Record Reviews
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor
Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic with Martha Lipton, mezzo-soprano; the Women’s Chorus of the Schola Cantorum; and the Boys’ Choir o the Church of the Transfiguration; Columbia M2S-685 (stereo) and M2L-275: two records
Mahler’s Third opens with eight unaccompanied horns playing in unison, and proceeds expansively and discursively through six movements — one with a mezzo-soprano soloist; one with a chorus and a mezzo — culminating in a funereally paced Finale. Some of it is banal and bombastic, but the music seems to gain in eloquence and cohesiveness as it goes along; the mezzo solo has some of the rhapsodic quality of Mahler’s best songs, and there is an ingenuous appeal about the “Bimm bamm, bimm bamm” with which the boys’ chorus imitates the sound of church bells in the fifth movement. The final Adagio, for all its glacial motion, provides an expressive, exalted conclusion. Bernstein lavishes on the music the freshness and tender, loving care of a Mahler enthusiast who is willing to accept the dross for the riches that go with it. File Philharmonic is in top form; the vocal and instrumental solos are skillfully handled; and the sound is sumptuous.
Mozart: String Quintet in G Minor, K. 516; String Quintet in D Major‚ K. 593
Amadeus String Quartet (Norbert Brainin and Siegmund Nissel, violins; Peter Schidlof, viola; Martin Lovett, cello) with Cecil Aronowitz, viola; Deutsche Grammophon 138057 (stereo)
In taste, tone, and temperament, the Amadeus String Quartet stands high in the chamber-music aristocracy. Its members represent a confluence of London and Vienna, which perhaps shapes its distinctive blending of robustness and style. It is difficult to imagine a more immediately arresting or increasingly satisfying account of the G Minor Quintet, one of Mozart’s most eloquent, probing, and personal masterpieces. To match it one must turn back to the old Budapest version with Milton Katims, which the Budapests themselves were unable to match on a later try. The D Major Quintet, more open and friendly, is a graceful and hearty running mate.
Poulenc: Suite Française; Les Animaux Modèles; Villageois; and other pieces
Grant Johannesen, pianist; Golden Crest 4042
Johannesen is a generally underrated pianist, and in this record of Francis Poulenc’s piano music he plays as though he were determined not to remain one. Poulenc’s pieces are bright and perky, full of amusing allusions and impish touches — hardly the sort of thing to test a performer’s profundity. But Johannesen plays them with such immense brio and scintillating skill as to make them, and him, a delight to hear. Bigger and even better things would seem to be in order.
Wagner: Tannhäuser
Franz Konwitschny conducting orchestra and chorus of German State Opera, Berlin, with Elisabeth Grümmer and Marianne Schech, sopranos; Hans Hopf, tenor; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; and Gottlob Frick, bass; Angel 3620 D/L and S-3620 D/L (stereo); four records Considering that Tannhäuser is among the most “operatic” of all Wagner’s operas, with even a legitimate aria or two to lighten the leitmotivs, its recording history has been virtually nil. Angel has now given it one with a Berlin production that is musically solid without beingopaque. Konwitschny’s direction is its strongest element, maintaining the lyricism afloat on the surging dramatic tides. Of the singers, Fischer-Dieskau is a Wolfram of credible character and sumptuous sound; Hopf, a Tannhäuser who is perhaps more Helden than tenor; Grümmer and Schech, well schooled, if not outstandingly skilled, in the roles of Elisabeth and Venus. It is the deep-piled orchestral and choral fabric that provides most of the richness and color; the final scene of Tannhäuser’s redemption, with its massive outpouring of sound and emotion, is admirably clear and convincing.
Anyone Can Play the Harmonica
Alan Schackner, harmonica player and instructor; Epic LN-3730
Having accepted the challenge implicit in the title, this pupil suggests an emendation to Practically Anyone Can Play the Harmonica or Anyone Can Practically Play the Harmonica. Still, so exact and insistent are Mr. Schackncr’s instructions, spoken and written, that it took only an hour or so to play “Taps” reasonably recognizably. It isn’t the teacher’s fault that the student decided then and there to rest on his laurels. Not the least attractive element of this record is the businesslike Hohner Marine Band harmonica that comes packaged with it.
La Chanson de Roland
Lucie de Vienne directing the Proscenium Studio, Montreal, with Henri Barras, André Montmorency, Benoit Marleau, Ulrich Guttinger, and others; Folkways 9857: two records
This is a dramatic narration by a group of young Canadian actors of La Chanson de Roland, the twelfthcentury poem which is France’s national epic. Lucie de Vienne, the director, also serves as the narrator, reciting the purely descriptive passages in an expressive voice, while her associates deliver the words spoken by the main personages in this most celebrated chanson de geste: Charlemagne, Roland, the King of the Saracens, and Ganelon the traitor. The language that is used is Old French in Madame de Vienne’s best approximation of the pronunciation of the time (Canadians, she says, are better at the twelfth-century rolled r than modern Frenchmen). The accompanying booklet prints the text in three parallel columns, of Old French, modern French, and English (the Dorothy Sayers translation). At times, the steady cadences become a bit numbing, even though the text has been trimmed. Nevertheless, the stately grandeur and controlled emotion make their effect. The sound effects of battle scenes seem unnecessary, but the musical flourishes brighten the text much as illuminations on an old manuscript, and the sound of the dying Roland’s horn provides a supremely dramatic moment.