reappearing in ever new All record companies now in the trade guises-a technique thatisreminiscent ofreissuinghistoricvocalrecordings of Stravinsky and yetis employed by should take a lesson from the skill of Wolpe in an entirely original manner. theViennesefirmofPreiser,whose Although the "two parts" of the title are Lebendige Vergangenheitreleases show clearly separated from one another by dramatically what care and taste can do a pause, they are really both part of a to make old andprimitiverecordings long,continuous development covering yield their best. By such standards, the the entire span of the composition. The Homer album is rudimentary; but hers resulting sense of structuralcontinuity was a distinctive aid noble style, with- is combined with a highly "disruptive" Louise Horner-the Golden Age contralto. out which the record catalogue would be compositional surface (sudden bursts of

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