should be better known than they are. Tech- thwarted by R. Wagner, is the feature of the D'INDY nically the recording is adequate. A. F. disk - six songs of artfully naive tender- Symphony for and Orchestra on a ness designed for use on Jesus's putative French Mountain Air COPLAND birthday before His supersession by Santy. ¡Saint- Saëns: No. 5 in Music for the Theater - There are a few hoots in the recording and F Major, Op. 103 ( "Egyptian ") Kleine Dreigroschenmusik they engineers. The other tWeill: belong to the Fabienne Jacquinot, piano. Westminster songs, much more familiar, are not vocally MGM Orchestra; Izler Solomon, cond. Symphony Orchestra; Anatole Fistoulari, inferior. The printed text is confined to M -G -M E3095. 12 -in. 23, 22 min. $4.85. cond. English. C. G. B. M -G -M E 3o68. 12 -in. $4.85 What is especially remarkable about this recording is the high relief given to each Of the two extant LP versions of the glow- instrument of the small orchestra in the DEBUSSY ing, Franck -like Symphony on a French Moun- bitter, corny, 1920 jazz of the Dreigroschen- Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra tain Air, the older one by Robert Casadesus musik. This work is something of a master- tPoulenc: for Piano and 18 Solo (Columbia) has a little more warmth and piece in the domain of the sardonic and Instruments flexibility, but the present one, excellently It derives from a post -war satiric. (I) Ger- Fabienne Jacquinot, piano. Westminster played, benefits from somewhat more live man reworking of The Beggar's Opera, and Symphony Orchestra; Anatole Fistoulari, reproduction. The second -rate Saint -Saëns embodies the special cynicism of that era cond. Concerto, however, with its pseudo- oriental in that country. Musk for the Theater has overtones, does not make nearly as good M -G -M E 3069. 12 -in. $4.85. always seemed to me one of Copland's listening as the Franck Variations Symphoni- weakest scores, and Solomon does nothing Without being told the identity of the com- ques, the companion work on the Casadesus to alter that view. The sound is clear but poser, a casual listener to the early Debussy disk. Better hear both before making a without special distinction. A. F. Fantasie would be likely to attribute the choice. P. A. music to Vincent d'Indy or some other CORNELIUS member of the Franckian school. As a ELWELL Weihnachtslieder, Op. 8 (with songs by matter of fact, it bears a certain resemblance Happy Hypocrite See Schubert, Wolf and Reger) to d'Indÿ s Symphony on a French Mountain The - Carpenter. Irmgard Seefried, soprano; Erik Werba, Air. Choice between this well -played, piano. spaciously recorded disk and an earlier one GIORDANO of equal quality by Helmut Schultes (Lyri- DECCA DL 7545. to -in. 13 min. (Cornelius), Andrea Chenier 17 min. (rest). $3.85. chord) will depend on the individual's preference for the moderately attractive, Renata Tebaldi (s), Madeleine; Ines Marietti Nearly ultimate in the natural projection of neo- classic Poulenc Aubade, originally writ- (s), Bersi; Irma Colsanti (s), Contessa de a beautiful voice in songs of simple appeal ten as music for a ballet, or the Debussy Coigny and Madelon; José Soler (t), An- and subtle detail. The cycle by Cornelius, Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra on drea Chenier; Armando Benzi (t), Un In- a first recording of a talent stimulated and the reverse side of the Lyrichord disk. P. A. credibile; Tommaso Soley (t), L'Abate; Ugo

Bowles piece. It is a quartet for , , piano and per- here. If the series contemplates recording works by modern com- cussion in eight short movements. It was originally written for posers no longer alive, I herewith vote for a long look at some of movie sequences in Orson Welles' projected production of William the compositions of David Stanley Smith. Gillette's old comedy, Too MuchJohnson, and it is shrewdly colored to Last of all, there are four pieces in the series which, in my judg- suggest old -time movie music. It is in the Satie- Poulenc tradition, ment, do not measure up. They are the song cycle, Scènes d'Anabase, and it would make a hilarious hit at any festival. by Bowles, the quartets by Mennin and Imbrie, and the duo for Hilarity of a less obvious kind is the keynote of Shapero's four - 'cello and piano by Berger. Scènes d'Anabase is probably better than hand sonata, at least to my ear. It makes highly stimulating play it sounds. Columbia, as usual, has failed to provide the texts of with percussive rhythms and is of equal interest for its broad palette these French songs, and as a result of this blundering stupidity the of tingling and clangorous color. This is a good record to play for whole cycle has been ruined. The three other pieces seem to me on pianists without telling them the music is for four hands. the academic side. The Mennin and Imbrie quartets, despite fine As is pointed out above, the committee in charge of the Colum- slow movements, indulge in furious fiddling to a tiresome degree, bia series believes these records will represent American music and both lie back in certain spots on the scherzo of Bartok's second "at its most distinguished and beautiful." The noteworthy thing quartet. Both composers have written better things, and since the here is the last word. "Beautiful" is a term which has been almost Imbrie was an undergraduate exercise written twelve years ago, completely banished from the modern critical vocabulary. One one wonders why it was recorded at all. ALFRED FRANKENSTEIN may say that modern music is strong, that it is finely or solidly made, that it is significant, or, perhaps, expressive, but "beautiful" some- how suggests the 19th century, which must be avoided at all costs. Nevertheless this series does contain one work which is clearly beautiful, and that in no mawkish, back -lying sense. It is the gracious, tuneful Variations and Capriccio for violin and piano by Dello Joio. The composer describes this work as " earfully charm- ing and intellectually unproblematical." So be it. The piano quartet by Palmer and the string quartet by Fine are both works of considerable size, thrust and energy. The Palmer employs an idiom I find difficult to describe in any more specific terms, but it is the work of a fine musician with a vigorous mind. The Fine stands out for its fantasticality, its highly dissonant tex- ture, and its individual formal devices; it employs the 12 -tone sys- tem within a freely tonal framework. The for winds and piano by Edward Burlingame Hill is in an entirely different class from everything else in the series. Cowell and Harris are among the pioneers of modern music in this coun- try, and everybody else except Hill belongs to the younger genera- tion. Hill belongs to an older school, the school of those who taught the pioneers and some of the younger men in American uni- versities during the earlier decades of this century. This school is almost completely neglected so far as performance and recording is concerned. Its members are the forgotten men of loth century American music, and it is good to see at least one of them included The Milliard Quartet plays three works in the new MAMS issue.

APRIL, 1954 45