Record Reviews
by JOHN M.CONLY
Bach: French Suites (Fernando Valenti, harpsichord; Westminster: three 12” LPs in album with score). With treble controls turned down, this sounds much like a real harpsichord heard from Row E. Valenti plays Bath with unabashed vigor and wonderful dexterity. Not all Bach scholars will approve, but it surely is agreeable.
Beethoven: Country Dances; Vienna Dances (Franz Litschauer conducting Vienna State Opera Orchestra; Vanguard: 12" LP) If not quite as good as the Mozart country dances by the same performers, still very zestful, tasteful, and vivid. Recording: a trille edgy, but strong.
Beethoven: Sonata in E Flat Major; Variations on Mozart’s “Bei Manncrn Wide he Liebe Fühlen” (Carlo Zecchi, piano; Antonio Janigro, cello; Westminster: 12" LP). Third of the Beethoven cello-piano works with these artists paired; wonderful sound and big, manly playing.
Critic’s Choice: Vocal Performances Selected for Reprint by Irving Kolodin (Cebotari, Crooks, Ivogun, Maynor, Onegin, Schipa, Schumann, Thomas, Thorborg, Tibbett, and “Warren, with various accompanists and orchestras; RCA Victor: 12” LP). Twenty years of fond and faithful listening are represented here. Who else but Kolodin would have remembered that Tibbett sang Wher’er You Walk this way, or would have hoarded Sigrid Onegin’s scaling of Chopin’s A-FIat Impromptu, in the guise of a coloratura-contralto song, against this reissue? Thanks are due a fine critic, and anyone interested in singing is practically obliged to buy.
Dvorak: The Holden Spinning Wheel; The Midday Witch; Two Waltzes (Vaclav Talich conducting Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Crania: 12" LP). Iron Curtain or no, Talich is back, and Urania’s got him.
His Dvorak still glows with the dark fire of the old Fourth Symphony and Slavonic Dances. Addicts take notice. Good recording.
French Renaissance Vocal Music (Nadia Boulanger conducting vocal and instrumental group; Decca: 13" LP). Here is the essence of choral grace, elegance, and expression, abstracted by des Prés, Janncquin, Mauduit, and other composers, and reproduced exquisitely by Mme. Boulanger’s singers in a gem of a recording. Almost as appealing, but not quite, are the same performers’ Monteverdi Madrigals, issued simultaneously.
Grieg: Norwegian Dances with Sibelius:Rakastava;Yalse Triste (Franz Litschauer conducting Vienna State Opera Orchestra: Vanguard: 12" LP). More Litschauer folksymphonic virtuosity, and it’s a delight to hear the Grieg second dance and the Sibelius waltz played new, as if a million bad performances hadn’t hacked them to near-death.
Haydn:Seven Last Words of the Savior on the Cross (Schneider Quartet; Haydn Society: 12" LP), Originally called “seven sonatas and a cataclysm,” this was arranged by the composer for chorus, keyboard, and quartet. Of any, this is the most communicative performance, devout, delicate, deeply moving, beautifully recorded.
Mozart: Quartets in C Major, K.465, “Dissonant,” and D Minor, K.421 (Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet; Westminster: 12" LP). For once, in the “Dissonant” quartet, the rich, romantic sounds of the Konzerthaus players do not vie unduly with the musical ideas of Mozart, and the recorded tone is memorable.
Respighi: Fountains of Rome; Fines of Rome (Argco Quadri conducting Vienna State Opera Orchestra). Westminster’s new supersound was unnamed at press time ($1000 in prizes!) but was certainly adequately illustrated in this gorgeous, almost stereophonic recording. Quadri surpassed himself, too. Altogether, a disk of overwhelming and almost voluptuous aural delight.
Himsky-Korsakov: May Sight (Vassily Nebolsin conducting soloists, chorus and orcheslra of the Bolshoi Opera; Vanguard: three 12" LPs in album, with libretto). Produced no doubt under Soviet auspices, this folk-flavored spook-opera nevertheless has plenty of humor, gusto, and R-K melody, plus reasonably good recording. Worth a hearing.
Sehlusnus Sings; vols. 3 and 4 (Heinrich Sehlusnus, baritone, with Sebastian Peschko, Otto Braun, and Franz Rupp, piano; Decca: two separate 12" LPs). These records are programmed like recitals: Vol. 13 has songs by Schubert, Brahms, Richard Strauss, Beethoven, and Wolf; Vol. 4 has Schubert, Strauss, Schumann, Loewe, Radecke, and Humperdinck. The singer does the songs beautiful justice. The reprinting has been well managed, too.
Strauss, Richard: Ein Ifeldenleheti (Antal Dorati conducting Minneapolis Symphony; Mercury: 12" LP, or Clemens Krauss conducting Vienna Philharmonic; London: 12" LP). Mercury, preparing their twelfth super-hi-fi “Olympian” release, carefully groomed their equipment, hung the mike 15 feet over the podium, and achieved some surprising noises. If it’s music you want, hear the superb hall-perspective and cleft Krauss conducting on the London.
Telemann: Concerto in G (Major with Stamitz: Concerto in D Major (Heinz Wigand, viola; Rolf Reinhardt conducting Pro Musiea Orchestra, Stuttgart; Vox: 12" LP). Music of the periods just before and after J. S. Bach, a little rough in performance and recording, but verylively, intimate, and interesting.
Jean Ritchie: American Folksongs (Jean Ritchie, soprano, with guitar and dulcimer; FJektra: 10" LP). “Sweet as a wood bird,” said a listener, and it’s a fair comment Jean Ritchie is. All the songs arc authentic Kentucky, delivered in a voice pure and perfect for the purpose.
Heart-touching charm.
Danny at the Palace (Danny Kaye, with various orchestras and choral groups; Decca: 10" LP). This is the essence of the incredible Danny; entertainment for the hardto-please. The collection includes Anatole of Paris, the elfin, hypnotic Peony Push, the saga — Lobby Xamber— of the manic-depressive supercolossal production, Hello, Fresno, Good-bye, and several others. Not to be missed.
Granados: Goyeseas (Frieda Valenzi, piano; Remington: 12" LP). A more than adequate performance, initially printed by Etude Records. Don Gabor of Remington has astutely followed the formula of the paperback-book publishers. He buys the master disks of rarities like this from the small companies, reprints and sells them cut-rate on a large scale.