Recordings Reports: Classical LP's

WORK, PERFORMER. DATA REPORT Britten: "Diversions on a Theme for An attractive work created by Britten during his American wartime stay (1940) for the one-armed Piano and Orchestra." Siegfried Rapp, virtuoso Paul Wittgenstein, and unaccountably neglected since then. (Performance rights may have piano, with Arthur Rother conducting. been reserved by Wittgenstein.) The unknown Rapp plays it persuasively, and the recording is Urania URIP 7101, S5.95. excellent. With it is EUy Ney's knowing, if not ideally lighthanded. playing of the Strauss "Burleske." Chausson: "Poeme." Jascha Heifetz, Admirable violin playing by Heifetz, marred by recording in the old-fashioned "concerto" violin, with Izler Solomon conducting. tradition: undue prominence for the solo instrument, an inferior status for the orchestra, deadish RCA Victor LM 7017, $5.72. studio recording, with virtually no room tone. Heifetz and the Conus Concerto (on side two) will have their public, but the Francestatti version (with Ormandy) does more for Chausson and the "Poeme." Chopin: Waltzes. Ania Dorfmann, piano. Miss Dorfmann plays fluently a sequence of her own devising, and her neat kind of piano sound is Bluebird LBC 1050, $2.98. well reproduced. However, I find it rather more machine-made than befits the music, especially in the more showy pieces. More animation in the slower waltzes, more sentiment in the faster ones would bring into better relationship the values now too segregated. Grieg: Concerto in A minor, Opus 16. Prime example of an excellent series of records created by the Concert Hall people (for sale by Grant Johannesen, piano, with Walter mail only) in the name of the Musical Masterwork Society. Johannesen performs with energy, Goehr conducting the Netherlands Phil clarity, and taste, ably partnered by Goehr and the good orchestra. The second side offers the harmonic. MMS 2002, $1.50. best-sounding "Holberg Suite" of Grieg now available, with the strings of the orchestra performing suavely under the direction of Maurits van den Berg. Handel: "Overture"—Suite, etc. Karl Further identification of this lively and sonorous music is lacking in Decca's customarily barren Haas and the London Baroque Ensemble. presentation of this series. Those who love the sound of woodwinds and horns superbly played Decca DL 4070, $2.50. will want this, anonymous as it is. Khachaturian: Symphony No. 2. The Though the Khachaturian market at the present time is decidedly depressed, this work of 1943 composer conducting the National Phil has its impressive moments, especially in the funereal slow movement utilizing the "Dies irae." harmonic Orchestra. Colosseum CRLP Those who are partial to the Khachaturian of the "Gayne" ballet will find more of the same $5.95. style of writing in the second movement. The recording tends to shrieky highs and tubby bass, with no special pleasure-content per se. Humperdinck: "Hansel and Gretel" The good impression Hollingsworth has made as second conductor with the Sadler's Wells Ballet Overture, Dream Pantomime, etc. John is substantially strengthened by his direction here of the Humperdinck music and a second-side Hollingsworth conducting the Covent Grieg melange. The latter consists of three excerpts from "Sigurd Jorsalfar" and the two "Elegaic Garden Orchestra. M-G-M E-3072, $4.85. Melodies" for strings. Hollingsworth has a warm feeling for the swelling sentiments of both men, and it is well controlled. Clear, even sound. Mendelssohn: "Variations Serieuses," What the relationship of this pianist is to the composer, I have no way of knowing, this being etc. Dorothea Winand-Mendelssohn, another of the series in which Decca considers a gold label more important than proper editorial piano. Decca DL 4080, $2.50. presentation. In any case, though Miss Winand-Mendelssohn is well-acquainted with the content of the music, she makes her points overdeliberately in a rather angular style. Good piano sound. Mozart: Concerto in A (K. 622). Jos Further instance of the fine qualities in the records of the Musical Masterwork Series (see Grieg D'hondt, clarinet, with orchestra directed above). D'hondt is a Dutch clarinet virtuoso of the first order, who plays his instrument, and the by Walter Goehr. MMS 2003, $1.50. music, beautifully, though without Kell's kind of expressiveness. Similarly, the A major violin concerto (K. 219) is played expertly by Theo Olof on side two, though without the refinement of Morini's Prades version with Casals and orchestra. Decidedly good recording. Mozart: Sonata in A (K. 331). Leonid Hambro spreads a remarkable aura of composure and sensitivity around his artful playing of Hambro, piano. Remington 199-135, Mozart, which is to say that all the dynamic values are beautifully framed by his fine-grained $2.99. phrasing. Many a more celebrated artist could profit by his example in this work and the second side Haydn sonatas (Nos. 1 and 7). Good, small-scale piano sound. Reger: "Introduction, Passacaglia, and As musical ventures go, this is a labor of love by all concerned, with the most evident amount of Fugue," etc. Pierre Luboshutz and Genia it lavished by the performers on a highly ingenious if not too responsive score. It would be Nemenoff, duo-pianists. Remington 199- difficult to imagine more unified yet flexible duopianism than the Luboshutzes achieve in this 143, $2.99. work and the overside collection of Weber (Rondo in D), Chopin (Rondo in C), and shorter pieces. Bright, somewhat metallic piano sound, but acutely suggestive of the style and personality of tKe performers. Sarasate: "Zigeunerweisen." Michael For accuracy, zest, and fluency, this is an amazing achievement for young Rabin, though I wish Rabin, violin, with Donald Voorhees Columbia had been content to convey his tone at normal breadth rather than blowing it up by conducting. Columbia AL 38, $2.85. microphone placement. I would say, too, that both its sobriety and zigeunerhm are overproduced, tending to the showy rather than the merely brilliant. For a ten-inch side, the coupling of Paganini's and Novacek's "Perpetual Motions" (on side two) is rather short measure. Strauss-Dorati: "Graduation Ball." Ana- Buoyant, lively production of the engaging score made by Antal Dorati from miscellaneous tole Fistoulari conducting the New Sym Johann Strauss works. As is customary with too many annotations, we are told the names of the phony. London LL 883, $5.95. familiar elements of the score, but not those we don't know. Musically, however, the issue is mostly virtuous, for the sound of the big orchestra has fine suavity and the kind of detailed clarity for which London is noted. In both respects it is much preferable to the coarser sound of the RCA version made by Dorati and the Dallas Orchestra several years ago.

Verdi: "II lacerato spirito" ("Bocca- A remarkable semblance of the Pinza authority and eloquence, one of a series of excerpts from negra"), etc. Ezio Pinza, basso, with "Don Carlo," "Ernani," "Nabucco," and "I Vespri Siciliani" ("O tu, Palermo"). The top voice Erich Leinsdorf conducting. RCA Victor is scarcely dependable, but the bottom is still remarkably fine, the singer's sense of line all- LM 1751, $5.72. conquering. Leinsdorf does his work very well. The second-side collection of Mozart arias ("Madamina," "Deh, vieni alia finestra," "Non, piu andrai," "Se vuol ballare," and two "Magic Flute" excerpts sung in Italian) contains more that is vocally questionable, especially in pitch, but there are intermittent beauties worth listening for. Wallenstein and the orchestra accompanying the Mozart are not so well favored on the West coast as Leinsdorf in New York. —IRVING KoLOorN.

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