High-Fidelity-1969-0

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atïle receï ver. Tune it manually. Traditionalists can tune AM and FM stations in the normal way, with Fisher's ultrasmooth flywneel drive.

Or by push button. Preset your four favorite FM stations on the miniature dials. After that, tune to any one instantly, at the touch of a button. The station will be locked in electrically, so there'll be no drift.

SOU. sfAte Or by AutoScan ipM-Ar 1t!!14 fCl1v Touch one of these two buttons and the next FM station up or down the dial is automatically tuned in, dead center. Hold down either button and all FM stations up or down the dial come in, one by one. having to switch mendous sensitivity. (Usable sensitivity tie stereo mode. 1.7 microvolts.) And it has a highly se- -channel speaker lective crystal filter that lets you pull in note speaker any - weak, distant stations located right next to stronger, local stations. In our tests If you connect a the 500 -TX was able to receive more you'll be able to clear stations than any other receiver or

, or both tracks, tuner, regardless of price. speakers with a And speaking of price, that's the best mitor switch. feature of all. sher 500 -TX has It costs less than other, less power-

: connection of an ful, less versatile, less sensitive receivers. ' an extraordinary It's $449.95. (Walnut cabinet, /our stereo sound. $22.95. Prices slightly higher in the Far Or by remote control. !r for details.) West.) With this optional accessory -ie 500 -TX. (the Fisher Rid -30, $9.95) 190 watts ±1dB at 8 ohms. Other receivers about the Fisher that claim big power are nearly always you can operate the AutoScan w. rated at 4 ohms. Their power into normal from your easy chair or bed. .emendous power 8 -ohm speaker systems is actually less. DO -TX offers tre-

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Ir 7 You'll be able to do more things with mono speaker without - Mail this coupon the new Fisher 500 -TX than with any the receiver out of t for your free copy of The Fisher Handbook, 1969 other receiver in history. Simply use the center UR- edition. This reference guide In addition to being able to choose connection to feed a re. to hi -fi and stereo also your favorite FM station manually, or where in your home! Includes detailed information on all ways automatically, the 500 -TX And there's more. Fisher three components. lets you control speakers throughout stereo tape recorder, Fisher Radio Corporation 11 -35 45th Road your home. monitor either track Long Island City, N.Y.11101 You can set up, and control, a center - through both your stern channel speaker in your main stereo set- special mode /tape me Name up. Plus, you can set up remote stereo And more. The F' to Address speakers in another room and listen facilities for the simpl just the remote speakers. Or just the accessory that will adc City State Zip main stereo system. Or all at the same reverberation effect to 0104091 eJ time. (Ask your Fisher deal Plus, since the 500 -TX delivers an Other features of ti enormous 190 watts into an 8 -ohm load, There's even more The Fisher you'll have enough power to feed still an- 500 -TX you should knc other pair of stereo remote speakers. In addition to its ti PRICES St IGHTLY NIGHER IN TN( EAR WEST. Plus, you can feed a single, remote and versatility, the 5

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Words are inherently limited in stimulating these cartridges to reproduce the entire range the emotions aroused by music. This is especially so of every instrument. With no loss of power. in describing how high fidelity components perform. In the case of brasses, this meant a cartridge With cartridges, for example, we speak of that could recreate the exact nuances that distinguish flat frequency response, high compliance, a trumpet from a cornet. A trombone from a low mass, stereo separation. Words like these bass trumpet. A Wagner tuba from a French horn. enlighten the technically minded. But they do We call this achievement "100% brass power." little or nothing for those who seek only When you play your records with an XV -15, you won't be the sheer pleasure of listening. concerned with even that simple phrase. We kept both aspects in mind when developing Instead, you'll just feel and enjoy the renewed experience the XV -15 series of cartridges. We made the of what high fidelity is really all about. technical measurements. And we listened. We listened especially for the ability of PICKER/NG

THE NEW PICKERING XV- I5/750E. PREMIER MODEL OF THE XV-15 SERIES.TRACKS AT 1/2 T01 GRAM. DYNAMIC COUPLING FACTOR OF 750FOR USE IN FINEST TONEARMS.S60.00.OTHER XV -15 CARTRIDGES FROM $29.95. PICKERING & CO.,PLAINVIEW, L.I., N.Y. CIRCLE 49 ON READER-SERVICE CARD www.americanradiohistory.com HIGH FIDELITY

VOL. 19 NO. 4, APRIL 1969 MUSIC AND MUSICIANS REPORTS FROM LONDON, AND VIENNA 14 THE OPERA REVIEWER STRIKES BACK Conrad L. Osborne 20

SHOSTAKOVICH'S SYMPHONIES Royal S. Brown An appraisal of the music and the recordings 43 ROCKS IN THEIR HEADS Arnold Shaw The professors have taken over rock 48

CYCLES Gene Lees Are we reliving the thirties? 100 ELVIS PRESLEY, INC. Morgan Ames For sale: one solid -gold public personality 104

AUDIO AND VIDEO TOO HOT TO HANDLE HF answers your more incisive questions 26 NEWS & VIEWS War of the Watts ... Good music versus money 28 EQUIPMENT IN THE NEWS The latest in audio gear 30 TURNTABLES: RENAISSANCE OF THE MANUAL? Robert Long The "automatic" revolution has influenced the manual turntables 34 HOW WE TEST TURNTABLES, ARMS, AND CHANGERS Daniel Gravereaux A CBS Labs audio engineer speaks out 39

EQUIPMENT REPORTS 55 Harman -Kardon HK -50 Sinall speaker with big sound spread Dual 1212 High performance from middle- priced automatic Sherwood S -8800a A top of the line stereo FM receiver C/ M Labs CC -2 preamp Simple styling, professional grade performance

RECORDINGS FEATURE REVIEWS 63 Mattia Battistini-the greatest baritone in recording history? The spectacular virtuosity of trombonist Vinko Globokar Handel's Chandos anthems Orfeo- theatrical thrills from Monteverdi OTHER CLASSICAL REVIEWS Furtwängler's sub rosa Beethoven's Ninth . . . Strauss rarities by Fischer -Dieskau .... 67 IN BRIEF 96 REPEAT PERFORMANCE Peter G. Davis Esoteric exhumations from Columbia . . . A Lily Pons gala 98

THE LIGHTER SIDE The Deviants go Ptoof! . . Noel Coward revisited 102

JAZZ Memoirs of Willie "The Lion" Sinith . . . Lenny Breau: prodigious guitarist 108

THEATER & FILM Chitty Chitty Bang Bang . . . Promises, Promises promises little 110 THE TAPE DECK R. D. Darrell Astrostereo by the fireside 112

ETC. WHAT DO YOU DO IN GREAT BARRINGTON'' 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 6 PRODUCT INFORMATION 21, 115 ADVERTISING INDEX 114

Published at Great Barrington, Mass. 01230 by Billboard Publications, Inc. Copyright ` 1969 by Billboard Publications, Inc. The design and contents of High Fidelity Magazine are fully protected by copyright and must not be reproduced in any manner. Snond .class postage paid at Great Barrington and at additional mailing offices. Authorized es second lass mall by the Post Office Department, Ottawa and for payment of postage in cash. High Fidelity/Musical America Edition is published monthly. Subscription in the U.S.A. and Ds Possessions, 312; elsewhere, 313. Subscription including Concert Artist Directory published in December, $17, in the U.S.A. and its Possessions; elsewhere, 518. Regular issues 31.00 a copy. National and other editions published monthly Subscription in the U.S.A. and its Possessions, 57; elsewhere, S8. Regular issues 60d a copy. Indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. Mace N address notices and andellyered allies (Fern 3579) shellld be addressed te Nigh Fidelity, Sebstriptiel Department, 2160 Pattersee Street, Clechmett, Chie 45214. Please state bah old tad mea addresses ahan regeeetlag a change.

APRIL 1969 3

www.americanradiohistory.com LEONARD MARCUS What Do You Do in Great Barrington? Editor

DEAR READER: NORMAN EISENBERG Audio-Video Editor Among the letters that enter my In Box, two seem to be eternally can I become a record reviewer for reappearing. One asks, "How PETER G. DAVIS HIGH FIDELITY (or a concert reviewer for Musical America) ?"; the Music Editor other wants to know, "What goes on in Great Barrington ?" I shall leave to a future letter my answer to the first, which after all is SHIRLEY FLEMING mainly of interest to writers, those who think they are, music Editor, Musical America Section experts, those who think they are, and those who would like to be. The answer to the second, however, may enlighten all those who, ROBERT LONG like myself half a dozen years or so ago, hardly know the difference SHEILA SCHULTZ Associate Editors between publishing and printing. The confusion arises when somebody who knows of my Times Music Peter Davis, Musical ROY LINDSTROM Square office -and those of Editor Art Director America Editor Shirley Fleming, and the rest of the New York staff -looks at the bottom of the adjacent column. There he sees ROBERT MADDOCKS that our main office is in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. What Associate Art Director does go on in this rural haven? our Audio -Video Editor Norman Eisenberg and his First of all, RUTH W. DUNTON associate Bob Long have their offices in the big red Publishing Production Editor House (and it really is a house, complete with big old barn

crumbling at the foot of a mountain -none of yer fancy sky- MORGAN AMES scrapers here). There they consider which audio and video prob- ROBERT ANGUS lems are pressing enough to commission their solutions as articles, R. D. DARRELL ALFRED FRANKENSTEIN they edit the ensuing manuscripts, and they put together monthly HARRIS GOLDSMITH columns and departments. In the office next to theirs, Our Pub- BERNARD JACOBSON the in a of our GENE LEES lisher, Warren Syer, reigns, while across hall, corner CONRAD L. OSBORNE television studio (oh, yes, we run a busy place), I have my main of- Contributing Editors fice. From their upstairs studio (or basement darkroom) Art Director Roy Lindstrom and his associate Bob Maddocks choose type, select MILTON GORBULEW photos, commission artwork, lay out each month's issue, and yell Circulation Director at engravers and printers. Next door to them, Production Editor Ruth Dunton, a gentle soul unjustly faced with impossible sched- CLAIRE N. EDDINGS ules, sees that manuscripts get into the house, out to the printer, Assistant Publisher and back as galleys (long strips of paper with text printed upon them), Director of Advertising Sales pasted up, out to the printer, back as page proofs, and onto the ask WARREN B. SYER presses (in Dayton, Ohio! Or maybe Washington, D.C. Don't Publisher why.) on time. And then there is an army of copy editors to to catch gremlins, and secretaries to polish the prose, proofreaders Cover: by Roy Lindstrom run the place. And that's what goes on in Great Barrington. Now, if you are one of those catsup -bottle readers who discovered in the purposely unreadable type on the bottom of page 3 that our Subscription Department is in Cincinnati! -well, keep it A D V E R T I S I N G

to yourself for now, okay, buddy? Mein Office: Claire N. Eddings, The Publishing House, Great Barrington, Moss. 01230. Tele- phone: 413-528-1300.

we will devote a major article to answer the question New York: 165 W. 46th St., New York, N. Y. In May 10036. Telephone: 212 -757 -2800. Seymour that most often pops up in our "Too Hot to Handle" department: Resnick, Eastern Adv. Mgr.; Charlotte Gilbert; Leonard Levine. "Should I get the such -and -such or so- and -so cartridge (or ampli- Classified Adv. Dept.: James Flatley. system or) to go with my -and -such speaker fier or speaker such Chicago: Billboard Publications, Inc., 188 W. system (or amp or cartridge or) ?" We will title it "Are Your Randolph St., Chicago, Ill. 60601. Telephone: 312- 236 -9818. Leonard Levine. Components Compatible ?" Next month we will also do for Sibelius' what we are doing for Shostakovich's "Thirteen" this Los Angeles: Billboard Publications Inc., 9000 "Seven" Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 9ÓO69. Tele- month, namely, "The Sibelius Symphonies-A Discography." A phone: 213- 273 -1555. Andrew Spanberger. new encyclopedic series of English folk ballads inspired "Drunken- Nashville: Billboard Publications, Inc., Baker Murder, and Fa -la -la La" while today's new Building, Room 710, 1 10 21st Avenue S., Nash- ness, Incest, Rape- ville, Tenn. 37203. Telephone: 615- 244 -1836. breed of anonymous virtuosos will be examined in "Dick Hyman Robert Kendall.

and the Studio Men." London: 7 Welbeck St. London W.I. Telephone: Hunter 5971. Andre de Vekey.

Tokyo: Japan Trade Service, Ltd., 2 -1 -408, 3 -Chome Otsuko, Bunkyo -ku, Tokyo, Japan. Telephone: 944 -0805. Kania Suzuki.

West Germany: 10 Neuhauss Str., Frankfurt/ EDITOR Main. Telephone: 595172. Wolter B. Rios.

4 CIRCLE 103 ON READER -SERVICE CARD -1/.

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www.americanradiohistory.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Problems of Domestic Pressings uct than shell out $20 for something that is not nearly so well made. Bart it About ten years ago I owned a copy of is expensive and troublesome. I don't Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra con- like having a good part of my record - ducted by Karl Böhm on Decca 79999. buying life made up of internatio sal A short time later I replaced it with the bank drafts and long waits: but that is same recording, but on Deutsche Grani- the way things will be until Philips. RCA, mophon 136001. Needless to say the sur- Angel. and Columbia can produce a rec- faces of the DGG disc were far superior ord that is comparable in quality to the to the Decca: but the German -made rec- same recordings on European pressings. ord was also so much better than the James J. Badal, Jr. Decca from a sonic standpoint, that I Shaker Heights, Ohio found it hard to believe that it was the sane recording. The Philadelphia and Frederick Stock

Since then 1 have had a number of similar experiences involving American-made After reading Emily Coleman's excellent discs and their European counterparts. article on Eugene Ormandy and the Phil-

Last year I invested in the Philips Par.+ifal adelphia Orchestra [January 19691, 1 felt (PHS 5 -950). I found the general quality that one or two points should be cor- of the records so abysmally bad that I rected. First of all, the Philadelphia Or- dashed a poison -pen letter off to Mer- chestra was not the second American or- cury /Philips. Within a couple of weeks chestra to make recordings but the fourth. I received lengthy testimonials asserting The very first was the Chicago Symphony the excellence of their quality control and under Frederick Stock. They made a their records in general. I was also given series of eight or nine discs for Columbia not one but two so- called "factory - in the late fall of 1916 comprising short tested" sets. When these turned out to works by Wagner, Grieg. Saint -Säens, he little better than my original set. I Von Suppé, and others. The recordings gave up and obtained the same recording were made in New York while the ensem- from Europe. on Dutch Philips (835220/ ble was on a tour of the Eastern sea- 24 AY). Not only were the surfaces board. ghostly quiet, but the sound was better The second ensemble to make record- from every angle: the highs were clearer, ings was the New York Philharmonic the bass more firm, and the whole dy- under Josef Stransky. Their first record namic range far wider. (Thomas' Raymond Overture) was also A few years ago I found it impossible made for Columbia and was recorded on to buy a defect -free copy of the Karajan January 20, 1917. Within that week the Carmen on RCA LDS 6164. Since I had orchestra also recorded works by Dvofák, We could say much more about the a friend going to Germany. I asked that Moszkowski, Beethoven, Saint -Saëns, and a Carmen on German pressings be ob- Rimsky -Korsakov. The third orchestra new DC300 breakthrough amplifier, tained for me. The German set also bore (which Miss Coleman noted as the first) but CBS Labs has already said it, the number LDS 6164, but was manu- was the Boston Symphony under Karl in the March High Fidelity Equip- factured by Teldec (Telefunken /Decca). Muck and the fourth was the Philadel- The RCA pressings sound good enough, phia under Stokowski. ment Report. to refresh your Just hut are no real match for the awesome I would also like to comment a little memory though, the DC300 is the brilliance and clarity of the Teldec discs. about Miss Coleman's statements regard- most powerful consumer amp avail- Again. it is really hard to believe that ing Frederick Stock. If Stock and the both sets are the same recording. Chicago Symphony had in any way been able distortion is literally today. Its There was a time when I owned the "eclipsed" during those days, it was pri- unmeasurable. Hum and noise just highlights from The Merry Wires of marily due to the difficulty that the re- don't exist. Response is flat as a Windsor on Angel S 36149. Now I have cording industry encountered while at- the complete recording on Odeon E tempting to capture the sound of the Chi- ruler. But don't let us tell you about 91265'67. and. as before. the pressings cago Symphony in the acoustically very it. Check the reader service card and actual sound of the German Odeon live confines of Orchestra Hall. Colum- and we'll send you the full Equip- product are superior to the American bia tried it and gave tlp. Victor made a Angel. number of excellent recordings in the ment Report, plus detailed liter- By now the drift of my complaint early Thirties and late Twenties but they ature. We'll also send you the should he clear. The records put out by too gave up (probably because there address of your local dealer, who American companies are cheap and shod- were no adequate machines available at dy -far inferior to their European coun- the time to reproduce in full the quality will let you give the DC300 the terparts. Can anyone. critic. manufac- of the sounds they had recorded). Then. roughest "lab test" of all -- the turer. or reader, tell me why this should in 1941. Victor went back to Chicago personal listening enjoyment test. he so? By the time I had paid for the and made a series of recordings with records and the airmail postage. my Parsi- Stock that for the first time reflected the Or write Crown, Dept. HF-56, Box fal on Dutch Philips cost almost $40, kind of warm ambience which Stock had 1000, Elkhart, Indiana, 46514. but for me, the purchasing of a record always secured from the Chicago Sym- is an investment in a precious document phony. The right combination had been -something to be lived with and enjoyed found at last. Unfortunately, Stock passed for a long time. I would far rather spend that $40 and get a high -quality prod- Continued on page 8

4 -CIRCLE 14 ON READER -SERVICE CARD

www.americanradiohistory.com press commend on the K. Y a recordruwAw guide (Larry Zide)

In choral works and other music of relatively 'heavy' content, the AR -3a simply

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HIGH FIDELITY (Norman Eisenberg)

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CHICAGO DAILY NEWS (Bernard Jacobson)

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The AR -3a is priced from $225 to $250, depending on cabinet finish. Literature is available for the asking.

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CIRCLE 1 ON READER -SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969 7

www.americanradiohistory.com LETTERS 1930s and verified by the National Music Solutions Council in 1941. Indeed, in both old and Continued from page 6 new music, Stock had the widest and most Robert L. Blefko, who inquired about catholic repertoire of any major conduc- the most sensitive AM tuner now avail- away the next year; but had he remained, tor in the United States at that time. Up able [ "Too Hot to Handle," January I am confident that he and Victor would to the time of his death in 1942, Stock 1969], would perhaps be interested to have had many more happy meetings. and the Chicago Symphony could not have know that the best solution to his prob- The important point, however, is that been better. His accomplishments over lem is to get one of the really good Frederick Stock remains a great conductor four decades are different from the other full coverage communications receivers- whose memory cannot be "eclipsed" by major conductors in America only in the Hammarlund 180 -AX, for instance, anyone. Under Stock. the Chicago Sym- one respect: they were achieved without whose broadcast band coverage, with phony quietly but steadfastly became the the ballyhoo and hero worship so gener- suitable adjustable antenna, will include number one orchestra in the United ously lavished upon other conductors. some hundreds of stations in this country States for performances of new music, William A. Holmes as well as abroad. These sets have full particularly by American composers -a Program Director, WNIB short -wave coverage as well. fact noted by Howard Hanson in the Chicago. III. Michael Scriven Berkeley, Calif.

There are two oversights in your Jan- uary 1969 "Too Hot to Handle" column I would like to point out. First, in reply to Mr. Blefko's inquiry regarding an AM tuner: there is one available -but in a kit. Check page 60 of Heathkit's 1969 uniCLUB catalogue for their AM Tuner Kit AJ -53. saves you more From personal experience, it is easy for a double- thumbed builder like my- on more of what you want! self to put together. Second, in reply to Mr. Barnett's inquiry regarding a walnut case for a Dynaco PAT -4 preamp: an additional manufacturer (and closer to RECORDS TAPES STEREO GEAR BOOKS Mr. Barnett's hometown of Virginia than El Monte, California) is Kitcraft HiFi, 248 Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 11213. Don't let this nitpicking give you the impression that I am criticizing your new Here 10 uniCLUB supplies hi- fidelity equipment of vir- are facts about uniCLUB. column. As a long -time subscriber I find They are 10 reasons to clip the cou- tually every manufacturer at tremendous sav- pon and join now! ings. This month's "Hi -Fi Special" is a Garrard it to he one of the most enjoyable SL v5 turntable; List $129.00. to members parts of your monthly bill of fare. only 3s3.lx). Ronald D. Cohen 9. BOOKS OF ALL PUBLISHERS Montclair, Calif. 1. Any LP or tape on esery U.S. or foreign The Book Division -only uniCLUB has it -of- label available. Columbia- Capitol -RCA- fers members at least 25% off on any book in London & 350 more. No exceptions. print.* You get only original publishers' edi- Conductor's Plight 2. You save a minimum of 3571 on LP's; 33% tions. uniGUIDE lists best -sellers, just -pub- on tapes and 25', on hooks. lished works and book "Specials." Although I found his article interesting, *Texts are reduced 10%. 10. FOUR CLUBS IN ONE I believe that Ernest Fleischmann [ "Who LP's LIST uniCLUB uniCLUB is really a time- saver. It makes join- Runs Our Orchestras ?," January 1969] $1.98 $1.35 ing many clubs unnecessary. Now you can buy missed the point in one very central re- 2.98 1.95 all your records, tapes, auto -cartridges, books gard and presented another oversimpli- 3.79/98 2.49 and stereo-gear from one convenient source. fied misstatement, one which affects me 4.79/98 3.09 We hope you'll join today! SAVE MONEY EVEN ON YOUR personally. 5.79 /98 3.79 MEMBERSHIP FEE The point Mr. Fleischmann missed is Give gift memberships with full lifetime privi- the underlying social logic behind the 3. You can save even more by taking advan- leges for only $2.50 each. Splitting the cost with continental system of intendants, General one other person lowers cost to enrolling tage of the regular extra discount "Specials." $3.75; Music Directors, and "subvention." Un- Save up to 80% off list price. Right now, for five at a time brings cost down to only $3 each. example, the entire RCA Red -Seal catalog is like the United States or even London, $2.75 mono; $3.25 stereo. The Vox $4.98 series these continental orchestras and theaters is $1.75 mono and stereo. Send my Free Schwann catalog, order to which Mr. Fleischmann referred are blanks & uniGUIDE by return mail. 4. Never a requirement to buy. No monthly 55 enclosed guarantees me: supported by municipalities, state, and na- "stop- order" forms to return. You receive just tional governments because they are con- what you order. 1. LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP in uni- CLUB sidered to render a necessary social func- S. LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP 2. 35% -80% savings on LP albums, t/a off tion. This function is neither predicated The club membership fee is $5. This is for life- on tapes, 25% on books. which increasing all the time. upon lay- control of a board of directors, time privileges are 3. No requirements ever to buy anything. 6. FREE CLUB MAGAZINE Nothing will ever be sent until I order it. cooperative control by the "members." Members regularly receive " uniGUIDE" advis- I must be delighted with unICLUR or within nor control by the Intendant. It is, rather, ing them of the latest releases, recommended 30 daps I will let 'on know and receive a the outgrowth of the proposition that the discount "Specials." When full refund. best -buys and extra government in question has an obligation you join you receive a free 300 -page Schwann record catalog listing every available record unicLUB Inc_ to provide its citizens with access to a and its price. You receive a free Harrison tape 730 Fifth Ave. type of experience that might not other- catalog if you specify. New York, N.Y. 10019 wise continue to exist. "Serious" music 7. FASTEST SERVICE ANYWHERE is considered one of the essential services orders only processed but shipped Your are not NAME of the State, even as fluoridation of the the same day we receive them. This unique service is possible because your orders are picked ADDRESS water supply is so considered by some from an inventory of over 250,000 LP's & tapes. communities in the U.S. The mere fact CITY STATE ZIP You get factory-new sealed albums and tapes that music is placed in such a position only. Defects are fully returnable at no charge. Send gift memberships at $2.50 each to names gives it an enduring relevance impossible 8. SAVE UP TO 50% ON and addresses listed on attached sheet. STEREO GEAR I am also Interested in pre -recorded tapes. on page 10 Intli i lual .onnponents or complete systems- Continued CIRCLE 70 ON READER -SERVICE CARD HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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www.americanradiohistory.com Now ... another very special LETTERS JansZen* Continued from page 8 in a society which supports its arts by electrostatic speaker system! philanthropy and the "charitable deduc- tion." Furthermore, it enables the In- tendant to pursue the breadth of available musical experience, to encourage the Special, because buyers have asked JansZen dealers creativity of artistic talent both within time and again for a specific combination of our elec- and without the local frontiers, and to maintain the orchestra as a living organ- trostatic speakers and woofer, for the famous JansZen ism capable of responding to the creative fidelity and for a show -off cabinet ... all at an in- stresses of our own and past times. This philosophical underpinning is in no way between price. Here it is ... the one model that has undermined by recent (and often severe) been missing from the superb JansZen line! cutbacks in "subvention." As for the misstatement, Mr. Fleisch- mann speaks blithely of the young conductors who may debut with the Vienna Philharmonic and then wait while the in- vitations from major orchestras come pouring in. Nonsense. The reason young conductors don't learn repertoire is that they have no opportunity to learn it. We can sit and study scores until the lines disappear but we must be able to trans- form our studies into sound. Both technique and "expressivity," whatever that may be, are largely the result of a quan- tum of experience which brings ear, mind, and motion into concordance. I am not satisfied with responses to the effect that something is lacking in the talents of young conductors, American or otherwise. The fact is that precious little relationship exists between talent or potential and instant success . . . or even the opportunity for experience. And what THE Z -960 is lacking is experience, routine, and either any interest on the of the Oiled walnut cabinet part orchestras here or abroad in responding 263/4 "h x 211/4"w a 141/2"d. to talent. There is simply no stepladder $259.95 means of accumulating experience and Only reputation at the sane time. If Mr. tSuggested retail price) Fleischmann can inform me of any way to alter this situation, I am sure that I If one of your big ambitions has been to step up to JansZen would not be alone in volunteering to performance and quality and you've been hamstrung by a bring my "young talent" with me. Richard P. Kapp -so budget, you can start stepping up now. The Z -960 not -big New York, N.Y. has been custom -designed for you.

It features three of our superlative JansZen electrostatic Mr. Fleischmann replies: Surely music speakers mated to our Model 350D dynamic woofer. Repeat: performs no less of a necessary "social" three electrostatics! The Model 350D, of course, is the only function in the U.S.A. than in Europe. I dynamic woofer specifically designed to match the JansZen did not raise this point, because it does electrostatic and is hermetically sealed into a fiberglass -filled not exist. After all, in Europe govern- enclosure. mental and similar subsidies to the arts comes from taxes; in the U.S.A., donations The Z -960 is a fully integrated system ... the sole function to the arts are tax deductible; in the end, of which is pure reproduction of the original sound from 30 this is one and the same thing. However, to over 30,000 Hz. It is a rich extension of the acoustical as I pointed out in any article, the arts authority of smaller JansZen systems and its definitive per- in the U.S.A. would be in a far healthier formance can hardly be differentiated from our costliest position if they enjoyed enlightened, large-scale governmental aid. As for Mr. system. It holds its own in any size room and with the finest Kapp's point about experience for the money can buy. associated equipment young conductor, there are still plenty Ask to hear the Z -960 at your dealer's. Its performance and of opportunities for gaining this all over price will speak for themselves. If you wish, write us direct the world. Naturally, working as a opera for descriptive literature. répétiteur in a minor European house or coaching American amateur choruses and student orchestras is not 'JansZen speakers incorporate designs by Arthur A. Janszen as glamorous or exciting as conducting and made exclusively in the United States by are the Vienna or New York Philharmonic. But I know of no talent that has been NESHAMINY ELECTRONIC CORP. kept down as a result of perseverance FURLONG, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A. 18925 Continued on page 12 CIRCLE 32 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 11) HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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APRIL 1969 11

www.americanradiohistory.com LEITERS

Continued from page 10

and ingenuity: on the contrary, my complaint is that so many young semi- or non - talents are able to get away with murder now because of the constant, unassttaged hunger for new forces nn the conductor's podium. If ,'1fr. Kapp is content 10 start working hard in Wuppertal. Newcastle, a or Evansville, he will get all the experience and routine he wants. And I can guarantee that, if he possesses any kind of gift for conducting, before too long sound (probably far too soon) he will be "spot- ted" by an astute big -time management. But then, woe betide him, if he lacks the real talent when he starts telling a great in orchestra how to play a Beethoven symphony.

Noss Rossini Taken Seriously I would sincerely like to commend Jan Meyerowitz on his article "Rossini's Serious Operas" [November 1968]. I feel sreoonooes it is a valuable and informative statement about a very important aspect of the music of a great composer. Mr. Meyerowitz' accurately detailed yet that is humorously written article should not go unnoticed by any lover of bel canto Italian opera. Richard Morgenstern heifer Brooklyn, N. Y.

Meaning and McKuen

than John Gabree's "review" of Rod McKuen's Lonesome Cities [January 19691 was just about the most unfeeling article that i have ever had the displeasure to read. Only through electrostatics can so bright and crisp sneakers Mr. Gabree seems to see himself as a a sound be possible. Electrostatic elements in real hard -liner on any musical selection Koss Model ESP -6 Stereophones reproduce sound a that may have emotional content. His full 3 octaves beyond the limits of ordinary voice statement that "there are eighty million coil and cone -type driver elements. Then, because readers of the Reader's Digest and MOSS Mc- this tiny electrostatic speaker is coupled directly LBW Kuen is sort of the bohemian Edgar to your ear, there is no loss of frequencies as when Guest" more than shows his contempt speaker sounds are disguised in a room. ESP -6 cicctroslatic for those who 'sissy. in this age. still re- reproduction is independent of room acoustics. tain what might loosely be referred to There's no other sound quite like it. It's the sound as a "soul." you've always wanted, but couldn't really envision stereophones Considering the absolute tripe which is because it couldn't be produced until Koss placed upon the musical market these invented Model ESP -6 Electrostatic Stereophones. days and undoubtedly given rave reviews produce by those of Mr. Gabree's ilk, Mr. Mc- ESP -6 Each set of Stereophones comes complete Kuen's poems do their little bit for those with an individual machine run curve. But the who need respite from the continual blast - is a map of real sound. You don't curve only the a sound ings of rock and the so- called folk -rock hear it. And get the real thing until you music assailing listeners from all sources. you can do that now at your nearest hi fi shop. I am a former Army officer with some Then you'll know what we mean. never before four years of experience, including a year's combat tour in the Republic of poSSÌbIB Vietnam. I ans presently undergoing ex- s(g KOSS tensive training as a new Special Agent KOSS ELECTRONICS INC. with the Federal l3ureau of investigation. 2227 N. 31st Street Milwaukee. Wis. 53208 I believe 1 have seen my share of pain Export: Koss Electronics S.r.t. and suffering in various parts of the world during my short life and while Via Bellini 7, 20054 /Nova Milanese, Italia model esp -6 subjects like "The Open Road and Lone- Export Cable: Stereofone stereophones" liness and Mankind . . ." may be banal $95.00 to Mr. Gabree, they are not altogether Complete with fitted. to the rest us. portable carrying case unmeaningful of and individually David C. Cumming measured response curve. FBi Headquarters Patents applied for Washington, D.C.

CIRCLE 38 ON READER- SERVICE CARD 2 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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www.americanradiohistory.com NOTES FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS

LONDON

Britten's Brandenburgs - Straight out of a Malt House

The onetime malt house at Snape, near Aldeburgh, which less than two years ago became the marvelous concert hall known as The Maltings, is now proving itself a first -rate recording site -probably not at all to the surprise of Benjamin Britten, who was the prime mover in the old building's reconstruction. Some time ago he and tenor Peter Pears made an Argo recording of songs by Gustav Holst there; and more recently he conducted the English Chamber Orchestra in Decca /London sessions for Mozart's Hans Wild Fortieth Symphony and Serenata Not - turna under its girdered roof. And this winter The Maltings became the scene for a Britten /ECO recording (again out very deliberately: for him, the mean- Barbirolli was the conductor, with the Decca /London) of the complete Branden- ing of the words in relation to the mu- Hallé Orchestra, which he had then only burg Concertos. sic made the tempo inevitable. The just taken over. As it happens, one of the Britten's respect for a craftsman who church used for the sessions (All Saints' players present for that recording was knows his job is very clear indeed, and at Tooting Graveney -well off the beaten also on hand for the new one -the out- on this occasion there was much discus- track, in south London) was the same standing double -bass player Stuart Knus- sion between conductor and recording as that for the Bach Magnificat, and good sen, who has led the LSO's bass section engineer Kenneth Wilkinson regarding opinions of its acoustics were reinforced for some years now (and whose sixteen - the right balance for the harpsichord. -clarity in the separate parts but over- year -old composer son, Oliver, had his Even with sound rather more intimate all a big, rich sound. Grubb indicated First Symphony performed on both sides and damped down than in the Mozart that he would like to do Beethoven's of the Atlantic last year). Knussen was sessions, it was very hard to balance the Missa Solemnis at All Saints' with Baren- one of the very young recruits through continuo against the opulence of ECO boim, but in the face of that masterpiece whom Barbirolli revolutionized the Ha11é strings (even a reduced complement). It the twenty- five -year -old conductor feels image in his early years as its director. was done in the end -and without the very humble indeed. No question of his Downes was only a schoolboy when sort of synthetic harpsichord amplifica- doing it in the immediate future, he says. the Barbirolli record appeared, but he re- tion that is anathema to recording men. members hearing it then and recently This is Britten's first major Bach record- The Debut of Pinchas Zukerman. The refreshed his memory of it. His own Bax ing, though for some years now he has Israeli violinist who as a teen -ager won devotion goes back to the time when he been regularly directing performances of the 1967 Leventritt award stepped in on was studying in Birmingham. He played Bach choral works both in Suffolk and very short notice for his first recording all four of Bax's Piano Sonatas, and actu- in London -the St. John Passion, the St. sessions. just before Christmas. CBS had ally chose one of them (No. 2) to dem- Matthew Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, hired Antal Dorati and the London Sym- onstrate his playing at his final examina- and so on. It is no secret that his phony to record the almost forgotten tions. His admiration for the Third Sym- Brandenburg interpretations are likely to Piano Concerto by the nineteenth -century phony has gone up enormously from be more warmly romantic than is com- German pianist Adolf von Henselt with close study. He points out that though it mon these days. Raymond Lewenthal as soloist. When may on the surface seem rather rhap- the latter was prevented by illness from sodic for a symphony, it is in fact very Only One Bruckner. Daniel Barenboim, fulfilling the commitment. CBS -nat- closely organized in a way that should during a comparatively brief "rest" in urally anxious to make use of the orches- please the practitioners of functional London, managed to record a work to tra and conductor at its disposal- invited analysis. be coupled with his last year's account of Zukerman to fly over to record the Downes is a crisp rehearser, and he the Bach Magnificat (New Philharmonia Tchaikovsky Concerto and Mozart likes his head clear. During the picnic Chorus and Orchestra) -not Bach, as Adagio. Next on his recording agenda: lunch between sessions he refused a one would expect, but Bruckner. Baren- piano trios with Barenboim and Du Pré. second glass of champagne. Engineer Bob boim has promised himself to study a The Lewenthal sessions have been re- Auger pressed him a second time, then new Bruckner work every year (only scheduled, by the way, with Charles remembered what faces any conductor: one, mind!) and in the first half of last Mackerras replacing Dorati. "Oh, I see, you're driving!" The coupling year he gave several performances of the for this unexpected Bax record (one of Te Deum. By the time of the recording No More Champagne. Rarest session of a series promoted by Robert Angles of the sessions, the musicians were well used to the month has been RCA's recording at the London end of RCA) will be his interpretation, which involves an un- Barking Town Hall of the Third Sym- tone poem The Happy Forest. "Sounds usually brisk account of the big fugal phony of Arnold Bax, with the LSO like plastic gnomes," Angles admits, but passage. Suvi Raj Grubb, in charge of under Edward Downes. During World assures one that the music is well worth the session as usual, demurred a bit. War II this was one of the first works while. EDWARD GREENFIELD Wasn't this much faster than usual, he that the British Council promoted on on page 18 asked? But Barenboim had thought it records (78s, of course. in those days) ; Continued

HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE 14

www.americanradiohistory.com In the rest of

this magazine, . you'll read about yesterday's receivers.

Now turn the page and read about tomorrow's.

APRIL 1969 15

www.americanradiohistory.com six remarkable technical developments make the new 100 watt Scott 342C the world's most advanced receiver.

Scott once again demonstrates its famed leadership and innovation in high fidelity. Scott's new 342C incorporates a host of sophisticated solid -state devices and techniques, generated by the latest computer, aerospace, and communications theory. This is the next generation in electronics for the home ... setting new performance standards for the high fidelity industry.

An automatic light that tells you when A quartz filter IF section that never needs "Wire- Wrap" ... a permanent connec- you're perfectly tuned: Perfectune "', realignment: Scott's quartz crystal lattice tion technique that eliminates solder Scott's new automatic tuning indicator, filter, a feature never before found in a joints: For the first time in the high fi- is actually a miniature computer ... and receiver in this price range, ends IF delity industry, here is a successor to the is the world's most accurate and reliable realignment worries. Now, regardless solder joint, for years the most failure - tuning device. Perfectune is more accu- of age or operating temperature, the prone area of electronics assembly. The rate than a meter; it instantly senses the tuner IF section of your receiver will wire -wrap technique permanently bonds FM signal and tells you when you're never require realignment or adjustment. the electrical conductor to its terminal, tuned for lowest distortion and best re- In addition, this costly feature gives you and has been reliability- proven in the ception. A signal strength meter is also the extra dividends of very low distor- most stringent military and aerospace included for orienting your antenna for tion and incredible selectivity! communications applications. best reception.

2 o a Fo 0.5

¢ 0.2

0.1 2 5 10 20 SINE.WAVE POWER OUTPUT PER CHANNEL IN WATTS Nea IC multiple section gives better re- New F /C /O circuitry gives virtually dis- Printed circuit modules snap into main liability and performance in FM stereo: tortion -free listening, even at low vol- chassis: From the fast -paced world of Scott introduces the world's first corn- ume levels: Scott's new 342C incorpo- computer electronics comes the concept plete high fidelity multiplex section with rates Full Complementary Output, so of the plug -in complete circuit boards. an integrated circuit. No larger over- no matter how low you adjust the vol- Now, servicing, if ever necessary, can be all than a cigarette filter, this integrated ume, you still get perfect undistorted accomplished quickly, reliably, and in- circuit incorporates 40 transistors and sound. And, Full Complementary Out- expensively. Troublesome solder con- 27 resistors. Scott's new IC multiplex is put means that maximum undistorted nections between circuit boards are far more reliable and gives much better power is available at both 8 Ohms and now eliminated. stereo separation than n conventional 4 Ohms vital when you want to con- ... Inc. printed circuit construction. nect extra speakers. o 1969, H. H. Scott, CIRCLE 100 ON READER- SERVICE CARD 16 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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www.americanradiohistory.com NOTES FROM names" but on their ability "to re -create a few of the quieter passages in Act 2 CORRESPONDENTS the original conception of both Hof - where he and Solti reduced the number OUR mannsthal and Strauss." The role of So- of the first violins from eighteen to Continued from page 14 phie went to the young Texan soprano twelve and the other strings proportion- Helen Donath, while that of Octavian ately. Even the Viennese glissando, was sung by Yvonne Minton, an Austra- which Strauss wanted to get from the mezzo who has sung the part "waltzing strings," cannot be permitted VIENNA lian-born under Solti at Covent Garden. Mr. Rae - to result in a muddy texture. Again. burn told me that in the Misses Minton there are the acoustically complicated Sophie and Donath, he felt two singers had been and rather noisy passages such as the found whose voices would blend perfectly "Skandal" scene in the third act. In fact. In the Sofiensaal with that of Régine Crespin -whose ap- the number of microphones used during When Decca /London's record producer pearance as the Marschallin of course the Rosenkavalier sessions surpassed the John Cuishaw left the company to join requires no explanation. For the part number set up for the Ring. A technical BBC television, people here wondered of Ochs, those in charge insisted on a challenge, indeed. KURT BLAUKOPF what recording ventures would follow basso fully at home with the Austrian the celebrated series of Vienna -made dialect; this they found in Manfred High Fidelity, April 1969. Vol. 19. No. 4. operas for which Culshaw had been Jungwirth, an Austrian -born member of Published monthly by Billboard Publications. the Vienna State Opera. Other members Inc., publisher of Billboard, Vend, Amuse- mainly responsible. It seemed obvious ment Business, Merchandising Week, Amer- that the British firm would be back in of the cast include Otto Wiener (Faninal), ican Artist, and Modern Photography. High town -not only is there a contractual Emmy Loose (Duenna), Murray Dickie Fidelity /Musical America Edition published Vienna Phil- (Valzacchi), and Ann Howell (Annina). monthly. Member Audit Bureau of Circula- arrangement between the tions. harmonic and Decca /London but the Editorial correspondence should be ad- company made a heavy investment in its Many Mikes and No Mud. Offhand, one dressed to The Editor, High Fidelity, Great Vienna studios during the Cuishaw -era might think that the technical problems Barrington, Mass. 01230. Editorial con- channel mixing con- posed by a Rosenkavalier recording tributions will be welcomed. Payment for and the twenty -four articles accepted will be arranged prior to sole set up in the Sofiensaal could hardly would be of a lesser order than those pre- publication. Unsolicited manuscripts should have been meant to serve Wagner's Ring sented by a Götterdämmerung. Accord- be accompanied by return postage. and Strauss's Salome alone. Actually, we ing to Raeburn and his technical colla- Subscriptions should be addressed to High borator, Gordon Parry, the fact is quite Fidelity, 2160 Patterson St., Cincinnati, O. should have guessed the next project. 45214. Subscription rates: High Fidelity/ With no stereo Rosenkavalier in the Dec - otherwise. Clarity and definition of sound Musical America: In the U.S.A. and its ca /London catalogue, it was clearly time were considered essential for this opera, Possessions, 1 year 512; elsewhere, 1 year for a Sophie in the Sofiensaal. and they are not easily achieved in a 513. National and other editions published last recording. One means the Decca /London monthly: In the U.S.A. and its Possessions. The time in fact came during the I year 57; elsewhere, 1 year 58. weeks of 1968, when Georg Solti arrived team took was to follow Strauss's own Change of address notices and undelivered to direct the Vienna Philharmonic and a recommendation (inserted in the score) copies (Form 3579) should be addressed to lat- that the strings be reduced in certain pas- High Fidelity, Subscription Fulfillment carefully picked cast of singers-the Dept., 2160 Patterson St., Cincinnati, Ohio ter chosen, according to producer Chris- sages. Mr. Raeburn mentioned, for ex- 45214. topher Raeburn, not on the basis of "great ample. the peaceful ending of Act 1 and

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by Conrad L. Osborne The Opera Reviewer Strikes Again

Being a rejoinder to "The Record Producer Strikes Back," in which former Decca /London executive John Culshaw attacked the critical positions of Mr. Osborne - and thereby sparked among our readers a controversy further ignited by the publication, in January, of a pro -Culshaw, anti -Osborne letter from CBS Masterworks Director John McClure.

I HAD MORE OR LESS resolved to hold my- the piece absurd -operas and plays take but Culshaw and a few other Brave self aloof from the letters column melee place on stages, not in castles); and b) New Types are fortunately determined occasioned by Mr. Culshaw's contra reproduce the orchestral score in a man- to press on towards a new kind of op- C.L.O. essay ["The Record Producer ner which destroys the over -all effect eratic theater, unbound by conventions Strikes Back," October 1968]; far safer to that Strauss aimed for, and substitutes a of the past. The Elektra recording is hibernate in my Victorian den. alter- kind of dissection of the score's innards. a step in this direction. nately stroking my beard and wiping the 6) Experimentation with recording tech- Now along comes Mr. McClure. We tears of nostalgia from rheumy eyes, than niques should nevertheless be encouraged; cannot tell whether or not he has read to venture into the field. But the posi- that this Elektra should be heard by all the original review, for he discusses none tively wild epistle from John McClure serious collectors and operaphiles; and of the points it raises. But he has read [ "Letters," January 1969] poses the pros- that the obvious step for the record com- Mr. Culshaw, twice, and I must in all pect of continuing discussion on the sup- panies to take is the commissioning of modesty assume that his reference to posed views of an entirely imaginary new works composed solely for the pho- "certain critics" takes in yr. humble serv- C.L.O. In other words, I'm being stuck nographic medium. The review goes on ant. By indirection and implication he with a bum rap, and I don't appreciate to discuss the performances themselves, suggests the following points. 1) C.L.O. it, men. but this discussion has not been subject sees himself as a "Keeper of the Sacred Some recapitulation is in order. In my to dispute, except as it touched on one Flame," afraid of the impact of "hustling, review of the Culshaw- produced Elektra of the above points (as with the exit of brash young media" on the cherished old [February 1968] that set off all this Klytemnestra). ones. 2) C.L.O. considers the television agitation, I made the following points, In his article, Mr. Culshaw made the appearances of Horowitz, for example, in what I thought were sober tones, and following points. 1) Osborne has been destructive of live music. 3) The timidity in this sequence. 1) The recording is consistently and violently opposed to all of repertory opera companies is largely representative of efforts to establish re- of Mr. Culshaw's efforts, painting him in responsible for the current low state of corded opera as a medium in its own blackest colors. 2) There has, too, been the operatic art; and Osborne to the right, not necessarily dependent on the a successful movie made from an opera contrary, what we need are more Cul- standards or assumptions of perform- (Billy Budd). 3) Since the number of shaws and fewer Metropolitans- again, ance in the theater. 2) While there is people that attends live opera is relative- to widen the operatic audience. 4) Harold nothing wrong with such efforts in prin- ly small, it is economically advisable to C. Schonberg [music critic of the New ciple, they pose certain difficulties which make recordings in such a way as to York Times] is another fuddy -duddy who must be met, since they after all involve attract people who have heretofore known doesn't want producers to have any fun. the transference of material created for nothing of, and cared nothing about, Let us consider these points. First, to one medium into another for which it opera. 4) The listening situation at home Mr. Culshaw, taking his arguments in was not conceived. 3) These difficulties is not the same as the listening situation order. 1) Demonstrably untrue. Simply are analagous to those faced by a movie in the theater. 5) What Culshaw intended refer to the reviews in question, written producer attempting transference of main certain scenes and what Osborne heard over a nine -year span. 2) I concede this terial conceived in dramatic or literary are two very different things, and this point. 3) The economic argument may form, except that the operatic record difference is due to Osborne's eagerness or may not be sound; sound or not, it has producer has far fewer options open to to impute to Culshaw intentions he never nothing whatever to do with the artistic him, since he is bound by the sequences had. 6) Strauss wrote many notes that merits of the product -which it is the and relationships established by the score, are never heard, and it is up to the rec- critic's responsibility to discuss-unless it and may not truly rewrite or otherwise ord producer to see that they are heard. implies a deliberate downgrading for the reorder his material to make it more 7) The best record producers are those purpose of appealing to the ignorant. 4) suitable to the new medium. 4) Films who make full use of up -to -date tech- I also concede this point. But the Cul- made from operas invariably fall on nology, in a creative partnership with shaw approach to recording does not their faces because, in the absence of the the highest musical sensitivity. 8) Such necessarily follow from it. 5) I have framework of the live theater, they fail producers also produce the recordings never had any opinion about Mr. Cul- to establish a stylistic basis or a perform- that sell well; the tremendous success of shaw's intentions or state of mind during er /audience relationship that will enable the Culshaw Rheingold and the relative recording. I only comment upon the re- us to accept operatic conventions, or the failure of the "straight" recordings of sults. and my ears tell me the same thing very use of the "legit" singing voice as Meistersinger demonstrate this point. 9) now that they told me over a year ago. necessary, desirable, or believable. 5) Educated guesswork leads us to suppose 6) Strauss scored for the theater, and This Elektra seems to me to miss the boat that a -wider audience can be built with was an accomplished enough orchestrator for similar reasons, using technical ex- this type of recording, and that this au- to accurately gauge what would and pertise to a) create an impression that dience is perhaps 95 per cent separate wouldn't come through in the theater. the events of the opera are actually tak- from that which attends opera live. 10) The unheard notes contribute to tex- ing place in the indicated locales (which, Osborne is trying to clog the wheels of to the extent that it is successful, renders progress by clinging to a vanished past, Continued on page 24

20 CIRCLE 51 ON READER -SERVICE CARD -"I.

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www.americanradiohistory.com The Opera Reviewer 1 Continued from page 20

tures and over -all effects; if Strauss had badly wanted them to be heard, he would have scored in such a manner as to make them audible. Mr. Culshaw is fascinated by the workings of the clock; we only want to know what time it is. 7) This is self- evident. But again, these qualities are not necessarily synonymous with Mr. Culshaw's philosophy. 8) Phony market analysis if I ever saw it. It is preposterous to compare the case of Rleingold (the first recording ever of this major work, brilliantly cast with the magical name of Kirsten Flagstad at the head of the list, released to ride the crest of stereophony's first wave and recorded in a manner to showcase the possibilities of the new technique -and, finally, a very fine job from both the musical and technical standpoints) with the case of Meistersinger, an opera which had already received several complete recordings at the time of its first stereo effort, including a couple of quite satisfactory ones, and whose first stereo recording was a poorish one, wretchedly cast except for the Eva and Walther, flabbily conducted, indifferently recorded in its own terms. Last summer, the "live" DGG recording of Lulu was at or near the top of the classical charts in this country for several months, topped most of the time by only one or two freaks, like the "Elvira Madigan" album or the "West Meets East'' album. This, despite what we would have assumed to be a pretty limited readymade audience; despite the almost simultaneous release of the Angel recording, also "live," which also remained high on the chart for many weeks; and despite damaging reviews in several influential journals (not this one). Does this prove that "live" recordings are the answer, or "straight" recordings, or that Mr. Culshaw has been wasting his time with all those fancy studio effects? What, indeed, do the "facts" show? If Mr. Culshaw will make his sales figures available, we can analyze them together. 9) Again, this may or may not be so. Mr. Culshaw simply as- serts it. he doesn't document it. And again. it has no bearing on artistic quality. 10) See below. As to Mr. McClure: Points I and 2 are simply false. They bear no relation to my opinions on these matters, and cannot be inferred from my writings except (to borrow a McClure -ism) by a Don Quixote in search of a windmill. And to 3) : Sure, the Met and other international companies are unadventurous, and it does none of us any good. But I hardly see this as a root cause of our difficulties, which also relate to such matters as the paucity of contemporary pieces that anyone cares to see more than once, and the easily documented (by recordings, of course) decline in the standards of singing of the sort that is required for large portions of the repertory. I might add that if I had accorded Mr. Culshaw's recordings as severe a treatment as I have the Metropolitan's new productions over the same period of time, CIRCLE 61 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 24 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com he might have real grounds for complaint. 4) No comment. Mr. Schonberg can handle himself. Now. Apart from the dubious validity of most of these points, and their very tenuous connection with anything I've ever said, in print or otherwise, there is the interesting fact that not one of them goes head -on to meet objections raised in my review on aesthetic grounds. They deal with my presumed transgressions or attitudes, or with the economic justifica- tions for certain decisions: they quite precisely evade the artistic issues, against which Mr. Culshaw bumps fitfully and tangentially in his article, Mr. McClure not at all in his letter. These gentlemen simply declare themselves the point men of some operatic advance patrol, and cannot imagine that objections to their work may be raised on specific aesthetic grounds, rather than as products of a frozen attitude. If the record companies are all this fired up about charging off into a new operatic sunrise, I've got three tough and serious suggestions to make: I ) Instead of encouraging and feeding on the premature exploitation of each and every loud young soprano, why not set up an industry -wide clearinghouse for such talent, for the purpose of steer- ing it towards good teachers, level- headed managers, and the employers in the business who still have some human qualities glinting through the muck? Admittedly, it may for a time prove a bit harder to keep up with the planned -obsolescence cycle, based on extremely short catalogue life, off which the industry has been living. But in the long run, this is surely a wise capital investment. 2) What about the commissioning of works for the stereo medium? Why not? An original drama -through -song for the home music system. Perhaps not for legit voices, but for mike voices. Perhaps with a synthesized accompaniment, or extramusical soundtrack coordinated with the score. How about an industry - supported foundation to finance such projects? 3) How about an industry -supported workshop of the audio- visual arts, an open laboratory in which the artistic equivalent of "pure research" may take place, with composers, singers, instrumentalists, conductors, actors, dancers, playwrights, choreographers, scenarists, arrangers, directors, designers, artists, The evolution of a better turntable audio and video engineers -even a & r The New Sony PS -1800 playback system cisely the correct speed. A DC motor that men and critics- experimenting creatively with any means has something missing. It also has several rotates at 300 rpm, one -sixth the speed of and all of combining tape and film (audio and video), and things not found in other turntables. AC motors,to reduce the And conventional live performance towards the evolution of therein lies the of its intensity motor -produced vibration. story superior per- of a new kind of lyric theater? (But with formance. What does this all mean to you? A entirely original material, of course.) What's missing? Sony has done away turntable with a precisely balanced tone - All three of these suggestions seem to with the mechanical linkages between arm of low mass design that tracks records me eminently sound, and full of poten- arm and turntable required in the auto- flawlessly. A turntable that is absolutely tial. Considered as investments, any of matic shutoff systems of all other record silent (total wow and flutter, only 0.08% them could enrich the industry many playing instruments. To achieve this, Sony rms and rumble 60 dB below the NAB times over. But of course, they really developed a completely new kind of solid reference level). are new, and do not sit particularly well state device, the SONY Magnetodiode The new Sony PS -1800 playback system with the financial short haul. So I sup- (SMD). It replaces the troublesome mech- - turntable, tonearm, oil- finish walnut pose that the industry's idea of operatic anical linkages and eliminates any chance base, dust cover. Under $200. Evolution? modernity will continue to consist of of drag in the tonearm's motion across It's a revolution. Sony Corporation of slathering century -old stage works with the record. America, 47-47 Van Dam Street, Long irrelevant melodramatic sound effects. What does the PS -1800 have that other Island City, New York 11101. If that's nouvelle vague, l'm Stanley turntables don't? Kubrick. The convenience of automatic shutoff SONY®PS -1800 after record is played. A servo-controlled 25 DC motor that always operates at pre- PLAYBACK SYSTEM

CIRCLE 61 ON READER -SERVICE CARD www.americanradiohistory.com using using 71/2 -ips equalization -and, since that equalization requires less high -frequency pre- emphasis than is standard for 33/4, the bias required TOO was only slightly greater than that for iron oxide tapes. But it may be some time before all reports are in and Du Pont takes any steps in the direc- HOT tion of audio marketing. Please explain your answer to B. Brown in the February issue. I would like to TO know how a 60 -watt receiver can measure as low as 18 watts rms. I figure CO times 0.707 would give you approximately 42 watts. -H. Hershkowitz, HANDLE Brooklyn, N.Y. Easy. The "60 watts" refers to the sum of both channels -so, right off, we're Your column entitled "Too Hot to tioned above. So, while both turntables talking about 30 watts per channel. But Handle" is an abysmal fraud and might produced excellent specs in our tests, that's music power into a 4 -ohm load, better be called "Too Frigid to be In- all we can say is that the versions you with one channel disabled, and an teresting." The size of an audio system want to compare presumably are at external power supply energizing the for Sandra's living room may be a hot least as good as the specs we pub- set. By our more rigorous (and stand- topic by your standards, but not by lished. Another point that may prevent ard) lab measurement -continuous mine. Maybe the following questions direct comparison: if you don't want power into an 8 -ohm load while both will help make the column jibe with its the TD -150 with the SL-8, you will have channels are driven simultaneously - title: however, they are submitted not to mount the arm yourself on whatever that set produces 18 watts per channel. to embarrass, but to elicit information. turntable you choose. That is the power you're concerned 1. The Mar ntz SLT -12 turntable rep- 2. Yes -at least sometimes, as our with when matching the set to the resents a valid principle (straight -line reviewers are not hesitant in pointing speakers it will be driving. tracking), but I have been told it's out. Careless quality control and in- fraught with mechanical problems. ferior raw materials are some of the In the January issue, you said (in the What are your views, and how would symptoms of general company disin- Equipment Report on the AR -5 speaker the SLT -12 rank with the Rabco SL -8 terest that too often attend such system) that the AR -5 sounds better arm? money -losing propositions as classical than the AR -3a in a small room, the 2. Many European pressings appear records. For other specifics, see reader AR -3a better in a large room. How to be far superior to their U.S. equiva- James J. Badal, Jr.'s letter on page 6. large is large ? -Howard Wettstein, lents (EMI vs. Angel, European Philips 3. For the past several years, there Spring Valley, N.Y. vs. American Philips, etc.), and this has been so little live music on radio Of course the terms "large" and has even been noted by reviewers. Is that it appears almost impossible there "small" as applied to rooms are rela- this so? could be any less. The reason, again, tive, but the average American living 3. Why is there less live music is money. It is cheaper to play a record room runs about 2,000 cu. ft. (12 by broadcast every year? Is there anything or rent a syndicated tape than it is to 20 ft., with a ceiling height of about the listening public can do about it? hire live musicians. Even tapes are 81/3 ft.). Increasing the room's volume 4. Crown demonstrated its recorders sometimes too expensive to syndicate; by one third or more would qualify it at the New York Hi -Fi Show with a new the New York Philharmonic, for ex- as a "large" room; a decrease of one tape material, Crolyn. Is it for real? Will ample, stopped taping its concerts for third or more would produce a "small" it damage heads, require new equaliza- broadcast when a new contract with room. But acoustical properties also tion settings, etc.? Or was it just a the musicians' union called for fees the must be considered: heavy upholstery, piece of gimmickry that is decades Philharmonic management considered carpeting, draperies, and such make a away from marketability ? -I. A. Jaffe, prohibitive. room effectively "smaller" by reducing M.D., New York, N.Y. 4. Crolyn is Du Pont's name for a reverberation; open doorways or pas- 1. There has been an unusually high recording tape it is developing, sub- sage leading to halls or to other rooms rate of returns on the SLT -12 because stituting chromium dioxide for iron make it acoustically "larger." A de- of mechanical failures. Marantz tells us oxide as the magnetic ingredient. Its tailed discussion of room acoustics is that the vast majority of the complaints introduction was reported in our Jan- planned for a forthcoming issue, inci- have been occasioned by bent arms, uary '68 issue [in "Video Topics "]. In dentally. caused by buyers who ignored unpack- contrast to standard tapes, Crolyn is ing instructions -specifically, the warn- capable of about twice the bandwidth My Koss PRO -4A stereo headset seems ing against depressing the cueing (i.e., high- frequency response), requires to be wired wrong. That is, I hear the button before removing all packing. The greater record bias (all other factors right channel in the left earphone and new model (SLT -12U) not only has a being equal), and is relatively expen- vice versa. What should I do? -Burton universal cartridge mount but also sev- sive. Du Pont has been distributing R. Wolder, Bronx, N.Y. eral design changes intended to protect samples, first to users of data proc- Swear a little. Someone once dreamed the cueing system and the arm against essing, instrumentation, and video re- up a standard for which channel should damage. As a result, Marantz believes corders, and then in the audio field, be connected to the tip of a stereo it has the problem licked. The Rabco for professional examination, use, and plug, but when we checked those head- arm is more sophisticated (and elab- evaluation. So far, it is being sold sets with earphones labeled "right" orate) in that it includes a servo -drive full -scale only to the computer market and "left" for the report in our January system. Direct comparison, based on in 1 -inch and 1/2 -inch widths. Chromi- issue, we found them divided almost lab tests, is not yet possible. The um dioxide is harder than iron oxide; exactly between those connecting Rabco SL -8 can be bought premounted but we understand that the fine polish "right" to the tip and those making it on a Thorens TD -150 turntable, which it will accept actually makes it gentler "left." We haven't tested jacks to see we have tested only in its original ver- to recorder heads than standard formu- how electronics manufacturers view sion -that is, using the integral tone lations. For whatever use, bandwidth the problem, but under the circum- arm normally supplied with that turn- is the key to Crolyn's attractiveness, stances it doesn't make much differ- table. Likewise, we have tested the since it allows greater quality at slower ence. Nor do the markings on your SLT -12 but not the new SLT -12U, in- speeds. Crown found that it could make headset. Why not just ignore them and corporating the design changes men- top -quality 33/4 -ips tapes on Crolyn wear the headphones backward?

26 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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TWENTY -TWO RECORDS, THREE BOOKS, AND A TAXI

When King Record Co. Ltd., Tokyo distributors for London /Decca Records, introduced its limited edition of Wagner's complete Ring cycle, it was faced with a dilemma. The entire package (including all four operas, a set devoted to the leitmotivs of the tetralogy, a bilingual libretto, a commentary booklet. and a copy of John Culshaw's Ring Resounding) weighs in excess of twenty -eight pounds. As a letter frcm Japan put the problem, "How to deliver the sets, it's a matter of head- ache to every record store owner." One answer from inventive Japanese merchants: include a free taxi ride in the $111 purchase price.

CIRCLE 145 ON READER -SERVICE CARD

STATESMANSHIP -OF -THE -ART In promoting its latest stereo receiver (the 342C), Scott's selling points seem to give an unusually clear description of the direction receiver design is taking these days. Convenience features are still in (the 342C has a little light that pops on when the FM is perfectly tuned) and so are integrated circuits (now added in the multiplex and preamp sections). The quartz IF filter (a feature that made hi -fi headlines when the Heath AR -15 was introduced) is included to reduce distortion and increase selectivity without compromising audio frequency response -and it can't get out of alignment (unlike an IF transformer). And the 342C takes receivers one step closer to computer and aerospace communications design by using plug -in circuit boards and wire -wrap connection techniques. Selling price of the 342C, we're told, will be $259.95.

CIRCLE 146 ON READER -SERVICE CARD Plug -in circuit boards are featured in Scott 342C.

WAR OF THE WATTS ratings under the 1 -dB system -whether or not they list them in conventional form as well. For some time now there have been mumblings in the When the Institute of High Fidelity recently an- hi -fi industry about what might be called the 1 -dB nounced a press conference to discuss power ratings, Power Ploy. It seems that one manufacturer rated a re- it was assumed that the 1 -dB Ploy would be called into ceiver at a particular output wattage. but added in fine question. It wasn't. Instead, spokesmen concentrated on print that the rating was "within t 1 dB." the broader (and to the prospective purchaser far more Well, another manufacturer soon discovered the 1 -dB confusing) situation presented by the full spectrum of figure and became alarmed. A difference of 1 dB in a power rating systems in use in advertising -from the power rating. translated into watts, amounts to about conservative rms wattages of professional engineers to twenty per cent -in other words, since 60 watts is the "squawk power" ratings possible for cheap phono- within twenty per cent of 50 watts, the purveyor of a graphs, ratings that may be well over 1,000 per cent 50-watt amplifier can rate it at 60 watts ± 1 dB. higher for the same amplifier. How can I compete. the second manufacturer asked The IHF's conclusion, apparently, is that there should himself, if these fellows up their ratings this way? So, be some sort of official guidelines for power output figuring, it would seem. that he couldn't beat them, he specifications throughout the home entertainment field joined them. Several companies now are stating power Continued on page 30

28 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com A 14" Woofer In A Bookshelf System Gives

Floor Speaker Sound In Less Space At Lower Cost

New Heathkit® AS -48 ... Only $169.95

Two custom -designed JBL speakers 14" woofer for clear, solid bass response colored highs up to 20,000 Hz. The total result is a sound no other book- 2" direct radiator tweeter delivers clean, transparent highs Extended 40- 20.000 shelf system can match, at any price. Hz frequency response Handles up to 50 watts program material High efficiency permits use with lower power amplifiers High frequency level control Engineered For Discriminating Audiophiles. Heath engineers didn't stop Rich pecan finish cabinet Vertical or horizontal installation Easy, one evening with just an excellent choice of speakers for the AS -48. They included a assembly precision, three-position high frequency level control that lets you balance the highs to compensate for room acoustics or speaker placement. A Until now, if you wanted a speaker system that perforated like a floor switch is used in place of the usual continuously variable control to insure system, you bought a floor system ... and paid the price - in money exact balance between each system. The AS -48 will handle up to 50 watts and less living space. You don't have to anymore ... we've taken the of program material, making it the ideal system for use with the higher performance of an expensive, space -consuming floor system and put it power amplifiers and receivers popular today. It also boasts very high on the bookshelf - the new Heathkit AS -48. efficiency, and will deliver creditable results when driven with as little as 8 watts. The one-piece ducted port cabinet is another example of total Speakers . by famous JBL to Heath's -Designed built . air Two Custom engineering . it results in an enclosure that is always "tuned" - exacting specifications. A 14" woofer is extremely rare in a bookshelf leakage through the back panel is eliminated. Assembly is also made system, but the AS -48 has one - and it really delivers. A massive I I'L easier ... all components mount from the front of the rich pecan finish pound magnet assembly and a 4" edgewound copper ribbon voice coil cabinet, and the AS -48 goes together in an evening. Measures only l4" combine with a special inert, self- damping cone material to produce high x 231/2" wide x I2" deep ... installs either vertically or horizontally. clean, crisp bass down to 40 Hz ... without doubling or annoying dis- Put the superb performance of a floor system on your bookshelf now ... tortion from overload. An RLC -type crossover network sends all fre- with the new Heathkit AS -48. quencies above 2000 Hz to the 2" direct radiator tweeter. The combination of a I'A pound magnet structure and rigid cone produce natural, un- Kit AS -48, 57 lbs $169.95

AS -38 Bookshelf System also (- The New Heathkit HEATH COMPANY, Dept. I-4 has JBL speakers... a 12" Benton Harbor, Mich. 49022 woofer and 2" tweeter. Enclosed is $ plus shipping. Please send models 45 -20 kHz response... Please send FREE 1969 Heathkit catalog. handles up to 40 watts Name program ... handsome Address walnut finish. City State Zip Prices 8 specifications subject to change without notice. HF -224 -Mail order paces; F.O.B. factory. Kit AS -38, 49 lbs $144.95` CIRCLE 29 ON READER -SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969 29

www.americanradiohistory.com NEWS & VIEWS Continued from page 28 EQUI PMENTNEWS

in order that the consumer may know exactly what he is comparing. (Fisher Radio, for example, lists output in four different ways for some of its models, thus en- CASSETTERY FROM SONY abling buyers to make the comparision no matter what MORE systems the competition may use.) Presumably, the Model TC 124 CS, a Federal Trade Commission would be the agency to set Superscope has announced Sony stereo cassette system with a built -in monitor speaker the guidelines as a matter of consumer protection. two matching external speakers for stereo listening. We can't help feeling it's a pity that consumers- and particularly those who know little or nothing about The recorder, which runs on AC or batteries, has auto- is with a Model F -99S audio -have placed such blind faith in power ratings matic level control and equipped with its own stop -start switch. Record- as an index of quality. That numbers game is deceptively stereo microphone pack into a black vinyl and attractively simple as a way of making purchasing er, speakers, and accessories decisions; and it's hard to blame manufacturers if, in briefcase -style carrying case. The TC 124 CS complete rating their products, they tell it like we demand to hear costs $199.50; minus the extension speakers and the $169.50. it rather than like it is. Instead, perhaps we should blame carrying case, it is sold as the TC 124 at our own slavishness to oversimplification. CIRCLE 147 ON READER -SERVICE CARD

GOOD MUSIC AND THE PROFIT PICTURE A LADY CALLED MAGNIFICENT

It's no news that it becomes increasingly difficult to Altec seems to have ambivalent feelings about the word find fine music on FM. As this is being written, the FCC "model" these days. When it issued its newest (meaning faces two decisions that could have a profound effect the speaker), dimensions were listed as 44 -25 -32 ( "the on the future of FM programming as it relates to the perfect shape," according to promotional copy). Known economics of station management and its quest for as The Magnificent, in more prosaic terms it's the Model reasonable (or unreasonable) profits. A7- 500W -11. The A7 -500 refers to the model number KFAC is the only full -time classical music station in of the Altec "Voice of the Theatre" driver system inside the Los Angeles area. Its AM and FM operations were The Magnificent; the rest of the new model number sold last May, although the FCC has postponed approval specifies the oiled walnut enclosure. Price is $537. of the sale while the commissioners discuss a proposal to prevent sale of multiple broadcast properties in a CIRCLE 155 ON READER -SERVICE CARD single market (such as KFAC -AM and KFAC -FM) to a single buyer. The pupose of the proposal is to foster diversity within broadcasting. In this case, it appears to threaten An- gelenos with the opposite effect. Station officials claim that neither the FM outlet nor its AM counterpart could make ends meet independently as a full -time good -music operation; alone, each would have to seek a tried- and -true format (and lower musical standards) to stay in business. But, at this writing. the FCC was still sitting on its plans. Likewise, the commission had not yet ruled on the SHERWOOD ADDS A RECEIVER MODEL case of WGKA, Atlanta. The good -music station was not long ago by Strauss Broadcasting, which bought New to the Sherwood line is the S -7600a AM /FM re- Atlanta promptly changed the format to top -40, leaving ceiver, rated by Sherwood at 100 watts for 4 -ohm loads. increas- without full -time good music although it is an Two unusual features on its front panel are the calibrated vociferous infos. culture- conscious city. The result was loudness control and variable muting or squelch (called public reaction lead by the Broadcast Good Music! Com- "hush" by Sherwood). Other controls include bass, treble, mittee. which petitioned the FCC to restore the old balance, AM /FM /phono switch, monitor /aux. switch, the interest was not format on the ground that public loudness defeat switch, and separate on /off switches for being served by the change. main and remote outputs. The price is $359.50. The station's new management, on the other hand, pleads economic hardship from trying to service what CIRCLE 148 ON READER -SERVICE CARD it considers to be the unprofitable good -music market. In a proposal to the BGM!C, corporation president Robert Strauss has asked the committee, in effect. to guarantee the station a healthy income as the price for MULTIFEATURES ON A BUDGET reversion to the classics-an income the committee claims is more than ten times what the station's own Lafayette has introduced a low -cost ($139.95) stereo salesmen have been able to produce even with the more tape recorder with such features as sound -on- sound, "competitive" format. sound -with- sound, pause control, built -in 5 -watt monitor It may be significant that WOMN (AM only) in (two 3- by 5 -inch speakers) plus provision for extension nearby Decatur jumped into the breach with a new for- speakers, and three -speed operation. Two 600 -ohm dy- mat of light classics and in a short time has rounded up namic mikes are included and can be stored in the acces- enough advertising to break even, according to the sory compartment of the carrying case. BGM!C. "You see!" says the committee. CIRCLE 156 ON READER -SERVICE CARD "So what ?" would appear to be the Strauss reply. Only the FCC is (so far) saying nothing. Continued on page 32

30 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com Incomparable...

HeathkitcAR -15 AM -FM Stereo Receiver Dozens of new stereo receivers debut every year and all claim simul- AR -15 SPECIFICATIONS taneous occupation of that singular pinnacle - perfection. Ad- AMPLIFIER: mittedly, some of the very expensive receivers are good ... at the Continuous Power Output 100 watts into 8 ohms time of their introduction. Few manufacturers would have the con- (50 watts /channel) fidence to suggest that the same product still retains its grasp on IHF power output 150 watts into 8 ohms (75 watts /channel) perfection two years later. Frequency Response +0, -1 dB, 6 Hz to 50 kHz We do. THD (full power output on both channels) Less than .5% from 20 Hz - 20 kHz the AR -I5 years ago, and we still Heath introduced almost two Less than .2% (n 1 kHz advertise it as "Incomparable" ... for the simple reason that it still IM Distortion Less than .5% (full output, is. It is so undeniably advanced that others have just recently begun both channels) to adopt some of the features Heath innovated two years ago . . , Less than .2% (1 watt output) the crystal filter /integrated circuit combinations that deliver ideal Phono Input Sensitivity 2.2 mV (overload 155 mV) selectivity and never require alignment ... the massive 150 watt FM: amplifier with its superb frequency response and ultra -low IM and Sensitivity Less than 1.8 uV harmonic distortion ... the use of two accurate tuning meters for Volume Sensitivity Below measurable level exact station selection the readily accessible, but hidden secon- ... Selectivity Better than 70 dB dary controls the elaborate noise -operated squelch circuit that ... Image Rejection Better than 90 dB quiets between- station noise before you hear it. Many have tried. IF Rejection Better than 90 dB but no one has succeeded in designing a receiver with all the performance, features and value of the Heathkit AR -15. Capture Ratio Better than 1.5 dB THD .5% or less In the next column are some of the specifications that have made IM Distortion .5% or less fastest most the Heathkit AR -I5 the world's selling, highly praised Spurious Rejection Better than 100 dB AM -FM Stereo Receiver in the history of the industry. Every leading FM Stereo: audio critic, every major electronics editor, leading consumer testing Separation 40 dB or greater Os middle frequencies labs and thousands owners agree that the AR represents the of -I5 30 dB or greater (r 50 Hz ultimate available today in a solid -state receiver. Compare these 25 dB or greater ri 10 kHz specifications with those of other receivers - compare the prices - 20 dB or greater (,r 15 kHz compare the critical analyses made by the experts. You'll find that Frequency Response ±1dB20Hzto15kHz a word, the Heathkit AR -15 is, in incomparable. THD 1% or less 0. 1 kHz with 100% modulation Kit AR -15, (less cabinet), 34 lbs $339.95 19 kHz & 38 kHz Suppression 55 dB or greater Assembled ARW -15, (less cabinet), 34 lbs $525.00' SCA Suppression 50 dB Assembled AE -16, optional walnut cabinet, 10 lbs $24.95' r HEATH COMPANY, Dept. 8-4 FREE Benton Harbor, Michigan 49022 Enclosed is $ plus shipping charges. HEATH KIT CATALOG Please send Now with more kits. more color. (quantity & model) Fully describes these along with Please send FREE Heathkit Catalog. over 300 kits for stereo; color TV, electronic organs. elec- Name tric guitar & amplifier, amateur Address radio. marine, educational. CB, honte & hobby. Mail coupon or City State Zip write Heath Company, Benton Prices & specifications subject to change without notice. HF -223 Harbor, Michigan 49022. °Mail order prices; F.O.B. factory.

CIRCLE 29 ON READER -SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969 31

www.americanradiohistory.com EQUIPMENT IN THE NEWS Continued on page 30

HIGHBOY FROM HARTLEY

Concertmaster VI is the latest loudspeaker system from Hartley Products Corp. It stands 401 inches high and uses a 24 -inch woofer with a 14 -pound magnet. A 10- inch driver handles the midrange, and a 7 -inch tweeter reproduces the highs. Cones of all three speakers are made of polymer. Crossovers are at 300 and 3.000 Hz. Over -all response is listed as 16 to 25.000 Hz ±- 3 dB. Price of the system is $760. A two -way version is available at $630.

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REVOX MARKETS A77

Revox Corp. -recently formed by the European parent company to market its new A77 tape recorder -has assigned U.S. prices to the line. There are five basic models of the A77. One is a portable with output (monitor) amplifiers and speakers. The other four models are decks: with choice of wooden or metal case, and with or without amplifiers. All are available with 4 -track or 2 -track heads. Features of the A77 include motor. plug -in electronics, servo-controlled capstan YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU switchable mike input impedances. For 71 /3' -ips deck models, the price is $499 with metal case, $529 with We played with the idea of titling this item "One if by wooden case; plug -in output amps cost $70 per pair Land and Two if by Sea" because Scott has announced extra. The portable model will sell for $630. Prices for its new compact system in two ways: (1) for use in 2- track models are the same as for 4- track. High -speed autos: and (2) for use in boats. Either way, it's called models (15/171/2-ips) cost $100 extra. the Scottie and it is a 12-volt receiver /speaker combina- be CIRCLE 151 ON READER -SERVICE CARD tion. (It can powered by regular 120 -volt house current as well.) Program material can be derived from the AM /FM tuner section or, with an optional turntable, from records. The Scottie costs $199.95; the turntable with a magnetic cartridge and diamond stylus, $59.95.

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ROBERTS ANNOUNCES CASSETTES

A line of cassette tape recorders has been announced by the Roberts Division of Rheem Mfg. Co.. to complement its open -reel and 8 -track tape equipment. The model pictured here is an AC /DC portable. Walnut - C/M BY THE NUMBERS cased decks and recorders combined with AM /FM radios will also be included in the line. Complete details, When it was shown in prototype at last fall's hi -fi shows, including prices, have yet to be announced. C/M Laboratories' Model 804 was described as an FM channel selector (as opposed to a tuner) because each CIRCLE 154 ON READER -SERVICE CARD channel is individually tuned and crystal -controlled, making conventional tuning (and mistuning) across the FM band impossible. Instead of the conventional dial. FERROGRAPH REAPPEARS there is a bank of digital read -out tubes on which channel frequencies show up. Channels can be advanced Elpa Marketing Industries recently announced that it manually one at a time or in fast bursts (it takes five would be handling the Ferrograph tape recorder line, seconds to sweep the entire band). Or the dial can be made in Britain and intermittently sold in the U.S. over swept automatically, to stop only when a station is the last twenty years. The new Series Seven recorder is encountered. A remote control jack will make possible the focus of Elpa's marketing plans. Details of the model preprogramming of an entire evening's listening. Pro- and its options have yet to he announced; selling price duction models, now going out to dealers, sell for $1,050. is expected to be in the $500 range.

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32 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com $80 FOR A $250 SPEAKER Dynaco electronic components have gained transient response, reduced Doppler effects, wide acceptance because people recognize that and a substantial improvement in effective Dynaco offers remarkable value -like the coupling of the speaker to the amplifier. The quality of- a $300 preamplifier for only $90. A -25's ten -inch extended excursion woofer And now we have a loudspeaker system of com- crosses over at 1500 Hz to a new dome tweeter parable value -the Dynaco A -25. with a five -step level control. This new aperiodic loudspeaker system is We suggest an appraisal at your Dynaco just $79.95, compact (20 "x111/2 "x10" deep), dealer. When you hear a solo voice one of the and particularly easy to drive. We call it aperi- most critical tests -the articulate naturalness odic because the Dynaco A -25 is almost liter- of this speaker will be apparent. When listening ally without resonance, thanks to an acoustic to choral groups or orchestras, you will be impedance system which provides variable impressed by the feeling that this is a "big" volume action rather than the sealed acoustic speaker thanks to its outstanding dispersion. suspension box. The aperiodic design contri- Listen -and you will agree that the A -25 butes markedly improved low frequency has all the qualities of a $250 speaker. 3060 JEFFERSON ST., PHILA., PA. 19121 dynraco INC_ CABLE ADDRESS: DYNACO PHILADELPHIA, USA

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1,k II 1`1l01 33

www.americanradiohistory.com By Robert Long

TURNTABLES Renaissance of the Manual?

OR SEVERAL SEASONS, a look at the new turntables ceived the lion's share of attention over these past has shown much the same picture -added features, few years, some manuals (notably AR's) have re- added refinements, added sophistication. But this mained popular -particularly with buyers interested year, if our own private almanac is any guide, there primarily in good sound for a minimum investment. may be real news in the making. Perhaps encouraged by this phenomenon, manufac- The turntable field has been solidly dominated turers are showing a surge of interest in the manual by the quality changers -or automatic turntables, player. Bogen, Empire, Pioneer, Sony Corp. of as their manufacturers prefer to call them in recogni- America, Teac, and Thorens all have brought out tion of the fact that "changers" have been made to new models. It would appear that the manual- makers meet specifications supposed impossible a decade want to get back some of the business siphoned ago. Cumulative critical comment on recent auto- off by the best automatics. But will they succeed? matics has placed them within the circle of the Let's look first at what they're offering. To begin elect among record -playing devices. The fact was with a familiar name, Bogen is introducing its B75, reassuring both to the over-thirty generation brought an updated model in the Swiss- manufactured Lenco up on 78 -rpm albums and conditioned to changers, line. In principle, the Lcnco-Bogen B75 is similar and to a newer generation of listeners seeking con- to previous models: it has the infinitely variable venience with high performance. speed control with detents for the four standard And convenient the automatic is. A three -disc speeds and an integrated arm. The arm, however, is opera in automatic sequence requires only one trip to entirely new. It has a stylus force adjustment cali- the changer in midstream to turn over the stack. But brated in half -gram increments, adjustable anti - a great many records -be they Barbra or Beethoven skating, and stylus overhang adjustment -all new -are best played manually. Original-cast show features for Lenco. Power switch and cueing now albums, for example, are generally released on two are controlled by separate levers, and the entire unit sides of a single twelve -inch LP; if you want to has been restyled. Price is under $130. hear the whole show in uninterrupted sequence, you Another grand old name in turntables is Thorens have to turn over the disc. Again, many symphonies -also manufactured in Switzerland, and sold here by and concertos in the standard repertoire require two Elpa. While moderate cost has always been a selling record sides and thus cannot he stacked. As a re- point of the Lenco -Bogens, Thorens has been long sult, many automatics are used mainly as manuals, identified with ultrahigh quality and prices to match. and may have a replaceable single play spindle. Its new TD -135 is in that tradition, costing $185 Still, buying an automatic is not a waste. What not including a tone arm. (Like the classic TD -124, with built -in cueing, automatic arm return, and more the TD -125 provides a wooden mounting board refined tone arms generally (once available only on at one side of the turntable base that must be strictly manual turntables), the best of the changers drilled to accommodate a separate arm.) The big do an excellent job-as manual players. Changing advance in the new model is its motor, which Elpa records, in fact, may be the one job that the serious describes as a rock -steady servo -controlled 16-pole listener requires them to do least of all -and even synchronous job. The choice of speeds provided is may make some changers falter. rather unusual, incidentally: where some manufac- While the automatics have sold well and re- turers have been dropping 16 rpm from 4 -speed turntables for 3 -speed models, Thorens drops 78. Three names relatively new to turntables (in this country, at least) are Pioneer, Sony, and Teac -and Our new Associate Editor Robert Long has covered the all are showing manual turntables with integrated high fidelity field boils as Editor of High Fidelity Trade News and as Features Editor of Electronics Illustrated. arms. Pioneer displayed both the PL-25 and PL-41

34 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com players at last fall's hi -fi shows. The PL -25's arm included a cartridge and featured automatic arm return at the end of the record. The PL -41 was available as the PL -41 F, providing neither base nor cartridge but featuring oil- damped cueing and similar hallmarks of quality design. Later this year, Pioneer is expected to introduce an updated model of the PL -41F, the PL -41C. Sony Corp. of America has a new model: the PS- 1800. Like Sony's previous turntable, it is servo - controlled. In addition it has a cueing device, anti - skating, and automatic arm return (accomplished, Sony says, without mechanical drag on the arm by use of a magnetic diode as a sensing device to trip the return mechanism -which also can be tripped manually from outside the case). Its integral arm accepts any make cartridge. Teac, on the other hand, provides a cartridge with both its models that include arms (and throws in an enclosure, even for the model without an arm, the TN -80C): the TS -80's cartridge has a 0.5 -mil stylus, the TS -85's a 0.2 x 0.7- mil elliptical stylus and its arm is equipped with antiskating. All have cueing, stylus force adjustment, and other convenience features. Other manufacturers of separate arms, too, have shown signs of new efforts to please the buying public. The lion's share of attention recently has gone to the Rabco servo-drive tangent- tracking system; other recent models include the Audio & Design mercury - contact arm from England and several models from smaller Japanese companies. Marantz has broadened the appeal of its zero - tracking -error SLT -I2 by changing the arm to accept any pickup cartridge; the model with the new arm is called SLT -12U. Other modifications have also been made (see "Too Hot To Handle," page 26). There are indications that at least two other companies-Sansui and Goldring-will introduce manual turntable /arm ensembles later this year. Empire has made no sweeping changes, but has added antiskating to its arm, now known as the 980A, which it offers both separately and built into its turntable models 398A, 488A, and 498A. The "A" in these model numbers specifies the anti - skating feature. All this is not to say that nothing is happening among the changer -makers. But the upgrading of automatics in recent years seems to have found its state -of- the -art level. Dual, Miracord, Garrard, and BSR all have concentrated on adding moderate - priced middle -of- the -road models or (particularly on the part of BSR, which has, for example, damped the arm so that it lands more gently on the record surface) quietly upgrading existing models. Garrard's line, for example, has only one recent addition: the Module SLx -2 -a combination of changer, magnetic cartridge, and base apparently intended to appeal to the convenience -minded buyer on a budget. JVC Nivico (Victor Co. of Japan) has done much Among the new manual turntables are (from top to bottom) the Teac TS -85, Lenco -Bogen 875, Pioneer PL -41F, the same thing with its two new changers (models and Sony PS -1800. All are shown with dust cover and 5201 and 5203 -both of which include magnetic base-typical of the direction the new models are taking.

APRIL 1969 35

www.americanradiohistory.com HIGH FIDELITY TURNTABLES _ Ñ H O N c y N f9 ? ^-- Y W N 7 5 '7 D 3 d g - Track- E N Min. ing E a-` v recom. force Anti- Other arm Manufacturer Model E Arm Cueing tracking gauge skating features Price Notes

Acoustic Research AR -XA X 2 Integ. $ 78.00. Model TA, 33 rpm only, $75.

Allied Radio 929 X 4 Integ. X X 69.95 919 X 4 Integ. X X 49.95

BSR McDonald 600 X , 4 Integ. X 1 gr. X X 74.50 500A X 4 Integ. X 1 gr. X X 59.50 400 X 4 Integ. X 1 gr. X 49.50

Dual (United 1019 X ' 4* lnteg. X 1/2 gr. X X Overhang adj. 129.50

Audio) 1009F X 3* Integ. X 1/2 gr. X X Overhang ad' . 109.50 1015F X 3* Integ. X 1 gr. X X Overhang a 89.50 1212 X 3* Integ. X 1 gr. X X Overhang a 74.50

Empire Scientific 208 i 3 None' 125.00 Model 398A, with 980A arm, $199.95 488A X 3 Integ. 1/2 gr. X X Overhang a 179.95 Model 498A, with base, $189.95

Garrard (British SL95 X 3 nteg. X l gr. X X 129.50 Industries) SL15 X ,. 4 nteg. X 1/2 gr. X X 109.501 SL65 X* 4 nteg. X 1/z gr. X X 79.50 SL55 X 4 nteg. X X 59.50

40 Mk. II X ' 4 nteg. X 44.50 Model 30 X 4 nteg. X 39.50 Includes ceramic cartridge, diamond styli SP20 X* 4 Integ. X 37.50

Slx -2 X ' 3 Integ. X X 69.50 Includes base, cover, magnetic cartridge i JVC Nivico 5201 X 4 Integ. X 89.95 Includes magnetic cartridge, diamond stylus, base, cover

5203 X ; 4 `,Integ. 69.95 Includes magnetic cartridge, diamond stylus, t base, cover

= Lenco (Bogen) B75 4* Integ. X 1/2 gr. X X Overha Includes base, cover (Price not available at press time) B62 4* Integ. X 11/z gr. 67.95 .

Marantz SLT -12U * 2 Integ. X Tangent tra 295.001 I ing (no skating force)

I Miracord PW -50H X 4 Integ. X 1/2 gr. X X Cverhang a 149.50 (Benjamin) PW -630 - X 4 Integ. X 1 gr. X X Cverhang adj. 119.50 PW -620 X 4 Integ. X 1 gr. X X Cverhang adj. 89.50

PE (Perpetu- PE -2020 4 Integ. X 1/2 gr. X X Vert. angle 129.95 um Ebner /Elpa) adj.

36 Hice Fii)r I I FY 'Ì \G ALINE

www.americanradiohistory.com A Guide to Current Models d r 0 3 2. áá a d á Track- el. Q - Min. ing 7.- recom. force Anti- Other arm Manufacturer Model 2 Arm Cueing tracking gauge skating featlres Price Notes

X X Overhang adj. 199.95 Pioneer PL -41F X ,. 2 Integ. 1/2 gr.

Radio Shack Lab 24 X 4 Integ. X X 69.95 Includes magnetic cartridge, diamond stylus

Lab 12 X . 4 Integ. X X 49.95 Includes magnetic cartridge, diamond stylus

_ Rek -O -Kut (Koss B -16H X _ 3 Noie2 275.00 Electronics) B -12H X ' 3 Noie2 175.00 B -12GH X 3 Noe, 124.95 record Seeburg AP-2 X = 1 Integ. 21 gr. 695.00 Automatic programming; includes cartridge

Sony Corp. PS1800 X* 2* Integ. X X X 199.50 Includes base, of America cover

Teac TS -80C X 2 None, X 144.50 TS -85 X 2 Integ. X 11/2-2 X 299.50 Includes magnetic gr. cartridge, diamond stylus, base, cover

Telefunken W-250 X 4 Integ. X 1/2 gr. X X Vert. ange 224.95 Includes magnetic adj. ; cartridge, diamond styli, base TW -509 X 4 Integ. 129.95 Includes magnetic

Studio TV - cartridge, sap-

' phire styli (replaceable with diamonds)

Thorens (Elpa) TD -125 X - 3 *1 None, 185.00 (mount. board) TD -124 X 4* None, 149.50 Ser. II (mount. board) TD -150 2 Nore2 - 85.00 Model TD -150AB with base and integral arm, $99.75

GENERAL NOTES: 1. Speeds Single -speed turntables, invariably operate at 33; twc -speed models at 33 and 45. All three -speed models offer 33, 45, and 78 except the Thorens TD -125 which has 16, 33, and 45. Four-speed turntables all operate at 16, 33, 45, and 78. 2. Separate arms Several of the manufacturers offering turntables without integrated arms also sell separate arms; notably Empire, Rek- O -Kut, Sony, and Thorens. In addition, the following separate arms are available: ADC (Audio Dynamics), Audio & Design (IMF), Euphonics, Goldring (IMF), Olson, Ortcfon (Elpa), Rabco, SME (Shure Bros.). 3. Extras In preparing this table, we have tried to list only the basic models - the turntable without arm, base, mounting board, dust cover, or other extras - when available. Many models are not sold in such a simple format, however; and several are available in a number of choices. Prices, therefore, cannot be compared on a model -to- model basis without careful reference to the extras each includes.

APRIL 1969 37

www.americanradiohistory.com cartridges), adding Stereo -8 tape cartridge players in The success of the automatics finally seems to the hase of some models. Also part of this trend to- have destroyed what could he called the smug sense wards prepackaging are the similar combinations of superiority that used to characterize the purveyors offered by Telefunken and such retailers as Lafayette (and purchasers) of manuals- transcription turn- and Radio Shack. tables as they were called then. Now the manuals are The fact that automatics no longer are entering making a hid to catch up. If they can succeed in the market at the breakneck pace characteristic two incorporating the engineering refinements of the best or three years ago leads us to conclude that manu- automatics, the convenience features of all auto- facturers believe they have caught up with each matics (less, of course, the changer function), and at other's refinements. In fact, the upgrading in their competitive prices, we doubtless will be hearing much products has been astonishing. more of them.

Features to Look For in a High Fidelity Turntable

THE TURNTABLE ITSELF predrilled holes for a separate arm, their own. This Platter: Time was when rule -of -thumb suggested that approach simplifies the job of installing a separate the heavier the turntable, the better, since the plat- arm. ter acts as a flywheel to even out irregularities of Cueing: A cueing control lowers and raises the arm motion. New motor designs and servo systems are gently but positively. without relying on your unsteady making that concept obsolete. Good platter balance too hand. It can prevent a lot of scratches, especially if can be achieved in a number of ways (it is something you like to pick and choose among the bands on a like balancing auto wheels, except that turntables record side. usually are machined or drilled to remove metal rather Tracking Force: The tone arms in most quality auto- than being fitted with weights). Wow-and-flutter matics and just about all manuals will accept almost figures tell the story better than any advertising any pickup cartridge, no matter how small its recom- claims about extra weight or dynamic balancing. mended tracking force. In the least expensive changers, Drive System: Variations in speed can be introduced however, the extremely light tracking forces of today's by belts as well as idler wheels, although belt drive best cartridges will not provide enough thrust in arm has established the better reputation. Once again, movement to trigger the change cycle. The answer specs for wow-and-flutter and rumble tell the real is, of course, to choose a cartridge with a high enough story. recommended tracking force to do the job. Less ob- Motor: Much the same considerations apply to motor vious -and more difficult to determine with most design. The lack of standardized nomenclature and products -is the range of cartridge weights the arm the proliferation of elaborate proprietary phrases to will accept. If possible, it is a good idea to try car- characterize motor design tend to obscure the real tridge and arm together to make sure that the counter- issue -steady, accurate, reliable, and quiet drive. In balance system will accommodate the combination. addition to wow -and-flutter and rumble figures, pay Then tracking force should be set according to the rec- attention to speed accuracy specs if you want to know ommendation of the cartridge manufacturer but never know how good a turntable is. A high -quality turntable lower than the minimum recommended by the maker should not vary more than 0.5 per cent. of the changer or integrated -arm manual. If you choose Speed Control: Most turntables give you a choice of a model using a spring (instead of a weight) to set speeds, each within whatever degree of accuracy the tracking force, be sure to check it periodically. Springs designers can manage. If the speed is off at the tend to stretch, changing the force they exert. nominal setting chosen, you are out of luck unless the Antiskating: The drag produced by the record groove unit is equipped with a speed adjustment. Not only will as it slides under the stylus is not in line with the the turntable distort both tempo and pitch of the axis of the arm's bearings. The result, with today's music, but you will have a real problem when you try low- friction bearings, is a tendency for the pickup to to play a piano (or other instrument that is difficult move (skate) towards the center of the record, pro- to tune) with one of those accompaniment-only records. ducing uneven pressures -and wear -on the two walls If you do, be sure to get a model with a speed adjust- of the groove. [For a further discussion of this sub- ment. ject, see Daniel Gravereaux's article in this issue, Automatic Features: Some automatic turntables will page 39.] Antiskating applies a reverse torque to the

intermix record sizes in the same stack. Since few ten - arm, correcting the skating tendency. In some inte- inch LPs remain on the market, even in Europe, you grated arms it is set manually, according to a table may not be interested in the intermix feature. Some of recommendations provided by the manufacturer; in manuals have adopted one feature of the automatics: some of the newer arms it sets itself automatically automatic arm return at the end of the record side, when you set the stylus force gauge, since skating thereby eliminating the continuous swooshing of a force is related to tracking force. pickup allowed to remain in the locked groove at the Cartridge adjustments: A few of the newer arms al- end, and reducing the danger of damaging records low tor precise cartridge positioning to achieve op- by careless handling of the arm. timum performance. Most common is stylus overhang adjustment, which permits sliding the pickup a short THE INTEGRATED TONE ARM distance in its shell to achieve minimum tracking Mounting: An integrated arm solves the problem of error. More esoteric is vertical angle adjustment, which installing a separate arm. Geometry and craftsmanship cants the cartridge to bring the vertical tracking angle of such mounting can be ticklish, especially if you as close as possible to the ideal 15 °. You will find want to use a turntable from company A and an arm this adjustment in very few automatics; vertical angle from company B. Some manufacturers of separate turn- varies on a changer with the number of records tables offer them with a mounting panel that has stacked on the turntable.

38 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com TURNTABLES, HOW WE TEST ARMS, AND CHANGERS

BY DANIEL GRAVEREAUX

The performance criteria and test methods de- rumble may overload amplifiers and loudspeakers scribed here are those used by the author and sufficiently to produce distortion. his associates at CBS Laboratories in preparing The so- called standard method of measuring data for HIGH FIDELITY's equipment reports. rumble (developed in 1949 by the National Associa- tion of Broadcasters) requires that the rumble voltage ALTHOUGH IT Is the stereo cartridge, or pickup, that output be measured directly. While the pickup plays transforms record -groove modulations into the elec- an unmodulated (or "blank ") groove, the equalized trical signal which eventually becomes the sound you voltage output from the system is filtered from 10 Hz hear from your speakers, its two "silent partners" - to 500 Hz, and the rumble level is read on an rms the turntable and tone arm -exert a significant in- voltmeter. The rumble is given in dB with reference fluence on that sound. The better they are designed, to a signal of 1.4 centimeters per second peak on a the better they enable the listener to enjoy fully a test record. Since the system is flat over the bandpass modern stereo recording. Basically, the turntable stated, each rumble component, regardless of fre- must rotate the disc at constant and accurate speed quency, adds to the total level. in a vibrationless manner. For its part, the arm must The method of measuring rumble we have de- let the cartridge track the record correctly. Anything veloped at CBS Labs, on the other hand, describes less than complete passivity on the part of the arm more accurately the way rumble is actually heard. can become a source of mistracking and conse; Known as the ARLL method (for Audible Rumble quently of distortion and accelerated record wear. Loudness Level), it takes into account not only the At CBS Laboratories we measure the factors that level of a signal but also its frequency. A special fil- influence both the sound and the mechanical oper- ter =a composite of the equal -loudness contour and ation of a turntable and arm. From a high fidelity the NAB filter -is connected between the preampli- standpoint, the same criteria apply -whether these fier and the rms voltmeter. As in the NAB method, two components appear separately or are integrated. the ARLL rumble is measured in dB with reference Specifically, we check for turntable rumble, wow to 1.4 cmi sec peak velocity. This reading tells us and flutter, speed accuracy, tone -arm stylus res- 'how loud the rumble is. Thus, if two turntables have onance, arm friction, and the accuracy of pressure identical NAB rumble levels but different ARLL gauges (if supplied). In addition, we check special measurements, then you can assume that rumble features as applicable -such as cycling and handling voltages, although identical in level have different of records by an automatic changer, or the effective- frequencies. And the turntable with the lower ARLL ness of built -in cueing devices, and so on. will be a quieter unit. We use the blank grooves on CBS Laboratories Turntable Rumble Record STR -I20 to measure turntable rumble. By means of a calibrated system, the rumble voltages are The low- pitched noise called rumble originates as a passed through the filters and their dB value meas- voltage generated by a turntable's vibration. It can ured directly on the meter. A typically good turn- prove very annoying: not only can you hear it, but table will have an ARLL rumble of 50 dB, which

APRIL 1969 39

www.americanradiohistory.com corresponds roughly to 30 by the NAB method. In bearings must be precisely machined and completely 11F Equipment Reports we give the former figure. free -moving; flywheels must be balanced. Heavy turntables, with either rubber puck or belt drive, naturally tend to reduce wow and flutter by me- Speed Accuracy chanically filtering out the variations contributed by the turntable motor, pulleys, or idlers; if a rubber If a recording's musical pitch and tempo are to be puck is used, it must be precise and concentric to reproduced the disc spun accurately, must he by avoid creating "thumping" sounds. Pucks and other the turntable at the speed (the num- correct right rubber wheels should be disengaged automatically ber of revolutions per minute). For instance, a from contact with metal parts when the turntable change of 2 rpm in the playing of a 331/2-rpm disc is stopped, in order to prevent the mation of a would represent a a semitone change in pitch and flat spot. 7% change of tempo -which would of course dis- Wow and flutter are measured together with a the tort performer's intention. frequency- change detector called the wow- and -flut- The speed of a turntable usually is affected some- ter meter. A special test record, CBS Laboratories what by the AC voltage powering it. But inasmuch BTR -I50, provides a 3 -kHz tone. The wow -and- as voltage is the relationship between speed and not flutter meter, connected to the output of the pre- linear, relatively large variations in AC power volt- amplifier, measures the variations in speed -that is, age produce only small changes in speed. In good the changes in pitch of the 3 -kHz tone. Slow varia- a voltage 105 volts to 127 turntables change from tions indicate wow; rapid variations, flutter. These volts (which approximates the normal I20 -volt line are indicated as a percentage change of the 3 -kHz 6 12 produces supply plus %, minus %) typically tone. less than I % change in speed. On a typically good turntable -manual or auto- At CBS Laboratories, we clock the turntable speed matic -the total amount of wow and flutter will be at 105, 120, and 127 volts. Thus we obtain both less than 0.1% rms, although some experts hold that the speed accuracy and the effects of line- voltage the threshold of audibility of these speed variations variations. If the turntable has a speed -adjustment is in the neighborhood of 0.3 %. In any event, wow knob, the unit is set to exactly 331/2 rpm when the and flutter figures higher than this value indicate an line voltage is 120 volts. We next measure speed AC undesirable unit. accuracy with the turntable switched to any other speed settings it may have (45, 78, and 162/3 rpm). As a final check, we readjust the line voltage (105, Tone Arm Resonance 120, and 127 volts) and repeat our readings. Our test The "tone arm" is one of those recurrent mis- procedure involves playing a test record which has term nomers in audio usage. Actually it should really be a band modulated with a precise I -kHz tone. The inasmuch as this component should pickup's output is measured on a frequency meter. "toneless arm" If the measured frequency is 1% high, then the contribute no sound of its own but merely permit is to a signal in ac- turntable's rpm is similarly 1% fast, and so on. This the cartridge it holding generate measurement, we have found, is highly accurate. cordance with the dictates of the record groove. Un- the laws physics dictate otherwise; the As is true of any performance measurement, the fortunately, of mass stylus a lower the error detected, the better. From a high arm and compliance create resonance fidelity standpoint an outside limit for turntable which, if pronounced, can introduce spurious sound speed accuracy would be I% and distortion. Thus, an important measurement we make in the lab is of arm resonance, by means of which we can check how much "tone" it is adding Wow and Flutter to the reproduced sound. Arm resonance. however, can be gauged only in Wow and flutter both describe short -term variations terms of the specific cartridge used the fact is that in the rotational speed of the turntable -that is, the both the stylus compliance and the arm's mass inter- average speed may be correct though the instantan- act to create the low- frequency peak in the response eous speed is not. "Wow" aptly describes a relatively that we call the "arm resonance." Other factors in- slow variation in rpm; its rate is confined to between fluencing this resonance include the damping (if any) 1/2 Hz and IO Hz, and its audible effect is the in- of the arm, and the friction in its pivots. The effects troduction of variations in musical pitch. "Flutter," of resonance can vary from insignificant to exces- a faster speed variation covering from 10 Hz to 300 sive, depending on the frequency at which the reso- Hz, can destroy the clarity of the reproduced music, nance occurs and the amplitude it reaches. and actually sounds like a form of electronic dis- As a rule, the resonant frequency occurs below tortion. the audio band but within the turntable's rumble fre- Many factors must be very carefully considered in quency region (below 20 Hz). Thus, the resonance designing a turntable capable of achieving low wow -especially if its amplitude is initially rather high, and flutter. Most notably, all idlers, motors, shafts, say IO dB or more -can reinforce the rumble which, and pulleys must he truly round and concentric; amplified through a wide -range reproducing system,

40 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com nu The author checks stylus force, standard preliminary to any turntable test. Signa! from test record is fed through equalizer (light panel) to instrumentation that measures speed irregularities from pitch changes.

can then become intolerable to a critical listener. Many high -quality arms have friction forces small- Whether the basic cause of the noise you hear is er than 25 milligrams (0.025 grams) -that is, when turntable rumble as such or arm resonance makes the tone arm is balanced, a force of 25 milligrams little difference -the noise is audible, and objection- will be sufficient to move it. This exceedingly small able. force is negligible in determining the vertical track- Even when the resonance or rumble cannot be ing force for the stylus required to follow the record heard, either effect can, if pronounced, cause grooves properly. overloading and distortion in the amplifier, or At CBS Laboratories, horizontal friction force is speakers, or both. Finally, a strong low- frequency measured by a very sensitive balance consisting peak -even if inaudible -can introduce groove - of a vertically suspended swing in which the stylus jumping and arm -bouncing. Under such conditions, rests. The suspension point of the swing is moved slight vibrations or mechanical shocks near the turn- radially inward above the turntable until the table will force the arm up and out of the record arm "breaks loose." From the geometry of the swing. groove because of the stylus' high impedance at the vertical force on the stylus, and the point of arm resonance. This effect will be especially noticeable motion, we are able to calculate the actual amount of on slightly warped records, which could be played horizontal pivot friction. Then, to determine vertical satisfactorily with an arm that had less resonance. pivot friction, we add small calibrated weights to the On the other hand, if the arm resonance is con- balanced arm and calculate the force required to fined to a very low freqency (well below 10 Hz) change its position. and never reaches an amplitude of more than a few dB, chances are that it will have no damaging effect on the system's performance. Tracking Force Gauge One of the hallmarks of good arm design, from Correct setting of the vertical tracking force ( "stylus the standpoint of low resonance, is sufficient damp- pressure ") is important for clean sound and for ing built into the arm so that its low- frequency peak maximum record life. The use of small -tip radii and does not exceed IO dB. To measure low- frequency elliptical styli makes it imperative that the force not resonance, we play back the low- frequency sweep be excessive; but to prevent mistracking, it is equally bands of CBS Laboratories test record STR -100. A important that vertical tracking force not be insuf- chart recorder automatically plots the low- frequency ficient. An accurate gauge mounted on the tone arm response voltage, which shows the resonance peak. is helpful in making proper, and repeatable, tracking - We can plot such measurements as far down in fre- force adjustments. quency as 3.3 Hz. There are three systems used to adjust the vertical tracking force: sliding weights, spring tension, and a Pivot Friction combination of both. Any system may be used with equal effectiveness on a single -play turntable. On a Another measurement we make is of pivot friction, record changer, however, the vertical position of the the undesirable characteristic which impedes an arm's arm changes as a stack of records is played. If a horizontal and vertical motion. This "dry" or "static" spring is used to control the vertical force. the ten- friction (often wryly called "stiction ") is very dif- sion may vary from record to record, with a cor- ferent from viscous friction, which sometimes is in- responding change in the vertical tracking force. In tentionally incorporated into arms. the better changers, the difference of force from one

APRIL 1969 41

www.americanradiohistory.com disc to a full stack is less than one -tenth of a gram oratories Test Record STR -111 has bands that are and is insignificant. In poorly designed changers, above normal recording levels and are thus suitable however, the variation can be one -half gram or more, for this test. which does become significant. To check the accuracy of a built-in stylus -force Choosing Your Equipment gauge, we adjust the arm according to the manufacturer's instructions and then read the tracking force When deciding what record -playing equipment to directly on a laboratory- accurate gauge. That reading buy, take into consideration two basic questions: the is compared with the indicated marking on the arm mutual compatibility of the individual components; being tested. and the over-all level of performance desired. The question of compatibility concerns the suit- ability of a particular cartridge for use in a particu- Antiskating Adjustments lar arm. A modern, high- compliance, low -mass pick - up-especially if it employs a small conical, or el- A pivoted arm, because of the friction that develops liptical, stylus tip -really needs what is known as a between stylus tip and record surface, becomes sub- "refined" arm, one that is capable of very low track- ject to an imbalance of forces that tends to pull the ing forces, that has very low friction, and that has arm in towards the center of the record. The arm very low resonance. (Used in less than such an arm, thus "wants to" skate towards the spindle; it is of the pickup bottom may sit on the surface of the course restrained from doing so by the fact that the record. causing damage both to the record and the stylus is in the record groove. The main function of stylus.) If the arm has an antiskating provision, so the stylus, however, is to extract a signal from the much the better. Beyond these considerations, both groove, and the coincidental restraint it exercises on arm and cartridge- functioning as a unit -should the arm produces a larger force on the inner groove be compatible with the turntable, at least from the wall (left channel) than on the outer wall. The re- standpoint of not reinforcing, by means of arm sult can be unequal stereo response, increased distor- pickup resonances, the machine's inherent rumble, tion, and unequal wear of the two walls of the rec- which itself should be as low as possible. For- ord groove, with the inner wall eroding faster. tunately, most high -quality components work rela- Tone -arm bias, or antiskating force, provides an tively well together even when chosen at random. outward torque on the arm to counteract the inward Correct matching, however, assures the superior skating tendency, and thereby equalizes the stylus level of performance demanded by the perfection- force on the walls of the record groove. Tone -arm ist and consistent with the expenditure of a sizable bias is beneficial for three reasons: first, equal force amount of money. on each groove wall reduces both record wear and As for the criteria to keep in mind in order to ob- stylus tip wear; second, equalizing the groove force tain the performance level one desires, the major fac- makes it possible to reduce vertical tracking force tors influencing turntable performance are the audible slightly; third, the operation of both channels of the rumble, speed accuracy, and wow and flutter. The cartridge under the same force eliminates at least one ARLL rumble value lets us know the expected loud- possible source of nonlinearity of response. ness level or rumble; this figure is fairly akin to the The correct antiskating force to use is determined signal -to -noise ratio figure given for such components by the tone arm's geometry and by the stylus /groove as amplifiers, preamplifiers, and tuners. The lower friction. The friction itself is controlled by the verti- the figure, the better the unit. In terms of dB, this cal tracking force and the type, size, and quality of means that 60dB rumble is less audible than 50 the stylus tip. We assess this complex with the help dB rumble. of strain -gauge techniques. Our data indicates that Speed accuracy and low wow and flutter are also antiskating forces of between two- tenths and four - very important, since they largely determine the clar- tenths the vertical force result in best antiskating ity of reproduced music. Speed accuracy of better action. Thus, if a good- quality pickup can track at than I % and wow and flutter measurements less than 2 grams without the bias, it will track well at 1.2 to 0.1% are obtainable in today's better equipment: 1.6 grams when bias is added. lower values of course are always desirable for op- Incidentally, we find that it is inaccurate to set timum performance. the bias force by playing a blank portion of a record Whether the record player consists of a separate (no groove) and adjusting the bias for no inward turntable and arm or is an integrated turntable 'arm motion of the tone arm. The in- the -groove bias force combination (which category includes record will be quite different because the two sides of the changers, or -as they are more fashionably called stylus are in contact with the groove walls and not today -"automatic turntables "), its specifications, or only the bottom, as with a blank record. Although performance characteristics, are measurable. Which- there is no easy method for adjusting the bias force ever general type of record -playing equipment one on your arm without laboratory equipment, an ap- buys, choice of a specific model should be based on proximate setting may be arrived at by adjusting the the objective evaluation of those characteristics, along bias force for equal mistracking on both channels with personal preferences in such matters as individ- while playing extremely high -level tones. CBS Lab- ual features and price.

42 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com Sovfoto Shostakovich's Symphonies An Appraisal of the Music and the Recordings

BY ROYAL S. BROWN

I1\1ITRI SHOSTAKOVICH must be considered as one of the twentieth century's major symphonists; yet -in spite of the devoted cults and rabid anticults built up around him -it is only recently that all thirteen of his symphonies have become available on recordings. (Today, in fact, the enterprising Shostakovich fanatic can. if he has access to foreign markets, obtain at least two recorded versions of each of the symphonies.) The relative ease with which the Russian composer's entire symphonic oeuvre can now be heard should help greatly in bringing these works down from the level of myth to the musical level where they belong. In view of the many flamboyant biographical details that have marked their evolution, the temptation is great to treat them like episodes in a James Bond film, with the music itself providing little more than a soundtrack. But if one listens carefully to the symphonies, one becomes increasingly aware that there is a definite musical evolution in their language, as there is in the style of almost any great symphonist. it also

A renegade music student (he studied in Paris and received a B.A. in music from Penn State). Mr. Brown is now a member of the Department of Romance Languages at New York's Queens College.

APRIL 1969 43

www.americanradiohistory.com becomes clear, furthermore, that the turning point of this evolution is the composer's Fourth Symphony and not his Fifth, as is so often assumed. Many people have seen in the very fact of Shostakovich's musical evolution a sign of capitulation to the governmental Philistines who have so often con- demned his music in the Soviet Union. But for all the almost schizophrenic variations and changes of mood that appear from one symphony to the next, and even within a single work, a totally original style underlies most of the symphonies, giving them an over -all unity that makes accusations of about -face seem greatly exaggerated.

Symphony No. 1, Op. 10 interpretation of the First Symphony is Hindemith, Kfenek, Milhaud, Honegger, There is scarcely a technique in any of concerned (Westminster 18293, mono Schoenberg, Berg, et al. (not to mention Shostakovich's symphonies that is not only); nor do I care for the rhythmically Prokofiev and Stravinsky), this "new mu- announced somewhere in the First Sym- uneven Kondrashin performance (Van- sic" did not turn the young composer into phony, which the composer began in a dull eclectic: rather, it provided a genu- guard 6030/31, .mono only, in a two - 1924 -when he was only nineteen -as ine liberation. freeing him to use his al- with s ver- a graduation piece for the Leningrad record set coupled Mravinskÿ ready strongly evolved musical language Conservatory. It is already evident in sion of the Shostakovich Seventh). As without any of the formal or tonal re- this early work that the orchestra was one might expect, Toscanini's interpreta- straints imposed upon him by his aca- to become the vehicle par excellence of tion, available in a mono -only five- record demic training. Shostakovich's musical thought. Listening set of historic broadcasts (RCA Victor Interestingly enough, the Second Sym- to the Symphony, one has the impression LM 6711), is extremely virile, almost phony was commissioned as a cantata of looking through a sharply focused but overwhelmingly so, but with a Scherzo to celebrate the October Revolution, to off-center kaleidoscope; through the use which the work is dedicated. This mu- is so quickly paced that the poor of extremely angular and often asym- that sically revolutionary "cantata" turned make the second metrical melodies and rhythms, a bril- pianist just doesn't it out, however, to be not exactly what had liantly varied instrumentation, and any time through. Over -all, the Stokowski/ been expected. To begin with, Shosta- number of unexpected shifts in direction, Symphony of the Air performance kovich relegated the choral music to a

Shostakovich maintains a state of con- 1 (United Artists 8004 -recently deleted). short section at the end of an otherwise sistent unbalance, a characteristic per- characterized by well- defined contrasts purely orchestral work, whose lacerating vading his entire symphonic output and and superb attention to detail, is prob- dissonances must have made more than responsible for both the humor and the ably the best. Milan Horvat is one of the one Russian listener think twice about drama that so strongly it. his definition of revolution. In one pas- distinguish few conductors who really seems to dig It is the humor, in the form of gro- sage the composer piles up more than a and this is par- tesquerie and irony, that prevails in the Shostakovich's humor, dozen simultaneous melodic lines, and First Symphony, in spite of its rather ticularly evident on his quickly paced, throughout the orchestral section he ap- lyrical and tragic third movement. The well -recorded performance (Turnabout parently made a deliberate effort to keep story is told that Shostakovich was once 34223), which offers a good foil to the the different "lines" as rhythmically and provoked by the last movement of the less idiomatic Stokowski version. For a tonally at odds with one another as pos- Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony to write really electrifying interpretation of the sible. This extreme application of the the word "shame" on the score, and it first two movements, there's the out -of- "linear" contrapuntal technique evolved would seem that Shostakovich's First by Hindemith represented a highly orig- print Markevitch /ORTF performance Symphony is, more than anything else, inal move on Shostakovich's part, and I would aggressively antiromantic. The ending of (Angel 35361, mono only) that even today one has to turn to, say, the the Scherzo, for instance, with its false be delighted to see reappear one of these Fourth Symphony of Charles Ives, whose climaxes hammered out on the piano days. music is probably still unknown to Shos- and its death rattle in the final notes, * * s takovich, to find a parallel. obviously represents a rather nasty dig at the overblown codas of the romantic Symphony No. 2, Op. 14 ( "Dedication to I cannot imagine any new recording of symphony. October ") the Second ever making Morton Gould's spite the enormous popularity of In of dynamic interpretation (RCA Red Seal the First Symphony, not only with the Like many of Shostakovich's symphonies, LSC 3044, reviewed in these last general public but with musicians as well, pages the First presents the conductor with the Shostakovich was obviously dissatisfied October) obsolete. However, a recent problem of whether or not to observe with the strict academism of the Lenin- Czech Supraphon release (Gramophony the sometimes hard -to- believe metronome grad Conservatory. After he graduated. Klub 1120213), with Ladislav Slovak markings in the score, which here often he spent about a year writing absolutely conducting the Slovak Philharmonic, is seem ridiculously fast. The over -all nothing and trying to make up his mind a good deal better on detail, particularly humor and irony of the First Symphony whether to become a pianist or a com- in the opening, although it lacks the dra- depend to a large extent on the detail poser. When he again took up compos- matic intensity of the Gould reading. As he half -resolved the conflict by proof the work, no matter how exhilarating ing, for the even more recent release. taken ducing a sadistically difficult, ultramod- the tempos may be. From this point of a live performance ern piano sonata-which he frequently from Russian (MK view, the matter -of-fact performances by dashed off for musicians who had insisted D- 017953/4, mono only) by the Lenin- Ormandy (Columbia MS 6124) and Sil- that the work could not be played. grad Philharmonic under I. Blazhkov, vestri (Monitor S 2077) can be elimi- Yet it was not long before Shosta- this offers no competition, either in sound nated, although the Columbia version is kovich returned to larger forms, creating or interpretation, although the recording, coupled with the only domestically avail- in the Second Symphony (1927) a work made in 1965, probably represented the able version of the First Cello Con- that holds a position on the extreme mu- first time in over thirty -five years that certo. The Martinon recording (RCA sical left in the canon of his symphonies. the work was performed anywhere. Victrola S 1184) is excellently recorded The Leningrad of the 1920s was a virtual crossroads in Russia for the numerous and played but curiously aloof, while the i 4 M musical currents and countercurrents then well -balanced Anted version (Artia S developing throughout Europe, a circum- 710) suffers from poor engineering. Al- stance Shostakovich took full advantage Symphony No. 3, Op. 20 ( "May Day ") though many people are fond of Howard of, particularly after he left the Con- Although anticipation over the Second Mitchell's Shostakovich, I am not one of servatory. But while he immersed him- Symphony caused it to be scheduled at them, particularly where his humorless self in the work of such composers as one point for performance on the same

44 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com night in several cities. the work obviously which, although poorly played in spots, hero to villain literally overnight. Having did not sit very well and rapidly de- does the work about -'s much justice as completed the first two movements of scended into limbo. Just how much can be done it. the Fourth Symphony, he proceeded to Shostakovich took the public reaction finish the third (and final) movement. But to heart or how much he may have after only one rehearsal at the end of been dissatisfied with what he had pro- * c, 1936, he withdrew the entire score and duced is difficult to say. In any case he kept it completely under wraps, save for began to move towards a less extreme a two -piano version published in 1948 use of tonality and counterpoint. In fact. Symphony No. 4, Op. 43 and a brief quote from the third move- in the Third Symphony- written between Evidently encouraged by the early suc- ment in his Second String Quartet (1944). 1929 and 1930. only two years later than cess of his second opera, the notorious Lady Macbeth, like a gigantic sinking the Second -Shostakovich greatly reduced Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Kuterina ship, pulled down with it a number of his use of contrapuntal technique and lsmuilova), Shostakovich started writ- Shostakovich's most important works, returned to a harmonic style reminiscent ing his Fourth Symphony in 1935. In a few of which, such as his first opera. of his Symphony No. I. But whereas the five years intervening since the The Nose, have still not received the that work. for all its angularity. is fairly cool reception of his Symphony No. 3, attention they deserve. classical in form and melodic develop- he seems to have decided that the more ment, the Third is a single movement traditional concepts of symphonic form The Fourth Symphony was resuscitated fractionalized into an unbelievably large and melodic development were not such in 1961 after a cultural "thaw" in the number of unrelated melodic fragments. bad ideas after all. The Fourth Sym- Kremlin and was soon followed by a Like the Second. the Third Symphony phony's first movement, for instance. for slightly revised Lady Macbeth. For some concludes with a choral setting of a all its numerous themes and melodic inexplicable reason, only two recordings revolutionary poem. this one dedicated fragments, uses an expanded version of have been made of the Fourth. Orman - to "May First." Shostakovich was appar- the classical first -movement form, ex- ently still unwilling to return to anything cept that the opening thematic group is dy's version for Columbia (MS 6459) resembling a standard symphonic form. not repeated until the very end of the is what one might expect -sumptuous, The violently disorganized character of movement. creating a dramatic, mirror - romantic, breathtaking in its virtuosity. the Third seems to maintain. at least on like symmetry characteristic of almost Kondrashin's interpretation, available on the formal level. the radicalism that all of Shostakovich first movements. ' -a two -disc set in Russia (MK S 0295 -8) pervades the Second. Again. giving up the relentlessly com- and on certain European labels, is more plicated contrapuntal structure of the cerebral more restrained in its climaxes, Second Although neither the Second nor the Symphony but going beyond the but is unquestionably a valid performance. Third Symphony ever aroused the direct rather unsophisticated language of the hostility of the Soviet bureaucracy as Third. Shostakovich returns in the Fourth did some of Shostakovich's later works. Symphony to a dramatically conceived, * r o intermittent use of counterpoint reminis- it is not too to why difficult understand cent of the First Symphony. the strident Second and original remained Ironically, the public demise of the Symphony Nu. 5, Op. 47 unknown for so many years. The relative Fourth Symphony for some twenty -five A good deal too much has been made of obscurity in the composer's homeland years was caused by that very opera the fact that Shostakovich referred to of the fundamentally much more con- whose success seems to have provided his Fifth Symphony (J937) as "a Soviet Shosta- servative Third is less comprehensible. some of the impetus for Shostakovich's artist's reply to just criticism." If kovich wanted to remain in Russia, as he Although the Third. unlike the Second. return to symphonic writing. Leading obviously did. he had to make at least has received a handful performances Communist Party officials had not had of a token concession after the Lady Mac- occasion to hear Lady .'Macbeth until the -without chorus -outside of the beth debacle in order to avoid running end of 1935, when work was U.S.S.R.. the 1964 Leningrad account the first into more ominous difficulties. The con- performed in Moscow. and it was by Blazhkov on the overside of the not cession. I feel, was more in the com- long afterwards that Pravda came out MK disc containing the Second poser's outward attitude than in his appar- with a scathing denunciation not only of music. Certainly, Shostakovich must have ently marks the first performance in the opera but of Shostakovich's work in been aware that his Symphony No. 5 Russia since the early 1930s. This read- general. Shostakovich, who until then would hardly offend a great many people ing too is no match for Gould's (coupled had avoided any serious run -in with the then. the work was not associated with his Second on RCA LSC 3044) government, found himself demoted -but from with a sordid libretto, as in Lady Mac- beth, to exacerbate the reactions of certain listeners to the music. Unity and more concentrated expression are the key words for the so- called conservatism of the Fifth Symphony. If the work does not display the astound- ing proliferation of themes and the exhilarating virtuosity of the Fourth, it is a more satisfactory work as a symphony, even with its overstated fourth movement. The Fifth Symphony says very little that was not already said in the Fourth, which was two -thirds completed before the Pravda article -it simply says what it has to say in fewer, but longer. words. The melodic material of the Fifth Symphony. as well as that in most of Shostakovich's work, has often been attacked as uninspired and uninspiring. It is. of course. true that most of Shosta- kovich's chromatic. wide -interval melodies are decidedly unhummable. Unlike his countryman and contemporary, Serge Prokofiev. however. Shostakovich is not primarily a lyricist and should not be treated as such. For Shostakovich, the context in which his themes appear and their organic function in the total conception of the work are infinitely more important than the absolute nature of the melodies themselves. Separated from Sovfoto their harmonic and orchestral contexts. In a 1963 photo: Shostakorich on holiday, in the country near Leningrad. Shostakovich's themes do indeed seem to

APRIL 1969 45

www.americanradiohistory.com been of had he not crumble into a heap of meaningless that mingle with a quote from Mozart's would have proud notes. But it is precisely because of the G minor Symphony and end up in a been the target. total, architectonic framework in which climax of unleashed hilarity, the Sixth these themes are conceived that Shosta- Symphony manifests a novel and beauti- Although the Seventh Symphony has lost kovich's symphonies have that intense fully conceived approach to the dramatic a good deal of its vogue, there are five dramatic unity and movement so unique progression of symphonic movements. recordings currently available in the U.S. is this reason is one Shosta- to his style. And it for and as an ensemble it of (The newest one, by Yevgeny Svetlanov too that much of Shostakovich's work is kovich's most convincing works. Like the and the U.S.S.R. Symphony Orchestra on not as strong in its initial impact as Second. the Sixth Symphony is anything it is after repeated hearings. but the piece of programmatic propa- Melodiya /Angel, was not available at ganda it was supposed to be. this writing.) The best of the four that I The Fifth. like many of Shostakovich's have heard is by Bernstein (Columbia later symphonies, is romantic in intent. While the opening Largo of the Sixth M2S 722), who gives the work added fairly neoclassical in content. and it is is one of Shostakovich's most profound depth and nobility by slowing down a rare conductor who can blend these statements as a symphonist. few move- the tempos in the first and second two elements into a convincing whole. ments in the composer's symphonies movements and by eliminating the puerile Previn (RCA Red Seal ISC 2866) per- have received as many perfunctory in- fourth variation of the march theme. haps comes the closest. Bernstein (Co- terpretations as this one. Only Boult The Toscanini performance, available in lumbia MS 61 15) is more intense but (Everest 3007) takes the movement as., the same five -record RCA set as the L well behind Previn in balance and detail, a true largo; but while there is much First Symphony, is a recording of the and his Olympic- track -record last move- else to recommend this recording, much first U.S. broadcast of the work and as ment is a bit hard to take. Rodzinski's of the Symphony's detail is missing. such is of historical interest. Moreover, relentlessly energetic performance (West- Gauk's performance on a bassy Artia the surprisingly well- recorded Toscanini minster 14984) represents a valid ap- release (167, mono only) comes in sec- version is the only one to make the proach in spite of its overly fast second t ond, with Kondrashin's version (Melo- march theme sound like music. The movement, but there is also a nasty / /diya /Angel S 40064) being an evil that rushed mono -only recordings by An6erl cut in the last movement. That last I one has to put up with in order to get the (Parliament 127) and Mravinsky (Van- movement of the Fifth presents, in fact. Second Violin Concerto on the other guard 6030/31) offer no competition. a real tempo problem. particularly at side. A Stokowski release on RCA will the end, which, if played as indicated. be forthcoming soon. * * * is absurdly slow and pompous. Kondra- a * * shin (Melodiya /Angel S 40004) takes Symphony No. 8, Op. 65 the whole work "as indicated" and comes If the Seventh Symphony marked the up with a very singsong performance. Symphony No. 7, Op. 70 pinnacle of Shostakovich's success vis -à- the Eighth, The recordings by Mitchell (RCA Vic - It is one of those ironic circumstances of vis the Soviet Government, Seventh finished in 1943, started another decline. trola S 1380), Ancerl (Parliament S history that Shostakovich's - which, along with his Third, is the weak- The Eighth is a second "war" symphony 168), Skrowaczewski (World Series S est of his first ten symphonies -generated but this time a totally abstract one -in 9081). and (Pickwick S Golschmann an international enthusiasm that few spite of the "programme" many people 4016) all have good moments, with works of music have known. Directly curiously persist in seeing (but never Mitchell having the most and Golsch- inspired by the Nazi invasion of Russia defining). It is perhaps Shostakovich's mann the fewest. Stokowski's perform- in June 1941, most of the music was greatest creation as a symphonist; in it. ance (Everest 3010) is not helped by written during September of that year the composer combines many of the poor sound and playing, while the ver- in the composer's besieged native city of daring harmonic and contrapuntal tech- his early work sions by Kertesz (London 6327), Ro- Leningrad. which he steadfastly refused niques characteristic of with an almost neoclassical economy of wicki (Deutsche Grammophon 1380311 to leave in spite of the pleas of a government concerned with protecting its artists. thematic development. The Symphony and Silvestri (Angel S 35760) should Because of the notoriety Shostakovich furthermore uses a rather unusual five - all he avoided. had already attained and because of the movement form, with two scherzos and emotionalism inherent in the circum- a profoundly tragic passacaglia forming * stances, the Symphony was treated like the three inner movements. Obviously, a conquering hero before it was even the work was not the four -square Symphony No. 6, Op. 54 heard. A microfilm copy of the score "masterpiece" the Soviet Government Having rather gingerly bowed his head was literally smuggled out of Russia for felt it had a right to expect after the to officialdom and having consequently the U.S. premiere. Seventh Symphony. irritated many non -Soviet critics, who The Seventh was Shostakovich's first were incapable of seeing beyond the Fifth real "programme" symphony -he had Neither available recording of the Eighth Symphony's placative dedication, Shosta- even thought of entitling the movements does much justice to this magnificent kovich then announced that his next "War," "Evocation," "Great Animated work. Kondrashin's version (Everest, or symphony would be a magnum opus, Spaces," and "Victory," an idea he later MK S 221 -B) is overstated, perfunctory, complete with chorus, and would be abandoned. However, the fact that he and rhythmically uneven. Mravinsky's finally decided against assigning titles to dedicated to Lenin. When, in 1939, the (MK 219, mono only) is a good deal materialized, turned how- the movements -the Leningrad subtitle Sixth it out, better, but not very well recorded (the ever, to be a totally abstract symphony given to the Symphony was not of the is available on a with no choral section and without the composer's invention -shows that Shosta- same performance single Bruno disc this more- music- slightest hint of "programme " -it is a kovich was interested primarily in sug- -but wonder that the whole thing was not gesting certain moods. In only one move- for- your -money label should be avoided taken as a practical joke. ment, the first, does he indulge in a kind unless you like your recorded sound Already, Shostakovich was moving of naïve musical picture painting -the en- squeezed into hopeless distortion by a away from the style and forms of the tire middle section of the movement is proliferation of grooves). Why Bernstein Fifth Symphony. No sooner had he formed of a single, marchlike theme that could not have put the love and devotion returned to a classical first -movement is repeated eleven times in a growing he spent making the Seventh into a sat- in complex form in the Fourth and a truncated ver- crescendo and increasingly isfactory version of the infinitely better sion of same in the Fifth than he de- textures, apparently representing the brute Eighth is beyond my imagination. cided to use, for the first movement of force of the Nazis descending upon Rus- is fads the Sixth, a broad, tragically conceived sia. This. of course, the stuff are * Largo whose latticework of interwoven. made of, and at the time, the Nazis could interrelated themes makes it more like be heard, via repeated radio broadcasts a second or third movement than a first. of the symphony. marching into people's Symphony No. 9, Op. 70 And the diaphanous scherzo is a dis- living rooms with a monotonous regular - The Ninth was supposed to be the last of quietingly acrid movement that has no ity-so much so that Béla Bartók. in the three war symphonies. Composed as it parallel in any of Shostakovich's sym- fourth movement of his Concerto for Or- was at the end of the war in 1945, it phonies. With the final third movement chestra, quotes the theme, complete with was also to be the most triumphant. As a witty, tongue -in -cheek presto full of Bronx cheers from the winds that satirize with the Sixth, Shostakovich led people rhythmic and instrumental grotesqueries the music in a way Shostakovich himself to believe that the work would contain

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www.americanradiohistory.com parts for solo voices and chorus as well as orchestra. Yet when it appeared, the Ninth must have seemed like even more of a practical joke than the Sixth. In- stead of the mammoth victory- fresco that was expected, the five short movements of the Ninth Symphony took scarcely longer than the first movement alone of either the Seventh or the Eighth Symphonies. And instead of the histrionics of the Seventh and the intense, ominous tragedy of the Eighth, the Ninth seemed to revert to the Wit and irony of the First Symphony, although in a much warmer and more extroverted - ly humorous fashion. The best recording ever made of the Ninth is, in my opinion, a long deleted Columbia release (ML 4137) with Efrem Kurtz and the New York Philharmonic. In spite of Kurtz's outrageously slow (but effective) tempo in the second movement, he captures the humor of the work better than anyone since. Of the modern versions, I prefer the somewhat rough- hewn Horvat performance (Turnabout 34223) for much the same reasons. The recordings by Koussevitzky (RCA Victor LM 2900, mono only), Kondrashin (Melodiya /Angel S 40000), and Gauk (Monitor 2015, mono only) are faithful to the score without doing much for the Sovfoto while I find sloppy and music, Sargent's Mravinsky (in white tie) introduces the composer to accept uninspired performance (Everest 3054) Conductor Eugene ovation after the first performance of his Twelfth Symphony, in Leningrad. a minor disaster. an

lodiya /Angel S 40025) seems disinter- phony afford no such specious satisfac- * * * change ested, and the bass tones are weak on tion. The apparent reason for the reason there must the recording. While the Von Karajan of direction -if be- a shift of interest on the Symphony No. 10, Op. 93 performance (Deutsche Grammophon seems to be the Eighth and Ninth composer's part: since the Tenth Sym- In 1948, both 139020) is well recorded, it suffers from Symphonies served as whipping boys for phony, many of his best musical ideas attack on Shostakovich's mu- countless eccentricities: the ominous have appeared in his string quartets and a renewed ends up sic. The general in this war on creativity second movement, for instance, concertos. was Andrei Zhdanov, who has been resounding rather like a German march. ferred to as Stalin's "cultural execution- My personal favorite is again a deleted Of the three domestically available re- er." This time not only Shostakovich Kurtz, conducting the Philharmonia on _ cordings, the Stokowski /Houston Sym- but just about any Russian composer I - RCA this time (LM 2081); while it lacks phony version (Capitol SPBO 8700) is who had anything to say -including the drive of the bassy Mitropoulos re- by far the most exciting. The perform- neglected Prokofiev and the still sadly - cording (Odyssey 32 16 0123, mono ance is an all- stops -pulled affair full of As Nicolai Miaskovsky -was the target. only), it is infinitely superior in orches- brilliant histrionics and seconded by 1953 that the a result, it was not until detail. The Mravinsky stereo sound whose wall - appeared, while the tral and rhythmic stunning Tenth Symphony is in is beefed up First Violin Concerto, begun in 1947, reading (MK 1523, mono only) crumbling bass apparently was held back until 1955, two years many ways similar to the Kurtz, but it here and there by an organ. The mono- after Stalin's death. is poorly played and horribly recorded. only versions by Cluytens (Angel 3586 Although Shostakovich played it safe 3S) and Mravinsky (MK 201B) are also and wrote a number of ideological pot- + * * very capably handled, with the Cluytens boilers, it was obvious that he did not performance having been supervised by intend to allow the official condemna- Symphony No. II, Op. 103 ( "Year Shostakovich himself. tion to influence his major works. The 1905 ") Tenth Symphony in many ways con- The Tenth was to be the last of the * + tinues the mood of the Eighth but in a amazingly rich series of symphonies that more expansive and less musically violent had begun with the Fourth. With the 112 ( "Year manner, and it did not escape being at- Symphony No. 12, Op. Eleventh, completed in 1957, Shosta- 1917") tacked in certain Russian circles as kovich wrote the first of two program- "pessimistic" and "lugubrious." The work Completed in 1961, the Twelfth is a matic symphonies, complete with titled to a much is indeed and contemplative; it shorter symphony dedicated personal movements (played without pause) and the is even pervaded by a monogrammatic, more important historical event than some rather hammy pyrotechniques longer Eleventh. It is interesting to note four -note theme that also appears in reminiscent of the Seventh Symphony, the First Violin Concerto and the Eighth that the symphony's last movement in- which is their direct predecessor. But troduces a heroic theme that obviously Quartet and that can be made to spell what sets both the Eleventh and Twelfth out the composer's initials. Indeed, a has some "revolutionary" significance for Symphonies apart even from the Seventh Shostakovich, as the melody strongly re- number of the symphony's themes are re- is their use of a folk or quasi -folk the- used throughout the four movements. sembles the one unifying motive appear- matic material that waters down the ing in the Second Symphony, which is and this "cyclical" technique, used sys- harmonic idiom employed with great skill tematically for the first time in the also dedicated to the October Revolu- in the earlier symphonies. In these two tion of 1917. Tenth, prepares the way for the Eleventh formerly characterized by and Twelfth Symphonies. works, a style an expert -if unsystematic -use of dis- Little need be said here. Of the two sonance often sinks into a dull and Here is yet another of Shostakovich's recordings, Mravinsky (MK 1580, re- monotonous tonality. leased in this country in mono only) greatest symphonic accomplishments that a facile If Soviet politics seems to offer the work as if he loved only does not have the recording it deserves. explanation for certain steps in Shosta- conducts Neither of the current stereo versions is kovich's earlier evolution, the historical particularly worthwhile. Svetlanov (Me- events connected with the Eleventh Sym- Continued on page 94

APRIL 1969 47

www.americanradiohistory.com www.americanradiohistory.com What will the Protest Generation listen to now that the Professors have taken over Rock?

BY ARNOLD SHAW

WITHIN THE PAST YEAR, under- thirty criticism of theme of his Richard Harris hit, MacArthur Park. rock has made a hairpin turn-or, to put it more It was a zany spectacle, considering that the battle musically, an unprepared and radical change of key. of numbers and the struggle over size are supposedly At the beginning of 1968, Super -Albums were IN. shoddy Establishment vices. So were psychedelic- electronic- baroque- raga -atonal- But the young critics as well as rock performers and-aleatory sounds. Long tracks were preferred to were drawn into the fray, and each issue of Craw - short, interrelated tracks to disparate songs. And hy- daddy, Rolling Stone, L.A. Free Press, Eye, etc., perbole was hurled at anything that had the classy brought a crash of verbal accolades over a new pro- aura of art rock -not lyrics but "poetry," not melo- digious, super -super, heady rock group. "There is dies but composition: e.g., The National Gallery more talent in The United States of America [a new performing musical interpretations of the Paintings group]," wrote Gene Youngblood in the Free Press. of Paul Klee. "than perhaps in all major American rock groups To be sure, this was the consequence of the Sgt. together." You see, the U.S.A. used so much elec- Pepper challenge by The Beatles, the album whose tronic equipment that it took seven hours to set up use of a fifty -piece orchestra for a single chord drove for a performance. Of Parks's Song Cycle, an LP The Rolling Stones to create an LP with a $50,000 with a continuity of verbal and musical themes, a cover (Their Satanic Majesties Request) and prodded Crawdaddy critic panted: "Cycle is a milestone in the The Beach Boys into producing a monster LP (Smiley development of American popular music ... it attains Smile) whose initial three -minute track cost $40,000. a level of complexity and subtlety genuinely compa-

But there was also Van Dyke Parks of Hollywood, rable to that of 'serious' contemporary music . . . who used a fifty- five -piece orchestra to record his Song Cycle. Not to be entirely outclassed, one of The Monkees cut an LP with a fifty -one -piece band Arnold Shaw, composer, writer, and lecturer, has taught (The Wichita Train Whistle Sings). Whereupon Jim at the Juilliard School of Music and Fairleigh Dickinson University. His forthcoming historical study, The Rock Webb produced a single on which he employed a Revolution, will be published by the Crowell- Collier Press sixty- five -piece orchestra to perform the instrumental this month.

www.americanradiohistory.com Parks is a genius." Not too long after the release of straightforwardness." Rock is at its best, Landau de- its debut LP, United States of America had a civil creed, when "it seeks to entertain as well as provoke, war and broke up. And Parks's LP did not sell very when it realizes that it is not primarily poetry or art, well. but something much more direct and immediate than Now, however, it's 1969 and the rock celebration either. Rock has to be body music before it can be of sophistication, complexity, subtlety, and super - head music." And the Boston lad hailed the debut creativity is at an end. Simplicity is now IN, the small LP of a new group, The Nazz, because it captured group, the unpretentious album, the corny song - "youthfulness and innocence . . . so lacking from not Varèse, Stockhausen, musique concrète, Ives, rock of the past year." Brecht, or even Leonard Cohen, but, mind you, About the same time, a member of The Jefferson Hank Williams, the Grand Ole Opry bard who was Airplane, the celebrated San Francisco group, an- known as the Hillbilly Shakespeare. nounced: "It's very good to make people feel good The country-rock synthesis, according to the dean physically as well as intellectually. And there's noth- of rock critics, had its first major album in Music ing like it when you make a couple of thousand from Big Pink, by a group that calls itself simply people stand up and start jumping up and down. The Band. Richard Goldstein writes, "There are no That's magic." dulcimers or synthesizers here; just the basic rock Obviously, it was more than the charisma of Dylan, combination.... There are no ten -minute flights of potent as that may be, that occasioned this huge atonality here." As a further indication of the group's reversal of attitude. Two other possible explanations thorough commitment to the ethic of simplicity, are, one, in the realm of economics, and the other, Goldstein notes that the album jacket is "casual" in the field of cycles. According to the first, the and "that even a name like The Band can be con- competition to create bigger and more complex al- strued as a slap at the ornate titles rock groups often bums pushed studio and production costs up to a chose for themselves." prohibitive level where rock groups were pricing themselves out of the record market. Presumably, record company officials, who saw no way of coming WELL, WHAT BROUGHT this sharp reversal about? out ahead, began to suggest that the boys "sing some- Just as Sgt. Pepper seemed to set the Super -Art trend thing simple," and less costly. in motion, so it was another album, Bob Dylan's According to the second theory, art styles are John Wesley Harding, recorded in Nashville with a cyclical in character. After they've gone as far as they small, acoustic combo, that reawakened interest in can go in Kansas City, they turn and go thisaway the country tradition. A "reawakening" it was, instead of thataway. Complexity is superseded by for rock is, after all, the offspring of a mixed mar- simplicity. The cerebral gives way to the physical, riage between black rhythm- and -blues and white the tightly controlled to the uninhibited, boredom country- and -western. The Dylan album, eagerly and surfeit being an inevitable concomitant. awaited because of a motorcycle accident which These explanations, each with a degree of validity, kept the Wunderkind out of a studio for more than seem rather superficial. Can it be that the Now gen- a year, was a Gold Record seller overnight. That eration is turning its back on its musical offspring this accelerated the shift is conceivable. Folksier because the Establishment generation suddenly have Buffy Sainte -Marie flew into Music City and, dedi- become doting, instead of disapproving, grandpar- cating a new album to Nashville guitarist /record ents? Several years ago, when Dylan first shook up exec Chet Atkins, pointedly titled it I'm Gonna Be a his generation, the old generation played it cool. Country Girl Again. The Byrds, a psychedelic group Poet Louise Simpson, informed of Ivy League ven- which first flew into the Top Ten on Dylan's acid eration of Dylan's poetry, dismissed him as an en- hit Mr. Tambourine Man, made an appearance on tertainer and no poet at all. "American college stu- the Grand Ole Opry and cut a country-oriented al- dents," she sniffed, "don't know anything about bum Sweetheart of the Rodeo. When Britain's Roll- poetry." When W. H. Auden was interviewed, he ing Stones released Beggars Banquet, the under - apologized for not being familiar with Dylan's work thirty reaction was unrestrained. No less an authority -"One has so frightfully much to read anyway," than the editor of Rolling Stone argued that their he opined. previous LP (Satanic Majesties) was a disaster and But now consider the following statments -and lamented that the group had fallen into the Sgt. Pep- guess, if you can, who made them: per trap of artiness, significance, and progressivism, 1) "After all, Homer was chanted and so all now suddenly become put -down epithets. Beggars were the Scandinavian epics. The move- Banquet was hailed as a comeback and as a historical ment [poetry-in -song of Dylan, Rod Mc- Kuen, Walker, Nyro, moment formal end of all the pretentious, Jerry Jeff Laura -"the etc.] is great." nonmusical . . . and worthless stuff that has been 2) "Rock has begun to realize one of the tolerated during the past year." most cherished dreams of mass culture: Jon Landau, a perceptive young Boston critic, to cultivate from the vigorous but crude thought that the recognition of rock as a valid art growth of the popular arts a new serious art that would combine the strength of form had proved destructive, had given rise to a cult native roots with the beauty flowering of the "preachy, poetical, and pretentious" and de- from the highest art...." prived the music of "joyfulness and uninhibited 3) "Rock can possess quasi -religious force.

50 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com It leadeth me past myself, beyond my- cordings: they have investigated and compiled elabo- self, beyond my separateness and differ- rate notes on the history and background. They com- ence into a world of continuous blinding mit occasional errors, some of them serious, as when sameness-and, for a bit, it stoneth me Professor Goldman, and in turn Professor DeMott, out of my mind." 4) "Contributing to the merely social and both refer to rhythm- and -blues records as being the satirical implications of Baby You're a product of "tiny record companies in the South." Rich Man, the Indian sounds operate (Chess Records is in Chicago; King is a Cincinnati in the manner of classical allusion in label; Specialty and Modern were West Coast com- Pope: they expand to the ridiculous the Jubilee, Herald, Bethle- cant of jet -set, international gossip col- panies: Apollo. National, umns.... But, as in Pope, the instrument hem, Savoy, Prestige, and Atlantic were all in the of ridicule here, the sitar, is allowed in New York -New Jersey area. While there were r & b the very process to remain unsullied and labels in Houston, Atlanta, and other southern cities, eloquent." the style was really a product of the segregated Negro living in northern ghettos.) There can be little doubt that this is over -thirty stuff. Despite the occasional lapses, the professors made But in its pontificating pretentiousness, it reeketh of a zealous effort to possess the subject, so zealous the higher criticism of the academy. And so it is. that they apparently scared hell out of the under - Author the Homeric reference is Prof. F. W. of thirty crowd. It suspected the truckling subservience Dupee of Columbia University; of the "highest art" of an approach like "Learning from The Beatles" bit is Prof. Albert Goldman, also of Columbia; of and it saw through the "pitch of awe" that Prof. the "quasi- religious" shtick, Prof. Benjamin DeMott DeMott himself discerned in both Prof. Poirer and of Amherst; and of the allusion to Pope, highflown Prof. Goldman. Nor was it unaware of the maneu- Prof. Richard Poirer of Rutgers University. ver of absorbing an alien or threatening culture in Professor Poirer is not only head the Rutgers of order to preserve one's hegemony. After all, the English Department all these Eng- -and of cats are over- thirty generation was dancing the twist and lish radicals he is Department -hut also an editor hulabaloo, had donned miniskirts and Nehru jackets, Partisan Review, where in the 1967 let of fall of he was experimenting with marijuana and LSD, and go with a twenty- one -page essay called "Learning was rushing to Ravi Shankar concerts and to lectures from The Beatles." By far the most unreserved pane- by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. gyric that has appeared in print by an under- or But there was still the fundamental question that over -thirty critic, Poirer's polysyllabic study is pon- a generation fighting to create its own culture had derous with between The Beatles and comparisons to face: What was wrong with rock that the older the great figures English literature. Quoting the of generation could so readily adopt it? The answer, my group's publisher regarding its effort to write some- friends, as Mr. Dylan's best -known song would have thing unsophisticated in All You Need Is Love, it, is blowin' in the wind. The answer apparently is Poirer comments: "But so was Shakespeare at the that rock has become too arty and has lost the raw Globe and we know how unsophisticated lie could vitality, eroticism, and simplicity of its birth phase. be." Later, having suggested that A Day in the Lite is One corrective is to be found in the mounting "a song of the wasteland," Poirer pushes the allusion: acceptance of soul (Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, "T. S. Eliot can he remembered here for still other Jimi Hendrix, et al.) and vintage rhythm -and -blues reasons: not only because he pays conspicuous re- (Muddy Waters, B. B. King, Chuck Berry, et al.) . spect to the music hall but because his poems, like Unquestionably, there is an element of defiance in The Beatles' songs, work for a kaleidoscopic effect, the celebration of black culture implicit in this em- for fragmented patterns of sound that can bring brace and explicit in the numerous manifestations historic masses into juxtaposition only to let them be of blue -eyed soul (The Rascals, Paul Butterfield fractured by other emerging and equally evocative Blues Band, and other white performers who sing Whew! is fragments." Of course. it really anticlimac- and play black). that his professor tic in closing out -of -sight rave, the The other corrective is the new retreat into the refers reverently to the group's leanings as mystical woods and the hills of mountain music. Or is it a an idea that "is allowable only to the very great [!J." search for roots, arising from the suspicion that if view the years which pop In of in American music the Establishment likes something, it can't really be was derided, patronized. and considered beneath the genuine or basic? notice of serious criticism, this attention is not to he taken lightly. It is to be applauded as a coming of age both of the form and its audience. But this is not what I am concerned with at the moment. It is the effect of this doting embrace by the old on the young. Absurd as their enthusiasm may be, the significant thing is that all of these pundits approach the subject of rock with the high seriousness they generally reserve for a paper to be read at an annual conclave of the Modern Language Association. They have not only done their homework and studied the re-

APRIL 1969 51

www.americanradiohistory.com _ 1

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jir., .ro-. \r' viCC+OA INN LR -500T 60 -Watt Solid -State AM /FM Automatic Stereo Receiver 1 7995

4 Integrated Circuits 'NTEGRATED and CI RCUIT 2 Field Effect Transistors L A FAY E r iESYOSSET, L.I., N.Y. 11711 RADIO ELECTRONICS CIRCLE 39 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 52 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com "High performance and an abundance of features ... an excellent buy on today's market." "HIGH FIDELITY" ON THE LAFAYETTE LR -1500T

"... it offers most of the refinements (and performance) typical of receivers selling for twice its price. . . clearly one of the best buys in audio." "HI-FI STEREO REVIEW" ON THE LAFAYETTE LR-1000T

"... a unit with excellent tuner characteristics ... I suspect that Lafayette will have a great many satisfied customers." "MODERN HI -FI & STEREO GUIDE" ON THE LAFAYETTELR -500T

Now, three leading audio magazines have confirmed what thousands of owners have been telling us all along -that these Lafayette receivers are "best buys" on today's market. Of course, it's not surprising that all three receivers should be so highly acclaimed by the experts. They share the same basic design and include the same advanced circuit features ... integrated circuits, field -effect transistors, automatic FM stereo switching, transistor overload protection, and many more. Small wonder, then, that all three offer the same high level of FM stereo performance and audio quality. The only substantial difference is in power output. You will find no serious performance compromises -even in the least expensive model.

So if you're looking for a really fine receiver in any price range, stop in at your nearest Lafayette audio showroom soon and hear these highly -rated receivers for yourself. For free 512 -page 1969 Catalog No. 690, write to: LAFAYETTE RADIO ELECTRONICS Dept. 19049 P.O. Box 10, Syosset, L.I., New York 11791.

CIRCLE 39 ON READER -SERVICE CARD

Arlcu, 1969 53

www.americanradiohistory.com The cartridge looms large for a simple reason:

It is the point of contact between the entire hi -fi system and the recording. What happens at the tip of its tiny stylus determines what will happen in all those big and impressive components that are so obvious to the eye and, in the aggregate, so apparent to the pocketbook. Worldwide, experts and critics have hailed the discovery of Trackability as the definitive measurement of cartridge performance. When evaluated against this measurement, the superb Shure V -15 Type II Super Track stands alone. Shure Brothers, Inc., 222 Hartrey Ave., Evanston, Illinois 60204

The analog-computer-designed Shure V -15 Type 1l Super- Trackabitity cartridge maintains contact between the stylus and record groove at tracking forces from 3, to 11/2 grams throughout and beyond the audible spectrum (20-25,000 Hz). Independent critics say it will make all of your records, stereo and mono, sound better and last longer. Tracks 18 cm /sec. and up at 400 Hz; tracks 26 cm /sec. and up at 5,000 Hz; tracks 18 cm /sec. and up at 10,000 Hz. This minimum trackability is well above the theoretical limits of cutting velocities found in quality records. $67.50.

www.americanradiohistory.com EQUIPMENT REPORTS THE CONSUMER'S GUIDE TO NEW AND IMPORTANT HIGH FIDELITY EQUIPMENT

COMPACT SPEAKERS BOAST bottom edge of the black grille downward, forms an enclosure which houses an air -suspension woofer OMNIDIRECTIONAL SOUND (8- inch -diameter, long-throw type) and a 2'% -inch hard -surface cone tweeter. The 2,500 -Hz crossover network is at the bottom, and a tweeter level control and the input connections are on the underside of the EQUIPMENT: HK50, a compact full -range speaker sys- panel. Above the enclosure compartment, the speakers tem in enclosure. Dimensions: 113/4 by 113% by 18 face upward, radiating their output against a specially inches. List price: $110. Manufacturer: Harman -Kar- shaped reflector hidden inside the surrounding grille. don, Inc., 55 Ames Court, Plainview, N.Y. 11803. As a result, sound is dispersed from all sides of the grille. The system is moderately efficient, is rated to handle up to 50 watts of amplifier power, and has an Harman -Kardon's HK50, originally sup- COMMENT: 8 -ohm impedance. plied as the speaker for the firm's SC2350 compact The pleasing, natural sound of a pair of HK50s, modular system, now is being offered on its own for and their broad stereoism kept us listening to music use with any other equ pment. This news, bolstered over them for a long while. When we finally got down by our recent tests of the HK50, should interest to business -checking response got very cred- many stereo buyers seeking what strikes us as an -we itable results. The bass end held up firmly and uncommonly good- sounding small speaker, indeed cleanly to just below 70 Hz, where an apparent roll - the best we've heard yet in its price class. off began. Slight doubling, evident toward 60 Hz, The HK50 offers a performance feature we have increased at lower tones and, as is normal, intensified long considered germane to high quality sound re- as we drove the speakers harder. At normally loud production -that of omnidirectionality, or spreading the sound uniformly throughout the room rather than beaming it. This characteristic applies, in design terms, to the midrange and highs (the bass naturally spreads itself in a wide circular pattern). Sound that beams not only is distorted, but can degrade the stereo image. Actually, on stereo, two speakers beam- .Sound .cl>eads evenly ing do not provide a true stereo effect but rather two front all lour side% of Nie mono images. What's more, if you listen to beaming speakers from any spot other than where the two Harnnut - bardun beams intersect, you miss a good deal of the stereo - Walnut and black stylin ism. Omnid rectionality overcomes these problems: sets uff this omni- the sound is spread out naturally and it can be en- directional speaker sp.vent. joyed from virtually any part of the room. At the same time, the spread effect does not lessen the system's ability to project directional information; you certainly can tell that the f rst violins are on the left, the basses over to the right, and so on. Moreover. omnidirectional speakers help fill the space between the stereo pair and seem to add a sense of front -to- listening levels, enough to fill a very large living room rear depth. You are not limited to a small listening with sound, the response continued to below 30 Hz, area to enjoy the presentation, and there are more although at this frequency the ratio of doubling to locations in any room for installing such speakers fundamental bass increased markedly. We actually so that they load correctly to the room. H -K's method went beyond the manufacturer's claimed response of achieving this design goal is to use a reflecting limit -and got an HK50 to respond to 20 Hz, but it panel in the enclosure. As a result, the HK50s work couldn't reproduce that kind of bass; it just "did well on the floor, on a pedestal, on a shelf, and in something" down there. Upward from the deep bass. just about any spot you care to install them. Even the mid -bass sounded full, with a slight trace of more interesting, they are not terribly critical of the "forwardness." The midrange and highs were uni- size room in which they're used: in our tests, they form and clear with a normal amount of amplitude sounded mighty good in a larger- than -average living variation found in systems of this price class, but with room and equally at home in a much smaller den. a better -than -average dispersion characteristic. No The walnut -and -black styling of an HK50, while beaming effects could be discerned from any angle visually attractive, relates directly to its acoustic all around the speaker, and tones above 10 kHz were design. The larger section of the cabinet. from the clearly audible from any listening position, even from

Equipment reports are based en laboratory measurements and controlled listening tests. Unless otherwise noted, test data ano measurements are obtained by CBS Laboratories, Stamford, Connecticut, a division of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., one of the nation's leading research organizations. The choice of equipment to be REPORT POLICY tested rests with the editors of HIGH FIDELITY. Manufacturers are not permitted to read reports in advance of publication, and no report, or portion thereof, may be reproduced for any purpose or in any form without written permission of the publisher. All reports should be construed as applying to the specific samples tested; neither HIGH FIDELITY nor CBS Laboratories assumes responsibility for product performance or quality.

4 - CIRCLE 60 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 55

www.americanradiohistory.com them off; two in particular adjacent room through an open doorway. Upward stereo recordings can show an Bernstein's recording of the from about 14 kHz the response sloped toward in- which did so nicely were MS 6769) and audibility. White noise response was very smooth, Nielsen Third Symphony (Columbia Symphony version of Britten's had no trace of harshness or discrete sonic elements, the Ozawa /Chicago Guide to the Orchestra (RCA and was evenly distributed. The Young Person's the speakers' Back to the music: we tried the HK50s in various LSC- 2877). The Nielsen exemplified a passage in the positions and at different heights. Nominally a floor - ability to place instruments: there's center) standing system (the cabinet actually can be used 4th movement where the woodwinds (smack right) have a little dialogue as an end table or lamp pedestal) the HK50-at and the string bass (to the them. The least in our larger room -sounded best when we -and that's just how the HK50s presented that abounds placed it on a low bench. In our smaller room, we Britten opus is a real stereo showpiece All the just set it on the floor and were happy with it. In in varieties of instrumental color and timbre. (you fact, of all the small speaker systems we have audi- sonic color, the spacing of orchestral sections was a third speaker tioned in this small (somewhat live and acoustically could almost swear at times there difficult) room, the HK50s pleased us the most. The somewhere behind the pair being heard), the bite of For as over-all impression, from a pair of HK50s, was one of instrumental attacks came through. speakers these, we feel an easy, open, well -aired sonic presentation. These modestly dimensioned and priced as small systems manage to project a measure of real that's quite an achievement. bass power combined with clean and well- dispersed treble. On orchestral music the presentation of breadth and depth is excellent. Any of today's high -quality CIRCLE 141 ON READER- SERVICE CARD

than -average rumble figure for a unit in this price class, WORTHY FEATURES ENHANCE and indicates a very quiet machine. Average wow and flutter came to a mere 0.07 %; arm friction, laterally LOW- PRICED TURNTABLE and vertically, was negligible at less than 10 milligrams each. The arm needed less than 25 milligrams to trip the automatic change mechanism, which bespeaks ex- Dual 1212, a three -speed automatic turn- EQUIPMENT: cellent balance and design in this area. Arm resonance table with integral arm. Dimensions (including arm occurred at 9 Hz and showed a 9 -dB rise-not the best and controls): 14 by 12 inches; top clearance extension in this regard but certainly reasonable for this class inches; bottom clearance, 31/2 inches. required, 4 of equipment. The built -in stylus force adjustment Price, less base: $79.50. Manufactured in West Ger- proved absolutely accurate; for settings of 1 to 4 on many; distributed in the U.S.A. by United Audio Prod- the dial, exactly those stylus forces were measured on Inc., Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022. ucts, 535 the laboratory gauge. Significantly, the Dual 1212 went through its paces fitted with the Shure V15 Type II, and it proved perfectly capable of handling a cartridge Dual's newest automatic player is its low- COMMENT: of this high quality. priced to date, but its performance and features est Some additional notes on using the 1212. Installa- clearly suggest its kinship with former, higher priced tion, on the base available from United Audio, is easy Duals. The 1212 is a three -speed model (33, 45, and and is recommended; it makes for a highly shock -proof each speed is adjustable by means of a 78 rpm); setup. The vertical tracking force exerted by the arm "pitch control" knob so that you can get on -the -nose will increase by 0.15 gram for a half -inch stack of rec- (or slight deviations from it, for special speed accuracy ords, which really is negligible. If you set the "pitch platter itself weighs 3 pounds, 2 purposes). The control" adjustment for exact speed at 33 rpm, you than previous Duals but well -balanced ounces -lighter will have to readjust it when switching to either of the running. and quiet- other two speeds (when set for exact speed at 33 rpm, arm is a well- designed lightweight metal type, The the platter spins about 2 per cent slow when switched fitted at the pivot end with an adjustable, damped to 45 rpm, and about 1 per cent slow when switched and at the pickup end with a remov- counterweight, to 78 rpm). However, the strobe disc supplied will en- that makes it fairly easy to install a car- able platform able you to readjust for exact speed at 45 and 78 rpm A gauge, supplied, helps you adjust the cartridge. readily. When inserting the long spindle, make certain for precise stylus overhang. To apply tridge position it sits securely in the center hole or else the records force you dial a knob over the arm pivot; this tracking piled on it will not slide down to the platter. knob also sets antiskating force automatically. A built - in arm latch and a cue control are included. CIRCLE 142 ON READER -SERVICE CARD The player comes with a short and long spindle, and a 45 -rpm single -play adapter. The short spindle handles one disc at a time and offers you the option of automatic or manual start. Either way, you can use the cue control for a very gentle lowering of the pickup onto the record. You also can interrupt play at any portion of the record and resume play as you please. At the end of the record the arm returns to its rest position and the machine shuts itself off. For stacking (up to six records) and automatic- sequence playing, you use the long spindle. As before, you still can use the cue control to interrupt and resume playing of a record at will. The cycling, automation, and cueing all are very smooth and foolproof. The Dual 1212's rumble was measured at 57 dB by the CBS Laboratories ARRL method -this is a better- Dual 1212 offers three speeds, automatic antiskating.

56 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com SHERWOOD'S TOP -OF- THE -LINE POWER DATA, Amplifier section STEREO FM RECEIVER Channels individually Left at clipping: 41.4 watts at 0.12% THD Left for O.35% THD: 45.1 watts Right at clipping: 44 watts at 0.16% THD THE EQUIPMENT: Sherwood S- 8800a, stereo FM re- Right for 0.35% THD: 16 watts ceiver. Dimensions: 161/2 by 41/4 by 14 inches. Price, Channels simultaneously less case: $399.50. Optional cases: wood, Model W8, left at clipping: 36.1 watts at 0.11% THD $28: leatherette, Type D, $9.00. Manufacturer: Sher- Right at clipping: 39.6 watts ar. O.09 < THD wood Electronic Laboratories, Inc., 4300 North Cali- fornia Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60618.

Power bandwidth for 1% THD: 14 Hz to 30 kHz. - -- Power bandwidth for 035% THD: 14 Hz to 14 kHz. COMMENT: Sherwood's current top -of -the -line stereo FM receiver combines a sensitive tuner with a clean, 0 high -powered control amplifier on a corn- medium- Frequency response. 1 -watt output: +0, -2 dB, 10 Hz to 30 kHz pact stylish chassis. The set may be custom -installed -5 in a cabinet cut -out, or inserted into an optional case 10 20 100 1K 10K 20K 100K for shelf placement. Inasmuch as a section of the FREQUENCY IN Hz chassis behind the front panel is exposed, one of the aforementioned installation methods seems a must for this set. In addition to high performance, the S -8800a offers an ample complement of features. The tuning dial has a pilot lamp, a zero- center tuning meter, and a stereo ó 3 FM indicator. To its right are the tuning and volume I M CHARACTERISTICS control knobs, the latter also doubling as the set's ó 2.5 4 ohm load: under 0.5% to 41 watts output , Below are: a level 2 - -- power off /on switch. phono con- 8 ohm load: under 0.5% to 24.5 watts output I 1.5 to watts output trol to adjust gain on the phono inputs, a hush level ° - - - --16 ohm load: under 0.5% 23 Í

1 aW0.5 01 3 4 5 10 20 30 40 50 100 POWER OUTPUT. WATTS

.Sherwoo /.s 5 -8800a offers a better tuner and amplifier 1.0 than former model in this firm's stereo receiver line. 0.5 40 WATTS OUTPUT ó 0 0.83 é, 40 Hz to 20 kHz. control to regulate the degree of muting of intersta- Left chi under ° - -- -Right chi under 0.83 %, 40 Hz to 20 kHz. tion noise, a signal selector knob (phono, FM, auxil- E iary), bass and treble tone controls which act on both channels simultaneously, a stereo channel balance HARMONIC DISTORTION CURVES control, a tape dubbing jack, stereo headphone jack, push buttons for mono /stereo, tape monitor, high fil- a 1 ter, loudness contour, main speakers off /on, and re- E 0.5 20 WATTS OUTPUT mote speakers off /on. The last two switches, in con- CC 0 junction with terminals at the rear, permit you to a Left ch under 0 62 %. 20 Hz to 20 kHz. connect two independent sets of stereo speakers to - -- -Right ch: under 0.52 %, 20 Hz to 20 kHz. the set and run either, both, or none as you opt. 20 50 100 300 500 1K 3K 5K 10K 20K There's yet another set of taps at the rear for running FREQUENCY IN Hz a separate mono speaker. The headphone jack is live all the time. Signal jacks at the rear correspond to the settings on the input selector; there's also a stereo pair of tape -feed jacks to drive a recorder, two AC convenience outlets, one switched; antenna terminals for both 75 -ohm and 300 -ohm lines; the set's fuse, power cord, and grounding post. The front panel RIAA EQUALIZATION: +0.5, -2 dB, 20 Hz to 20 kHz tape jack, incidentally, can be used together with the rear tape jacks to dub from one recorder to an- 50 100 300 500 1K 3K 5K 10K 20K other or to record simultaneously on two tape ma- FREQUENCY IN Hz chines. Both as tuner and amplifier, the S -8800a tested better than the last Sherwood receiver we covered, the S -7800 in March 1968. Both FM sensitivity and amplifier power are noticeably higher in the new model (see accompanying test data). In our cable FM test, the S -8800a logged a total of forty -five stations as compared to the thirty -eight pulled in with the S -7800. FM distortion, in the new set, is way down; stereo response is very linear; channel separation, ample. The amplifier section furnishes power high Agitate-It are revromc' to 50 11 z. left. mid to 10

AI'RIf. 1 969 57

www.americanradiohistory.com and dean enough to drive any type of speaker system; distortion measures very low across the band; fre- Sherwood S -8800a Additional Data quency response remains flat within 2 dB from below 20 Hz to beyond 20 kHz. Bass square -wave response Amplifier Section was average -good for a receiver, showing a normal roll -off; high frequency square -wave response was very Input characteristics Sensitivity S/N ratio good, indicating clean transient response. The magnet- phono 1.6 to 5.8 mV 58 dB ic phono input showed a better -than -average sensi- auxiliary 150 mV 71 dB tivity range, with a very good S/N ratio. Figures for tape monitor 350 mV 80 dB the other inputs were excellent. Damping factor 80 Its competent performance and ease of operation, particularly as regards its up front push -button ar- Tuner Section rangement for controlling multiple speaker setups, THD, mono should recommend the S -8800a to many stereo 0.19 °c at 400 Hz; 0.25% at buyers seeking a very good, all- around receiver. Sher- 40 Hz; 0.24% at 1 kHz wood, incidentally, also offers the same set with AM IM distortion 0.15% built in, as its new Model 7800 (now priced at $419.50). Capture ratio 2 dB

S/N ratio 68 dB CIRCLE 143 ON READER- SERVICE CARD THD, stereo left ch 0.24% at 400 Hz; 0.23% at

40 Hz; 0.39% at 1 kHz right ch 0.38 °0 at 400 Hz; 0.24 °o at

40 Hz; 0.38 °o at 1 kHz +5

0 19 -kHz pilot -51 dB -5 MONO FM RESPONSE: +4, -0 dB, 20 Hz to 17 kHz 38 -kHz subcarrier -43 dB

0- STEREO FM RESPONSE -5 Left channel: +2. -0.5 dB. 20 Hz to 18.5 kHz CO 0 co - -- Right channel +2, -0.5 dB, 20 Hz to 18.5 kHz Z -10 °-10 Ñ -15 CHANNEL SEPARATION IHF SENSITIVITY: 19 pV at 98 MHz (1.9 IN at 90 MHz; I9pVat f06 MHz) -Lett channel >35 dB at mid -frequencies; -20 ó -20 :20 d8, 20 Hz to 6 kHz 2-25 --Right channel: 1,40 dB at mid trequencies; r19pV -30 >20 dB, 20 Hz to 8 kHz á -30 -35 -40 40 -45 20 50 100 300 500 1K 3K 5K 10K 20K =-50 FREQUENCY IN Hz ó 10 102 103 104 105 RF INPUT. MICROVOLTS

NEW PREAMP IS SUPERLATIVELY SIMPLE: ceeded a few hundredths of one per cent across the audio band. Signal -to- noise, on all inputs, was ex- SIMPLY SUPERLATIVE cellent; the CC -2 is both quiet and distortion -free. The magnetic phono inputs are controlled by a rear - panel gain adjustment that lets you adjust the preamp -gain to suit a wide range of input signals, THE EQUIPMENT: CC -2 Model, a stereo preamplifier - from 2.1 to 5.8 millivolts, depending on the rated control unit. Dimensons: front panel, 121/2 by 4 output of the phono pickup in use. inches; depth behind, 9 inches. Price: $225. Manu- The measurements and data shown in the ac- facturer: C/M Laboratories, 327 Connecticut Ave., companying charts document the superior perform- Norwalk, Conn. 06854. ance of the CC -2: it is significant to note that they were obtained under the maximum loading conditions spelled out in the IHF amplifier standard -that is, COMMENT: It's fairly small, light in weight (10 with the preamp driving a load of 100K ohms and pounds), and it doesn't have many of the features 1,000 pFd. In practical terms, this means that the and flourishes usually associated with "deluxe" unit can be used with any length of signal cable be- components, but the C/M CC -2 preamp is one of the tween it and the power amp, without its specifica- very best audio front -ends we've yet tested. In elimi- tions being limited or degraded in the least. In this nating what its designers feel are seldom used con- sense, the CC -2 can lay claim to being a truly pro- trols, this preamp achieves a basic simplicity of func- fessional control unit, more so than many of its tion combined with superlative audio performance: fancier- looking contemporaries. extremely low, virtually nonmeasurable distortion at As for features, the CC -2 has a four -position input high signal levels over a very wide frequency range selector: phono, tuner, tape (amp), and auxiliary. A and under any condition of loading. mode control selects stereo, reverse stereo, mono The CC -2 is rated for 2 volts output per channel, (left plus right), right only, and left only. There's more than enough to drive any normal power or also a channel balance knob, and a volume control. basic amplifier. At this level, distortion never ex- Loudness contour is switchable at the user's option.

58 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com The unit also has a subsonic filter, a tape monitor function, bass and treble tone controls, and a sepa- CC -2 Preamp rate power off /on switch. The bass and treble knobs Additional Data operate on both channels simultaneously -which Maximum output: represent could the only criticizable limitation on the left channel clips at 10 V rms; 0.12% unit's functionalism, except that in our experience THD the owner of the kind of system in which a separate right channel clips at 8.6 V rms; 0.17% preamp of this quality would be used just about THD never makes use of the tone controls anyway. He in- Rated output (2 volts) variably leaves them in their flat positions kind of -a various inputs Sensitivity S/N ratio "nonfunction" which, in the CC -2, is emphasized by phono 2.1 to 5.8 mV the fact 60 to 67 dB that next to each tone control is a switch tuner 66mV 73 dB that cancels the tone controls and effectively removes tape (amp) 70 mV 73 dB them from the set's circuitry. For those who opt to auxiliary 67mV 73 dB

FREQUENCY RESPONSE, 2 VOLTS OUTPUT (full load)

+0. -1.5 db, 10 Hz to 100 kHz

10 100 1K 10K 100K FREQUENCY IN Hz

C/M Labs Model CC -2 preamp- control eschews seldom E 0.2 used controls hut offers professional -quality performance, IM CHARACTERISTIC (full load) ir ° 0.15 under 0.15% to 9 volts output: 0.02% at rated 2 volts output

use the controls, though, their action on both bass and treble ranges is perfect; the response curves for each start very close to the 1 kHz midfrequency and 1 2 3 4 rise or descend like textbook -ideal curves. The sub- 5 10 20 sonic filter is designed for very moderate effect, speci- OUTPUT IN VOLTS fied as 3 dB down at 20 Hz, and that's exactly how it performed under test. RIAA equalization is accurate within 2 dB over the 20 Hz to 20 kHz range. Square - wave response, to both bass and treble test frequen- HARMONIC DISTORTION, 2 VOLTS OUTPUT cies, is exemplary. -Left channel: less than 0.05 %. 20 Hz to 20 kHz --- Right channel: 0.04 %. 20 Hz to 20 kHz Outputs include a stereo pair of phono jacks for feeding signals to a power amplifier, and another 50 100 300 500 1K 3K 5K 10K 20K pair to send signals into a tape recorder. Three AC convenience outlets (two switched) are provided. The FREQUENCY IN Hz set is fused and is fitted with a heavy -duty power cord. Construction and detailing are of a high order. The CC -2, conceived as a no- frills but high -performing nerve center for a stereo system, achieves its design aims hands down. It strikes us as second to none in the separate preamplifier class of equipment.

