Record Reviews

by JOHN M. CONLY

Bach: Organ Recital (Karl Richler at the organ of Victoria Hall, Geneva; London LL-1175: 12”). This is no baroque-voiced item for advanced Sebastianites. Richter plays on an excellent example of later European organ-making; big, bright, sonorous. His performance is in keeping; firm, vigorous, large-scaled. And his repertory is sure-fire: the Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor; the Chorale Preludes Wachet auf, Kommst du nun, and Vom Himmel hoch; the Prelude and Fugue (“Wedge”) in E Minor. The London engineers have caught the organ’s drama very effectively.

Brillen: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra with Prokofieff: Peter and the Wolf (Brandon de Wilde, narrator; Hans Swarowsky conducting Vienna Pro Musica Symphony Orchestra; Vox PL-9280: 12”). Mr. Swarowsky seems overcome with a dreamy lethargy at the outset of both these works; otherwise we would have here incomparably the best “Young Person’s Guide” and perhaps the best “Peter” as well. For Master de Wilde, aged twelve, is wonderfully ingratiating at his work, and the original Eric Crozier text for the Britten has been used. Further, the notes in the fold-over jacket are extraordinarily fine. Since Swarowsky is not actually bad (and the sound is splendid), I’d say buy it.

Handel: Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 (Hermann Scherchen conducting English Baroque Orchestra; Westminster WAL-403: four 12" in album with notes by Robert Sabin). Dr. Scherchen playing Handel or Bach poses problems for critics. There will be eight movements played with telling rightness no one else can match, and the ninth will be so fast that the sense of the meter is lost. I am so fond of the airy light allegro in the Concerto No. 3, and the penultimate allegro in No. 5, that I will not take Dr. Scherchen so long as I can have Boyd Neel, via London. But I will admit the superiority of Scherchen in treatment of the great Ilandelian

slow movements. Listen extensively before choosing, if you can.

Ives, Charles: Twenty-Four Songs (Helen Boatwright, soprano; John Kirkpatrick, piano; Overtone 7: 12”). The earliest of the songs is an 1890 setting of “Abide with Me.” (Ives was fifteen!) The latest are dated 1921. They show the strange complex of qualities which made up this Yankee insurance man and composer, so advanced musically and naive in other ways. World War I brought out almost maudlin sentiment (“Tom Sails Away”), the New England countryside a Whitmanesque turn (“Walking”). But always there is interest, and usually beauty.

Menotti: The Saint of Bleecker Street (Thomas Schippers conducting David Poleri, Gabrielle Ruggiero, Gloria Lane, other soloists and orchestra of the original New York cast; RCA Victor LM-6032: two 12" with libretto). Gian Carlo Menotti seems to enjoy dealing sympathetically with repellent themes — The Medium, The Consul, and now The Saint, depicting the last days of a tenement girl who sees heavenly visions and displays stigmata. But this is, I think, the least of the Menotti operas, musically anyway: only the ensembles convince. Recording: good.

Mozart: Serenata Notturua, K.239; Six Notturni for Voices and Woodwinds; Piano Concerto No. 14 (Grete Scherzer, piano; vocal trio; Karl Haas conducting London Baroque Ensemble; Decca DL-9779: 12”). The concerto is played prettily, without great distinction, but the competition is not formidable. The lusty serenata and lilting notturni arc the disk’s treasures, the latter not being available elsewhere and all being irresistibly tuneful and moving, well performed and tastefully recorded.

Mozart: Sonatas Nos. 11, 15, 5

(Guiomar Novaes, piano; Vox PL9080: 12”). A perfect bouquet of Mozart piano music. All three sonatas are well played singly on other records, but this is the winning combination. Both performance and recording have a sweet and lively intimacy. Highly recommended.

