If You Love Music
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of the singers. Apart from Alfred Deller's, Patience herself, even Sargent's lovelybard? it doesn't sound like Leslie Rands). no such attempts come to mind. Yet one of Elsie Morison can't match the indomitable K.F. the best things about the performance is its Margaret Mitchell in the D'Oyly Carte's pacing. Particularly in this style of fluid postwar mono set,formerly on Rich- recitative, with its witty exchanges and rap- HAYDN: Symphonies (11)-See page mond. 58. id shifts in tone, the ever changing move- The Gondoliers excerpts, not to be ment of the music requires the utmost con- confused with the differently cast 1927 trol in order to seem natural. To Jacobs' complete recording conducted by HarryLEONCAVALLO: La Bohente. credit, Orontea seems as brisk and as much Norris (Arabesque 8058-2L), comprise CAST: fun as a Hollywood comedy. something under half the score, concentrat- Mimi Lucia Popp (s) The recording qualityisexcellent, ing on the gondoliers themselves and their Musette Alexandrina Milcheva (ms) with sound-intimate rather than spectacu- wives. I prefer the excerpts to the complete Eufemia Sofia Lis (ms) lar-that befits the scale of the work. It is a recording. They're performed with agree- Marcello Franco Bonisolli (t) Gaudenzio Friedrich Lenz (t) pleasure that the clearly produced but unob- able spirit, if again without much vocal dis- Durand Norbert Orth (t) trusive digital sound and the excellent tinction, one exception being the fine "Ris- II Signore del primo pianoAlbert Gassner (t) pressing allow Cesti's Orontea to shine for ing early in the morning" !Leonard Hub- Rodolfo Bernd Weikl (b) itself. S.T.S. GILBERT and SULLIVAN: Patience*; The Gondoliers (excerpts)t. CAST-Patience: Patience Winifred Lawson (s) Lady Jane Bertha Lewis (a) If you love music, Duke of Dunstable Derek Oldham (t) Reginald Bunthorne George Baker (b) Archibald Grosvenor Leslie Rands (b) Colonel Calverley Darrell Fancourt (bs) make H last CAST-Gondoliers: Gianetta Muriel Dickson (s) Tessa Beatrice Elbum (ms) Duchess Essie Ackland/Nellie Walker (a) Marco Derek Oldham (t) Duke of Plaza -Tom George Baker (b) Giuseppe Leslie Rands/Leonard Hubbard (b) Grand Inquisitor Sydney Granville (bs-b) If you've run out of patience with those highly -promoted record Other soloists, chorus, orchestra, Malcolm and stylus "cleaners'', it's time you made the move to LAST. Origi- Sargent, cond.ARABESQUE8095-2L, $16.96 nally developed for the record archives of institutions, LAST record (mono; two discs, manual sequence). Tape: and stylus care products are now available to everyone. 9095-2L, $16.96 (two cassettes). (From HMV/ Vtcroit originals, recorded September 1930* and March-May 1931t.] LAST power clue, The Patience is the most interesting perfor- cleans records like no other product on the mance to surface among these prewar market. it e% en removes mold release - the potentially da D'Oyly Carte reissues, which is surprising material left in the groove by the manufacturing process. in that the singing level is modest even for this series and Patience normally withers LAST record preservativeactually penetrates the record groove under such conditions. But this is also a to a depth of tell molecular layers, protecting the groove from the score imbued with a special quality- constant, complex movements of the stylus - for 200 plays! "aristocratic" is the best description I can think of-and Sargent is as sensitive to it here as in the beautiful recording he made LAST stylus clingerremoves the most tenacious accumulations three decades later (now available as EMI on the stylus while protecting the adhesive holding the diamond tip SXDW 3031). In addition, the 1930 record- and the cantilever suspension. ing has more snap and crackle in the mili- tary music, qualities more normally associ- STYLASTis molecularly engineered to lower friction by filling in ated with Isidore Godfrey as in the D'Oyly Carte's last Patience (London OSA 1217. the hollows on the surface of every diamond, reduce vibration with spoken dialogue). effects by creating a liquid cushion for the moving stylus ...and The men are okay, if nothing special. protect the elastomer holding the cantilever to the cartridge and (The Major Murgatroyd, incidentally, is the the adhesive holding the diamond to the cantilever. young Martyn Green. He's okay, but noth- ing special.) Apart from Bertha Lewis, whose contralto remains impressive even Of course. you low music: That's why you should make it LAST. though not really settled here, the women LAST is at finer dealers everywhere. are mere wisps. All the same, the perfor- mance holds its own against both stereo recordings:theSargent/EMI, withits imposing cast, especially on the female side; and the Godfrey/London, weakish on the female side but quite rousing on the male, what with Donald Adams' Colonel and Kenneth Sandford's Grosvenor. For LAST 122 Dupont Street, Plainview, New York 11803. Tel. 516-349-9180 MAY IMO 63 Circle 17 on Reader -Service Card.