charming music, in as good a perform- chestra, ,lean Martinon, cond. (in Amor chestra (Berlin), Carl Gorvin, cond. (in ance as one is likely to be offered. J.H.,JR. ßrajo); Eduardo Del Pueyo, piano (in the Concertos). Berlin Philharmonic Or- Noches); Orchestre des Concerts Lam- chestra, Fritz Lehmann, cond. (in the COWELL: Six Piano Pieces; Prelude oureux, Jean Martinon, conci. Royal Fireworks). for Violin and Harpsichord EPIC LC 3305. 12 -in. $3.98. ARCHIVE ARC 3059. t2 -in. $5.98. .fHovhaness: Duel for Violin and Harp- These are bright, animated performances The Oboe Concertos fit our contemporary sichord with clear, well -defined sound. The ap- notion of what a concerto should be: solo 1Pinkham: Concerto for Celesta and proach to the music is in both cases vigor- against group; and they arc the cream of Ca- Harpsichord Soli; Catrtilena and ous and direct, and some may find the this record, beautifully played and im- priccio for Violin and Harpsichord results wholly to their liking. I prefer the maculately registered, as is the Op. 3, Henry Cowell, piano; Robert Brink, violin; Ansermet version of Amor Brujo (re- No. 3. The last has been cursed, with Edward Low, celesta; Daniel Pinkham, viewed in December) because it has an at- its five brothers of Op. 3, by a floating harpsichord. mospheric quality and dramatic impact I nomenclature designating them sometimes COMPOSERS RECORDINGS CRI 109. 12 -io. do not find here, because the soloist is as "Concerti Grossi,' at the risk of con- $4.98. happier and more effective in the gypsy fusing them with the more famous Op. idiom, and because Ansermet's restraint 6; sometimes as "Oboe Concertos," con- Henry Cowell's early piano pieces, six of allows him to build to a more effective founding them with the real oboe con- which fill one side of this disc. are among climax at the end. certos; and sometimes as "Concertos for the classics of modern American music. Del Pueyo plays Nights in the Gardens Orchestra," a cowardly title that has never- Cowell pioneered in a new approach to of Spain with exceptional feeling for the theless the advantage of avoiding con- the piano, handling it in all manner of style, and the orchestral part is sympatheti- fusion with anything else of Handel's. Fine ways, unorthodox and most of them are cally stated to produce the very lovely as it is, the present version of No. 3 is exemplified here. effects these nocturnes can yield. tactically weak in confrontation of com- Advertisement uses Cowell's famous There arc, however, some unpleasant plete versions of the six concertos on tone -cluster technique-groups of adjacent highs on both sides that will want to be Vanguard and London. notes struck with the fist or the fiar of toned down. R.C.M. The Royal Fireworks is here refurbished the hand to - provide a sizzling. juggling from the rape that fathered a Decca disc study that suggests the kaleidoscopic colors FRESCOBALDI: Fiori tnasicali; Toccate issued about four years ago. Cleated of and shapes a large of electric sign. in dIntavolatura fuzz and murk, the correction is a grati- The Banshee and Aeolian Harp he aban- fying improvement and is a good record dons the keyboard to pluck and stroke the Eduard Müller, organ; Fritz Neumeyer, as records are estimated; but the magnifi- harpsichord. strings directly, and in The Tides of Maw cent blatancy of the music still balks at aunaan with ARCHIVE ARC -in. $5.98. he plays one hand on the 3054. 12 imprisonment in a groove, and none of keyboard and the other on the bare wires. Girolamo Frescobaldi (r583.1643) was the recorded versions is truly satisfactory. Sinister Resonance is an early experiment C.G.B. in the "preparation" of the piano with vari- the organist at St. Peter's in Rome for ous objects inserted among the strings to a good parr of his life. His music is im- produce eerie, choked effects. Lilt of the ponant for historical reasons but, more HOVHANESS: Duet for Violin and Reel uses more tone clusters to spark up than that, it has a special quality. Despite Harpsichord -See Cowell: Six Piano its rhythms. an occasional liveliness and sudden shifts Pieces. All this is essentially very simple, con- of mode, it has, by and large. a certain servative musk with a strong infusion of gentle gravity, an elevated seriousness, that Irish folklore in its substance, but its make it ideal music to meditate by. The KABALEVSKY: The Comedians, Op. 26 daring colors and its exceptional mechanics works presented here arc sacred and secular -See Khachaturian: Gayne: Ballet were highly iconoclastic in their time compositions from three different collec- Suite. and still seem so. The most fascinating thing about it, however, is its prediction of KHACHATURIAN: Gayne: Ballet Suite musique concrète. As early as 1912 Henry tKabalevsky: The Comedians, Op. 26 Cowell was producing sounds startlingly like those which the musique concrète Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, school did not discover until very recently; cond. and he produced them by a direct, uncom- COLUMBIA CL 917. t2 -in. S3.98. plicated, frontal attack on a musical in- strument rather than around Robin Here in "'36o' hemispheric sound" with going the rich lone Hood's barn with a tape recorder. ensemble and persuasive For some years past Robert Brink and drive long associated with the Philadel- Daniel Pinkham have been before the phians are two basic quasi -pop items. The less public as a violin -and- harpsichord team, one thinks of the scenario of the and the second side of the present disc is Gayne ballet with its dramatic tale of largely filled with works from their special evil machinations on the old collective repertoire. First, however, comes Pinkham's farm, the more one is likely to enjoy the absolutely enchanting Concerto for Celesta music. The Kabalevsky is nonpolitical in its score and and Harpsichord Soli, a brilliantly classical both action, but it lacks such obvious "hits" as the Saber Dance and the piece wherein timbre is used to reinforce Henry Correll: classics of unorthodoxy. line much as Bartók used color to clarify Rose Maidens. Two attractive the voices in his edition of Bath's Well- pions published by Frescobaldi. About half suites of light music. well Tempered Clavier. The bright and tingly of them arc played on a sixteenth -century then. extremely played and well re- sounds of chis concerto are completely de- Italian organ at Innsbruck; the other half corded. R.C.M. lightful in themselves, but that is not why on a harpsichord. I found the latter group they are employed. the more interesting; some of the organ LOCATELLI: Concerti Grossi (,4, Op. z The pieces for violin and harpsichord pieces, as performed here, do not escape are, to say the least, entertaining, and the monotony. N.B. I Musici Virtuosi di Milano, Dean Eckert - 1- lovhancss is quite powerful as well. Per- sen, cond. formances are the last word, and so is Vox DL 333. Three 12 -in. 514.94. 1- IANDEL: Concertos for Oboe and Or- the recording. A.F. chestra: in B flat; in G minor Pietro Locatelli is best known in musical Concerto for Orchestra, No. 3, in G, history as a violinist- composer who ex- FALLA: El Amor Brujo; Noches en Op. 3, No. 3 tended considerably the technical capacities lot jardines de España Music for the Royal Fireworks Corrinne Voua, contralto; Lamoureux Or- Hermann Tötccher, solo oboe; Bach Or- Continued on page 66

64 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE