Record Reviews

by JOHN M. CONLY

Bach: Organ Works (Anton Heiller, organ; Epic LC-3132: 12”). Mr. Heiller lets Epic bill him as “Prof.” but rises above the title. The works include the inevitable Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and the Preludes and Fugues in D Major, A Minor, and D Major, all performed with brisk, fond intelligence on a sharp and excellent Swiss 1946 organ.

Bach: Toccata in D Minor (E. Power Biggs, organs; Columbia ML5032: 12”). Herein Mr. Biggs plays the well-known toccata thirteen times, on European organs ancient and new, and the associated fugue once, in the fourteenth rendition. Not being an organ-maniac, I expected to find this dull, but it isn’t. For here the craftsmen of five centuries are competing — all-out, no technological holds barred, all aims the same. It is a delight (to one contrary character, anyway) to report that the organ makers of the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries wore so very much better than today’s very best that it is almost embarrassing to hear their products compared. After the ecstatic precision of Arp Schnitger’s 1682 pipestand at Neuenfelde, for instance, the 1935 array at Westminster Abbey seems the embodiment of toneless tedium, and the 1954 wind-battery at Festival Hall a bleating monstrosity. If you are loyal to the twentieth century as the age of Know-How, don’t buy or listen to this record.

Beethoven: Symphonies No. 2 and No. 8 (Hermann Scherchen conducting Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London; Westminster WL5362: 12”). Scherchen’s Second Symphony probably is the best in the catalogues, rich and biting in the spirit of the young (but already toughened) success-personality who wrote it in Vienna in 1802. The Eighth is one of the three best versions, and highly acceptable.

Bizet:Roma with Chabrier:Bourée Fantasque (Leon Barzin conducting New York City Ballet Orchestra; Vox PL-9320:12”). The Chabrier is a delightful potpourri of excerpts from other works compounded for ballet use. Roma is something bigger. In fact, it is a very good symphony, trimmed a little here for choreographic purposes but still logical and forceful — and important. The playing is precise and the recording vivid. Recommended.

Elgar: Enigma Variations; Cockaigne Overture; Serenade for String Orchestra (Sir Thomas Beecham conducting Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Columbia ML-5031: 12”). There are other notable versions of the Enigma Variations. The most notable, that of Toscanini, makes the work seem an exhilarating exercise in musical ingenuity. From Beecham it is broader, deeper, warmer, more personal. His recorded sound, too, is appropriately more stately and spacious, less incisive. The Cockaigne Overture is played with whimsy and vigor, the Serenade with a caressing intimacy. I wouldn’t be without this disk.

Falla: Concerto for Harpsichord with Surinach:Tientos and Rieti:Partita (Sylvia Marlowe, harpsichord; Concert Arts Chamber Players; Capitol P-8309: 12”). Falla’s last great work was this concerto, and it illustrates his extraordinary musical economy: newness without novelty, impact without mass, poignancy without pathos. The record is filled out worthily with the Hispanic Essays of Surinach, historic in vein, Ravel-Stravinsky in flavor, and the lyrical Partita of Vittorio Rieti, which embodies the pleasure of a modern Italian discovering Italy.

Handel: Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 (Boyd Neel conducting Boyd Neel Siring Orchestra; London LLA-21: three 12" in album). “These are remasterings of a ten-inch series which I recently said I preferred to the new Scherchen (Westminster) set, and I guess I still do. The Neel is Britishstyle Handel, with constant, grace and comprehensibility kept paramount, even at the expense of surprise effects. The satiated listener may prefer the brilliant Italianate Scherchen or the underaccented superprecision of Decca’s German version by Fritz Lehmann. All three versions are beautifully recorded.

Haydn: Symphonies No. 88 and No. 101, “Clock” (Karl Münchinger conducting Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; London LL-1199; 12”). Mr. Münchinger from Stuttgart never does anything in bad taste, and London never records the Vienna Philharmonic ill, so here we have the best “Clock” Symphony in the business, though not by a very big margin. As for No. 88, still awaiting an ideal recorded performance, Furtwüngler and Scherchen do it better in less lively sound for Decca and Westminster, respectively.

Mozart: Concerto No. 26, “Coronation”; Concert Rondo No. 1 (Carl Seemann, piano; Fritz Lehmann conducting Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Decca DL-9631: 12”). A subtitle, and what seems pomposity, have given this concerto a bad name among performers. Listeners, saner and more perceptive, know it is solidly beautiful under its fripperies. So do Messrs. Seemann and Lehmann, and they address the work with respect bordering on solemnity, but the results are enduringly endearing. Pardon my participles, and buy the record if you are addicted to Mozart piano concertos.

Mozart: Sonatas in D Major, E-Flat Major, G Major; Variations on“Hélas, J’ai Perdu Mon Aimant” (Nap de Klijn, violin; Alice Heksch, piano; Epic LC-3131: 12”). Miss Heksch is advertised as employing a “Mozartpiano,” probably a replica of the Stein instrument at Salzburg, and probably Mr. de Klijn uses a special bow, as he did in an earlier sonata disk. Anyway, the results are felicitous. The sonatas sound very pleasant and lifelike as well as authentic, and the fidelity is as high as need be.

Orff:Antigonae,Parts IV and V (Christl Goltz, Josef Greindl, other singers; members of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and State Opera Chorus, conducted by Heinrich Hollreiser; Columbia ML-5038: 12”). Admirers of Carmina Burana are advised to approach Antigonae with caution. Sophocles made the play oratorical, and Orff has kept it so. The opera is clever and penetrating, but verbal and static, not easy listening. The percussion is present but restrained, the recording brilliant.

Quantz: Concerto in G Minor with Gluck: Concerto in G Major; “Dance of the Spirits”(Orfeo) and Mozart: Andante in C Major (Hubert Barwahser, flute; Bernhard Paumgartner conducting Vienna Symphony Orchestra; Epic LC-3134: 12”). Johann Quantz is best known as Frederick the Great’s flute-tutor and the composer of 300 (!) flute concertos, which should classify him as a fortunate hack. However, in this disk he manages to outshine Gluck and Mozart, so he was no hack. (What are the other 299 like?) All three composers are vastly helped by the inspired piping of Mr. Barwahser, one of the world’s most agile and tasteful flutists, and by some verygood sound-reproduction.

Ravel:Daphnis and Chloë (Antal Dorati conducting Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and Macalester College Choir; Mercury MG-50048: 12”). This is the second complete microgroove recording of Ravel’s great dance-symphony, the other having been that of Ernest Ansermet for London. The presumed great asset of the new Mercury, its recorded fidelity, almost keeps me from hearing it properly: the instruments obtrude and the St. Paul choristers sound too corporeal for forest spirits. But the sound is gorgeously brilliant where it needs to be, and Dorati leads straight from the score, if without some of Ansermet’s subtlety. If you have a big listening room, choose the Mercury.

Rossini: Seven Overtures (Mario Rossi conducting Vienna State Opera Orchestra; Vanguard VRS-456: 12”). The overtures are those of the operas Tancredi; Journey to Rheims; Turk in Italy; Siege of Corinth; Cinderella; Italian Girl in Algiers; and Semiramide. Only the last three of these overlap with the celebrated Toscanini collection, and it seems to me that Rossi plays the overtures better than any of the other anthologist-conductors— other than Toscanini, I mean. He is one of the two leading Radio Italiana opera directors, and knows the works cold. There is nothing cold about the performances, however. Quite the contrary, and the fidelity is exemplary.

Schumann: Symphony No. 4 with Wagner:Siegfried Idyll (Guido Cantelli conducting Philharmonia Orchestra; HMV LHMV-13: 12”). The Schumann symphonies have been recorded often enough, but not well. The companies seem to choose the wrong interpreters, or something goes amiss at the session or in the processing. Here, for once, nothing has. This is not the ultimate Schumann Fourth, but there is nothing to annoy in it, and it is full-bodied and vigorous. Cantelli’s Siegfried Idyll is faithfully modeled on Toscanini’s, so it too is very good indeed, and the recording is realistic without being overintimate.