Scarlatti, Domenico: Sixty Sonatas (Ralph Kirkpatrick, harpsichord; Columbia SL-221: five 12", boxed). This set and Fernando Valenti’s seven records for Westminster overlap by some twenty sonatas. Kirkpatrick taught Valenti, but I prefer, slightly, the pupil’s Spanish boisterousness to the master’s scholarly restraint, and Westminster’s tingling close-up recording to Columbia’s genteel perspective. Mostly, I like Scarlatti, maybe the most versatile music-maker that ever was.

Schubert: Quartet No. 14, “Death and the Maiden” with Mozart: Quartet No. 15 (Musical Arts Quartet; Vanguard VRS-46B: 12”). The Musical Arts Quartet is almost up to the Budapest, playing these, but not quite. I recommend the record as a beguiling introduction to the string quartet, for people who find the form dry. There is nothing dry among these flowing melodies, and the recording is fascinatingly realistic.

Strauss, Richard: Don Juan; Till EulenspiegeVs Merry Pranks with Weber: Overtures to Der Freischiitz and Euryanthe (Wilhelm Furtwangler conducting Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; HMV LHMV-19: 12”). Except perhaps for Tristan, these strike me as being the best performances by Furtwangler I ever have heard, and probably the best performances of these much-played works — the Strauss poems, anyway. The Vienna Philharmonic sounds even better than usual, too, which may be the doing of the sound engineers. Whatever the cause, the result is a record breath-taking in every way.

Vivaldi: Twelve Violin Concertos, Op. 3, including the “Four Seasons” (Rcinhold Bardlet, violin; Rolf Reinhardt conducting Stuttgart Pro Musica Orchestra; Vox DL-173: three 12” in album). Another de luxe Vox Vivaldi presentation, in a simulated suede album with booklet by Joseph Braunstein. The trimmings are justified. The concertos, subtitled in toto “The Meeting of Harmony and Invention,” do not seem musically daring 225 years later, but their impact has not waned; their grown-up geniality still warms and their cleverness still is clever. Especially infectious are the programmatic four comprising “The Seasons,” nowhere played more to my taste than here, though the Boston Records and London versions both are good. The fiddlers sound, on these disks, as if they were in your room, and you will long enjoy having them there. Mr. Vivaldi planned it that way.

The Life of Christ (Roland Hayes, tenor; Reginald Boardman, piano; Vanguard VRS-462: 12”). If I am not disserved by my memory of one recital, long ago, Mr. Hayes used to intersperse this cycle of spirituals with readings of appropriate Gospel verses. He doesn’t here, but you won’t, miss it. The spirituals — which include “Prepare Me One Body,” “Three Wise Men,” “Little Boy,” “Lambs A-Cryin’,” and “Were You There ” — maintain the continuity cpiite well enough. And no one ever sang them as does Roland Hayes.

Ankles Aueigh (Original cast of the Broadway production, featuring Betty and Jane Kean; book by Guy Bolton and Eddie Davis; music by Sammy Fain; lyrics by Dan Shapiro; Decca DL-9025: 12”). This is not an ideal musical comedy for records: the plot is so amorphous that the show amounts to a review with the same characters throughout. However, it has three contagious songs: “Headin’ for the Bottom Blues”; “Here’s to Dear Old Us,” a rowdy and hilarious drinking ditty; and “Ready Cash,” the chant of the casino croupiers. Worthwhile.

Damn Yankees (Original cast of the Broadway production, featuring Gwen Verdon and Stephen Douglass; book by George Abbott and Douglas AA’allop; music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross; RCA Victor LOC-1021: 12”). Probably everyone knows the theme of Douglas Wallop’s The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. A Washington real-estate agent and baseball fan sells his soul to the Devil in order to become a bush-league superman and help the Senators knock off the Yankees. Being an inveterate double-crosser and Yankee supporter, however, the Devil enlists a witch named Lola to lead Shoeless Joe, the former real-estate man, astray. Joe, virtue, and the Senators triumph. You’ve heard the principal songs: “AV hatever Lola. Wants,” “You’ve Got to Have Heart,” and “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.,” but there are several more you’ll enjoy just as much.