I:I( ( )I:l), vinsky, pf. ALLEGRO AL 64. 3 min. (In Songs of Igor Stravinsky.) $5.95. instrument known as the cymbalom. The Songs of Igor Stravinsky.) $5.95. performance, by one of the composer's 1917 pupils, was prepared under his aegis, and THREE EASY PIECES (I Edition) the recording is first rate. A burlesque march, waltz, and polka for FIVE EASY PIECES (I Edition) -William Hess and Robert Harmon, ten., piano, four hands; the bass part is particu- A companion set to the Three Easy Pieces Warren Galjour and Leon Lishner, bar., larly easy and was intended for an amateur of 1915, but here the upper part is intended Michael Zittai, cymbalom; orchestra, Robert to play. Two years later Stravinsky reversed for an amateur rather than the lower. The Craft, cond. DIAL io. 26 min. (With Suite this arrangement in the Five Easy Pieces and gamin -like burlesque spirit prevails. Some No. r, Berceuses du Chat, Elegy, Song of the shortly thereafter he transcribed both sets of the titles (Napolitana, Española, Balalaika) Volga Boatmen.) $5.95 as the Suites for Small Orchestra. Good re- suggest folklore more strongly than the cording. music. SONG OF THE VOLGA BOATMEN (1 Edition) -Bartlett and Robertson. MGM E 3o38. -Bartlett and Robertson. MGM E 3038. A fine, sulphuric arrangement of the old 5 min. (With Concerto for Two Pianos Soli, Five 7 min. (With Concerto for Two Pianos Soli, tune, for wind instruments only, created as Easy Pieces, Sonata for Two Pianos.) $4.85. Three Easy Pieces, Sonata for Two Pianos.) a substitute for the Russian national an- $4.85. them at the time of the Revolution. THREE STORIES FOR CHILDREN (1 Edition) -Orchestra, Robert Craft, cond. DIAL Humorous songs in a breathlessly voluble, RENARD (I Edition) Io. 4 min. (With Renard, Suite No. t, Elegy, somewhat Mussorgskian style. The third An unfailingly droll and lively bit of "moun- Berceuses du Chat.) $5.95 song is accompanied only with the two notes tebank buffoonery," as Stravinsky himself A flat and D fiat, in the bass. called it, for four dancers and a little or- -Maria Kurenko, sop., and Soulima Stra- chestra which includes four singers and a 1917-23 vinsky, pf. ALLEGRO AL 64. 4 min. (In prominent part for the Hungarian café LES NOCES (3 Editions) Stravinsky's last big "Russian" work. Like Renard, it is a ballet with a highly experi- mental kind of instrumentation - four pianos and a variety of other percussion in- struments, four solo singers, and a chorus; again as in Renard, the vocalists are part of the instrumental ensemble. The text, de- rived by the composer from Russian folk sources, has to do with the ceremonies of a peasant wedding; it involves a great deal of hair -combing, well -wishing, and the invoca- tion of blessings from a galaxy of saints. The composer insists that he uses the text solely for its syllabic values, and it is cer- tainly not remarkable as literature, but the music is no end impressive in its manipula- tion of pounding, shifting, kaleidoscopic rhythms, its suggestions of Russian church chant, and its weaving of countless melodic threads of a folkloric kind. Of the two recordings available for this study, the Rossi is the more brilliant and authoritative. It is sung in Russian which, in view of Stravinsky's attitude toward the text, is an advantage. The Hillis is sung in English, and the full text is given on the sleeve; this has its points, too. -Ilona Steingruber, sop., Marguerite Ken- ney, con., Karl Wagner, ten., Eberhard Waechter, bass. Vienna Chamber Choir, Mien Proust called this /hall Or listen as he plays the Funeral March in pianists, and percussion. Mario Rossi, cond. Chopin's Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor. No VANGUARD VRS 452 24 min. (With L'Hs- "A window which opens other pianist quite matches his soft, lyric melan- toire du Soldat.) $5.95 - on a masterpiece." choly, his dramatic phrasing. -Adele Addison, sop., Doris Okerson, Finally, hear Yves Nat play Beethoven's con., Robert Price, ten., Arthur Burrows, This is the magnificent Yves He bar. New York Concert Choir Nat. started his Moonlight, Pathetique and Appassionata Son- and Orches- career as the protege Debussy, tra, Margaret Hillis, cond. Vox PL 863o. of and for years atas (all on a single record). He understands was 26 min. (With Mass Ave Maria, Pater Nos. thereafter praised (by Proust among others) this music: all its warm beauty emerges under for his romantic eloquence at the piano. Now ter.) $5.95. his reflective fingers. ( -Lux, Moosen, Schreiber, Dresden State after twenty years devoted to teaching he has Opera Orchestra. lo -in. ALLEGRO 4010. returned to the Paris concert stage: his new tri- These Yves Nat records are now available. and the sound is superb. Your dealer will order them for you. $2.95-) umphs there remind his audiences that the man 14SL -87 12' Schumann: Fantasy in Major, Op. 17, Sym- who is perhaps the greatest living French pianist phonic Etudes, Op. IS. 1918 is once again playing for the public. HSL97 12' Chopin: Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor. Op. II. Fantasy in F Minor, Op. 49, Barcarolle in F Sharp Major, L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT (3 Editions) You can hear him on the recordings he has just Op. 60. Again the moral tale, but one which has made for the Collections Discophiles Francois HSLI09 12' Beethoven: - Pathetique Sonata. Op. IS, Moon- little in common with the lavish means and released in America exclusively by the Haydn Sonata. n1. 27. No. 2, Appassionata Sonata, Op. 57. the entertaining, folkloric world of Petrouch- Society. Listen to his poignant interpretation of ka. The moral of this moral tale is pessi- Schumann's Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17. This HAYDN SOCIETY mistic - the devil gets you in the end - music, composed by a genius in despair, is and the work is a product of a profoundly 1 r iety label includes: The Italian Clar,irul Sin,- heartbreakingly beautiful; we have never before pin sLnrerrsr of Mush' Before 1751, the mplete disturbed period in the history of Europe heard it as Yves Nat plays it. He revives the Beethosen and Haydn Quartets and the great .4nthMagie and of the world. Stravinsky conceived of Sonore. tense Dept..5 for complete carolog and derrrlptiee b o,A- this piece, "to be read, played and danced," Romantic Age. lets, IS CHARDON sr.. ervs1O. 14, slossesuust Hs. in terms of a kind of mountebank troupe to 76 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE. www.americanradiohistory.com.