CIRCLE 144 ON READER -SERVICE CARD

Response to 50-Hz square scare. +25

+20 BASS BOOST TREBLE BOOST-. +15 á+10 +5 LOUDNESS CONTOUR z 0 ° 5 SUBSONIC FILTER i-10L7 TREBLE 15 (BASS CUT Response to 10-kHz square wave. 20 TONE CONTROLS 25 LOUDNESS CONTROL, VOL. CONTROL AT 9 O'CLOCK SUBSONIC FILTER

20 50 100 300 500 1K 3K 5K 10K 20K REPORTS IN PROGRESS FREQUENCY IN Hz Heatlitkit AD-27 Compact System KLH -27 Receiver

APRIL 1969 59

www.americanradiohistory.com KENWOO 0 Triple Threat

Li S t A At O5 SPEAKERS A B SPEAKERS 4 6 POWER OFF PHONES 3 2 i 2 3 e STEREO PHONES OUTPUT VOLUME %BAI .ANC.F BASS TREBLE 4BC)Df

rJEf__ M r

Big Flywheel for Smooth Tuning Solid State Preamplifier Section

4 IC FM IF Stage

Input Transformerless Driver Circuit Silicon Power Transistor Amplifier Section and Heat Sink

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Once upon a time, stories like this came only from Hollywood: A handsome Brazilian piano prodigy America when he was thirteen dazzles Europe, then goes on to ( he won two years' study in Vienna, conquer America. And winds up with Bruno Seidlhofer) and culminated marrying Deanna Durbin by the end of in a recent European tour that amazed the fourth reel. Right after the even the toughest critics. (Take a look triumphal New York recital. at some of his reviews. ) Well, we can't tell you how Deanna Now he's ready to take on America, with Durbin would feel about Nelson Freire. his debut album on Columbia. A specially Or vice versa. priced two -record set. But we can tell you that everything Ordinarily, one record is standard in this 24- year -old virtuoso's practice for an introduction. But just like career has been of storybook in the movies, any young pianist proportions -endless series of this great doesn't get off the stage till triumphs that started in South he does a couple of encores.

2 RETORD Nelson Freire U.S. Debut Recording Tchaikovsky Grief Concerto No. I Concerto Schumann Liszt Concerto Rudolf Kempe Totentanz Munich Philharmonic "A young lion of the keyboard. "A phenomenal instru- . His tautly sprung rhythm, mentalist.... His talent is clarity of texture and terraced very great." dynamics suggested the -Het Vrije Volk, Amsterdam princely control of a "What taste, what artistic Michelangeli." refinement!" -The London Tines -Berliner Morgen post M2X 798 A specially priced 2- record set

Nelson Freire debuts on Columbia Records EM CIRCLE 11 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 62 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com OPERA ORCHESTRAL CHAMBER INSTRUMENTAL VOCAL

cJTHE NEW RELEASES

reviewed by R. D. DARRELL PETER G. DAVIS SHIRLEY FLEMING ALFRED FRANKENSTEIN CLIFFORD F. GILMORE HARRIS GOLDSMITH DAVID HAMILTON PHILIP HART BERNARD JACOBSON PAUL HENRY LANG STEVEN LOWE ROBERT P. MORGAN GEORGE MOVSHON CONRAD L. OSBORNE SUSAN THIEMANN SOMMER

FROM A RICH HERITAGE: THE ART OF BARITONE MATTIA BATTISTINI by Conrad L. Osborne

THESE TWO DISCS from Cantilena bring erations could approach. He demonstrates to eight the number of domestically re- this on these discs in the Thaïs scene leased LPs that have been devoted in with Janni and in the Favorisa duet with solo to the art of Mattia Battistini. These Cartonini -in both instances, he is modu- embrace three separate Eterna discs, one lating his tone and manner to duet re- from Scala (now Scala /Everest), one quirements, and the line is hauntingly from Olympus, and one in the Angel simple and beautiful. Of course, this sort COLH series. Of the roughly 110 sides of line underlies all his singing; there is recorded by Battistini from 1902 to a balance and a sense of being "on cen- 1923, some sixty -five are now on LP- ter" with the voice that never goes out and the number may be slightly higher of the vocalism. and the flashes of colora- when the count of single selections on tura, the refinement of the ornaments, such labels as FRP and TAP is taken. and the quick thrust and kick of the dra- No other "historic" baritone, not even matic passages all spring from that same Ruffo or Stracciari, has equaled this settled, poised position. representation on microgroove, and even I know that some listeners do not find among tenors only Caruso and Gigli the actual quality of the voice consistent- have surpassed it. There is justice in this, ly attractive. The bottom notes often for an excellent case can be made for present difficulty, especially on the late Battistini as the greatest baritone in the recordings. Beyond that, Battistini fre- history of recording. Certainly his legiti- quently makes use of a very open vowel mate competitors number no more than two of change due to age crops up on a coloring to secure a kind of dramatic four: Ruffo, Stracciari, Amato, and couple of the 1923 sides (hints only). but snarl, and often he gives the end of a top Magini -Coletti. the 1921 recordings, cut when Battistini note a sudden boot, increasing the volume It is true that certain aspects of his was sixty -five, are all but indistinguish- and driving it momentarily sharp by way performances must be viewed with the able vocally from his earliest discs. and of adding to the climax. This last habit charitableness of historical perspective. I suspect that were there 1890 Battis- strikes me more often than not as self - How could it be otherwise? Battistini tinis, they would show us very much the defeating, but I love the snarl, at least was born in 1856, and made his profes- same singer. It is really astonishing to in most contexts. and consider the utter. sional debut (as Alfonso in La Favori¡a) consider that a sixty- five -year -old man is unequivocal clarity of the Italian vowel in 1878; he thus represents a tradition of giving us the fluent, vibrant vocalism of sounds one of the great communicative performance as far removed from our the Maria di Rohan and Maria di Rtulenz values of his singing. The low -end weak- own as Edwin Booth's, for example. He arias, or that the youthful, dead -steady ness is bothersome on a few recordings, was fifteen to twenty years the senior of " Senza tetra, senza cuna" is the product but is quickly forgotten when he moves most of the singers we consider as the of a baritone who is sixty -seven and has into the middle and upper range. first recorded generation -indeed, the been singing professionally for forty - The basic sound has always seemed to only other widely recorded singer whose five years. me noble, all core and no fuzz, a lean, style represents that of the same era is Apart from this now incredible lon- manly tone. It remains virile even when Fernando de Lucia, in whose vocalism gevity, the thing that fascinates about he sings tenderly. and it remains beauti- we can hear the same rococo taste in Battistini is the unequaled fluidity of the ful even when he sings dramatically. And embellishment. the same rebellious atti- voice: its ability to spin a long sustained the ease and control, the rightness of tude towards tempo and dynamic mark- line and then turn into a full -voice function, is always there. Thar is beauti- ings and bar lines. We obey a stricter set bravura run or a sudden declamatory ex- ful. of aesthetic rules. but it is as preposter- plosion; its chameleonlike capacity for These Cantilena discs add considerably ous to censure the artistic preferences of coloristic and dynamic changes; the per- to our LP store of Battistini, despite a a century gone by as it is to censure the fect precision and spontaneity of the at- large number of duplications. This is handle -bar mustache or the hoopskirt. tack, in any part of the range and at any particularly true of 6211, which pulls There is no such thing as a recording volume. together an entire side of Donizetti, the of the young Battistini. The 1902 War- Although it was not part of his nor- three excerpts from Nouguès' Quo Vadis, saw sessions preserve the art of a bari- mal style to sing simply, he could do so and the fine Guarany song. High points tone nearly as old as Leonard Warren with a perfection of intonation and legato on the Donizetti side are the gorgeously at the time of the latter's death. It prob- sustention, and with a purity of vowel sung Don Sebastiano aria (this is, how- ably doesn't matter much. A hint or formation, that no singer of recent gen- ever, at least its fourth LP transfer) and

APRIL 1969 63

www.americanradiohistory.com the "Ambo nati "-a fine aria, memora- velous "poem of Ossian" leaves all others Hamlet: O vin, discaccia; Come il romito bly sung. There is also the aforementioned in the dust. I confess a sentimental at- fior. Rossini: Guglielmo Tell: Resta im- Favorita duet and the Maria di Ro /tan tachment: this recording (backed by the mobile. Berlioz: Damnation de Faust: arias, which are not very distinguished "Vision fuggitiva," still untransferred so Su queste rose. Massenet: Roi de Lahore: music but are sensationally performed. far as I know), along with the Ruffo O casto fior. Thais: D'acqua aspergimi. The Quo Vadis is lousy stuff as music Credo backed by the Ruffo /Caruso "Si Werther: Ma dopo come il nembo; Ah! -one hears the origin of many a trave- pel ciel" was a Christmas present when I non mi ridestar. Rubinstein: Nerone: logue soundtrack -but it is knowledge- was twelve or thirteen, when I com- Epitalamio. ably written to exploit vocal effects, and plained to my father that our collection it is here magnificently sung. The re- included no great baritones (Tibbett and Attilia Janni, soprano, (in Thais); Mattia corded sound is also exceptionally fine Werrenrath didn't qualify by the high Battistini, baritone; pianos; orchestras for the period: except for some of the standards i then maintained). I suppose I (from originals recorded 1907 -21). CAN- COLH selections, no other transfers give have played it two hundred times. TILENA 6210, $5.95 (mono only). us so good a sense of the voice's pres- Each of the available LPs holds its ence. The disc closes with the impossi- own attractions. The high technical qual- Donizetti: Don Sebastiano: O Lisbona. bly had Cocchi piece. again so excitingly ity of the COLH disc, which also offers Maria di Rudenz: Ah non area più sung that one's reaction is a mixture of a solid cross -section of Battistini's re- lagrime. La Favorita: Al,! l'alto ardor. horror. amusement, and exhilaration. cordings, makes it hard to resist, and no Linda di Chamounix: Ambo nati in Cantilena 6210 is perhaps not quite so lover of great singing should be without questa valle; Un buon servo. Maria di valuable. The quality of the transfers the complete series of five Ernani ex- Rohan: Voce fatal di morte; Bella è di is more uneven, and nearly all the ma- cerpts, all assembled in sequence on the vestita. Verdi: Macbeth: Pietà, rispetto, terial is available in at least one other Olympus release. As for myself, I own amore. Marchetti: Ruy Blas: A' miei LP incarnation, notably on Eterna. But seven of the eight LPs, and am still rivali cedere. Gomez: N Guarany: Senza this combination may be attractive to awaiting transfer of some of the songs teto, senza cuna. Nouguès: Quo Vadis: collectors missing most of the selections, and of the Faust excerpts. Errar snl'ampio rear; O Febea pur essa; and the disc is justified by the first LP Amica, L'ora attesta. Cocchi: Per la transfer of the exquisite "Ah! non mi patria: Bella Italia. ridestar." Purists will be horrified -a MATTIA BATTISTINi: Vocal Re- French tenor aria sung in Italian by a citals Cartonini, soprano (in La Favorita); baritone. But Battistini was famous for Maria Moscisca, soprano (in Linda di his interpretation of Werther in a re- Hérold: Zampa: Perchè tremar? Flotow: Cltamounix); Mattia Battistini, baritone; written version (Massenet not only didn't Marta: Povero Lionello. Meyerbeer: pianos; orchestras (from originals re- sue, he did the rewriting), and so far as L'Africana: Figlia dei regi; Quando amor corded 1902 -21). CANTILENA 6211, $5.95 I am concerned, this version of the mar- m'accende; A verla tanto atnato. Thomas: (mono only).

NEW MUSIC FOR SOLO TROMBONE -AND FOR VIRTUOSO TROMBONIST by Robert P. Morgan

ONE OF THE MOST characteristic aspects of recent musical composition has been a renewed interest in virtuosity - not, to be sure, the kind of virtuosity associated with nineteenth- century music but a new kind concerned primarily with the exploitation of as many different timbral possibilities of a given instrument as are capable of being realized. One side effect of this has been a spate of works for unaccompanied solo instruments un- precedented in music history. Even the baroque period, during which there was some interest in this genre, must take a second place to the present development. To date, the flute, clarinet, and violin literature has particularly profited, but this DGG record now at hand reveals that the trombone has also been reached. Con- sidering the sparsity of solo literature for this instrument, the development must bring joy to every trombonist interested in a concert career. The earliest of these pieces is Berio's Sequenza of 1966, which establishes the principle techniques and sets the tone for all the other works. The main innovation is the use of vocal sound both independently of the traditional trombone sound and in combination with it, the latter producing a kind of polyp'lony reminiscent of the use of "multiple stops" in recent woodwind music. Different kinds of Vi nko Globokar, a onetime composition student of René Leibowitz and Luciano sound or color are also produced through Berio, now records his own Discours II and works by Berio and Stockhausen. a variety of mutes and by stamping the

64 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com feet, blowing air into the instrument Bettmann Archive while manipulating the plunger, etc. All of this is handled with the kind of flair one has come to expect of Berio, and the piece is most effective in the present recording. It is undoubtedly even more so when it is performed in concert, as the work also includes dramatic gestures designed to evoke the memory of the great clown Grock, whom Berio knew and admired as a child. Carlos Roqué Alsina's Consecuenza (note the title in relation to Berio's!) is similar in its use of these instrumental techniques but to me seems much less interesting in the way in which it ex- ploits them. More successful and original is trombonist Globokar's own Discours I/ for five trombones, here presented in a version in which Globokar first recorded the four accompanying parts in succes- sion and then played the solo part over The I tcke of Chandos: not quite Louis them. Globokar's main interest is in the Quatorzc-but a pretty busy emulator. gradual gradation from pure speech through the sounds of vowels and conso- nants to singing and ultimately to the trombone sound itself. The results are HANDEL'S CHANDOS ANTHEMS: CEREMONIAL MUSIC fascinating and the work is undoubtedly a highly effective concert piece. THAT MAKES A GLORIOUS SOUND Finally, in Stockhausen's Solo. a technique is used whereby the trombonist's performance is recorded as the piece pro- by Paul Henry Lang gresses and then played back to him through loudspeakers after a time lag WHILE LITTLE KNOWN elsewhere. Han - national Italian opera composer who during which the music has been manip- del's Chandos Anthems. written for that could beat the Italians at their ulated electronically. The soloist must own embezzler extraordinary. the Duke of game. But now he was faced with the continue playing the piece but he must Chandos, were always very popular in necessity of producing something quite also react to his own performance as it is England. and are rightly considered different: English ceremonial music returned to him in altered form. The ef- for among the most magnificent psalm the elite. It is almost incredible how fect must be remarkable in concert, but in settings in the entire literature. Chandos, quickly he absorbed the tone and gesture a recorded version it loses much of its grown rich by manipulating army funds, of this quintessentially English genre; point. Consequently, Stockhausen decided had the age's Versailles itch: since every Purcell's heritage was very to add a "commentary" to the recorded his with the nobleman wanted to emulate Louis XIV, first anthem. version and to this purpose selected ma- he built a great palace and of course The terni "ceremonial music" is terial from the electronic portion of the the instituted a ducal chapel: and since Louis one to use, because these anthems, second Region of his work Hym nee, had a celebrated court composer. Lully. written to grace particular occasions, which was then superimposed over the re- the Duke had to follow suit, and thereby are not truly church corded version of the original piece. Hym- music but are installed Handel, already well known secular in feeling, whether rousing or nen consists largely of a sort of montage as an opera composer. By that time introspective. Listen to the predomi- of fragments of well -known national an- (c. 1717 -20) there was little left in nantly quiet and intimate charm As thems, and since the second Region deals of Handel of the German cantor's art in pants the hart, primarily with Deutschland iiber Alles, the second of the two which he was reared; he was an inter- anthems in this recording. this is what we get here. Its appearance. Listen to the even in this fragmented form. makes a strange intrusion and one that really doesn't come off. If the trombone piece doesn't work in recorded form. then perhaps it simply shouldn't be recorded. A word should be said about Mr. Glo- bokar's performances, which are nothing short of spectacular. Once again. one unquestionably loses a lot by hearing them only in recorded form: they really should be seen. and 1 am told that Globokar's histrionic talents are considerable. But even so, the sense of virtuosity communi- cated here is irresistible. The performer also supplies the excellent jacket notes.

VINKO GLOBOKAR: Music for Solo Trombone

Globokar: Discours H. Berio: Sequenza V. Stockhausen: Solo. Alsina: Conse- cuenza.

Vinko Globokar, trombone. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 137005, $5.79. Conductor David Willcocks: this music he hu.% in his very bones.

APRIL 1969 65

www.americanradiohistory.com exquisite melancholy of "Tears are my daily food." or to the tenor as he tenderly "pours out his heart "; this is Eng- lish pastoral in excelsis. Towards the end, Handel suddenly strikes a serious, even probing, tone in a duet, "Why so full of grief." He concentrates on the question, asking with growing insistence "Why ?" "Why ?" -the single word assuming urgency but the question being left unanswered. Even the choruses are held to intimate proportions, and there is a delicate, almost dainty, fugue the like of which can be found nowhere else Tenor Eric Tappy as Orfeo. in the choral literature. The other anthem recorded here, The ORFEO TRUE MUSIC -DRAMA, Lord is my light, is of more royal dimen- MONTEVERDI'S -A sions. Apparently by the time of its com- NOW COMPLETE AND IN STEREO position the Duke's musical establishment had been strengthened and the by Bernard Jacobson future oratorio composer could exert his full choral might. Here Handel does fall back intermittently on the cantor's THIRTY -FIVE YEARS separate Monteverdi's With regard to the important matter art by using a choralelike cantus firmus. first opera. Orfeo (1607), from his last, of stylistic authenticity, the similarities Always stimulated by expressive or pic- L'Incoronazione di Poppea (1642). They are -surprisingly, in view of the time that turesque words, he now composes a large were years in which opera developed separates the performances -more striking tonal mural. "Though an host of men from the newest toy of a pampered and than the differences. Both contain about were laid against me" -one can fairly pampering court into an established form the same quantity of embellishment. For might have see the clash of hostile forces. At the of entertainment, with tried means of my taste, just a fraction more words "The earth trembled," the music dramatic and musical characterization, been preferable, but all the decisions shakes, while in the great closing fugue, capable of making its way in the pro- made by Wenzinger and Corboz are "They are brought down and fall," the fessional theater. Along the way, Mon- entirely defensible, and from a positive sinuous chromatic melody illustrates the teverdi himself learned not only how to standpoint, what ornamentation there is words with almost graphic intensity. Yet achieve effects of music -drama unparal- has been tastefully conceived and skill- this is not program music; everything leled before Mozart in their intensity and fully executed. makes perfect musical sense even with- human truth, but also how to make do In matters of instrumentation, Corboz out the words. Between the great with modest instrumental resources tai- is rather closer to Monteverdi's detailed choruses there are delectable solo num- lored to commercial needs, instead of the and complex requirements. Like Wen - bers, in some of them the recorders luxurious array of variegated tone zinger, he uses cornetti and recorders; contributing to the pastoral tone. This colors that court festivities could provide but unlike him, he also provides the full is glorious music that should be better and pay for. brass complement of five baroque trum- known. Yet if L'Incoronazione stands as his pets and five trombones. His vast con- The performance here of As pants greatest, most economical, most aston- tinuo section, comprising two organs and the hart is a model of how this music ishingly modern theatrical work- indeed, a regal, two harpsichords, three violas da should be interpreted, and I suppose it as the greatest work in the first half of gamba, three archlutes, an archcittern, takes an all- English cast to give it the operatic history -still it is amazing how a double -bass, and a harp, falls short of right accents. Willcocks has it in his large a proportion of its qualities is al- the list implied by Monteverdi's score bones, but then he is also an unusually ready present in Orfeo. Many later corn - only by the negligible margin of one fine musician. All conductors could learn posers have essayed the tempting Or- archcittern. Unlike Wenzinger, on the from him how to tame the bass in a pheus theme: none of them, not even other hand, Corboz has not gone to the "bottom- oriented" baroque composition; Gluck, has come even within hailing dis- length of insisting on two violini piccoli the big bass fiddles never rumble, never tance of the touching expressiveness and in the one ritornello where the composer cover the other parts, and when they the inexhaustible musical beauty and va- asks for them. enter in a fugal passage they are as clear riety that Monteverdi conjured out of The Lausanne group's exhaustive col- and nimble as the violins. The chorus Alessandro Striggió s brilliantly fashioned lection of winds and plucked strings un- is well balanced and sings crisply. Ian libretto. doubtedly enhances much of the music in Partridge may not have a great voice So there ought always to be a good precisely the way Monteverdi envisaged. but he more than compensates with his recording of Orfeo in the catalogue. Wenzinger's orchestra, however, aided by fine stylistic sense and impeccable enun- Wenzinger's mono -only Archive version some faster tempos and a less resonant ciation: a cultivated artist. April Cantelo has done duty for more than ten years. acoustic, generally succeeded in making is charming in As pants the hart, though Whether by luck or by judgment, the tuttis sound more Monteverdian. Corboz in the other anthem she struggles a little. very week it was deleted from the lists, allows his string players to use too much The Lord is my light, while still well this Musical Heritage Society set arrived vibrato, and his chorus too is less incisive done, is less successful, with the long - for review. Originally recorded by Erato than Wenzinger's. drawn choralelike melodies suffering in Europe, it comes in a box with useful In the important matter of complete- from the boys' immature and glassy notes by Denis Stevens. accompanied by ness, the new set has it over the old one voices. The sound is exemplary, and complete text and translation. The opera all the way. Leaving aside the question there are excellent notes by Charles occupies five sides, and the sixth is taken of the chorus "Lasciate i monti" and its Cudworth. up by an excellent performance of half a succeeding ritornello, where the require- dozen comparatively unfamiliar pieces ments of the score are not fully clear, from the posthumous Ninth Book of Corboz gives us the work absolutely HANDEL: Chandos Anthems: The madrigals. complete. In one or two places, where Lord is my light; As pants the hart Since the Archive set is no longer his own musical judgment may well be 1.I available, detailed comparisons might right, he even repeats ritornellos when he April Cantelo, soprano; Ian Partridge, seem academic. Nevertheless, Wenzinger not specifically asked to do so, and the opening tenor; Andrew Davis, organ; Choir of has provided the standard for so long that follows the direction to play King's College, Cambridge: Academy some estimate of the similarities and dif- Toccata three times -Wenzinger's once - point sounded very of St. Martin -in- the -Fields, David Will - ferences between the two versions must through at this initial are there any of the cocks, cond. ARGO ZRG 541, $5.79. be attempted. perfunctory. Nor

66 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com fourth- and fifth -act cuts that disfigured interpretatively unstylistic or evcn un- the older version. orthodox, but rather that the particular Turning now to the singers, I have to variety of eclecticism they introduce acts acknowledge that several small roles were as tonic for the immense musical nutri- more strongly taken in the Archive per- CLASSICAL ents contained in the notation. formance. Countertenor Bernhard Mi- Entremont gives a good account of chaelis was particularly good as the First himself here. Tonally, his work is mod- Shepherd; Horst Günter was a much erately restricted, but it is neither bleak- better Plutone than Jakob Stämpfli, who ly percussive nor overromantically in- slovenly flected. His freewheeling, declamative turns in an uncharacteristically BARBER: Concerto for Violin and performance; and the twenty- five -year -old extroversion fits in well with Bernstein's Orchestra, Op. 14 similarly debonair point of view. If both Fritz Wunderlich did some lovely things Concerto for Violin and Shepherd, and Second tMilhaud: artists miss a few niceties here and as Apollo, Second Orchestra, No. 2 Spirit- though he was also occasionally there, it must be pointed out that their members generalized method for the most part careless, and, like other German Bernard, violin; Orchestre Na- to the Claire pays handsome dividends. of the Archive cast, succumbed tional de l'Opéra de Monte Carlo, of pronouncing the syllable For Concerto No. 3, I am still most provincialism Edouard van Remoortel, cond. WORLD "que" as though there were a "v" in it. tmoved by Peter Serkin's raptly introspec- SERII'.S PHC 9105, $2.49. Archive's Speranza and Messenger, both tive reading with Ozawa and the Chicago sung by Jeanne Deroubaix, were more r,Symphony for RCA, but the Entremont/ Although I have never previously thought Bernstein treatment of No. 2 is quite as impressive than their successors. but the widely played Violin Con- of Barber's powerful and communicative as the su- new Euridice, Proserpina, and Spirit of work. Mlle. Bernard certo as a major perb Wehner'Ferencsik /Westminster per- Music are excellent. and her associates are obviously of that formance. Columbia's sound is ultra - It is Eric Tappy's Orfeo, however, that they are very opinion -and convincing acute and boasts razor -sharp definition. finally absolves any regrets and raises the about it. The rich, melodious lyricism of Everything. though. tends to emanate Musical Heritage performance to the piece at least of its first two the -or from the same vantage point (i.e., right level of real inspiration. Helmut Krebs movements marvelously wrought -is on top of the microphone); I prefer the was good, but Tappy is even better. His here. These performers make it sound RCA, in which just as much detail voice is wonderfully fresh and youthful, like a cross between Copland and emerges but from various localities in a his breath control magnificent (many Puccini, if that can be imagined; if you large hall. In words, disc long phrases in the florid aria "Possente can't imagine it, listen to this record. But other on that one finds depth as well brilliance. spirto" are taken in one unbroken the perpetuum mobile finale is, regretta- as sweep), his Italian diction idiomatic, his bly, not up to the heights of what goes H.G. musicianship impeccable, and his imagi- before. nation always at work and often pro- The Concerto by Milhaud overside is foundly affecting. very elegant, very reserved, very violin - BARTOK: Sonata for Two Pianos At one place in Act III -the moment istic, and a little dull. It is not, in my and Percussion when Charon falls asleep and Orfeo opinion, one of its composer's most note- tPoulenc: Sonata for Two Pianos steals his boat -singer and recording worthy achievements, although the (1953) engineers have conspired to provide a opening of its slow movement is a page real and thoroughly appropriate theatrical worth waiting for in anybody's music. Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir, pi- thrill. So as not to waken the ferryman, A.F. anos; James Holland, Tristan Fry, per- Tappy really whispers his lines, and yet cussion (in the Bartók). LONDON CS at the same time he manages to produce 6583, $5.79. genuine singing tone: and at the end of BARTOK: Concertos for Piano and the scene. his voice can be heard quite /Orchestra: No. 2 (1931/32); No. 3 Whether because of the recording, the clearly receding across the river. (1945) instruments, or the playing. Bartók's mas- Similarly, in the last act, Theo Alt - terpiece has rarely sounded as tame as in meyer's well -sung Apollo makes a very Philippe Entremont, piano; New York this performance. Such a limited dynamic effective descent from heaven, and re- Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. range, such monotony of tonal color in ascends with Orfeo no less effectively. COLUMBIA MS 7145, $5.79. the pianos leaves the work quite without As I have indicated, this performance profile, although the percussion is well has its weaknesses. But they are negligible It seems strange that the Second Bartók played and recorded with exceptional beside its musical, stylistic, and technical Piano Concerto was once deemed radical clarity. virtues. And Eric Tappy's glorious Orfeo and forbidding. Radical though it un- Similar failings appear in the Poulenc, suggests that Deutsche Grammophon, doubtedly is, it sounds today quite as ap- but since its amiable garrulity hardly in its search for a lyric tenor to succeed proachable as the allegedly accessible explores the extremes of the other work, Wunderlich, has been looking in the Third Concerto. Possibly the present per- the problem is not as serious. Eden and wrong place. formances may have a part to play in this Tamir make some notable departures equalizing process, for both Bernstein and from the printed score, including addi- Entremont, rather than pursuing the tional measures in the last movement, MONTEVERDI: Orfeo; Madrigals, strictly Bartókian elements of either which presumably come from an authen- Book IX (excerpts) piece, tend to lay stress on the modes of tic source (perhaps from Gold and Fiz- expression that Bartók so adroitly as- dale, to whom the piece is dedicated and Wally Stämpfli (s). La Musica: Laura similated into his own unique vocabu- whose recording is no longer available ?): Sarti (s), Messenger; Juliette Bise (s), lary. In the Adagio of Concerto No. 2, possibly the reduced dynamics and in- Proserpina; Margrit Conrad (s), Speran- for example, Bernstein's strings phrase creased tempo (half again as fast as za; Magali Schwartz (ms), Euridice; with involvement and with a romantic indicated) of the opening pages have Eric Tappy (t), Orfeo; Theo Alt - inflection that exposes an uncanny kin- similar authority. The language here is meyer (t), Apollo; Jakob Stämpfli (b), ship to the central section of Hinde- that of Stravinsky, the subject matter Plutone; François Loup (bs), Caronte; mith's Mathis der Maler. Again, in Con- rather less substantial, and the most Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble of certo No. 3, Bernstein capitalizes on successful movement is the Andante Lausanne; Edward H. Tarr Brass En- bits of Bartók's brass writing to the de- Lyrico, with its graceful theme the sub- semble; Michel Corboz, cond. Baroque gree that they extend beyond the realm ject of antiphonal discourse (stereo sep- Quartet of Geneva (in the Madrigals). of Ravel's jazzy G major Concerto of aration is quite good, incidentally). Per- MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY MHS 939/ 1932 into the vernacular of Strike up haps someone can tell me what the theme 41, $7.50 (three discs). Available by mail the Band. Do not misunderstand me, of the Epilogue is derived from? D.H. only from Musical Heritage Society, 1991 though: I do not want to suggest that Broadway, New York, N.Y, 10023. these splendidly alive performances are Continued on pate 70

APRIL 1969 67

www.americanradiohistory.com by David Hamilton Anyone for Furtwängler's 1942 Beethoven Ninth

WILHELM FURTWAENGLER never made a studio recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. After the conductor's death in 1954, his widow consented to the commercial issue of the concert performance that had reopened the Bayreuth Festival in 1951, a performance generally recognized as unique and especially characteristic, if also slightly flawed in detail. More recently, the Russian MK label issued another Furtwängler concert recording of the Ninth -evidently "liberated" from the Berlin radio archives -but, for one reason or another, this set (two records, with a 1943 performance of the Brahms Haydn Variations on the odd side) was never officially exported to the West, although individual copies have filtered through. Last year a "semiprivate" dubbing of that set-on a label ---- called Unicorn -brought wider circulation of this performance, which apparently stems from Berlin Philharmonic concerts of March 22/24, 1942. Now Everest, which seems to have con- tacts, if not exactly diplomatic relations, with the Soviet Union, has dubbed it again, this time on one record and in fake stereo. Since Furtwängler's slow tempos are proverbial, you may well wonder how Everest managed to fit this Ninth onto a single disc. Well, the engineers began by suppressing the first repeat in the Scherzo (Furtwängler didn't make the second one), thereby saving some time and incidentally bypassing a spot where half a measure is missing in the original material. Then they ran the whole thing a semitone sharp, thereby getting it in under the wire at sixty -nine minutes. (Actually. the Scherzo seems to be even a bit sharper, so that I can't get it down to pitch with the three per cent speed adjustment on the Thorens turntable.) Since the original recording already labored under severe difficulties -low fidelity AM- quality sound, with weak bass, poor balance. distortion in heavily scored passages, a touch of wobble (slightly more pronounced in Everest's version). and a high quota of bronchial participation from the audience -this is obviously an item whose appeal will be restricted to admirers of Furtwängler's conducting. If you don't already \/ know the 1951 Bayreuth recording (Angel GRB 4003). by all Drawing by Lisl Steiner means start with that then, if you are really impressed. you will find the 1942 version a fascinating supplement, for it is a rather different performance. In general, the orchestral playing is not as good, although double exposition (concerto fashion, with the voices as "soloist ") the fourth horn does not suffer from the jitters that apparently combined with theme- and -variations has been rounded out by overcame his Bayreuth opposite number at a critical moment the themes return following the orchestral double fugue. On in the slow movement. The soloists in the Finale are not bad, this particular occasion, Furtwängler compounded the structural despite a scrappy cadenza with the soprano giving out at the problem with a really frantic reading of the fugue, which makes end; too, for some reason Anders fails to sing the end of his the main theme's return seem even more weighty and final - solo, vanishing shortly after the choral entry. The Bruno Kittel but the coda is still a long way off. Choir sounds quite good (the performance was given in It's too bad that this important document has been issued honor of their fortieth anniversary), despite variable balance in such a careless and casual fashion; the "perfect Furtwäng- in the recording, which never quite recaptures the impact of lerite" would be well advised to lay hands upon the Unicorn their first entry on "Freurde!" edition, which is complete, monophonic, and properly pitched. Furtwängler's reading is tenser, at times more exaggerated However, it's nice to know that this performance of March than in 1951, but still impressively coherent for most of its 1942 will give some pleasure to many who had the good length. I particularly like the first movement, which is faster fortune to be far from Berlin at that point in history. and more uniformly paced as well as more strongly accented (note the way that certain timpani downbeats are singled out Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, in D minor, Op. 125 for stress). The slow movement -very, very slow -is also ( "Choral ") beautifully controlled, with much subtle phrasing in the violin elaborations. Less successful is the Scherzo (faster than 1951 Tilla Briem, soprano; Elisabeth Hängen, mezzo; Peter Anders. and somewhat ragged), and the latter part of the Finale fails tenor; Rudolf Watzke, bass; Bruno Kittel Choir; Berlin Phil- to hang together -a problem partly of Beethoven's making, for harmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. EVEREST the piece becomes very episodic after the brilliant device of 3241, $4.98 (rechanneled stereo only).

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www.americanradiohistory.com Continued fron? page 67 the two works common to both records, the Chausson and Ravel. As might be BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7, in E expected, Oistrakh's violinism itself if. (Original Version) better suited to the virtuosic fireworks of the Ravel Tzigane, capturing a great deal Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, of the gypsy quality of that score. Gru- LET cond. RCA RED SEAL LSC 3059, $5.98. miaux excels in the moody subtleties of the Chausson Poème, probing its intro- Fortunately there is no lack of good verted sensitivity and arriving at the dra- BUYERJ3 Bruckner Sevenths. so I shall not regale matic climax much more effectively than readers with a detailed list of this new Oistrakh, who tends to play each passage version's failings. more for its own effect than as part of a It must be said that the sound quality whole. is no help. In place of Columbia's big, In the recording of Grumiaux's Vieux - bright, overglossy sonics, RCA has gone temps and Oistrakh's Saint -Saëns the CAVEAT EMPTOR to the other extreme. This is a sadly same kind of sonic appropriateness is in subfuse recording. I turned the level up evidence. And, again, we have from The Roman phrase "Caveat step by step until the volume was beyond Oistrakh a display of virtuosity, from the Emptor" cautions purchaser endurance, and still I was unable to Grumiaux a musical sensitivity that ranks to examine the article he is buy- obtain any sense of bite or immediacy _his performance with those of Frances - ing, and act on his own judg- from this disc. catti and Stern, if without their techni- ment, and at his own risk! We But the performance itself deserves no cal fireworks. P.H. print it here as a reminder to better. It contrives to be brash and feeble you, hopefully a happy owner of at the same time. Ensemble and attack a Shure Stereo Dynetics cart- are merely approximate, the brasses CHOPIN: Polonaises ridge, that the superior per - rarely sustain properly, and the strings formance of all Shure cartridges sound distressingly nerveless and un- No. 1, in C sharp minor, Op. 26, No. depends upon the Shure Stereo involved. 1; No. 2, in E flat minor, Op. 26, Dynetic Stylus assembly-and Rosbaud on Turnabout continues to No. 2: No. 3, in A, Op. 40, No. 1 be alas, there are indeed imita- my first recommendation, closely ( "Military "); No. 4, in C minor, Op. followed tions. by Solti and Walter. B.J. 40, No. 2; No. 5, in F sharp minor, 6, A May we caution you that an in- Op. 44; No. in flat, Op. 53; No. 7, in A flat, Op. 61 ("Polonaise - ferior replacement stylus can fantaisie"). audibly detract from and signif- CHAUSSON: Poème, Op. 25 icantly reduce the cartridge's tRavel: Tzigane Concerto for Adam Harasiewicz, piano. WORLD SERIES performance, and increase rec- tVieuxtemps: Violin PHC 9087, $2.50. ord wear. Obviously, if an imita- and Orchestra, No. 4, in D minor, Op. 31 tion Stereo Dynetic stylus is Not to be bettered -even by itself- used, we cannot guarantee that Arthur Grumiaux, violin: Lamoureux World Series comes forth with a second the cartridge will perform to Orchestra, Manuel Rosenthal, cond. bargain edition of the six standard Chopin in the published specifications. Ac- PHILIPS PHS 900195, $5.79. Polonaises. And whereas Cziffra cept no substitute. older release gave us those six only. this Adam CHAUSSON: Poème, Op. 25 new one by young Harasiewicz tRavel: Tzigane throws in the great Polonaise- fantaisie for tSaint -Säens: Havanaise, Op. 83; In- good measure. Fortunately. Harasiewicz' versions LOOK FOR THIS troduction and Rondo capriccioso, are Op. 28 as good as Cziffra's were bad. The Hun- WORDING ON THE BACK garian pianist. as I noted in my review of OF PACKAGE Igor Oistrakh, violin: Moscow Radio the previous collection, was at his very Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozh- destvensky. cond. MELOnivA /ANGEL SR THIS DYNETIC 40077, $5.79. STYLUS IS PRECISION MANUFACTURED BY The near -simultaneous release of this pair of discs featuring two equally cele- SHURE BROTHERS, INC. brated but artistically very different violin virtuosos affords a particularly apt demonstration of the way in which mod- It is your assurance tnat the ern recording techniques are used to stylus you buy will enable your complement the individual style of a cartridge to perform up to given performer. /Angel Shure standards ... incompa- The Melodiya recording has a forthright. almost brash. in rable Shure standards, that 's. ambience every respect -from a super -closeup view INSIST ON of the soloist to the detailed stereo sound of a rather rough orchestra -a perfect complement to the aggressive and extroverted style of Igor Oistrakh, The Philips REPLACEMENT STYLI disc, on the other hand, presents Arthur Grumiaux's aristocratic performance with SHURE BROTHERS, INC. a spatial detachment and sonic diffusion 222 Hartrey Ave., Evanston, tiIinóis 60204 that are equally valid phonographically Manufactured Under One or More of the Following and totally appropriate to this player's U. S. Patents and Other Patents Pending. artistic conception. Both recordings, it 2,983,516, 3.055,986, 3,077,521, 3.077,522, D 183.356, D 186,168, D 187,229, D 187,230, seems to me, are completely successful, D 186,144, D 193,008, 0 193,007, D 193.854, each in its own way. Adan? Harasiewicz offers much to cherish D 193.934. The touchstones here, of course, are in his subtle and intelligent pianism. CIRCLE 60 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 70 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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www.americanradiohistory.com worst in these pieces, combining a woe- Pierre Henry, one of the pioneers of em-mmmk1()r. fully contrived, excessively flashy Lisztian electronic composition, seems to have bravura with a bloodless tone and fitful recorded the door sounds "straight," :key rubato. In a way. Harasiewicz' interpre- without electronic alteration. It must Z.00I tations are much akin to those of Peter have been a veritable cathedral organ of Frankl in the excellent two -disc Vox set a door -probably the massive oak portal of the complete Polonaises. Both these of an ancient French barn, with huge young artists bring to these pieces pol- bronze hinges -and Henry demonstrates ished techniques geared more towards ele- great virtuosity in playing on it, with ie en gance and precision than towards the the result that it produces an incredible monumentalism of a Rubinstein or Mal - range of sounds: light glissandos; long cuzynski, and both are thoroughly "mod- chains of perfectly even dots of noise, ern" in offering the music itself, without like a beautifully played scale on the EtffLk(,? much chest -heating rhetoric or other piano; sounds full of air; sounds full of heart -on- sleeve editorial comments. This tension; sounds resembling those of or- is not to say that either Frankl or Har- chestral instruments; sounds like the end asiewicz is lacking ideas -far from it, of the world. 11975r, particularly in Harasiewicz' case -but As opposed to the infinite resources of only that they share a marked tendency that magnificent door, Henry uses his to present the structural movement with other sounds sparingly and entirely in as little fuss as possible. A little bit of electronic disguise; voice or saw may Frankl or Harasiewicz sounds really love- have produced them once, but here they ly and impressive, but what one longs sound mostly like delicate, distant bells, for after a whole discful of either's play- often with the remarkable ability to raise ing is accent: everything tends to be too their pitch by a sliding octave or two subtle and unified, with the music's sur- after they have been struck and their face silken- smooth but its bone structure tone is dying away. a bit too slender and diminutive. The F That a composer can make you sit for TOUJAY TOWER sharp minor masterpiece, possibly Cho - the better part of an hour enthralled A collection of exciting vertical styles in all pin's most primitive and fierce creation, periods. Traditional Towers are available in with the sounds of a squeaky door and a many different decorator finishes and also sounds too cool, and for all his liberties few bell -like effects is altogether aston- as kits. with the score, this tour de force is really ishing, but Henry has brought it off. V Horowitz' private preserve. Similarly, the This is a long piece consisting for the big A flat "Heroic" work, the Polonaise most part of single, isolated sounds. It J No. 6, Op. 53, virtually belongs to Rubin- bears no relationship to melody, har- stein. mony, counterpoint, or rhythm; it has In the small pieces, though, there is a emancipated music from everything but great deal to cherish in the subtle, intel- finesse and sensibility, of which it is en- ligent work of Frankl and Harasiewicz. tirely compounded, and it is a master- Of the two, I would give the edge to piece. The twenty -five short variations Harasiewicz on the basis of his slightly are provided with titles like "Slumber," more volatile way of turning a phrase. "Gestures," "Fever." "Wrath," and "Snor- He brings a limpid, pearly touch to these ing," but this is nonsense and should be MULTI -CUBE pages, and often links his paragraphs to- eliminated. A.F. So different ... So flexible ...Awarded U.S. gether in way Patent No. 205524. Vertical, horizontal and an impish reminiscent of wall -hung arrangements. Available in Maxi and Vladimir de Pachmann at his interesting Mini size. best. For all the generous amount of music MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 on this disc, Philips' sound remains clear and natural. Only a few ticks in the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orches- Polonaise -fantaisie blemished my review tra, Kiril Kondrashin, cond. MELODIYA/ copy. H.G. SERAPHIM SIB 6029, $4.98 (two discs).

