Record Reviews

Chausson: Poème; Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso; Leclair: Sonata No. 3 in D; Locatelli: Sonata No. 1 in F Minor

David Oistrakh, violinist, with Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch, and Vladimir Yampolsky, pianist; RCA Victrola VICS-1058 (stereo) and VIC-1058

The economic qualities of this record are no less interesting than the musical, for it is an exemplar of a new RCA line of reissues priced substantially lower than the original releases. Oistrakh’s performances of the Chausson and Saint-Saëns pieces first came out seven years ago and have lost nothing in vibrance of playing or richness in sound. The Russian violinist’s tone is similarly opulent in the Leclair and Locatelli sonatas, though perhaps less appropriate to their lean and classic lines.

Handel: Samson

Maurice Abravanel conducting Utah Symphony Orchestra and University of Utah Symphonic Chorale, with Jan Peerce, tenor; Phyllis Curtin, soprano; Louise Parker, contralto; Malcolm Smith, bass; and others; Vanguard BGS5060/62 (stereo) and BG-648/50: three records

Handel’s oratorio Samson here receives its first recording in stereo, as well as its first in English. The English, let it be said, is of no great quality; the composer used a text by a hack named Newburgh Hamilton drawn from Milton’s Samson Agonistes containing verses like:

Far from being bothered by his text (perhaps he never really understood English all that well), Handel composed music that was bold, vivid, and imaginative. He even was fair to the Philistines, giving their representative, one Harapha, two fine bass arias almost musically equal to Samson’s famous tenor air “Total eclipse.” And the choruses, such as the famous “Fixed in His everlasting seat,” abound in Handelian majesty. This recording, made in Salt Lake City, may not extract every ounce of strength in the score or capture every nuance, but with a cast headed by such experienced singers as Peerce and Miss Curtin, and with Abravanel’s sound conducting, it represents a solid achievement. And it puts squarely into the record catalogue a work that should never have been absent.

Toscanini Conducts Overtures

Arturo Toscanini conducting N.B.C. Symphony Orchestra; RCA Victor LM7026 (monaural only): two records

Arturo Toscanini’s palatial house in the Riverdale section of New York City, now occupied by his son Walter, contains many wonderful recordings of broadcasts and concerts that have never been given to the public because they have slight technical flaws or fall just short of the phenomenally high musical standards the Maestro set for his own releases. RCA Victor and Walter Toscanini have now begun to cull these archives, and this album is the first of a series of previously unreleased numbers to be put out over the next five years. Toscanini fanatics are divisible into two factions, one holding that recordings unapproved by the Maestro during his lifetime should be left in limbo forever, the other contending that any performance by the greatest conductor of the twentieth century is worthy of a hearing. This fanatic leans toward the second school. Certainly the thirteen overtures in this album (three each by Cherubini and Mozart, two by Cimarosa, Rossini, and Brahms, and one by Gluck) represent to the full the lucidity and vigor Toscanini brought to whatever music he touched. No one has since played Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture and Gluck’s Iphigenia in Aulis with so perfect a balance of tension and sonority, or made Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto and Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri sparkle so brilliantly. Against these qualities, the occasional blurring of sound or cough from the studio audience seems trivial indeed.

September Song: Jimmy Durante

Jimmy Durante with the John Rarig Singers, Roy Bargy conducting; Warner Bros. WS-1506 (stereo) and W-1506

It seems silly to say it, but seventyyear-old Jimmy Durante sings September Song with more feeling than anyone since the late Walter Huston. “Sings” may not be exactly the word; but as Durante himself has remarked in words worthy of Sam Weller, “Them is the conditions that pervails.” Even though the vocal gravel outweighs the gold, the songs on the record turn out to be a triumphant blending of the sentimental and the jocular. Such titles as “Look Ahead Little Girl,” “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” “I Believe,” and “Bluebird of Happiness” indicate that Durante is in an unusually serious mood. But when the songs and the singing are at their most heartfelt, he lightens them with such genial lines as, “When my bankroll is gettin’ small / I think of when I had none at all / And fall asleep countin’ my blessings.” Even more cheerful in its outlook is “One Room Home,” possibly the most persuasive paean to the simple domestic life since “Home, Sweet Home.” And if Jan Peerce’s famous old recording of “Bluebird of Happiness” could bring a tear to the eye, Jimmy’s new one can produce a torrent.

The Singing Nun: Her Joy, Her Songs

“Soeur Sourire” (Sister Luc-Gabrielle), with guitar accompaniment; Philips PCC609 (stereo) and PCC-209

After the phenomenal success of the first “Singing Nun” record with its famous “Dominique,” it was inevitable that a second should appear. What was not inevitable was that the same quality of innocent freshness should pervade the new songs, too. For the most part, these melodies, sung in French, are beguiling little tunes celebrating the joys of nature and the certitude of faith. Is there another “Dominique” among the new songs? Probably not, although “Il pleut, il pleut,” a graceful, almost Schubertian picture of a river in the rain, has a haunting quality of its own. The stereo version, incidentally, represents an electronic reprocessing from a monaural master, and sometimes has a slightly uncomfortable echo-chamber effect.