"It is still impossible to assess with final- HANDEL: Chandos Anthems: The ity the value of Mahler's coi.tribution as Lord is my light; As pants the hart SOUND -X- PANDER a creative artist." Well, now -surprise, The most advanced concept in audio surprise! That incredible remark is only April Cantelo, Ian Partridge; Choir of one of many idiocies perpetrated in the furniture. A console that actually in- Academy creases your listening pleasure by: King's College, Cambridge; of notes for the tenth current recording of Aiming, Converging, and Expanding the St. Martin -in- the -Field, David Willcocks, Mahler's Ninth Symphony. And by the sound direction while isolating the cond. way, while I'm talking about presenta- speakers to eliminate any possibility of tion: how many times do record compa- acoustic feed -backs. For a feature review of this recording, nies have to be told that Symphony No. see page 65. 9, in common with other works that employ progressive tonality, is not "in D," Designers and Manufacturers of fine Audio furniture, custom cabinets, wall installation or "in D major," or "in D minor," or in- and contract work. HENRY: Variations for a Door and a deed "in" any key you may care to name? For full lin. I,trtur and color chart send 25. to \j Sigh It moves from D major via D minor to N Y ofl,ce only D flat major; but that is more informa-

Destnd Dy Jerry Joseph. F I P D LIMELIGHT LS 86059, $5.79. tion than any title need saddle itself with, and as a designation "Symphony No. 9" siCJr The title really should be Variations for is all that is either necessary or correct. a Door, a Sigh, and a Saw, for accord- Now that I have delivered myself of Showroom . pt, dally through your d.eier and decorator only Saturday by pDo,ntmenl closed Sunday and Monde. ing to Jacques Longchampt's jacket notes that long- meditated grumble, let me say

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www.americanradiohistory.com finest performance I have ever heard of Christianity. Goethe's theme is re- from Kondrashin, it has on its side an in- newal -and the replacement, though not terpretative style of powerful emotional annihilation, of the old order by the new. commitment, with orchestral playing of Mendelssohn, with whom Goethe had a high standard that partakes of the same had some correspondence about the work, spirit: the woodwinds may not be always reflects the poet's concerns not only in perfectly in tune, but the blemishes are the Overture, "From Winter to Spring.' few, and they are easily outweighed by but also in the Walpurgisnacht's general the conviction of the whole performance, musical plan. and most obviously of all, by the death -or- Both the chorus and the soloists acquit glory ferocity with which the violinists themselves well here, the (unnamed) dig into their strings in the many vehe- bass -baritone deserving special credit for ment passages. The quality of the first his singing of the part of the Druid horn is crucial to any performance of this Guard with a fine rich voice and con- work, and here the instrument is in the siderable musicality. Unfortunately, the hands of a considerable artist, whose vi- orchestral sound is anemic, and the con- brato stays within reasonable limits even ductor (whose name I have never en- though it is wider than that of the aver- countered before) hardly offers a per- /age Western player. ceptive reading. No doubt I am becoming a bore on The sound quality is extremely varia- .- the subject of Horenstein's classic per- ble, and the listener whose interest com- formance. Yet I have to say that Kondra- pels him to explore this "electronically shin falls short of Horenstein, both in im- enhanced" record as a sole example of a agination and in control, at a number of significant Mendelssohn score is hereby places. Nor does his handling of quieter warned. P.N sections, especially in the first movement, have quite the rarefied beauty that, for me, places Solti's performance first MESSIAEN: Les Offrandes oubliées; among the stereo versions. Kondrashin's Et exspecto resurrectionem mor- highly emotional approach is more like tuorum that of Bernstein. On the other hand, he lacks Bernstein's organic flexibility, and Orchestre de Paris, Serge Baudo, cond. the principal interpretative deficiency of ANGEL. S 36559, $5.79. the new performance lies in the rather square phrasing of some of the first The "symphonic meditation" Les Of f- the movement transitions: after the long randes oubliées was Oliver Messiaen's lead -backs to the initial tempo and the- first published orchestral work, written matic material, the actual resumption THE in 1930 and performed the following Enticer does not carry with it a strong enough year. It is scored for normal orchestra Only about the JENSEN sense of having arrived. and consists of two very slow sections But Kondrashin is very successful, in size of a breadbox, TF-25 framing a vigorous central portion; these an over -all sense, at integrating the vary- TF -25 gives subdivisions apparently correspond to but the new Jensen ing tempos and moods of the first two depth and excitement to the the three parts of an epigraph in the movements -the performance of the composer's usual mistico- religious vein. most intimate sound in a medium - Ländler, indeed, is one of the most strong- A curious mixture of post- Wagnerisrn 2 -way priced 2- speaker, ly organized on record. Like almost and irregular additive rhythmic develop- loudspeaker system. Dura -syn everyone else, he allows the end of the ment, the piece must nevertheless have walnut finish. $89.50. first movement to run away, but the final made a certain impact in its day, espe- Adagio is beautifully shaped, and here the cially because of the twenty- one -year -old Hirsch -Houck independent test pages concluding are controlled almost as composer's obvious virtuosity in handling laboratories puts it this way: "The well as they are by Horenstein and Solti. the orchestra; today it seems pretty weak TF has a balanced, Jensen -25 The recording is admirably warm and tea indeed. be full- bodied, though it could with a uncolored sound which can do Nevertheless, this early work is at least shade more definition in listened to for hours without the bass. B.J. free of the pomposity and aggressively fatigue. We can only agree with simplistic methods found in the 1964 Et Jensen's statements and claims. "' exspecto, of which this is the second re- MENDELSSOHN: Die erste Wal- J cording. Baudo, who conducted the first It's the kind of speaker you'd purgisnacht, Op. 60 two performances, does a reasonable job, from the company which expect -- but the Boulez recording (CBS 32 11 has pioneered almost every major Vocal soloists; Choir and Orchestra of 0048) is even better. If one must put up advance in speaker technology the Leipzig Bach Festival, Lorenzo Ber- with the relentless static repetitions and since Peter Jensen's invention of nardi, cond. EVEREST 3229, $4.98 (re- trivial developmental notions of this mu- the loudspeaker. channeled stereo only). sic, at least the Boulez version qualifies as a genuine sound spectacular (and its report and 'For the complete To my best knowledge, this is the first jacket provides a completer version of Jensen's new catalog, write: domestic record of Mendelssohn's Die Messiaen's ineffable program notes, if Jensen Manufacturing Division erste Walpurgisnacht (the correct title you are a connoisseur of such things). The Muter Company as opposed to the abbreviated designation D.H. 5655 West 73rd Street, on the record itself). Seldom heard to- Chicago, Illinois 60638 day, it is one of the composer's most im- MILHAUD: Concerto for Violin and portant choral works. Orchestra, No. 2 -See Barber: Con- Mendelssohn began the score during certo for Violin and Orchestra, Op. his Italian visit at the age of twenty -one 14. Jensen and finished it only eleven years later. The subject, not to be confused with a sim- See the man with ilarly titled scene in Faust. is from an the button -your early poem by Goethe dealing with the Jensen dealer- today. final stages in the conflict between the ancient Druidic world and the onslaught CIRCLE 34 ON READER -SERVICE CARD

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www.americanradiohistory.com After WE had deve oiled BASF, the "ageless" recordirg tape, vve realized it didn't make much sense to pac -

damage . . . it enab es jou to build a tape libray that looks as good as it sounds. And yet 3ASF, the world'E finest tape and the only tape exclusively packaged in a permanent plan is cantainer, costs nc more than the tape you are Juying now All n all, it's the perfect tape for he audiophile's audio -file.

BASF COMPUTRON INC, CROS3Y DRIVE, BEDFORD. MASSACHUSETTS 01730 www.americanradiohistory.com MONTEVERDI: Orfeo; Madrigals, baue ganz. Die Zauherfliite: Dies Bildnis di Figaro: Se suol hallare; Non più Book IX ist bezaubernd schön: Wie stark ist nicht andrai: Aprite un po' quegli occhi; Vedro, dein Zauberton. Così fan tutte: Un'aura mentr'io sospiro. Wally Stämpfli, Laura Sarti, Juliette Bise, amorosa: Tradito, schernito. Don Gio- Magali Schwartz, Margrit Conrad, Eric vanni: Dalla sua pace: Il mio tesoro. La J Tappy, Theo Altmeyer, Jakob Stämpfli, Clemenza di Tito: Se all'impero, amici Hermann Prey, baritone; Dresden State François Loup; Vocal and Instrumental Dei! Orchestra, Otmar Suitner, cond. ANGEL Ensemble of Lausanne; Edward H. Tarr S 36481, $5.79. Brass Ensemble; Michel Corboz, cond. Peter Schreier, tenor; Staatskapelle Dres- den, Otmar Suitner, cond. LONDON OS These two discs give us virtually all the For a feature review of this recording, 26079, $5.79. important tenor and baritone arias from see page 66. the mature Mozart operas, sung by two Die Zauberflöte: Der Vogeljünger bin of the important German performers of ich ja; Ein Müde/,en oder Weibchen; this repertory under the same conductor MOZART: Arias Js Papagena! Papagena! Così fan tutte: and with. I presume, the same orchestra. Rivolgete à lui lo sguardo; Donne mie, Since Prey has recorded nearly all his Die Entführung aus denn Serail: Hier le fate a tanui,JDon Giovanni: Finch'han selections before, it is Mr. Schreier, the soll ich dich denn selten: O wie iirt \dich: dal vino: Deh vieni alla finestra; Meta most prominent of the young German Wenn der Freude Triicten fliessen: Ich (li voi qua vadano; Ho capito. Le Nozze Mozart tenors, who inspires the most curiosity. The disc makes a somewhat better case for him than did his recent M1letropolitan Ottavio, at least as heard over the air, but I'm afraid I cannot find collectors are positive him a very interesting artist, at least so DGG thinkers. far. There is an obvious musicality and sensitivity at work in his singing, and the And we've a powerful new release for them to be got optimistic basic quality of the sound is pleasant about. Featuring a deluxe 5- record set of the world's finest harpsi- enough. in a pale way. chordist, Ralph Kirkpatrick, performing Bach masterpieces. In addi- But this does not really carry us very tion are two new Karajan albums, Eschenbach with the Amadeus far towards realization of these pieces. Quartet, three exciting Henze premieres, and a 2- record set of Hugo Schreier's use of the voice involves so Wolf compositions, many of them recorded here for the first time. little in the way of resonance properties A thinking man's collection. For the connoisseur who is positive or vitality that the best that can result in his taste. From Deutsche Grammophon. is a neat, pretty rendition carefully skirt- ing all difficulties and all excitements. The voice, which has a pleasing but shal- MOZART:THE FOUR HORN CONCERTOS low sound when used softly, tends to KARAJAN BERLIN PHILHARMONIC turn white and overly open when he tries to add volume. So it is hard to consider the results as more than routinely ingratiating, except when they are routinely uningratiating. The German - language excerpts are considerably more acceptable than the Italian ones, for Schreier's feel for the southern language is minimal: the recitatives are especially square and literal. SKL 1321 /25 139 038 The three relative rarities ( "Tradito, sclternito," "!ch bane ganz," and the PROKOFIEV HENZE Clemenza di Tito aria) are certainly wel- SYMPHONY NO. S DOUBLE CONCERTO- FANTASIA SONATA come in principle, but of them only the 1 KARAJAN BERLIN PHILHARMONIC Karajan Berlin Philharmonic "Ich bacue ganz" is reasonably enough ' solved to be enjoyable. The more I hear the Così aria, the more I wonder why it is ever deleted, except that it is difficult. The Prey disc tends to break down along the same lines, though he is generally a more interesting and more complete vocalist than Schreier. If everything were on the level of the Zauberflöte 139 040 selections, this would be a choice record:

BRAHMS Prey is the finest Papageno of many a Ifl'(.O \VOI I Il NU NN SFRFN:\IH. PIANO QUINTET IN F MINOR PENTI II:\I I I\ VOCAL Viy/RKS 111 moon, and these three pieces show him ESCHENBACH AMADEUS QUARTET I at his best. The third one, incidentally. is the entire suicide scene, complete with the three Knaben. and deliciously done. 4 with some genuine sadness and none of +i the ghastly cutesiness that so often ruins It. The Guglielmo grips also are at least well suited to Prey's timbre and technique, and in fact the "Donne mie" is quite splendid, though not very Latin. The 139 397 139 426/427 wonderful " Rivolgece a lui lo sguardo" is well enough sung (though the top 'Denim-he does not have the ease or excitement tl (.itlt(yt DGG Records are distributed by MOM Records, a division of P(npn would but doesn't (rrsr/, /r /t Metro -Goldwyn -Mayer Inc. Canadian dist: Polydor Records, Ltd one rather expect), have much actual bravura feeling or flavor; for this, we must turn back to CIRCLE 16 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 76 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com the AR guarantee: not one cent for parts, not one cent for labor, not one cent for service charges, not one cent for freight.

AR guarantees are unmatched in the high fidelity industry. They are also easy to read. We believe that when a consumer buys a product, he should get one that works as he has been told it will work for the price he has been asked to pay. If the product then fails to operate correctly through no fault of the consumer, the manufacturer must accept responsibility for the failure at no cost to the consumer. A guarantee under which the consumer is forced to pay, perhaps repeatedly, for the manufacturer's errors, is not fair. Acoustic Research guarantees its loudspeaker systems for 5 years, its turntable for 3 years, and its amplifier for 2 years from the date of purchase. During this time, if a product we have made fails to operate properly through no fault of the owner, Acoustic Research takes full responsibility for the necessary repairs. There is no charge for parts which need to be replaced; no charge for the labor of locating these parts and replacing them; no "service charge" by Acoustic Research, its dealers or authorized service stations; no charge for shipping, whether to the nearest authorized service station or all the way to our factory in Cambridge and back; not even a charge for a new carton and packing materials, if these are needed. The only cost to the owner is inconvenience, which we deeply regret and make every effort to minimize.

ACOUSTIC RESEARCH, INC., 24 Thorndike St., Cambridge, Mass. 02141 Overseas Inquiries: Write to AR International at above address CIRCLE I ON READER -SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969 77

www.americanradiohistory.com Fernando Corena's colorful, nicely pom- expects from so important and accom- MOZART Lituniue Larrretuuue, in D, pous version, approximately sung though plished an artist. K. 195 it is. In both recitals, Suitner shows him- The second side is mostly downhill. self to be a solid and sometimes quite Soloists: Choir and Orchestra of Dresden The Italian literally seems to deteriorate pointed conductor; a couple of the arias Cathedral, Kurt Bauer, cond. EVEREST as the singer goes along: by the time he on the Schreier disc are terribly staid 3233, $4.98 (rechanneled stereo only). arrives at the Count, it is not only un- and cautious- sounding, but this may idiomatic but downright incorrect. He simply be solicitude for the soloist. The Mozart's four Litanies are all youthful somehow fails to sing Giovanni's sere- sound on both records is full and alive. works. The two Loretine Litanies (K. 109 nade with any blandishment or charm, but each suffers from some unwanted and K. 195) are so named because the and even without reliable pitch, and engineering assistance, booming the voice text is taken from expressions of con- again he runs into intonation problems in artificially for Prey, surrounding it with trition and prayers of supplication to the the "Aprite un po." The best thing on empty space for Schreier. He sounds Virgin inscribed on the walls at the Mary chapel the Santa in the side is actually Masettti s song, which lonely. C.L.O. of Casa Loreto. All one will seldom hear this well done; four works are set for four soloists Figaro's arias are also listenable, with a and chorus with an orchestra of two bit more thrust than on the recent com- oboes, two horns, and strings: only K. plete DGG recording. But the Don and 243, the last and most typically Mozar- the Count are not up to the level one tian of the four, adds to this instrumentation pairs of flutes and bassoons and three trombones. With the present disc we are given Aristocratic Pleasures an alternate to the mono-only Anthony Lewis recording of K. 195 on Oiseau- 6-) (At Democratic Prices) 37 t Lyre. While a new modern recording was certainly in order, Everest's offering is a big disappointment. A simple list of all the faults in this new presentation would require more editorial space than the misguided efforts of everyone concerned with its production deserve. How- v ever, a few comments are essential to the unwary: the chorus here sounds like a group of retired members of a provincial opera house chorus; the tenor soloist (unidentified) offers some really amusing lapses of musicianship; and the conducting of Kurt Bauer is so limp and static 5111 -6033 SIC-6035 that every one of the many niceties in the score is either butchered or passed ,,,.,o by unnoticed. To complete the story, r.> .cwn-> an extremely primitive and unprofession- al- sounding recording has been disfig- FRITZ Wl1PIDFRIICi 'MC rtruc JOFN ócoOrv ured almost to the point of unintelligi- bility by its very crude electronic re- uQraBOSON channeling. ALBUM IhuiRNóvton6 zARMS One other curious aspect of this new release deserves mention: pirating of tapes and jacket notes is not exactly new to this industry, but it is nevertheless always dis- tt turbing to see it happen. Everest has S-60078 S-60088 here saved itself the expense of producing jacket notes by appropriating what appeared on the Oiseau -Lyre jacket several years ago. In fact, Everest did not even bother to reset the type, but simply photocopied the entire Oiseau -Lyre jacket back and pasted it onto the album, sub- stituting its own name and credits. It seems to me the company would have done better to pirate the Oiseau -Lyre performance and hire a student to write new notes. C.F.G.

S-60087 I B-6038 MOZART: Quartets for Strings: No. 17, in B flat, K. 458 ( "Hunting "); No. 19, in C, K. 465 ( "Dissonant ")

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www.americanradiohistory.com Of the two works represented the Dis- one buffo aria for Osmin, the rest Is sonant yields the greatest pleasure and serious, even tragic in tone. and resem- displays the major shortcomings. The bles the old opera seria. The arias are in odd -numbered movements are boldly the seria vein, there are extended ritor- Why a stated. bristling with energy and strongly nels, rage arias, and even the ancient focused. The andante, however, is strange- "simile aria" makes its appearance. We ly pedestrian. and the finale hopelessly must give Schachtner his due, for he languorous. K. 458 begins well, with the managed to produce three of these: a Servo -Driven Allegri indulging in an undeniably excit- "lark" or "nightingale" piece, one for a ing, freewheeling romp, but movements "lion," and a third for a "tiger." Our not two and four show little vigor. The mag- unsuccessful poet makes the tiger aria nificent adagio emerges with little inten- follow the nightingale piece -who says straight -line sity or passion. that the old trumpeter had no sense for First violinist Eli Goren's vibrato is dramatic contrast! overzealous throughout the Dissonant, a But pleasantries aside, this music is fault further emphasized by too close interesting and at times-- characteristical - arm? miking. For the rest, ensemble is loosely ly in the ensembles- absorbing. And knit but not objectionably so. Westmin- there is in the score a novelty which was ster's engineering is less than it should to acquire considerable significance in the be. Both sides are afflicted with notice- nineteenth century: the "melodrama," able pre -echo and the sound is slightly The term does not mean what we under- cavernous. My review copy was riddled stand by it today; it refers to spoken with aggravating "splutterings" in the soliloquy accompanied by the orchestra. left channel. S.L. While the idea originated with Rousseau, Mozart got it from Georg Benda, a composer he liked and whose Ariadne auf MOZART: Zaide; Lo Sposo deluso Naxos, one of the most admired theater (excerpts); L'Oca del Cairo (ex- pieces in the eighteenth century, he heard cerpts) in Mannheim. No. 2 in the score of Zaide is such a piece and it is remark- Ruth lldeboesch (s); Erich Majkut (t); able indeed. The other one, No. 9, is George Maran (t); Walter Raninger somewhat less elaborate and venture- (bs): Richard Gotz (bs); Mozarteum some but still unusual. The technique Kammerchor: Camerata Academica, was not unlike that of the accompanied Bernhard Paumgartner, cond. WORLD recitative but thematically less consistent, SERIES PHC 2 -0I5, $4.98 (two discs, re- and while Mozart considered the melo- channeled stereo only). drama the thing of the future, he never used it again, preferring, as usuale' a A little -known and previously unrecorded purely musical procedure, the elaborate opera by Mozart should be a red letter accompanied recitative. The arias are event: unfortunately, the quality of the good if not outstanding, but the ensem- performance here makes it only a light bles are first -class. The duet between pink. Nevertheless. this is an important Zaide and Gomatz (No. 5), in Mozart's addition to Mozartiana, for to see a gentle love -music style, is startlingly at- genius in the act of formation is always tractive with its piquant five -measure an exciting experience. metric units. The quartet at the end Zaide, composed in 1779 -80 in Salz- (No. 15) is highly dramatic, and shows burg, was never finished, nor was it per- the hand of the mature master. The con- formed in Mozart's time -it did not even flict and contrast between the four pro- have a title. But that era's music pub- tagonists is maintained and enhanced to lishers, as expert as any since at driving the very end. It is here, in the ensembles, a hard bargain, could at least compose that Mozart completely departs from the Because the record is cut along in a pinch, and they often exercised their old opera scheme and is no longer de- talents on unfinished compositions. Jo- on any model. a straight line. pendent hann Anton André not only completed In the rest we detect elements coming the modern Mozart's Singspiel, he supplied its title. from French opera, notably Grétry, but Because stylus of the Zaide, like Die Entführung, was one of Gluck and Piccini are also represented, pickup is too compliant to cope those harem pieces which to eighteenth - though all of them on Mozartian terms. with the inertia and the friction century Austrians were the equivalent The characterization is not particularly of prior straight line arms. of our Westerns; they could not get penetrating, but here and there Mozart enough of them. The librettist, an old warms to the situation, as when Gomatz court trumpeter by the name of Schacht - sings "let me kiss you, let me hug you." Because the Rabco SL -8 does not ner and a Mozart family friend, is de- It is interesting to observe that Mozart's "skate" and needs no anti -skating scribed in the notes as "not entirely Italianate vocal line does not always suit gadgets. unsuccessful as a poet." It takes a good the German text; the progress he made deal of Salzburg local patriotism to in this regard in Die Entführung is re- Why not write for the complete maintain the defensive prefix. We are markable. Not that the musical prosody lucky that the spoken dialogues are lost; is incorrect, but the Italian melodic story on the Rabco SL -8, the the lyrics are made at least bearable by clichés often do not fit German phonet- ONLY CORRECT ARM. the music. The recording gives us the ics, and the elisions, natural in Italian, whole extant score, mercifully ignoring seem contrived in German. André's additions, but we shall never This opera-or operetta, as Mozart know what became of the lovers, of the called it-was designed for provincial sultan, and Osmin the First: when Mo- singers of modest capabilities, and the zart was given the opportunity to com- recording adheres to the tradition, though RABCO pose Die Entführung and Osmin H, he not, I am afraid, by design. The singers dropped Zaide and let it languish. manage to get by, but with little to 11937 TECH ROAD, For a Singspiel, this is a curious piece spare: low and high notes are approached SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND 20904 because it is not comic; except for the cautiously, ornaments are respected from CIRCLE 52 ON READER -SERVICE CARD `t) HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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www.americanradiohistory.com a distance, and in the ensembles the also recorded these same two sonatas rather nondescript timbres do not mix (though in different couplings). Both well. Even so, this group of singers could artists bring a lyrical touch, a pure - have been inspired and led to a far better almost classical -kind of rhythmic com- performance by the right conductor. mand, and both tend to underplay (but Bernhard Paumgartner is a venerable not ignore) the sardonic implications Austrian Imperial -Royal Privy Councillor that Horowitz. for example, stresses. As who not only keeps the defunct title but London has furnished flawless, beauti- conducts like a dignified relic from the fully spacious recorded tone. I can fully good old days of Franz Josef. The or- recommend this disc. But don't fail to chestra has no snap, the eager woodwinds < ....hear the recent Columbia /Glenn Gould get are kept in the background, the dynamics coupling of the Prokofiev Seventh and are tepid, the basses merely grumble, and the Scriabin Third, and don't forget the the violins are afraid to let themselves f about Richter and Horowitz. H.G. go. It would take a skilled hand to find Hofrat Paumgartner's pulse; and if found, it would have to be fed into the am- RAVEL: Tzigane -See Chausson: NESS FREE plifier. The notes are good -Dr. Paum- Poème, Op. 25 (Philips and Melo- gartner is an old Mozartian hand -but diya Angel editions). they cause a certain eyestrain, beginning white on black, like the negative of a photostat, then switching to black on SAINT -SAENS: Havanaise, Op. 83; blue, like those pharmaceutical descrip- Introduction and Rondo capric- tions the manufacturer does not want us cioso, O. 28 -See Chausson: to read. Poème, Op. 25 (Melodiya /Angel The two excerpts on Side 4, both com- edition). posed in 1783, are also from unfinished operas, this time Italian buf Jas. Of L'Oca del Cairo all we have is an incomplete SMETANA: Ala Vlást first act. Mozart was pleased with the music he composed but was dissatisfied Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Vaclav MA 5100 with the libretto, which was probably `¡ Neumann, cond. LONDON CSA 2222, why he abandoned the venture; he never $11.58 (two discs). Solid State Power Amplifier liked to set to music a text he did not and Preamplifier believe in. (Yes, he believed in The A Czech by birth and training, and now Magic Flute, whatever some people say music director of the renowned Gewand- about it.) In the case of Lo Sposo deluso haus Orchestra, Vaclav Neumann here this could not have been the reason, be- combines a native immersion in one 'of cause the librettist was almost certainly the great scores of his own heritage with The new McIntosh 36 page Da Ponte, yet this opera, even more superb leadership of one of the incon- fragmentary than L'Oca, also remained testably great orchestras of Europe. catalog gives you all the de- unfinished. Both excerpts recorded here Equally worthy of comment is the fine Lo performance -and London's reproduc- new McIntosh are ensembles, a quartet from Sposo, tails on the and the first -act finale from L'Oca. tion, moreover, is the best I have ever solid state equipment. In They are fine, bubbly, and bouncy buffa heard accorded this orchestra. With a music in Mozart's mature operatic man- weightier sound than the Berlin Phil- addition, you'll receive abso- ner. The singing here is much better than harmonic and a less sweet one than the that in Zaide, and since the conductor Vienna Philharmonic, the Leipzig Ge- lutely free a complete up -to- picked up a little zip from them, and the wandhaus emerges here with a forth- orchestra wakes up, we get a much bet- right projection, beautifully blended and date FM Station Directory. ter performance. P.H.L. dark -toned strings, adequate woodwinds, and magnificently ringing brass in the best German tradition. My only quibble POULENC: Sonata for Two Pianos is with a slight muddiness in the lower (1953) -See Bartók: Sonata for strings, possibly the fault of the other- FREE! Two Pianos and Percussion. wise fine recording. As a footnote, I must add that it is impossible to listen to this great score, SEND TODAY PROKOFIEV: Sonatas for Piano: No. inspired as it is by a patriot's devotion 7, in B flat, Op. 83; No. 8, in B to his native land, without awareness of flat, Op. 84; Romeo and Juliet: the irony involved in so fine a reading of Piano Suite, Op. 75 (arr. Prokofiev) a Czech masterpiece by an East German ifitlntosh orchestra under Czech leadership. P.H. Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano. LONDON CS 6573, $5.79. McIntosh Lab. Inc. STRAVINSKY: Pulcinella Suite; 2 Chambers St., Dept. A 4 Ashkenazy's second recording of the Apollon Afusagète Binghamton, N. Y. 13903 Prokofiev Seventh is a bit less athletically close in its reproduced sound and a bit Academy of St. Martin -in- the -Fields, Ne- Please Send FREE CATALOG more rarified in interpretation than his ville Marriner, cond. ARGO ZRG 575, first essay, for Angel a decade ago. $5.95. and DIRECTORY While he now takes the Precipitin() finale a hairsbreadth slower than he did Heard in isolation, the performances by NAME then (and to good effect), his treat- this excellent ensemble, which has not ment of the first -movement march is previously ventured into the twentieth ADDRESS lighter, more gently humorous, and al- century, are generally convincing and way with very neatly executed. In particular. the CITY together piquant. Ashkenazy's Prokofiev's music is remarkably akin Apollo is set forth with a degree of deli- found in STATE ZIP to that of Sviatoslav Richter, who has cacy and dynamic contrast not CIRCLE 44 ON READER- SERVICE CARD HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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www.americanradiohistory.com any previous recording -but at the same Comparisons are in order-and, I'm sound- whether one likes it or not -is time there is a flavor of blandness per- afraid, odious. In terms of performance the product of technicians who knew ex- vading the proceedings, and occasionally this 1968 RCA account reminds me most actly what they wanted and how to get even worse. For example, the violin solo of the earlier of the two Columbias; it. Ormandy's interpretation remains in Apollo's Variation smacks of Viennese sonically, its closest kinship is with the throughout its various incarnations sub- schmaltz, because the dotted rhythms 1936 RCA! stantially the same straightforward thing come out more like triplets, which quick- It would seem to take real ingenuity it was over three decades ago. Despite a ly acquire a Kreislerian (Fritz, that is) to use expensive modern equipment and trifle more bracing energy in the newer lilt that is intensified when the two violins produce 1936 sound reproduction, but RCA and in the earlier, out -of -print Co- double in thirds. whatever the cause, the result is plain lumbia performances, the current Colum- Direct comparisons with the composer's for all to hear. For one thing, you get a bia edition is clearly the choice for any- own recordings, roughly recorded and too lusterless midrange, a booming, ill- defined one who wants an Ormandy rendition. loudly played though they be, quickly bass, and a constriction on top that makes RCA, by the way, is offering a bonus demonstrate the variety of articulation the high violins scrape and the brass in- record free with purchase of any of its and precision of rhythmic diction missing struments cackle. For another, the solo six initial Philadelphia Orchestra re- here. Marriner's performances are more oboes and clarinets obtrude like strands leases. I feel compelled to say that I capable but also less interesting than Stra- of hay from a scarecrow. Furthermore, am much disappointed that this celebra- vinsky's, which in the long run offer I strongly suspect that RCA made a mis- tory disc contains no memento of a more food for musical thought; it is really guided attempt to add artificial rever- Stokowski performance. What the rec- too bad that the composer could not have beration to the dry acoustics of Phila- ord does offer is Marian Anderson's worked with such a unified and tonally delphia's Academy of Music. I, for one, first (c. 1939) recorded Brahms Alto elegant ensemble as the Academy. D.H. would not have minded naturally un- Rhapsody, Kreisler's playing of his resonant sound, for it can make up in thoroughly recomposed version of the bite and compactness for whatever opu- first movement of Paganini's D major TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 6, lence it lacks; here, however, the dryness Violin Concerto, Flagstad's 1937 account in B minor, Op. 74 ( "Pathétique ") remains but clarity is often lost. Indeed, of " Abscheulicher!" from Beethoven's in this recording Tchaikovsky's busily Fidelio, Melchior's 1938 "Lohengrin's Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, scored passages, such as the first move- Farewell," and the final snippet from a cond. RCA RED SEAL LSC 3058, $5.98. ment's development and the third move- 1940 recording of Strauss's Don Quixote ment's beginning, remind me of nothing with cellist Emanuel Feuermann. All, of Ormandy and his Philadelphians have so much as the subway in rush hour. I course, are conducted by Ormandy, who recorded the Tchaikovsky Pathétique might add too that presence is minimal; also relates a few amusing anecdotes. four times, twice for RCA and twice for there is always a disagreeable, canned H.G. Columbia. Recently, in anticipation of dimness, a "gramophoney" ring. this new RCA disc, Columbia remastered To be sure, the sound on Columbia's and renumbered its later edition (for- reissued Pathétique is of a variety I VIEUXTEMPS: Concerto for Violin merly MS 6160, now MS 7169) and put don't particularly care for. Everything and Orchestra, No. 4, in D minor, it on the market almost simultaneously there tends to be excessively creamy, Op. 31 -See Chausson: Poème, with the appearance of its rival's product. legato, and souped -up. Nevertheless, that Op. 25 (Philips edition).

New Straussian Territory, Explored by Fischer -Dieskau

WRITING SONGS was one of Rich- broad lyrical style and careful re- with the same fresh spontaneity ard Strauss's favorite forms of regard for text and mood. If one is and attention to nuance as the laxation-he used to toss them looking for hints of the mature more esoteric items. Now and then off while taking a moment away composer, this is the music to in- one senses that Strauss's robust from his large -scale tone poems vestigate, for these early songs are melodic line requires a voice more and operas. Songs, in fact, framed far more individual than the de- opulent if the juicy effect obvi- his entire career -at the age of rivative chamber and orchestral ously intended by the composer is six he produced his first composi- works he was producing during to be completed. But this reserva- tion, a Christmas carol written for these years. True, a faint odor of tion is minor in view of the bari- his parents, and nearly eighty the salon does cling at times to tone's artful delivery and, quite years later his final creative effort Strauss's melodic and harmonic often, gorgeous vocalism. As for proved to be the beautiful Four invention, preventing the songs Gerald Moore, the limpid four -bar Last Songs. In between came over from attaining the stature of a postlude to Allerseelen is alone two hundred Lieder, a handful of Schubert, Brahms, or Wolf lyric. worth the price of this disc. which have become recital staples; Strauss's literary judgment was PETER G. DAVIS the majority, however, are virtu- never especially keen, and most ally unknown even to the Strauss of these texts are by very minor Strauss, Richard: Songs connoisseur. figures: their comfortable middle - Now, who would be the most class German sentimentality oc- Op. 10: Zueignung; Nichts; Die likely candidate to explore this casionally finds the composer all Nacht; Georgine; Geduld; Die Ver- relatively unchartered territory? too ready to reply in kind. Still, schwiegenen; Die Zeitlose; Aller- The indefatigable Dietrich Fischer - Allerseelen is a very pretty song, seelen. Op. 15: Madrigal; Winter- Dieskau of course, and here he is, Die Nacht evokes a persuasive nacht; Lob des Leidens; Aus den singing Strauss's first published nocturnal mood, and Stündchen Liedern der Trauer; Heimkehr. songs. All nineteen were written always makes a graceful effect. It's Op. 17: Seitdem dein Aug'; Stiind- between the composer's eighteenth good too to hear these songs in c /zen; Das Geheimnis; Aus den and twenty -first years and four of perspective with their less familiar Liedern der Trauer; Nur Mut!; them are among his most popular: companion pieces, most of which Barkarole. Zueignung, Allerseelen, Die Nacht, are certainly worth reviving. and Stündchen. The others may The performances here are su- J Dietrich Fischer -Dieskau, baritone; not have such ready appeal, but perb- Fischer -Dieskau is in excel- Gerald Moore, piano. ANGEL S they too are typical of Strauss's lent form, singing the chestnuts 36483, $5.79.

84 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

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APRIL 1969 85

www.americanradiohistory.com STEREO REVIEW RECITALS HIGH FIDELITY MISCELLANY POPULAR ELECTRONICS MATTIA BATTISTINI: Vocal Recit- POPULAR SCIENCE als HI -FI BUYERS GUIDE Mattia Battistini, baritone. For a feature review of two reissues ELECTRONICS ILLUSTRATED of historic recordings, see page 63. HIRSCH -HOUCK LABS EVANS: Oratorio Ex- authorities agree: GERAINT All the cerpts The all -solid -state Cortina series adds up to total stereo performance at lowest cost. Kits and Wired. See them at your Judas Maccabeus: Arm, arm. ye local dealer. Write for free 1969 32 -pg. catalog. Handel: Brave; Messiah: The Trwnpet shall Sound; Zadok the Priest. Mendelssohn: Thanks be to God: Lord God of f Sound n' Color: New Elijah: exciting way to enjoy Abraham . Cast Thy Burden; is not music. Originni a Fire? Rossini: Stabat solid-state system (n-, His Word Like wheels or motors) Mater: Pro Peccatis. Brahms: Requiem: provides true syn- 4.. let me know mine end. rr chronization of sound Lord, - with color. See every tone. chord. combina- Geraint Evans, baritone: choruses; BBC Stereo Tuner. Automatic FM Cor- tion of instruments tina 3200, $99.95 kit. $139.95 create its own vivid Welsh Orchestra, Manse! Thomas, cond. wired, including cabinet. patterns of lights. EVEREST 3238, $4.98. Stereo Amplifiers: 70 -watt full - Connects to any 3.2 capability Cortina 3070. $99.95 to 50 ohm audio line kit, $139.95 wired, including cab- (hi -fi or radio) with- Wales has long been famous for its choral inet. 150 -watt full- capability Cor- out disturbance. Cor. singing and -as in other regions of Brit- tina 3150, $149.95 kit, $225 tina 3440. $49.95 kit. iß-111 <1 eline111Es wired. including cabinet. $79.95 wired. ain -this has often meant oratorio sing- Stereo Receivers: 70-watt Auto- ing. Geraint Evans was born in Cilfy- matic FM Cortina 3570. $169.95 kit. $259.95 wired, including nydd, among the harmonizing coal miners cabinet. 70 -watt Automatic FM/ of South Wales, and it is likely that his byL/ E/CO L-7 AM Cortina 3770, $189.95 kit, cortina wired. incuding cab- first encounter with classical music came Designed. manufactured in U.S.A. and guaranteed $279.95 by EICO 283 Malta St.. Brooklyn. N. Y. 11207 inet. in local productions of Messiah and Elijah. CIRCLE 22 ON READER -SERVICE CARD Today, Evans is of course an operatic celebrity, and probably the best Falstaff, Figaro. and Beckmesser around. But (it says on this record sleeve) he recently in- The brand for all reasons terrupted his Salzburg season to make this record; and he certainly sounds confident and authoritative in the material, BSR McDONALD 600 and happy in the company of his compa- triots. One listens with particular care, for strangely enough Evans has the reputation of being a "difficult" man to record satisfactorily; an artist whose talent flow- ers in live performance but does not always reach sufficiently phonogenic level in the studio. Yet what we hear in this record is firm and masterful singing, entirely solid in style and fully rounded in its traditional character. In the call to battle of Judas Maccabees, Evans is immensely stirring; and he is serene and lyrical in the legato passages of Elijah. These two -"Arm, arm, ye Brave" and

C "Lord God of Abraham"-are the best BSR (USA) LTD. bands on the record. In "The Trumpet BLAUVELT, N.Y. 10913 Shall Sound" he punches his material PI=_ase send FREE detailed literature rather hard and makes the ornaments Every BSR McDonald automatic turntable is on al BSR McDonald automatic turntables. less graceful than one would like them. precision made in Great Britain to the "Pro Peccatis" sounds as though its sub- most exacting specifications. Upon their stance lies somewhat below his most com- model is arrival in the U.S., every unpacked I Name ' fortable voice range. The Brahms is and re- tested under actual playing heavy going for all hands. conditions. That's why BSR service calls are Address with the lowest in the industry -and perhaps ' ' The disc is adequately engineered stereo, suggesting it was done that also explains why BSR sells more i nice (true) turntables than anyone else in the world. City ' in a city hall kind of auditorium with a fair amount of liveness. The disc sur- l `` State '/ face was not very good on my copy and McDONALD, there was occasional bubble trouble. Zip t/ Evans is not heard in Zadok the Priest, ` which Brit- a Handel anthem for chorus,

CIRCLE 8 ON READER -SERVICE CARD

Ìl CIRCLE 2 ON READER- SERVICE CARD - -

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www.americanradiohistory.com ons hear whenever they get a new mon- shows a limitation only when it comes to arch: it is the official coronation anthem. grading down the dynamics; in this re- There is supposed to be a burgeoning spect, he merely joins the group. (And When you're separatist movement in Wales, but you'd again, we must go back to Bjoerling for never guess it from the vigor these Welsh any reliable demonstration of a true choristers put into their repeated shouts mezza- voce.) To be sure, Pavarotti can number one in of God Save the King. G.M. execute decrescendos and observe markings of p or pp. But the results are apt to be strained or downright ugly. At the tape recorders VINKO GLOBOKAR: Music for Solo return to the melody of the "Spirto Trombone gentil," for example, he sticks to the you don't straight and narrow with a valiant at- Globokar: Discours /1. Berio: Sequenza tempt at genuine half- voice -but there V. Stockhausen: Solo. Alsina: Conse- is no trace of beauty or ease in the tone. make the cuenza. And while he gives us a well- ordered, attractive "Quando le sere," he is unable Vinko Globokar, trombone. to quite bring it down to the velvety number-two piano that can make this piece magical. For a feature review of this recording Since the voice does not sound particular- see page 64. ly pressured or stiff, perhaps he will be tape. able to refine this aspect of his singing in the future. LUCIANO PAVAROTTI: Operatic One or two notes on the arias: the Recital Due Foscari passage is not the big prison scena but the entrance aria -a Verdi: Luisa Miller: Quando le sere; pretty one with an atmospheric use of I due Foscari: Dal più remoto esiglio; woodwinds in the recitative; the Duca It costs a few pennies more. Un Ballo in maschera: Ma se m'è forza d'Alba aria, which is a powerful, original perderti; Macbeth: Ah, la paterna mano. piece, is not actually Donizetti's but his But Sony professional -qual- Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor: Fra protege Salvï s; and the Don Sebastiano ity recording tape makes a poco a me ricovero; I! Duca d'Alba: aria receives what I am fairly sure is its world of difference in how Angelo casto e bel; La Favorita: Spirto first modern recording (it is a square, much better your recorder gentil; Don Sebastiano: Deserto in terra. uninteresting piece, and Pavarotti more sounds-and keeps or less rams it at us). The most success- on sound- Luciano Pavarotti, tenor; Vienna Opera ful numbers, for me, are the Luisa Miller, ing. That's because Sony Orchestra, Edward Downes, cond. LON- Due Foscari, Lucia, and Duca d'Alba tape is permanently lubri- DON OS 26087, $5.79. arias. A disappointment is the "Al,! la cated by an exclusive Lubri- paterna mano," a fine aria, which he This is the first solo disc for this young does not phrase with sufficient profile to Cushion process. Plus, its Italian tenor, and starts with the ad- secure its full effect. extra -heavy Oxi- Coating vantage of a strong, unhackneyed pro- Certainly an important singer, poten- won't shed or sliver. Sony gram -only two or three of these arias tially a great one. The conducting is on tape is available in all sizes could be termed standard, and even they the heavy- handed side, but the playing of reels and cassettes. And are not overfrequently done. is first-rate and so is the sound. C.L.O. Pavarotti shows a meaty, wide- ranged remember, Sony profes- lyric tenor, and a technique that is suf- sional- quality recording ficiently complete to make him the most HERMANN PREY: Song Recital tape is made by the world's accomplished tenor to come out of Italy most respected manufactur- in a number of years -he is a noticeably Beethoven: Die Himmel rühmen des ewi- er of recording more polished singer than, for instance, gen Ehre: Bitten. Bach: Willst du dein equipment. Bruno Prevedi or Gianfranco Cecchele, Herz mir schenken. Mozart: Ave Verum or than the young Spanish tenor Gia- Corpus, K. 618. Handel: Cantata con como Aragall. This is especially evident stromenti; Dank sei Dir, Herr; Serse: when the voice moves from the middle Ombra mai fu. Giordani: Caro mio ben. into the upper range, where Pavarotti Mendelssohn: Auf Flügeln des Gesanges. manages to avoid the sudden, gulped Liszt: Es muss ein Wunderbares sein. cover that most of his colleagues seem Martini: Plaisir d'amour. Böhm: Still wie ì()NV to consider a perfectly satisfactory solu- die Nacht. Brahms: Wiegenlied. (AH PR- 150 tion of the classic problem. He does not orchestrated and arranged by Frank Jo- overweight the voice, and he preserves a sef Breuer.) true, open vowel formation, without `Í letting it become spread and white, à la Hermann Prey, baritone; chorus; orches- Di Stefano. Intonation is excellent, the tra; Wilhelm Schuchter, cond. LONDON top is secure at least through the C, and OS 26055, $5.79. ( the tone even takes on, from time to time, the kind of spin and movement that be- Quaint. You may call this "A Festive speaks real freedom -the true vocal Evening" if you wish to-the sleeve does. vibrato. (Bjoerling was the last tenor to Or you may think of it as a ramble in secure it with consistency, and several Victorian nostalgia, a program with a bit passages here -e.g., the recitative to the of this and a touch of that and not too Balla aria and the opening of the Due much of any one thing. I guess what it 1n1 1i'rr heard it .o good. Foscari scena bear a marked resemblance really is is a song recital for people who to Bjoerling's singing.) don't like song recitals: so smooth, so Further, Pavarotti sings with a clean, easy on the ear and the mind ... as to well -knit line and with a relish for the put you to sleep. But before you drop 1968 SUP! RSCOPE. NC. words -not so much as dramatic mean- off, spare a little awe for Franz Josef ing but as pure sound; the beauty of Breuer. SONY SUP the Italian language is restored. Mr. Breuer has guts. He rescores Mo- Aside from a very occasional bleatiness zart. He "arranges" Beethoven. And Sun Valley, California 91352 when he drives the voice at the top, he Brahms. He can make baroque compos- CIRCLE 63 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 88 CIRCLE 20 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 4.

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When you send back the reader reviews you'll be reading in our They tell the Dual story in a much service card with our number circled literature. Most of them decided to more convincing way than we you'll receive a nice fat package. buy a 1019 after they'd put it through ever could. Along with our full color their tests.) (You know ware prejudiced.) brochures you'll get a collection of People who know about all United Audio Products, Inc., complete, reprinted reviews that first available hi -fi products appreciate 535 Madison Ave., appeared in this magazine and others. the Dual brand of precision. These New York, N.Y.1 0022 Uua: Reviews of the 1019, and all the experts confirm that the Dual 1019 can other Duals it has inspired. track flawlessly as low as I/2 gram. The Dual 1019, at $139.50, has That the 1019's constant -speed motor received more praise, from reviewers is quieter and more powerful than and audiophiles alike, than any other comparable synchronous types. audio equipment we know of. And they've found that rumble, It's the turntable the experts wow and flutter is actually lower in invariably choose for their own the Dual 1019 than in professional systems. (And we're including the broadcast turntables. independent reviewers whose But send for their exact words.

www.americanradiohistory.com ers like Bach and Handel sound richly impeccable, and the choir is excellent. nineteenth century. He can take a late They are recorded in an ambience that is work of Mozart, written for four-part spacious, natural, and warm. chorus, and restore it for solo baritone So there you are: impossible to ap- and instruments. He can take the piano prove in principle; impossible to reject accompaniment to a Beethoven song and in practice. An enjoyable record. G.M. The "do it over" for orchestra and chorus. And, no kidding. he is extremely talented. The Mozart is distressing in its new guise, JOSHUA RIFKIN: "Student Music in but the Beethoven opens with such char- Seventeenth -Century Leipzig" acteristic brass and timpani that I went í1X digging in Grove's to see whether Ludwig Krieger: Ein Freund, ein Trunk; Der had ever refashioned any of his 1803 Neckarwein muss köstlich sein; Der Gellert songs for other purposes. But the Rheinsche Wein tanzt gar zu fein; Wer The KLH* Model Sixt illusion vanished when Mr. Breuer's sich verliebt, Wird sehr betriibt; Er ist chorus came in, in late romantic probably sounds better on a style, verwandt; Die Jungfern sein nur auf den and Grove's went back on the shelf. Schein; Der Schönheit Blum; Es fehlet wider variety of musical Now that sort of arranging is down- ihr nur eine Zier; Es steigt der Wein; material than any other right fashionable and has been "out" for Die Fröhlichkeit ache keinen Neid. at least thirty years: we have learned to Rosenmüller: Sandenten :Nu.cik: Suite No. speaker. It was the first be skeptical about attempts to clothe the 2, in D minor. Pezel: Ballo, Ciconia and full -range speaker designed music of one age in the dress of another.) Gigue; Allemande and Courente. In theory, what Mr. Breuer has done is and built entirely by KLH. thoroughly reprehensible; in practice, it Various singers and instrumentalists, turns And after eleven years on out to be quite engaging. This is Joshua Rifkin, cond. NONESUCH H 71204, because the musicians and singers are $ 2.50. the market, it remains the obviously extremely accomplished and also because, whatever most consistent best seller in we feel about the German students in the seventeenth cen- taste of the conception, the taste of the tury were a lot less troubled than their the history of the audio execution is decidedly good. present -day contemporaries if one can industry. Hermann Prey is an admirable artist judge by the toasts to wine and laments and he guides a singularly beautiful voice over the frustrations of young love which with intelligence The reason is that the Model and sensitivity. It is a make up the vocabulary of the song- sound of richness is and smoothness he books from which this attractive collec- Six the point of sharply gives us, but he knows how to avoid tion was gathered. Adam Krieger, the broad effects he diminishing returns in and never lets things writer of songs who died shortly after get overripe. Any improvement he reached thirty, is the most prominent speakers. The playing of the orchestra (in an composer. Ten of his elegant melodies on it is more likely to be unidentified but certainly German city) is and neat verses are included along with one to measure than to jolly instrumental dances by Johann hear, and every small Rosenmüller and Johann Pezel. Enjoy Relaxing The performances are appropriately improvement will cost a lot. bouncy and light- hearted, thanks to the Background Music at Home versatile young musicologist Joshua We find the Six Rifkin who assembled the music and embarrassingly hard with NO COMMERCIALS! directed the group (and who also plays the harpsichord here). The singers are to surpass. So, we excellent and the instrumentalists from think, will you. the Little Orchestra of London play with skill and enthusiasm. As usual None- such provides adequate sound and superior notes and texts. S.T.S.

RICHARD TAUBER: Opera Arias Our SCA -1 Decoder makes possible reception of this "private" musical pro- Auber: Fra Diavolo: Pour toujours. Ver- gramming, transmitted by nearly 400 FM di: Rigoletto: Questa o quella; La donna stations around the country. YOUR FM e nobile; La Traviata: De miei bollenti tuner or receiver can recover this "hid- spiriti: II Trovatore: Ah, si ben nnio: Di den" music with the simple addition of quella pira; Alda: Profferse il labbro an SCA -l. incauto (with Sabine Kalter, m -s); Hook -up in minutes -full instructions Smetana: The Bartered Bride: Es muss gelingen. Bizet: Carmen: -moi supplied. SCA -1 is self- powered ... uses Parle de all solid -state circuitry (FET's, iC's, una mère (with Elisabeth Rethberg, s); NPN's). Works with any quality FM Kienzl: Der Evangelimann: Selig .sind; Tuner or Receiver. Der Kuhreigen: Lug' Dursel, lug'. Puc- cini: Tosca: Recondita armonia; E lucevan Send check or m.o. for either . . . le stelle. D'Albert: Tiefland: Schau her. SCA -1 (Wired. ready to use) $64.50 R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier: Di ri ori SCA -1K (Kit, all needed parts) $49.95 armato. Wolf della I -Ferrari: I Gioielli Etched, drilled P.C. Board plus Madonna: Madonna, con sospiri. KLH Research and Development full construction plans $10.00 f Otte pear parts guarantee Richard Tauber, tenor; orchestra. SERA- Corp., 30 Cross St., Cambridge, Prohibited for commercial else PHIM 60086, $2.49 (mono only). Mass. 02139 Free Brochure & SCA Station list upon request ¡Suggested retail prices: East Tauber fanciers, an aging but stub- Coast, $134; West Coast, $141. SCA Services Co. born breed, will already have started out Box 601. l'ort Washington, N.Y. 11050 walking briskly (if not running) to the CIRCLE 37 ON READER -SERVICE CARD CIRCLE 48 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 90 CIRCLE 67 ON READER -SERVICE CARD ).

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www.americanradiohistory.com At Last the Avant -Garde Remembers the Organ

IT IS SURPRISING. considering the through this transformation are work, babies crying at christenings. influence of electronic music on given some sense of growth and etc. -all presumably normal fea- instrumental music in general in development. I grant that the struc- tures of an organist's everyday ac- the past few years, that so few tural plan, as least so far as it is tivity. The Fantasy for Organ is composers have shown interest in aurally perceptible, is simple to superimposed over this ',insigne the organ. The timbral possibilities the point of being primitive. but concrète, giving continuity by proof this instrument extend far be- it nevertheless serves to give some viding interludes between breaks yond those of most-and in fact shape and focus to the whole. in the taped portion and generally rival those of a small electronic Still, the importance of sound supplying a musical commentary studio. If you're skeptical. listen for sound's sake in Ligeti's work is on it. It seems to me that the to this recording, one of DGG's pronounced. In these pieces the success of such a piece depends new avant -garde series, and you'll extraordinary textural effects are largely upon one's relation to the see what I mean. Regardless of achieved primarily through the use performer in question. Assuming what one may think of the music of clusters which are then altered the listener is interested in his itself, it is amazing what these both in regard to their pitch con- day -to -day activities, then the piece composers have been able to evoke tent and their registration. The might prove to be humorous, per- from the instrument in the way of latter, incidentally, becomes of haps even moving. Otherwise, I'm sonic variety. paramount importance in this mu- afraid it's a bore. The most interesting pieces in sic. Traditionally, organ registra- The performances by Gerd this regard -and in any other re- tion has been used primarily to Zacher are impressive both for gard, for that matter -are the two produce sharp color contrasts in their virtuosity and their musicali- by Ligeti. Here the saine musical order to articulate important struc- ty, although without scores it is preoccupations that led to the re- tural points in the music. Here. difficult to say how accurate they markable orchestral sonorities of however, the registration is con- are. But an educated guess would his Atmosphères (which has he- stantly changing, usually in a grad- he that they are quite accurate. come a kind of hit due to its use ual way so that one color seems to The instrument, as one would prob- in the soundtrack of 2001: A Space merge into the next. This requires ably assume, is a modern one Odyssey) are transferred to the or- the performer to "play" on the (1962), located in the Lutherkirche gan with equally remarkable re- registration buttons much as he in Hamburg- Wellingshüttel where sults. This is what one might call does on the keyboard, and thus Mr. Zacher is the organist. Its spec- "wallpaper music," music con- demands an entirely new technique. ifications: thirty -seven stops on cerned almost exclusively with tex- For contrast there is Juan Al- three manuals and pedal, with ture and pattern. As a consequence. lende-Blin's Sonorités, a piece swell box shutters, mechanical structure becomes secondary; and which, as the title implies, is also tracker action, and electric con- as is the case with most wallpaper, concerned primarily with sound, trol. The sound is excellent and one can start almost anywhere but in which the sense of structure the notes by Dieter Schnebel are without affecting the over -all de- is almost completely missing. Left helpful. They appear in both Eng- sign. The success of such music only with the surface pattern, one lish and German, although unfor- depends largely upon the ability to quickly grows tired of the novel tunately the portions dealing with create colors and textures that are effects. Mauricio Kagel's Fantasy the composers (as opposed to the sufficiently interesting in their own for Organ with Obbligati, on the pieces) are in German only. right to be experienced solely for other hand, is a different kind of RuaiRT P. MORGAN themselves, independently (to a piece altogether, an example of greater or lesser degree) of their the "musical theater" genre of Gerd Zacher: Music for Solo position within the total structural which Kagel, along with John Organ design. I inserted that "to a great- Cage, has been one of the leading er or lesser degree" because the developers. Here the theatrical as- Kagel: Fantasy for Organ with hest of these composers -and I pect is centered in the "obbligati." Obbligati. Ligeti: Volumina: think Ligeti is probably the best - which consist of taped sounds rep- Etude No. 1 ( "Harmonies "). Al- do attempt to arrange their tex- resenting mundane events in the V lende -Blin: Sonorités. tures in such a way that they un- performer's life. Thus one hears dergo a process of transformation. frying eggs, flushing toilets, trains Gerd Zacher, organ. DEUTSCHE no matter how gradual, and going to the performer's place of GRASt5IOPIION 1 37003, $5.79.

local record store to add this palpable The Aida duet is a pearl. not only for Don't expect too much from the tech- bargain to their shelves. They will not Tauber's bold and forthright Radarres nology. for the Viennese early electricals be deterred by the presence of some de- but for the remarkable quality of Sabine (these were made between 1925 and cidedly substandard items in this recital Kalter's Amneris -she must have been 1932) are notorious for constricted tone -along with several magnificent remind- outstanding. Kienzl's engaging and pious and gritty surfaces: and the accompani- ers of the Viennese tenor's distinctively tunes seem to survive only in recital rec- ments are often ludicrously primitive. elegant and ingratiating style. Among the ords -Fritz Wunderlich recorded the But the Tauber gleam conquers all, the bad Tauber here included is a "Di quell(' same pair -and Tauber offers them with freshness of style and suppleness of line pira" transposed down a full tone (and the utmost in ease and grace. ride with equal ease over tawdry playing perfunctorily sung at that). two Tosca But one band here is alone worth the and boxy acoustics. arias that sound more Lehár than Puc- whole price of the disc: a peerless ac- Back in the EMI vaults there are some cini, and Alfredo's Act II soliloquy from count of the Italian singer's audition aria Tauber treasures even worthier of release Traviata which ends in an ungainly wob- from Act 1 of Roseakuralier (the only than most of the present ones. We need ble. But the Carmen duet reminds us item on the record not sung in German). his Mozart arias, please: the pair from how well he made Don Jose's music In this parody by Richard Strauss of the Don Giovanni. others from Zauberflöte, sound -and brings us Rethherg's haunt- eighteenth -century bel canto style, Tauber Entführung, and Così. There should be ingly beautiful singing of Micaela. is effortless and splendid. enough for one more Seraph. G.M.

92 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com When this little eighty dollar sQeaker sp the Establishment trembles. Our new Mini -III speaker system has is the first box -type speaker system that natural and impressive than the typical nothing to do with revolutionary poli- doesn't sound like one. It has none of Establishment speaker's, whose larger tics. But, among loudspeakers, it's shak- the boxy coloration you can hear, woofer may go a few (just a few) ing up the established hierarchy quite either a little or a lot, in the output of all cycles lower. radically. other completely enclosed systems. In These easily audible differences are Everybody who cares about speakers this respect, it's comparable to the large the result of some strictly non- Estab- knows the Establishment. It consists of and murderously expensive full -range lishment engineering. the top systems of perhaps half a doz- electrostatic speakers. Wide -eyed audio enthusiasts are gen- en major manufacturers, mostly of the Also, the sweet- sounding top end of erally unaware that the typical hi -fi larger bookshelf size but a few of them the Mini -III isn't the kind that comes manufacturer can't attract the same

floor models, nearly all with acoustic - from rolling off the high- frequency re- caliber of engineers as, say, Boeing suspension woofers plus one to four sponse. The highest highs are all there, or NASA. We at Rectilinear try to be other drivers, and ranging in price any- just about flat. But they're nice and an exception to the rule. So far we've where from $134 to $330. It's a strong peak -free, so the result is realism in- been able to provide the kind of un- and distinguished ruling class, capable stead of spitty "crispness." orthodox engineering environment that of a far more natural sound than the Finally, bass distortion in the Mini -III keeps a few music -loving NASA -type giant horn -type systems and other di- is so low that the bass is much more brains happy. When they make three nosaurs it originally succeeded (and cone speakers in a one -cubic -foot box which, incidentally, are still being sold sound better than some of the world's to reactionaries at prices up to $2250). most elaborate systems, they feel as Now, into this exclusive group steps creative os the space capsule boys. an upstart, measuring a puny 19" by But now they're beginning to worry. 12" by 91/2" and with a ridiculous What if their little avant -garde loud- $79.50 price tag, and has the temerity speaker becomes the new Establish- to sound better than the whole lot of ment? them. (Not just different, like certain (For further information, see your interesting novelty speakers you may audio dealer or write directly have heard lately, but better in the to Rectilinear Research Corporation, Establishment sense: smoother, clearer, 30 Main St., lower in distortion, more natural.) Brooklyn, NI=111 Of course, just because a manufac- N.Y. 11201.) MI turer claims his product is better, you don't necessarily have to believe him. However, we feel quite secure against by Rectilinear the skeptics because the superiority we're talking about isn't so subtle. Mu- sic lovers will hear it all right. For one thing, the Rectilinear Mini -III

CIRCLE 72 ON READER -SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969

www.americanradiohistory.com Shostakovich's Symphonies

Continued from page 47

the revolution, Prêtre (Odeon ASP 559, ew now out of print) as if he loved the music. s s s

Symphony No. 13, Op. 113 from Just as Russia was heaping unctuous Releases his praise on Shostakovich for Twelfth Symphony and Western critics were taking dead aim at what they regarded as an unfortunate turn in the composer's symphonic style, two more Shostakovich OCONDOT symphonies appeared that considerably changed the entire picture. The first of RECORDS these was the Fourth, which was performed for the first time on December 30, 1961, more than thirty -five years Gilbert & Sullivan: THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (with spoken after its composition and only some two months after the premiere of the Twelfth. dialogue) But no sooner was the Fourth brought The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company - The Royal Philharmonic out into the light than the Thirteenth was Orchestra - Isidore Godfrey precipitated into controversy. Once again. OSA -1277 Shostakovich plunged from the heights of official approval into the miasma of Handel: 12 CONCERTI GROSSI (Op. 6) ideological nit -picking, except that this The Academy of St. Martin -In- The -Fields - Neville Marriner time criticism was limited to the single the music but C SA -2309 work and did not attack rather the text it set. After years of Schubert: 18 SONGS hinting at composing a genuine choral Werner Krenn (tenor) with Gerald Moore (piano) symphony, Shostakovich finally found OS -26063 texts that satisfied him in the poetry of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, only to be in- MARILYN HORNE - BACH AND HANDEL ARIAS formed by the government that the use in Excerpts from Magnificat; Christmas Oratorio; St. Matthew the first movement of the Babi Yar poem, with its accusations of Russian Passion; Messiah; Rodelinda anti -Semitism, was not suitable material The Vienna Cantata Orchestra - Henry Lewis for a symphony. After the Thirteenth's OS-26067 premiere on December 18. 1962, it was performed only twice, in 1963 and 1965 GWYNETH JONES - VERDI SCENES (after Khrushchev's deposition), using Excerpts from Aida; Don Carlo; Macbeth; Otello a slightly revised version of Rabi Yar. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden - The musical language of the Thirteenth Symphony represents a radical departure Edward Downes from the bombast of much of the OS-26081 Twelfth. The Thirteenth is pervaded by Bach: EASTER ORATORIO a rather stark and brittle style also works Tom Krause The characteristic of such later as the Elly Ameling, Helen Watts, Werner Krenn, - Su-pan Rodin cantata and the Hamlet Wiener Akademiechor - The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra - Karl film score. The work makes far less Münchinger use of the orchestral resonance and OS -26100 variety found in Shostakovich's earlier symphonies and often relies instead on Dvorák: OVERTURES short bursts of low- pitched instrumental In Nature's Realm; Carnival; Othello; Scherzo Capriccioso color. On the other hand. there is a strong. Russian lyricism in the Thirteenth The London Symphony Orchestra - Istvan Kertesz -due partially to the use of voices - CS -6574 not found in much of Shostakovich's Mozart: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 20 IN D MINOR (K. 466), PIANO other symphonic work. NO. 6 IN B FLAT MAJOR (K. 238) CONCERTO Records especially Hans Everest and a young Vladimir Ashkenazy - The London Symphony Orchestra - plan named Joseph Cooper, who man- Schmidt- Isserstedt aged to obtain a tape of the 1965 per- CS -6579 formance of the symphony from a Sibelius: SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN A MINOR, TAPIOLA conservatory in Russia and who wrote Orchestra Lorin Maazel the excellent program notes for the disc. The Vienna Philharmonic - deserve a good deal of credit for making CS -6592 this important work available just when Vivaldi: BASSOON CONCERTO IN A MINOR Western audiences were wondering Weber: BASSOON CONCERTO IN F MAJOR whether they would ever hear it. This Hummel: TRUMPET CONCERTO IN E FLAT MAJOR coup probably inspired a later studio recording (also of the slightly revised L. Mozart: TRUMPET CONCERTO IN D MAJOR version) made in Russia. But Cuvit (trumpet) L'Orchestre recently Henri Helaerts (bassoon), Michel - the Everest disc (3181), documenting an de la Suisse Romande - Ernest Ansermet intense and thoroughly committed live CS -6603 performance by Kuril Kondrashin, will always have a historical importance and. all things considered, it is quite well recorded. CIRCLE 40 ON READER -SERVICE CARD ON -SERVICE CARD 94 CIRCLE 43 READER

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www.americanradiohistory.com IN BRIEF

Ormandy's first and only recording made outside of the U.S. (unless one counts the anonymously issued 1953 Prades Festival version of Schu- mann's Cello Concerto with Casals), this offers some glorious playing 'from the LSO, vivid inner -voice detail, and just about the most poetic DVORAK: Symphony No. 9, in E minor, Op. 95 -account of the Largo movement I can recall hearing. The serenity and ( "From the New World "). London Symphony involvement of Ormandy's phrasing there disarms criticism. Elsewhere, Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, and particularly in the rhetoric -laden finale, his theatricalities are, in cond. Columbia MS 7089, $5.98. truth, a bit "much." AnCerl /Parliament and Joscanini /Victrgla make their points without so much gesticulatigt,--and for -Mat reason I find their versions easier to live with. Orm ndy's lusciously reproduced effort, -change of pace is desired. H.G.

As might be expected by everyone who knows the young Spanish conductor's earlier Falla recordings for Angel, Frühbeck's Love the Sorcerer El Amor brujo. GRANADOS: proves to be not only authentically idiomatic but almost as poetic as FALLA: more Goyescas: Intermezzo. RAVEL: Pavane pour une the fine 1967 Giulini version for Angel -and rhythmically even infante défunte; Alborada del gracioso. zestful and clean -cut. His soloist, apparently making her American Nati Mistral, mezzo (in the Falla); New record debut, is no match for Giulini's Victoria de los Angeles in haunt- Philharmonia Orchestra, Rafael Fruhbeck ing vocal loveliness, but she makes more of the four brief solos' gypsy de Burgos, cond. London CS 6521, $5.79. earthiness. Both here and in the overside Granados and Ravel pieces the recordings are well -nigh flawless examples of the most gleamingly transparent stereoism. R.D.D.

spite the advantages of Fiedler's knowledgeable accompaniment and of p m that is more idomatic than Entremont's (Columbia), less GERSHWIN: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, languishin an Lowenthal's (Cardinal), there is nothing in this ver- in F. NERO: Fantasy and Improvisations sion of the Ge certo to match the dash, warmth, and dra- for Piano and Orchestra, matic conviction of the memora /Fi er edition. Even the lat- ( "Blue Fantasy "). Peter Nero, piano; Boston ter's 1962 sonics are more genuinely brilliant, less close, and far less Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, unnaturally vivid. Nero's own Fantasy is shrewdly contrived to display cond. RCA Red Seal LSC 3025, $5.98. his steely -fingered bravura in a pretentious juxtaposition of the essentially immiscible "blue" and Rachmaninoff materials. Everything's on the highly polished, ice -cold, chromium -plated surface. R.D.D.

The principal interest here centers naturally in the Hindemith work, of / which Szell's interpretation was available at one time in a mono -only recording. The Symphonic Metamorphosis, with its healthy extroversion, HINDEMITH: Symphonic Metamorphosis. JANACEK: its brilliant orchestral writing, and its avoidance of profundity, is Sinfonietta, Op. 60. Cleveland precisely the sort of thing Szell does best, and this well- recorded Orchestra, George Szell, cond. Columbia MS 7166, $5.98. performance is as good a one as you will find. The excellent Jangek Sinfonietta is already available in another coupling, as a filler for the Szell performance of the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra. B.J.

Previn's Scheherazade (No. 22 in the phonographic harem) is an earn- est, deliberate, too- wholesome- to -be- seductive effort-qualities well enough suited for the first three Arabian Nights tales but quite inade- RIMSKY- KORSAKOV: Scheherazade, Op. 35; quate for the frenzied excitements of the finale. The performance itself The Tale of Tsar Saltan: March; is particularly admirable for Georgiadis' pure- toned. unmannered violin Flight of the Bumble Bee. John Georgiadis, violin; solos and for the deft virtuosity of the other LSO first -desk men. And London Symphony Orchestra, the recorded sonics are gleamingly warm, if a bit lacking in weight and André Previn, cond. RCA Red Seal LSC 3042, $5.98. low -level percussive and inner -voice score details. In short, an attractive version of this old favorite, but one that offers no real challenge to the long -time pre- eminent revitalizations by Ansermet for London and by Beecham for Angel. R.D.D.

This is an arrogant and rather offensive disc. Some bright record producer got these three stars together and persuaded them to record a Traviata Querschnitt in a style thought appropriate for German con- sumption of Verdi -to wit, an operetta manner, distinctly derived from VERDI: La Traviata (highlights in German). Hilde Lehár. This means that the orchestra plays with syrup and the singers Gueden (s), Fritz Wunderlich (t), schmaltz along in half voice, only occasionally remembering that they Dietrich Fischer -Dieskau (b); Chorus and are operatic artists. Much of the time you could take Wunderlich for Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, Bruno Bartoletti, Tauber in Viennese Schlag; Gueden, not really up to the coloratura of cond. Heliodor HS 25088, $2.49. "Sempre libera," perks along, cute and bright; Fischer -Dieskau chops everything up into the shortest possible phrases and produces some prize antimusical (not merely anti -Verdian) effects. And Bruno Bartoletti lent himself to this? His fellow countrymen should take in hand bolognas and provolones and belabor him thoroughly. G.M.

96 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com How does the BOSE 901 eliminate audible RESONANCES?

If you have heard the BOSE 901 D rect /Reflecting'" ncrrnal I steni-tg environment that are subjectively speaker system, or if you have read the reviews in irdistingiuishable from those that would be produced by High Fidelity. in Stereo Review. and now in the an ideal pulsating sphere in the same environment." December Audio, you already know that the 901 is Any speaker -las many inherent the longest step forward in speaker desigi in resonances - perhaps two decades. Since the of the frequencies where its response is iregular. Our superiority research 901 (covered by patents issued and pending) der ves determined that when many similar speakers a-e 7.losaly from an interrelated group ai advances. Each spacec and acotstically coupled to a chamber, depending on the others for its full potential we ccmmon the resonant frequencies 'of each speaker diverge fr m those of every other speaker. hope you will be interested in a 'uller explanation As a result, each resonance becomes inaLdible, since than is possible in a single i >sue. This discussion is it :muses a change in the one of a series on the theoretical znd technological output of oily one speaker o- the many. basis of the performance of the BOSE 301. The best known feature of the BOSE Anycne familiar wit" the prob eats of resonances in 901 is its Direct /Reflecting conventional speaker design design, which copies the will apprecia-e how important a proportion of direct to discovery this is. In the case reflected sound of the 901, it means that only measured in the one speaker out of 9 can be concert hall. But in resonance at a time -a aiming a speaker proportion which is inaudible. at a wall does not The resultant freedom from magically give it audiole resonances and other greatness. What is not forms of distortion helps to yet so well known is that acccunt for the utter clarity even in conventional and hpnesty of musical terms the 901 is a better performance for which the 901 speaker -a more precise has already become famous. instrument than other For the present, if you would speakers for converting an like tc hear the difference that electrical into an acoustic a multiplicity of full -range signal. The primary source of speakers can make (in this precision is the use of an combination with 3 other major array of 9 same -size, full - advances), ask your franchised range, acoustically coupled BOSE dealer for ar A - B speakers in each 901. comparison cf the E,01 with the In the research that led to the best conventional speakers - 901, a digital computer was . 4 regaraless of their size or used to simulate an ideal price. Then, go back to vibrating surface "having no resonances, phase shift, your present speakers - if you can. diffraction, or distortion of any k nd." It was then From 'CN TI-E DESIGN. MEASUREMENT AND proved (and demonstrated at a professional grcup EVALUA-ION OF LOUDSPEAKERS', Dr. A. G. Bose, meeting of the I.E.E.E. in Nov. 1964) :hat a multiplicity a taper presented at the 1968 convertion of the Audio of closely spaced, acoustically coupled, full -rarge Ergineer ng Societ/. Copies of the complete paper speakers "can produce music and speech signals in a era. available from he Bose Ccrp. for fifty cents. You can hear the difference now.

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BOSE 901 DIRECT /REFLECTINGTM Speaker System -$476 the Stereo Pair, including Active Equalizer. Slightly higher in the west and southwest. Pedestal base extra. CIRCLE 7 ON READER SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969 97

www.americanradiohistory.com REPEAT PERFORMANCE A SELECTIVE GUIDE TO THE MONTH'S REISSUES

THE WHEELS OF INDUSTRY grind slowly. chestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Lon- Pons's charm, sweet -toned voice, and the- stage presence. Readers with long memories may re- ; don OS 26086, $5.79 [from London atrical "The personality member an announcement in "Notes OSA 1383, 1966J. of the singer evidently gave pleasure." from Our Correspondents" just over two "An excerpts disc, provided it concen- wrote Downes. "The audience wished to years ago (January 1967 to be exact) trates on Sutherland and Horne make the most of her, and did so." that Columbia Records was about to put should prove worthwhile," concluded Despite something less than universal into effect a scheme of considerable value Conrad L. Osborne after turning thumbs approval from high critical corners, Lily to the specialized collector. Rather than down on both Semiramide and London's Pons's audiences continued to make the delete from its catalogue all items of lim- semicomplete recording ( reviewed in the most of her for twenty -five years, during ited appeal and meager sales potential, January 1967 issue). Well, here is the which she reigned as the Met's undis- the company planned to transfer select highlights disc and, sure enough, it's puted house coloratura. No matter what was articles of esoterica to a special collectors' practically all Sutherland and Horne: the role, there Lily, chic, petite, and series available either through orders each has her big solo scene and two ex- utterly captivating as always. They went placed with participating dealers or di- tended duets together. Rouleau also is wild on the afternoon of her debut and went rectly from Columbia itself. After a good heard in an aria and duet with Suther- they wild at her testimonial gala deal of hemming and hawing, the project land, but his contributions are on a far exactly a quarter of a century later, and has finally gotten off the ground and less impressive level than the two ladies'. again at her last complete Met perform- some 100 titles of previously hard -to -get The two minor ensembles that fill out ance on April 12, 1958 -once more as discs are once again within easy reach. this disc give little idea of the opera's Lucia. Interestingly enough, the principal The American composer is the princi- rather grand proportions, but since the performer of Lucia that season was Cal- pal beneficiary here: thirty discs are de- concerted numbers were pretty flabbily las, a fact which in itself seemed to sig- voted either in whole or in part to this performed on the parent set, their omis- nify that the lovable candy -coated oper- uncommercial commodity. The scope is sion here is no great loss. For fanciers atic charm long endearing Lily Pons to broad, containing such classic recordings of the two prima donnas as well as for millions was no longer wanted. The here are as Roy Harris' First Symphony with the those who are only idly curious about selections fairly typical - Boston Symphony Orchestra under Kous- the "serious" Rossini, this disc should Miss Pons was an amazingly consistent sevitzky; the sole recording of Carl Rug- prove more than satisfactory. singer before the microphone from her gles' Lilacs, Portals, and Evocations: and early days with Victor in the Thirties to The Elliott Carter's First String Quartet as STRAUSS, RICHARD: Don Juan, Op. her later efforts for Columbia. oper- recorded by the Walden Quartet. In all, 20; Der Rosenkaralier: Suite; Till atic side does convey a bit of the essen- works by thirty -nine Americans appear Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28. tial Pons stage personality and the voice on Columbia's initial list. Other record- Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, is at least sweet and appealing even if ings of more than passing interest include Etagen Jochum, cond. World Series the coloratura is none too clean. Side 2 the Juilliard's long- admired and still pre- PHC 9106, $2.49 [from Epic BC 1127, is unfortunate, not so much for the corny ferred versions of the four Schoenberg 1961]. material but for the exaggerated fashion Odyssey's sound l._ Quartets, the complete music of Anton Good budget versions of these Strauss in which it's presented. Webern, Rachmaninoff's The Bells (with staples are badly needed, but Jochum is decent enough, and the liner notes ( "the Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orches- apparently isn't the man for the job. image of her gracious person," etc.) are tra), E. Power Biggs's Little Preludes These are very refined. handsomely in keeping with the occasion. and Fugues of Bach as played on eight played performances but they lack any European organs, and a collection of strong musical character. Jochum re- ALEXANDER SCHNEIDER QUIN- eight chamber works by Stravinsky, a mains too elegant a gentleman- conductor TET: "Waltzes from Old Vienna." V- number of which are otherwise unavail- to permit this brash music the touch of Lanner: Die Romantiker; Tyroler able. In the pop, jazz, and spoken word vulgarity it needs. Don Juan emerges as Liindler; Dornbacher Liindler. Strauss, categories. one notes such names as Frank an exceedingly stolid adventurer, the Josef: Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb' and Sinatra, Victor Borge. Duke Ellington, Rosenkaralier Waltzes seem a trifle Lust. Strauss, Johann, Jr.: Wiener - Edith Piaf. Marlene Dietrich, as well as square, and Till comes off sounding a Bonbons; Wiener Blut. Alexander the near mythic recording by Paul Robe- dull and humorless fellow. The sonics Schneider Quintet. Odyssey 32 16 0300, son and José Ferrer of Othello. Each disc are sharp and clear, verging just this side $2.49 [from Columbia MS 6316, 19621. is priced at $5.95. and none of the mono - of coarse and edgy. This disc exudes an unmistakable flavor only material Hill he rechanneled. of the rapidly vanishing world of ship- More titles will be forthcoming if col- LILY PONS: "A Lily Pons Gala." Arias board lounges, Viennese cafés, and Eng- lectors show enough interest to merit an by Delibes, Verdi, Bellini, Rossini, lish seaside resorts -any place, in fact, expansion of the series-lack of public Thomas, and Meyerbeer; songs by where a small string ensemble could be support, you may recall, killed off RCA's Delibes, Fauré, Ponce, Rachmaninoff, heard sawing out Strauss waltzes with similarly designed Vault Treasury Series Bachelet, and Johann Strauss, Jr. Lily more energy than style. Not that Messrs. a number of years ago. So he who com- Pons, soprano: various orchestras and Schneider, Galimir, Wolfe, Trampler, and the plains of yet another recording of conductors. Odyssey 32 16 0270, $2.49 Levine are by any means clods, for the Pathétique, let him now step forward. (rechanneled stereo only) [from Co- string playing here is exceptionally ac- Order forms and a complete listing of the lumbia ML 5073, 1955: recorded be- complished; but these performances could records currently available may be ob- tween 1942 and 1950]. have done with a shade more sentiment tained from Columbia Special Services Upon reading Olin Downes's cautious and a bit less ferocity. The three Lanner Department, 51 West 52nd St., New review of Lily Pons's debut as Lucia on selections are hardy specimens of the York, N. Y. 10019. January 3, 1931, few would have sus- genre and withstand the onslaught some- pected the long and successful Metropoli- what more successfully than the more ROSSINI: Semiramide (excerpts). Joan tan Opera career that lay ahead of the melting Strauss waltzes. Still, these heav- Sutherland (s), Marilyn Horne (ms), young artist. Peering between the lines, ily accented readings and the unpleas- exactly con- John Serge (t), Joseph Rouleau (bs), one must conclude that the New York antly close miking are not did not especially care for ducive to relaxed listening. í Spiro Malas (bs), et al.; Ambrosian Times critic Opera Chorus; London Symphony Or- what he heard even while granting Miss PETER G. DAVIS

98 CIRCLE 54 ON READER -SERVICE CARD -

www.americanradiohistory.com Make Music Not War. RCA's Red Seal Tape ends the conflict between the real and the reel.

Sometimes a music tape you make at home sounds special lubricants that make it track easier - like there's a battle going on in the background. with less friction. Banging and clunking and popping like machine - Which means your guides and heads last gun fire. longer. But leave the recording of battles to Even if you're making a demonstration tape newsmen. or whatever, you'll be pleased to find out When you want music you don't want Red Seal's signal -to -noise ratio meets war. professional standards, too. Its red box So the first thing you should do It's easy to spot Red Seal. bright a is check out your equipment. stands out like flare. Use Red Seal for your If everything checks out it Strike for peace. might be your tape. recordings at home. for RCA's Regular Line of tapes, too. To record beautiful music you N. Look line of defense have to use a tape that doesn't In blue boxes. Our second noisy tapes. cut off the highs or the lows. against At RCA and independent dealers Like RCA's Red Seal. throughout the country. It's made under white room conditions so it won't distort or blur or fight with whatever you record. RCR Red Seal is formulated with " Captures the greatest Sound around.

www.americanradiohistory.com is a blues group. More mystiques. The blues has been discovered by the kids. But the blues is basically a nothing form: twelve bars of tonic, subdominant, and dominant, with the third, fifth, and seventh flatted in melody-a sort of slow boogie - woogie. The challenge lies in making something out of this nothingness. Char- lie Parker is reported to have said that the blues is a blank slate and therefore the ultimate test of a jazzman: it's what you write on it that matters. Most of the current blues groups are only scribbling. Rock is backward looking. Establish- ment classical critics may be finding goodies in it, but it's only because they don't know the tradition of American popular music and jazz: they're goodies that have been stale for years. The Electric Flag reminds me at times of Louis Jordan and the Tympani Five. If this fantastic rush of progress continues, we may be up to 1945 before you know it. The real progress in pop isn't being made by rockers, it's being made by the jazzmen who, with a sigh, are doing what their predecessors did in the 1930s: going into pop music to make some money. It's like that period when Fletcher Hen- derson, who hadn't been able to make a Trumpeter Marvin Stamm and writer Johnny Carisi: in Machinations jazz living, began writing for the Benny Good- guys play both jazz and rock -and show the young how the real thing's done. man band, and the kids thought something new had happened, not having heard Henderson 's own failed orchestra. Johnny Carisi recently wrote an album called Machinations (Verve 8759). The soloist is trumpeter Marvin Stamm-ac- Cycles tually, it's Marv's album. Johnny uses a lot of rock devices with a big band. But The men wore bell- bottom trousers, the squares in those days. And before long, instead of having rock people fiddling girls wore skirts that didn't reach the the jazz people- arrangers and players - with jazz and getting in over their heads, knee. They were enamored of illicit in- had taken over a large segment of the pop we get jazz guys playing both jazz and toxicants and inferior dance music in music business. rock devices with fiery ease. No months - which they substituted wild gyrations for It may be happening again. The rock long recording sessions, with 400 hours physical contact. They scorned conven- people are substantially incompetent, no of editing to make the group look good: tion, their parents, and the past; they matter what the press agents tell you. Go Johnny and Mary wrapped it up in nine believed they were a new and brighter to one of their record dates and watch hours. breed of people, free of old moralities, five of these clowns trying for two or Rhythmically complex, churning with a involved in a sexual revolution, more three hours to get one take that's in tune. constant restless power, the album has aware and more alive. Yet in their bright During one recent rock date, the pro- something that is too rare in our music hedonism, there was a pervasive sadness. ducer, a capable musician himself, began today: real vitality. But then, Johnny to turn white with anger. "Do you hear Carisi, a smallish, rather leather -faced that ?" he muttered to me. "The organ man, is that way: he can't sit still even All right, boys and girls, who has been player's using one set of changes and the when he's talking. "I knew they'd have described here? Today's young people? guitar player's playing another. And they to come back to us some day," he grinned. Wrong. I have described the 1920s; the wrote the goddam tune. You'd think "They'd have to say, 'Show us how it's generation I refer to is my mother's. They they'd know it." done.' " went on, of course, to marry conventional- Currently a big push is on to sell us Don Sebesky is playing around with ly, suppress their kids, and look shocked Blood, Sweat, and Tears, a jazz -rock rock. Pat Williams did two delightful at what's happening today. They were group. Very avant -garde: they've discov- albums for Verve in this new hybrid called the lost generation, and maybe ered Erik Satie. Hot diggety. The thing idiom. And it isn't only the writers; good they were. But I think I like them better that's getting the air play is Smiling players are into it, too: guitarist Sam than the whining generation, which is Phases. You know: make a pun, no mat- Browne, pianist Warren Bernhardt, trum- what's around now. (Freud made it cool ter how meaningless, and hope that some- peter Randy Brecker. to feel sorry for yourself and blame your body will find it deep. The group is It's an odd thing that's happening. parents for everything.) What a joyless heavy -handed. The horn writing is sim- Usually art is revitalized from below, by bunch of little creeps we've got these plistic. I like their drummer, Bobby Col - the upcoming young. American popular days, relieved here and there by some omby, and their electric bass player, Jim music today is being revitalized from genuinely brilliant youngsters, for which Fielder. Their pianist, Dick Halligan, above, by older masters. We may be on thank God. shows us where he's at in a solo on the verge of a new blend of pop and In that earlier miniskirt era, there was Smiling Phases. He's got fumbling fin- jazz music that parallels what happened a lot of bloody horrible popular music. gers and indefinite time: it's a little em- in big bands in the 1930s. I'm told it's Gershwin and Kern and a few others barrassing to hear him struggling through already happening in discothèques in broke the monotony with a real search a solo beyond his skill. I tried the album Acapulco and San Francisco. And Va- for excellence. And then along about the (Columbia CS 9720) all the way through riety reported recently that in France, end of the Twenties, jazz musicians be- several times. What I once said of the where the go -go clubs and discothèques gan moving in on the pop -dance music Blues Project applies to Blood, Sweat, started, they're turning the joints into scene. Mostly they needed the money, I and Tears: given enough time and hard jazz clubs. We'll see. The Johnny Carisi/ suspect. It was as if they'd said, "Oh work. they might evolve into a second - Marvin Stamm album may be a signifi- let's go and show those squares how to rate jazz group. cant straw in the wind. do it." Or whatever word they called The Electric Flag (Columbia CS 9714) Cycles. GENE LEES

100 CIRCLE 58 ON READER- SERVICE CARD-3.

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www.americanradiohistory.com POPS JAZZ MOVIES STAGE FOLK

THE LIGHTER SIDE

reviewed by MORGAN AMES R. D. DARRELL JOHN GARREE GENE LEES JOHN S. WILSON

SYMBOL * DENOTES AN EXCEPTIONAL RECORDING

Less original but more satisfying are the Deviants, who are a thoroughly derivative but colorful trio of London rockers (they get a little help from their friends). Their heroes seem to be the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Hollies, the Mothers, and the Fugs. They've chosen well and they've put together a spirited and humorous collection of influences in Ptooff! 1 think we'll hear more from the Deviants. J.G.

*ETHEL WATERS: Miss Ethel Waters. Ethel Waters, vocals; Reginald Beane, piano. Am 1 Blue?; Supper 7Ynte; Stormy Weather; thirteen more. Monmouth /Evergreen he DePiant.l go "Ptouf f': hard rock with nothing new btu nun h tliau'.s fun. 6812, $4.79. This disc is a live concert given by Ethel was THE DEVIANTS: Ptooff! The Deviants, a record can be sold through company Waters "in the late 1950s." The tape hard rock trio. Child of the Sky; Noth- promotion, but most of these LPs haven't found in what producer Bill Borden de- ing Man; Bun; Deviation Street; three been given much (if any) push. I'd like scribes as "a very round -about way" just he more. Sire SES 97001, $4.79. to think that when the final product is before it was to be destroyed or, as LED ZEPPELIN: Led Zeppelin, hard in, Company X makes the realistic de- puts it, "permanently lost." Miracle of rock quartet. Good Times Bad Times; cision that their new masterpiece isn't so miracles, that tape preserves what is probably the best of Ethel Waters on 1 Babe /'m Gonna Leave You; Your hot so why spend any more money on it. Time Is Gonna Conte; Black Moun- But perfectly good records-Mother records. tain Side; Communication Breakdown; Earth, Daughters of Albion, the Hello Miss Waters' recording career goes four more. Atlantic SD 8216, $4.79. People -go unsung too, leaving me with back to the early '20s and her best known SILVER APPLES: Contact. Silver Ap- the hypothesis that the whole business is record at that time was My Handy Man, double- entendres. But ples, experimental rock group. Water; being run on hope. or on a kiss and a a collection of in Gypsy Love; A Pox on You; Con- prayer as we used to say upcountry. 1925 she also recorded the song that put fusion; five more. Kapp KS 3584, The three albums at hand demonstrate her in the big time, Dinah, and went on $4.79. enough originality to push them to the from there with other good songs. But What with the current bustle in the in- front of the rack. The most experimental in the late '20s and early '30s, as Miss dustry to get as many records as possible and least rewarding is Contact by Silver Waters moved out of the show business out there in the bins before the bubble Apples (or Silver Apples by Contact, dregs in which she had started, she breaks, listening to new rock releases has whichever you prefer). The album is full tended to overplay propriety and ele- gotten to be a dreadful chore. And so of interesting effects that are repeated gance and her recorded performances much drek comes out that you find your- endlessly and would have been far more had a consequent stiffness. Then, as the '30s wore on and her voice wore out, self quivering in ecstasy (well . . .) at interesting if the liner notes had pro- every little glimmer of originality and /or vided technical information (my brother - she found a new career as a straight actress. musical proficiency. I mean, just the last in -law the guitarist thinks they pulled few months have given me (but hope- tubes out of their preamp). Still, at this Her recordings, starting with her ap- fully not you) albums by Street. the point I'm ready to applaud anyone who pearance in As Thousands Cheer in 1934, Sparrow, October Country, J. P. Rags, can come up with even one new noise. reveal less flexibility at interpreting and Brotherhood. Wings. Harvey Mandel, It looks like Led Zeppelin is going to projecting a lyric. By the '40s, it was all Biff Rose, the Fool, Sandy Hurvitz, get plenty of promotion so you'll hear a crafty projection and just the shell of a Sandy Gurley, Nancy Priddy, Diane lot about them. They are an all -star voice. Yet here on this disc is Waters in Hildebrand, Graffiti, Thomas Hill, the group from Britain (à la Cream, whom the late '50s using all that stagecraft Asylum Choir, the Glitterhouse, Touch, they don't otherwise resemble). The vo- knowledge and still finding vocal re- Willie and the Red Rubber Band, Leon- calist, Robert Plant, is a blues screamer sources that seemingly had been drained ard Schaeffer, Jeff Monn, Lynn County, while the rest of the band seems happier years before. With Reginald Beane, her the Seventh Sons, Listening, Bob Siller, with calmer fare. The instrumentalists long -time accompanist at the piano, she and West, to name a few in no particular are solid, especially the guitarist and is relaxed, in superb form, putting it all order. I really don't understand who is organist. Some of the mixing is pretty supposed to buy these discs. Sometimes strange. Continued on page 106

102 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com Drive. The first is Panasonic's RS- 796ÚS* 4 -track stereo tape deck. It has Dual Capstan feeds. And that reduces wow and flutter to a low, low O.09°ú- Here's how. One capstan The other pulls. This puts an end to speed fluctuations. And tape- tension variations. Panasonic's exclusive Dual Capstan Drive also doubles the life of the tape heads. And prevents tearing and twisting. Because tape pressure is decreased. And tape 'touch' is uniform. But that's not all. RS -796US has Contin- uous Automatic Reverse System. Plus a manual reverse button. And automatic stop. And a wide frequency range of 25- 21,000 Hz. And 3 speeds. And a transparent lid to protect the reels. And warranty service throughout the U.S.

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The second is Panasonic's RS- 768US ** 4- track stereo tape deck. It has three heads for simultaneous playback. This lets you hear the tape's quality while you're recording. In addition, RS -768US has a wide frequency range of 20- 27,000 Hz. And automatic stop. And a noise filter. And two integrated circuits. And a tape cleaning device. And sound -on- sound. And sound -with- sound. And a transparent lid to protect the reels. And warranty service throughout the U.S. Plus, with RS- 768US, wow and flutter are reduced to a low, low 0.09 °0, too.

Sound reasons to own either one of Panasonic's tape decks? You may think that not hearing what you're not supposed to hear with RS -796US and instant sound with RS -768US are reasons enough.

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*RS -790D and * *RS -700D in Pacific Military Exchange. CIRCLE 47 ON READER- SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969 103

www.americanradiohistory.com The Precision instrument for measurement of TAPE SPEED

Presley: The Product Is Sex

ABOUT ONCE A YEAR I spend some and self-conscious. His one smooth time trying to account for the speech serves to introduce a medley seemingly eternal success of Elvis of gospel pieces, including Where Presley. Again it becomes clear Could I Go but to the Lord and from this soundtrack TV special Up Above my Head. One is im- that Presley can't, or won't, sing. pressed: here at last is Presley's BE SURE TAPES ARE "ON CUE" AND "ON SPEED "! A reliable authority has reported area of expertise and love. But The TAPE STROBE detects slippage that Presley is the owner of a then he proceeds with equal enthu- and uneven tape speed - eliminates quite beautiful tenor voice. If so, siasm into his hit, Blue Christ- errors of timing, cueing, measure- it is not the voice that has made mas, although the song is hopeless- ment, and calibration. Mechanical him famous. On record, his singing ly bad. damage and worn transports are is mildly attractive, of modest Later we find Presley's energy indicated. To use, simply press strobe range and questionable breath con- pouring into a brag -song wheel gently against tape and check called when During ( direction of pattern for off-speed trol except shouting. Trouble "I'm evil, so don't you condition. In deluxe jewelry case. occasional moments of note susten- mess around with me "). He begins sion, the voice displays a quick the number in a black leather ((((dUbbÑngsC upward vibrato that lifts it, like a suit. Midway the scene switches balloon, into sharpness. Presley to a nightclub locale, with Pres- 1305 S. Strong Ave., Copiague, New York 1172 has a solid sense of tempo, in tradi- ley in more sophisticated garb. Please send Dubbings Tape Strobe ® $22.50 ea. tional two -beat country style. His Not until the switch occurs does Deluxe AA (71/2 ips -15 ips -30 ips) (60 cycle guitar playing is loud, powerful, one realize how fitting was the Deluxe BB (3% ips -71/2 ips -15 ips) models) uncomplicated. The emotional ef- sinister black leather. Deluxe CC (17/e ips -3% ips -7'/ ips) fect of his playing was evident on Something creepy seems to be 50 cycle model Amt. of order (at $5.00 extra) $- the TV show. Whenever he'd be- going on. Presley is able to symbol- Add 500 ea. for postage & handling - -- -- gin a series of pick -up notes on ize a violence -is -fun attitude of his bass E string, one of his hover- uniquely southern proportions. Be- Name ing fans would say, "Yeah, play it hind him on stage during the num- Address dirty!" Presley, in person, is said ber are a group of people, milling City State Zip to be incredibly handsome. On young men, girls waiting for trou- NO C.O.D. -e SATISFACTION OUARANTEEO television, I did not find it so. ble to start. Saturday night in town. N.e C Aes,Oants Ada 5% Sues Te. Presley's gift is not, and never A Elsewhere in N. y.. Taus APPacalN hootchie -cootchie girl in veils was, musical ability. What he's does a dance (Little Egypt). Pres- CIRCLE 65 ON READER -SERVICE CARD selling. with astonishing flair, is ley swaggers, leader of the pack. As a solid -gold public personality. the camera pans the swooning Worshipers come to bask in its faces of girls and women in the light. To put it another way, the audience, one wonders what fan- product is magnetism, sex. At one tasies they must be having. point during his show (and this From raunchy to religious, Pres- album), Presley says, "I think I'll ley seems to mean every word he put a strap on this [guitar] and sings. His key is his precise, intui- stand up." The audience goes fran- tive knowledge of who he is and tic at the prospect. Well, they what he's projecting on stage. His should. He moves like a panther. consistency is absolute. Should The Presley phenomenon is Presley sing a song about the gui- closely tied in with the entertain- tar, he would not say "guitar play- ment tradition of the American er" or "guitarist." His word is "gui- southland, where he is king. Un- tar man." No question of identity like easily distracted northerners, here, no shades of gray. All is southerners are fiercely loyal to black and, most assuredly, white. their own. How else could Nash- No discussion of Presley is com- ville's Minnie Pearl open a country- plete without mention of Colonel DON'T wide string of fried chicken joints Parker, the force behind his career. until you get our quotes with almost guaranteed success? It's a case of a brilliant salesman ADC, AR, Benjamin_ While the entertainment industry in rapport with a brilliantly clear - COMPONENTS . Miracord, Bogen, Dual, at large continues to preoccupy it- cut product. It would not surprise Dynoco, Eico, Electro Voice,- Empire, Fisher, Garrard, Jensen, Magnacord, Norelco, Picker- self with this or that month's mu- me to learn that they do business ing, Roberts, Scott, Shure, Stanton, Tandberg, Ube., University, Viking, Wharfedale. sical fancy, Elvis Presley remains not with a contract but with a an industry unto himself. With rela- handshake. TAPE RECORDERS all brands SPEAKER SYSTEMS all quality offering( tively little fanfare, his albums and Despite an air of not -quite -jelled ALL ACCESSORY ITEMS movies are unwaveringly success- spontaneity on the album, the MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ful. Not only have I never seen Presley magnetism spills out. Like Our background in this business allows a Presley movie, I don't know any- it or not, it cannot be dismissed. us to buy well and pass the savings on to one who has. We're a dispensable MORGAN AMES our customers. minority. We also guarantee shipment on same Presley's roots show in the mate- ELVIS PRESLEY. Soundtrack day delivery in cartons double-boxed sealed rial he selects. Much of it is south- from when possible. the NBC-TV special. Elvis Special package deals of compatible ern-gospel in flavor, and this is Presley, vocals and guitar; Wil- components put together to give you exciting where he is at his best. The brief liam Goldenberg, arr.; W. Earl sound at low cost. Watch for these "specials." segments of dialogue on this al- Brown, vocal arr. Lawdy, Miss For Special Price Quote Write or Visit Us at bum indicate that Presley is not a Clawdy; Hound Dog; Jailhouse verbally communicative man. One Rock; seventeen more. RCA Vic- DEFA ELECTRONICS CORP. also suspects that he is both shy tor LSP 4088, $4.98. 2207 E{roadwa , N.Y., N.Y. 10024

CIRCLE 15 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 104 CIRCLE 6 ON READER -SERVICE CARD '

www.americanradiohistory.com How do you top the top -rated Miracord?

Equip it with today's most advanced cartridge, the new privilege to.evaluate. I find it superior in all respects." Elac 444 -E. The Elac 444 -E and the Elac /Miracord 50H The-,Miracord 50H automatic turntable with the Elac have much in common. Both are made by ELAC of West 444 -E cartridge is about the finest record playback sys- Germany. Both have recently received national recog- tem available today The Elac 344E cartridge is an excel- nition. The Miracord 50H is acclaimed by leading high lent choice with the Miracord 620 (also highly ac- fidelity editors and experts. Elac 444 -E rated superior claimed by the experts.) Elac offers a complete selec- by 50 discerning high fidelity salesmen. These experts tion of cartridges from $24.95 to $69.50. Miracord, a tested the Elac 444 -E in their home systems and com- choice of automatic turntables from $99.50 to $159.50. pared it to their present cartridges. A few comments: Hear them today. Benjamin Electronic Sound Corp., "A great groove -tamer for the straight- from- the-studio Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735. Canada: White Electronics, Ont. sound lover! All of today's terms won't describe the utmost enjoyment ! experienced." ":..probably one of the finest cartridges I've had the ELAC/MIRACORD

www.americanradiohistory.com Continued from page 102

together on this disc, a brilliant summa- tion of the talents of one of the great musical and theatrical personalities of the STEP UP twentieth century. J.S.W. BEN BAGLEY'S NOEL COWARD RE- VISITED. Laurence Harvey, Hermione ...to the finest transcription turntable in the world! Gingold, Nancy Andrews, and Edward Earle, vocals; Norman Paris, arr. and cond. Chase Me Charlie; Housemaid's Knees; Never Again; eleven more. M -G -M SE 4430, $4.79. Ben Bagley is the only record maker I can think of who has fun when he works -not the slick, perspiring fun of the hopeful hit makers, but the unfettered THORj5 fun of a man who doesn't give a hang about commercial appeal. How he gets away with it is a mystery in a business where awards go not to the deserving but to the marketable. Even more mysteri- ously, Bagley sells records. If he didn't, they'd stop him, for surely no one at If you're settling for less than the entirely new THORENS TD -125, M -G -M can have the least idea what he's or it's the integrated 2 -speed doing, or why it's fun. companion, the THORENS Bagley's method is to select groups of TD -150 AB, you're making do obscure works by otherwise famous song- with less than the best! writers. He then assembles an unexpected THORENS TD -125; $185.00 cast to sing them, directing their rendi- less base - THORENS tions with the orchestral aid of Norman TD -150 AB; $110.00 with Paris. Bagley's previous efforts include arm & base. the "revisited" work of Rodgers and Hart, Porter, Kern, Berlin, and Gershwin. Endorsed by Elpa because it successfully meets the stringent stand- This time Bagley chose Noel Coward. ards of performance Elpa demands. Write for full THORENS details. As usual, his liner notes are worth the Elpa Marketing Industries, Inc., New Hyde Park, N. Y. 11040 album price. "Noel Coward was born near London.... The English are damp, CIRCLE 23 ON READER -SERVICE CARD depressing, and insincerely polite. Their towns resemble Hoboken, N.J., on a dark day. Noel is an exception. You can take him anywhere. .. . Many of the songs deserve the obscurity they've received. Evening in Sum- THE MINI -COMPACT mer is notable only for Bagley's remark: "This song refers to the one evening in London when it doesn't rain. It usually occurs during the month of August. The offices close and people dance in the streets and make a big fuss." The same goes for Nothing Can Last Forever: "This was Princess Margaret's favorite song. ... It was sung at her wedding to An- thony Armstrong Jones by Miss Diana Dors." Other songs are marvelous. Fore- most is Coward's deadly and hilarious World War II missive, Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans. Equally funny is That Is the End of the News, a jaunty newscast of daily atrocities. Bagley's typically unlikely cast includes Laurence Harvey (whose only other album, as I recall, is a group of readings from This Is My Beloved accompanied, fantastically enough, by jazz flutist Herbie Mann); Hermione Gingold ( "her motion picture successes include White Slave Queen and Harold Pinter's Ad- ventures of Busty Brown "); Nancy An- Hard to believe it will sell for less drews ( "she is currently taking vocal les- than $200! A complete professional sons from The Sons of the Pioneers "); type cassette stereo system, includes Edward Earle ( "he is currently giving act- AM-FM and FM stereo tuner. This ing lessons to Princess Lee Bouvier Radzi- Crown mini -compact is small enough See your local Crown Dealer or write will"); and designer /composer Harvey The Fantastiks to play anywhere (built -in AC and INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIERS COMPANY, Schmidt, author of (who "became a California resident merely to DC), with sound big enough to fill a 755 Folsom Street, San Francisco, have the privilege of voting for Ronald concert hall. California 94107. Reagan . . . his next musical will be based on the marriage between Julie CIRCLE 3 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 106 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com Nixon and David Eisenhower and titled "A Resounding Tickle"). Miss Gingold's acidic rendition of The Wife of an Acrobat makes one wonder if perhaps Coward wrote it especially for her in 1932. Green Carnations, sung by Edward Earle and a men's chorus quaint- ly called The Satisfactions, is blatant camp. Bagley writes, "England is one of the few countries which doesn't consider homosexuality a crime. Their reason is perhaps best explained by Harold Pinter, 'England is where we separate the men from the boys . . . with a crowbar.'" Which brings us to the album's, and Coward's, essence: camp. Handled wrong -as it usually is -camp becomes a disaster of hokum and bad taste. Bagleÿs sense of humor and perceptivity, plus a genuine love for Coward's songs, saves the show. The album is poorly recorded, making Good grief! It's the lyrics difficult to catch. But Coward's ire af jed marón picture wundlradl gift for melody shines through and after AiCs.Oc11 MEMO.. two or three listenings all the words are clear. Bagley is forty miles away from the musical mainstream. His brand of ir- reverence is out of vogue, but not his warmth. He makes albums full of things I hate, but he always makes me love them. M.A.

TOM JONES: Help Yourself. Tom Jones, vocals; orchestra, Ken Wood- man, Johnny Harris, others, cond. Set Me Free; Laura; So Afraid; ten more. Parrot PAS 71025, $4.79. Tom Jones is a Welshman who wants to look like Richard Burton and sing like Bill Medley (who likes to sing like Ray Charles). He's a good performer and he's had a lot of hits. For me, the way to enjoy his proposed new TV series is to turn off the sound and listen to someone else on the record player. The way to enjoy his albums is to turn off the sound and watch someone else on TV. M.A.

Classified Advertising ABCS-OC-9 candy Classified Rates: 60¢ per word per inser- groups cut loose tion; $6 minimum per ad, noncornmis- Two dynamite sionable, payable in advance. Initials, in the wildest, free- rompin'est street address and city and state must be original soundtrack recording to counted. No charge for zip codes. No happen. The Byrds take off dealer or manufacturer advertising al- ever lowed. Deadline: 5th of 2nd month pre- ...and supergroup Steppenwolf ceding date of issue. Mail classified ad- shake the world with their smash vertisements to: Classified Advertising hit "Rock Me." Dept., High Fidelity, 165 West 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10036.

FOR SALE: 152- year -old Switzer Violin made ABC in On INC. Germany dated 1817. Vestor Ransom, New ABC RECORDS, RECORDS Concord, Ky. 42076. Phone: (502) 436-5432. NEN YORK /BEVERLY HILLS CIRCLE 13 ON READER -SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969 107

www.americanradiohistory.com sudden spates of drumming or ad lib JAZZ solos. J.S.W. THE FREEDOM SOUNDS: Soul Sound LENNY BREAU: Guitar Sounds. System. Wayne Henderson, trombone; Lenny Breau, guitar; Reg Kelln Willie Gresham, tenor saxophone; Jim- and Ronnie Halldorson, bass and my Benson, baritone saxophone, and Jdrums. King of the Road; My Funny flute; Matt Hutcherson. vibes; Harold Valentine; Music to Watch Girls By: Land, Jr., piano; Pancho Bristol, bass; seven more. RCA Victor LSP 4076. Chino Valdez, Moises Oblagacion, $4.98. Ricky Chemelis, Max Guarduino, Dee George Simon's liner notes to this album Allen, and Fred Hampson, percussion. radically overstate the case for Lenny Behold the Day; Are You Sure; All Breau, claiming that he is a whole new You Need Is Love; four more. Atlantic thing on the guitar. George goes into 1512, $4.98. raptures about Breau's technique, which When the Jazz Crusaders first appeared is in effect a variant on the approach to on World Pacific Records, they seemed the instrument pioneered by Chuck to be something of an anomaly -a driv- Wayne -a cross of classical guitar tech- ing, gutty jazz group on the West Coast nique with that of jazz. George quotes where jazz has traditionally had a rela- Chet Atkins, who produced this album in tively soft, sometimes smoggy sound, re- Nashville, as saying "Why, he [Breau] flecting the period in the early Fifties plays the instrument like a piano." I refer when there was something that could be both George and Chet to the liner notes identified as West -Coast jazz. An impor- 1of George Van Eps's marvelous Capitol tant part of the sinew and virility in the _ album, My Guitar (ST 2533), wherein he Crusaders sound was trombonist Wayne says, "I always thought of the guitar as Henderson. If for nothing else, one can a small piano you hold in your lap." be grateful to Henderson for joining with Van Eps has been playing "pianistic" Jimmy Knepper and Roswell Rudd in guitar since the 1930s; indeed, he does turning the jazz trombone away from the more than sound like a two -handed pian- WARNER BROS. - SEVEN ARTS, RECORDS INC. staccato Morse code blips that J. J. John- ist -with a seventh string on the bottom son's virtuosity made so lastingly fashion- of the guitar, he plays his own bass part. able twenty years ago (and the effects I'm sick of that preoccupation with have still not worn off). mere newness that has infused jazz crit- Henderson plays big and broad and icism for at least the last twenty years. rugged. Even his short, jittery phrases It's the all -new -Duz! philosophy applied have a feeling of depth and power. This to art. By suggesting that Breau is some- CIRCLE 75 ON READER -SERVICE CARD new group that he leads on its second thing new under the sun, Simon actually LP reflects, as a whole, the wallop that shifts the attention from the central fact he packs in his trombone. Henderson of Breau's work: its sheer excellence. uses a three -horn voicing (trombone, ten- Lenny Breau isn't terribly original. DISCOUNTS or and baritone saxophones) that is mus- What he is is terribly, terribly good - cular without losing either litheness or a brilliant young eclectic who draws on SELLING HI -FI flexibility. Behind them he has a six -man everything from Django Reinhardt percussion team that gives everything the through Sabicas to Chet Atkins to make NATION- WIDE group plays a strongly bridling, eruptive his music. (I suspect he also listens at- foundation. And the solo voices match tentively to Julian Bream: he has some 44 WORLD the ensemble power -Willie Gresham, a of Bream's sensitivity to tonal color on WIDE wailing tenor man, Jimmy Benson, play- the instrument.) Breau is, in fact, the best ing a darkly potent flute, Matt Hutcher- young guitarist I've heard since Gene SINCE son sprinkling bright vibes sounds through Bertoncini, who, alas, remains under rec- the arrangements. ognized, except by New York musicians. 1948 But along with all this sense of power, Given a prodigious technique, Breau there is variety, pace, and balance in the uses it with warmth and lyricism -that's COMPONENTS RECORDERS programming. At times. the group sug- another of the jazz myths that needs ex- KITS SPEAKER SYSTEMS TAPE gests an unusually burly and melodic ploding, the idea that good technique is Latin band. At other times it puts out inimical to emotion. He draws his mate- straight, driving exuberance, broken with rial from as many sources as his methods: New Lower Prices Same Day Reply To Your Inquiry Mfrs. Sealed Cartons Double Boxed Where Possible Fast, Insured Shipments Package Deals Save You More From HI -Fl Franchised Distributors for Over low components to All merchandise 50 Mfrs. shipped same day from complete stereo systems, Open Monday thru Saturday RI'5advertised, our warehouse, fully insured if it's nationally Free Parking at Door in factory sealed cartons. Our We have it! Discounts of course! Phones: N.Y.C. (212) 369-6212 one aim is your complete satisfaction Right now, write now ... for Danbury, Conn. (203) 775 -2562 -merchandise -wise, price -wise! your special quote. Savings That's why we're one of the are bigger than ever in East Coast's largest honor of our recent expansion. WRITE FOR SPECIALS VISIT component distributors. t'J OUR SHOWROOM /WAREHOUSE ta /CARSTON CORPORATION OF AMERICA R.F.D. =3 - ROUTE 7 2122 UTICA AVE., BROOKLYN, N. Y. 11234 (212) 338 -8555 BROOKFIELD, CONN. 06804 ON READER CARD CIRCLE 9 ON READER -SERVICE CARD CIRCLE 66 -SERVICE HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com current pops, old pops, country -and- western, rock. It all comes out jazz. NOW ...PERFECT FM The most interesting track of the album is Taranta, a loose improvisation WRITE FOR ELIMINATE that starts out in flamenco territory and moves over onto that of Miles Davis. It FM sounds to me as if Breau is using a nylon QUOTATION stringed classical guitar here, but the lin- INTERFERENCE! er notes don't clarify this point. And we FACTORY SEALED CARTONS With the Sensational hear here what may be Breau's one true FRANCHISED DISTRIBUTOR innovation. Though played with classical QUICK SHIPMENT finger technique, his lines swing. He's Mao! FINCO the first guitarist I've heard pull this off. FM BAND PASS FILTER I had been slowly coming to the conclusion that by the very nature of the articulation, "classical" guitar technique couldn't be made to swing; but Breau WE GIVE seems to have solved the problem. He doesn't swing hard, mind you -but he does swing. Breau's arrival on the jazz scene from DISCOUNTS Canada, where he was born, is a happy ENGINEERED TO event. Guitar playing has been enormous- ON HI -FI ly debased in recent years by the folkers Get only pure FM signals. Use a and the rockers. It's a delight to come COMPONENTS Fin:o FM Band Pass Filter to stop across a new young musician who's interference and block out un learned to play his ax, really play it. wanted signals from T.V., Citizens One further point: big record com- Bard and Amateur transmitters, panies don't care much about jazz any- motors, autos and fluorescent more, they only want to make money. !amps. Size: 41/4" x 2" x 11/2" RCA Victor deserves credit for giving SOUND Available at your Finco Hi Fi Lenny Breau a shot; more specifically, dealer. Satisfaction guaranteed' Chet Atkins is to be thanked for turning REPRODUCTION Model 3007 Only $7.30 List for a moment from country-and -western Pace subirci 10 change to produce this jazz album. That soft INC. southern drawl masks a vast hipness. G.L. THE FINNEY COMPANY 436 CENTRAL AVENUE 34 West Interstate Street, Dept. HF-4 East Orange, New Jersey 07018 Bedford, Ohio 44014 WILLIE THE LION SMITH: Memoirs. 1201) 673 -0600 Willie Smith. piano and vocals. Shine; CIRCLE 64 ON READER -SERVICE CARD CIRCLE 26 CN READER -SERVICE CARD Blue Skies; Running Wild; Ain't Mis- behavin'; thirty -four more. RCA Victor LSP 6016, $9.58 (two discs). Willie the Lion's colorful memories of his career as a pianist and entertainer Why? have been set down at length in his book, Music on My Mind. This two -disc DO THOUSANDS OF HI -FI TH4S set serves as musical illustration of some portions of the book, presented in the ENTHUSIASTS BUY FROM OVER YEARS form of a monologue with music by the 6 2 Lion. In the course of an hour and three AUDIO UNLIMITED OF RELIABILITY quarters, he talks, plays, and sings his way from his early days before World War I through recollections of the Clef Club, wide open Atlantic City, and Har- It's Obvious! IS WHY STEREO & HI -FI lem in its heyday. He remembers his friends and colleagues -Eubie Blake, BUYERS CAN BE SURE OF LOWEST James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Duke El- PRICES lington, and Louis Armstrong. And he FAST SERVICE gives a sampling of his own work as a composer. Although it is uneven in per- FACTORY SEALED UNITS formance and presentation, the set is a SAVINGS fascinating run -through. FULLY INSURED SHIPMENTS AT RABSONS The Lion is warm and charming at At Rabsons Competitive Prices, Reliability and PACKAGE DEALS -SAVE MORE one moment, arrogantly boastful a few Personal Service have been bywords for over grooves later. But in the course 62 years. of this FRANCHISED DISTRIBUTORS It's so EASY and SAFE to deal with Rabsons. range, one gets the flavor of a true per- Up to 35 months to pay on Easy Pay Plan sonality. His singing voice, which may As close as your telephone - as near as your Write for FREE Listing today mailbox . Fast Air Mail Response on Quotation never have been more than serviceable, Requests Franchised Distributor for Hi Fi Lines is almost nonexistent now, and one often All merchandise brand new in factory sealed cartons, shipped doublepacked, fully insured wishes he would not even try to sing SEND US YOUR LIST promptly from our warehouse Greater savings some of the pieces here. But his fingers on complete systems Export packing 220 FOR OUR AIR MAIL Volts, 5G Cycle merchandise a specialty Free still have vitality when he is faced with list of monthly specials. a challenge. Some of his playing on these QUOTE TODAY YOU four sides is rambling and desultory, but Visit Our Showroom and Warehouse BEFORE BUY GET A RABSONS YOU'LL every now and then he sits down and rips Closed Mondays QUOTE... BE GLAD YOU DID! his way through a piece that gives some indication of the power he must have had AUDIO unlimited, inc. RABSONS 57 ST. INC. when he was lording it over the piano at 396.F Third Ave. (Nr. 28) N.Y., N.Y. 10016 119 West 57th Street, New York, N. Y. 10019 Pod's and Jerry's. J.S.W. i Tel. Area Code 212.247.0070 CIRCLE 53 ON READER -SERVICE CARD APRIL 1969 109

www.americanradiohistory.com catalogue. This Guy's in Love with You, for instance, was an early effort dusted THEATER off last year for Alpert. For Promises, r Buy at Promises, the team had no backlog to Prices count on. The material had to be new. Eastern &FILM The Bacharach /David style. interesting from as it may be, does not lend itself to the WEST COAST CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. Mu- Broadway medium. On Broadway, mel- HEADQUARTERS sic from the film. Dick Van Dyke, ody is All (as proved by Richard Rod- Sally Ann Howes, others, vocals: Ir- gers' success). For Bacharach, melody You Two; Htrsha- equals arrangement. But audiences do not best discounts and win Kostal, cond. Get leave a theater whistling an arrangement. save on shipping costs bye Mountain; Toot Sweets; Posi,!; As for David. with a few notable excep- too from the largest twelve more. United Artists UAS 5188, - tions such as Alfie, his real talent has high fidelity mail order $5.79. been managing to fit syllables neatly to on the West Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sounds like the dealer Bacharach's trampoline melodies. He's Coast. title of a banana-packed Carmen Miranda movie. Instead, it's the name of a fabu- done it here, as in the show's tedious title tune. But again, it is not enough to make Write or call for our low lous flying automobile created by Ian a memorable Broadway show. discount quotation on Fleming in his only children's book. Fleming borrowed the name from an Broadway had to bend to accommo- one piece or complete date the Bacharach /David style. But it ad- auto that actually existed, the fanciful system of nationally could not reform. Too much besides components. creation of an Englishman who dreamed vertised a venture of building the world's fastest car -with songs is involved in such - unfortunate results. book, sets, staging, pacing, choreography, Fastest possible service and the personalities of performers CCBB is Mary Poppies inside out. -in from our West Coast short, the whole of the thing. Bacharach Only the stories are different. Both film warehouse. and David made the mistake of writing scores were written by the songwriting even more strenuously than usual, making team of Richard and Robert Sherman the job of communication almost impos- JAFC O (they also wrote the songs for Disney's Ave., N. sible for its cast. The singers strain 520 Westlake The Happiest Millionaire) and orches- Seattle, Washington furiously out of their ranges most of trated by Irwin Kostal. Both feature Dick 98109 the time. struggling to make sense of the Van Dyke and a pair of lucky children (206) 682 -5833 whole. The cast should get a triple A, if more appealing than the Dept. H (this team is not double hernia, for effort. Poppies). little ugerlies chosen for Mary And for what purpose? Promises, the were shot in Bavaria, Parts of film is Neil Simon's (Barefoot in Vulgaria, Promises in the mythical village of peo- the Park, The Odd Couple) charming pled by the inhabitants of a nearby old L adaption of The Apartment, a tale of folks home gotten up in appropriate cos- love versus duty in the business world. tumes. The scenery is beautiful. Produced by David Merrick, it features CIRCLE 46 ON READER -SERVICE CARD As for the music, it suits the project - Jerry Orbach (Scuba Duba) and Jill light, fluffy, polished, and competent. O'Hara (!lair. George M.). The best songs are Lovely Lonely Man, Most of the singing weight falls on a ballad sung by female lead Sally Ann Miss O'Hara and Orbach. Orbach doesn't Howes. It's the one moment in which quite make it. pushing towards full - Miss Howes's grating soprano edge is blown high notes and usually falling flat. replaced with warmth and earthiness. Edward Winter has more luck with BEAR HERE You're My Little Chu Chi Face is a Wanting Things, but then he has only charming duet of doubtful affection he- one feature song to worry about, as op- tween Gert Forbe and Anna Quayle. posed to Orbach's six or seven. Jill FOR THE UTMOST IN Dick Van Dyke has said of his new O'Hara comes off better than her team- extravaganza: "After Poppies, this has mates on the album, hut she also has been the first musical that was right for the show's best song, a pretty ballad me." Obviously. If you liked Poppies, called Whoever You Are. Miss O'Hara you'll go for Chitty. They were made outIL and Orbach duet on the show's other DISCOUNTS of the same erector set. M.A. good song. I'll Never Fall in Love Again, ON NATIONALLY vaguely country -ish in flavor. Both have ADVERTISED PROMISES, PROMISES. Original their best moment here, but Orbach Broadway cast recording, Jerry Orbach, sharps out on the final "Again," then Jill O'Hara, and others. vocals: or- ends flat. chestrations by Jonathan Tunick: musi- Broadway singers simply aren't com- HI -FI STEREO cal direction by Harold Wheeler. Up- fortable in the Bacharach /David mold. stairs; Grapes of Roth; Christmas Day; Most show singers move to a two -beat twelve more. United Artists UAS drum, and Bacharach takes outrageous COMPONENTS 9902, $5.79. rhythmic liberties, jumping from 2/4 to WRITE FOR OUR QUOTE The momentum of the Burt Bacharach/ 5/4 to 3/4 and back all in the twinkling All Merchandise Shipped Hal David success has been building for of a cymbal. When controlled, this tempo Promptly Fully Insured From several years. Even as the team concen- device of Bacharach's is powerful and Our Warehouse. trated on writing the songs for this infectious. In Promises, Promises, the Broadway show, song hits were piling up tempos have gone awry, so that for all behind them (Herb Alpert's recording of their measure- for -measure variations, the This Guy's in Love with You, for one). songs end up sounding much the same. DOWNTOWN By the time Promises, Promises opened Indeed, the reason I'll Never Fall in Love on Broadway, there was insufferable pres- Again works as well as it does is that sure on all to make it a smash hit. for once, Bacharach casts gimmicks aside AUDIO, INC. Advance ticket sales to the contrary, and writes straight -ahead (giving David to do the same). 17 WARREN ST. the show is not a success. One reason is an opportunity /David energy level There's a lot of talent involved here. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10007 that the Bacharach has flagged. In the past the team has They all deserve two weeks in the coun- 267 -3670 -1 -2 been able to keep up with popular de- try, and the less said of Promises, Prom- mand by culling songs from their back ises the better. M.A. CIRCLE 18 ON READER -SERVICE CARD 110 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE

www.americanradiohistory.com what are the Quad triples?

OUR Triples are merely a group of three transistors coupled together in such a way that they operate as a single entity. QUAD has developed a new type of output circuit "' using such 'groups of three' or triples, where each triple behaves as a kind of super tran- APOLOGIES! sistor with a far higher performance''. This offers an important new degree of freedom to the designer. Whereas previously he has had to struggle hard to reduce distortion to acceptable limits, he can now put it as low as he wishes, to 100 dB or more if We Are, "Caught Short" ... he so desires. In the QUAD 303, all forms of distortion are placed well below the limits of human hearing so that no matter how refined the test, the amplifier can never degrade the programme quality. THOUGH SUPPLY HAS DOUBLED,

DEMAND HAS QUADRUPLED (1 ) Wireless World, April 1968 "Low Distortion ... a new approach

(2) . Symmetrical and complementary. SORRY ... OUAD PRODUCTS ß; 3 in the tens of thousands. * VBE independent of output function temperature. "OUT OF STOCK" :` Single transistor phase shift.

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CIRCLE 28 ON READER -SERVICE CARD APR!! 1969 III

www.americanradiohistory.com THE TAPE DECK

BY R. D. DARRELL

Astrostereo at Home. Robert Angus' que- in this anthology include Copland, min., $17.98; notes -and- libretto leaflet on ry. "Hi -Fi in the Sky ?" (in 11F last Feb- Dvofák, Elgar. Handel, Khachaturian, request), but one exhibiting far more ruary), galvanized me into getting at Mozart. Rimsky- Korsakov, J. Strauss II, controversial qualities than the older set. once to a neglected batch of American Tchaikovsky, and Wagner. The distinctions of the Angel version are Airlines " Astrostereo" tapes-those three - Otto Klemperer's magisterial if often loo hour -long programs designed primarily Carmen -Russian Style. I don't often pre- well -controlled reading; EMI's pure, for long- distance in- flight entertainment. dict best -sellerdom in this column, but warm, smoothly spread recording of at- I've sometimes found these reels exasper- for the latest recorded succès de scan - tractive singing and playing by the BBC ating for their excessively heterogeneous dale-Rodion Shchedrin's audacious Chorus and New Philharmonia Orchestra; programming and for their practice of of- strings-and -percussion metamorphoses of discreet yet theatrically vivid use of ap- fering only one or two movements of Bizet's Carmen music -I'll go way out on propriate sound effects; and an often bril- larger works, but they also afford diver- a limb. When I reviewed the disc version liant (if vocally uneven) enactment of sified attractions, including their provi- last December, I emphasized the shock Senta s role by Anja Silja. Its drawbacks sion of many performances not other- effect of this score prepared for a Bol- are the choice of the original Dresden wise available on tape. Usually the re- shoi Theater ballet production of Car - edition of the score, interesting enough cording and processing of these miscel- men; now, hearing again Rozhdestven- to specialists but lacking the composer's lanies are first -rate (in fact, my original sky's exhilarating performance with the later revisions; a vocally inadequate if reaction to " Astrostereo" tapes was full string choir of the Bolshoi Theater often dramatically effective Dutchman in Play Now, Fly Later), and certainly they Orchestra and five virtuoso percussion Theo Adam; and rather unconvincing satisfy a real need for reasonably sub- soloists (taped as Melodiya /Angel YIS performances by Ernst Kozub as Erik and stantial, well -varied musical entertain- 40067, 41 min., $7.98), I relish the work's Martti Talvela as Daland. I'll be one ment to which one can listen in com- moments of genuine poetic eloquence of those who will stick with the seven - pletely relaxed fashion. (perhaps especially the rich strings -and- year -old RCA version -which I find on Of the three American Airlines /Ampex vibes textures of the "Flower Song") rehearing to be just as fine. both sonic- examples (33/4 ips, $23.95 each) I've just even more than its saucily amusing diver- ally and interpretatively, as I had remem- ""been playing, CW 211, with sixteen selec- tissements (such as, conspiciously, the en- bered it. tions (most of them complete works from tertaining but too fancily tricked -out "To- the Vanguard repertory), is the most re- reador Song "). Theoretically I'd prefer a Operatic Highlights on the Highway. warding musically; CW 214, with eight- 7.5 -ips taping. but this slower -speed one Now that I am the owner of a tape een Deutsche Grammophon selections. is so effectively processed that it seems player in my car, I'll have to confess features the most distinguished orchestral to do full justice to the master recording's that my old prejudice against operatic performances; and CW 215, with twenty - vivid, transient -rich sonics-as good as or potpourris is fading. Driving along and six generally somewhat shorter selec- better than any I've yet heard from Rus- listening to thrillingly sung arias and en- tions from the Mercury /Philips catalogues sian engineers. sembles on Stereo -8 endless -loop car- is the most widely varied programmati- tridges, one doesn't worry about material cally. The last- named, I might add, is the For Chamber Listening. The sanctum being wrenched out of its musical context; first of the series I've heard in which the sanctorum of string quartet music seldom one isn't even concerned to follow a plot: spoken announcements of titles and per- opens to tape collectors except to reveal one just enjoys the performance for its formers are reduced to a reasonable level a few standard masterpieces. Those delec- own sake. vis -à -vis the modulation level of the mu- table introductions to modern chamber Expectedly, then, RCA's highlights from sic-a change much to be applauded. music, the Debussy and Ravel Quartets, its outstanding Verdi Ernani, with Leon - Most of the CW 211 Vanguard re- for instance, have been missing entirely tyne Price, and Donizetti Lucrezia Bor- corded performances are new to tape, from reel catalogues for several years. gia with Montserrat Caballé (both re- and three compositions are tape firsts: the Hence the warmth of my welcome for viewed here last year in their complete Schneider /Serkin Schubert Sonatina, ex- the first up -to -date reel coupling of both reel editions) proffer lively delights cerpts from Stokowski's Mozart Serenade works (Deutsche Grammophon /Ampex. s)- (RCA R8S 1105 and R8S 1106 respec- No. 13, and Janigro's Tarantella from the EX+ DGC 9369, 51 min., $7.95). Hence tively, $6.95 each). Less expectedly from Respighi Rossiniana. Other composers too my lack of stronger reservations my personal point of view inasmuch as I represented are Bach. Beethoven, Chopin, about the Drolc Quartet's performances had only qualified praise for Angel's 1965 Gershwin, Gottschalk, Hindemith, Liszt, -magnificently rich sonically and further complete version, I found the current Vaughan Williams, and Vivaldi. Of the enhanced by the recording engineers, but eight -track cartridge excerpts of Puccinï s technically outstanding DGG recordings interpretatively sometimes overromanti Bol,ème (Angel 8XS 36199, $6.98) tre- in CW 214, a fairly large proportion have cized. There's little real Gallic tartness in wM mendously exciting, primarily thanks to been released in individual open -reel and/ the Ravel, in particular, yet it is aurally the superlative singing and acting of Mi- or cassette editions. Twelve are mostly spellbinding for the admirable lucidity rella Freni. recent Von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic and equilibrium of the four parts, and Yet my prime discovery in this do- releases; three are conducted by Kube- especially for its liberation of the viola main has turned out to be the "Lehár lik, two by Maazel, and one by Maag. and cello from their too often subser- and Other Viennese Masters" program 8XP 8688, ! In the CW 215 Mercury 'Philips pro - vient roles. And the Drolcs' romantic , of operetta excerpts (Capitol LV gram no fewer than eight tape firsts are fervor is far better suited to the lovely, $6.98) recorded in 1960 -64 before Fritz It-featured: a Rodrigo Four- Guitar Concer- early Debussy Quartet -to its poetic slow Wunderlich's tragically premature death. to movement with the Romeros. J. C. movement ( "Andantino, doucement ex- The music (by Fall, Kálmán, Künneke, Bach Harp Concerto with Annie Chal- pres:sif ") most of all. and J. Strauss II. as well as Lehár) Ion, Mendelssohn String Symphony No. is hard to beat; Wunderlich's exuberant with L9 (one movement) by I Musici, excerpts The Dutchman Flies Again. Until now, singing -at least in comparison that from Johann Stamitz and Pokorny Clari- the only taping of Wagner's earliest still of any present -day young tenor -quite $-net Concertos with Jacques Lancelot, ',viable opera has been Dorati's memo - impossible to beat. The Wunderlich 4, dances from German's Henry VIII music tiirable 1962 RCA version with London, legacy contains more substantial ex- hand Benjamin's Cotillon Ballet both by Rysanek, Tozzi. and Lewis. Now there's amples of his vocal and artistic powers, **Fennell. and Dohnányi's Wedding Waltz another Flieg..ide llolliinder (Angel Y3S of course, but surely none more im- by Dorati. Other composers represented 3730, 33/4 ips, three -play, approx. 153 mediately pleasurable.

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