Gramophone Records
(RECORDING COMPANIES B, Brunswick; C, Columbia; Cap, Capitol; D, Dccca; H, HMV; M, Monarch; OL, Oiseau Lyrc; P, Parlophone; T, Tcicfunkcn; V, Vox.) POPULAR CLASSICS-2: VIOLIN WORKS A RUSSIAN artist, David Oistrakh, heads the violinists, in reputation if not in the actual issues here offered. His Beethoven Concerto (C) is a fine performance but not so revealing as was hoped, and the same applies to his coupling of sonatas by Bach and Schubert (M), which are unobjectionable but pedestrian in style. There is nothing pedestrian (nor objectionable) about Milstein in the Bach Chaconne. oddly but persuasively coupled with his own version of the Paganini A minor Capriccio (Cap). Paganini is offered in larger quantities by Ricci (D), also bril- liantly played but more in one dose than most will want. A much better buy is his enchanting record of Weber's six early sonatas (D) for violin and piano, inventive little works, much superior to the piano sonatas, and almost completely unknown Milstein again is one of .everal who tackle the Brahms Concerto (Cap). His is probably the most perfect in execution, but neither Haenders, more ex- pressive (H), nor Ferras's, more fiery (D), is appreciably behind it. Take your choice tics
concerto coupling is of the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, played by Gitlis (V) in a classically pure style, emotionally detached and brilliant with superficiality. Campoli's more emotional style, and great technical ac- complishment, find an ideal vehicle in the Elgar Concerto (D). Heifetz is modestly but beautifully represented by Beethoven's two (H).
3: CHAMBER AND ORCCESTRAL MUSIC The Italian Quartet head the chamber groups, with their tonally lovely and stylishly persuasive, if free, performances of Haydn's Op. 3 No. 5 with Op. 76 No. 2 (C), Op. 77 No, 1 with Beethoven's Op. 18 No. 6 (D), Mozart's K.465 (D), and Brahms's 11 flat (C)— though this last is equalled, in a different, less lyrical style, by the Vdghs, who also offer a better bargain by coupling it with the A minor (D). Their compatriots, the Hungarians, con- tinue with the complete Beethoven cycle (C), of which the two discs received, containing Op. 18 Nos. 5 and 6, and Op. 59 No. 2 with Op. 95. are very beautiful—the Op. 18 sur- passing even the Italians. Equally recom- mended is the superbly dramatic and sonorous performance of Schubert's Death and the Maiden by the Barchet Quartet (V). The Vienna Philharmonic, in his less familiar (and less good) Quartet in E flat (Op. 125), coupled with Haydn's Op. 20 No. 5, is disappointing (T). The Schubert Octet by the Vienna Octet is smooth and well finished (D), and members of the same group play Mozart's Clarinet Quintet with equal excellence (D). Other wind chamber music includes Mozart's E flat Quin- tet (K.452), paired with Berkeley's Trio for horn, violin and piano, in performances led by Colin Horsley, and the similar Beethoven Quintet, with his Horn Sonata, by French players (OL), both very attractive issues. Two of the same French/group play Brahms's two Clarinet Sonatas admirably (OL), and his Clarinet Trio is given a good but rather cold performance led by Kell (B). Among other Brahms chamber music the Piano Quintet receives a splendidly concerted performance from the Hollywood Quartet with Victor Aller (Cap), and the two Cello Sonatas are finely played by Tortelier (H). In the Trio Op. 8 the Trio di Trieste do not dispel the sense of inadequacy of the medium (D).
Last (and who dare suggest least?), the conductors. Brunswick have issued several popular symphonies under the Ameritans Bernstein and Wallenstcin, but their perform- ances are mostly too brisk and unaffectionate, and rather tinnily recorded. This is true especially of Wallenstein in Beethoven's Eighth (with Mendelssohn's Fifth) and Schu- bert's Fourth and Fifth. In Brahms's First he is better, and so is Bernstein in the Fourth, as well as in Beethoven's Third, but there arc many better versions of all of these already. More acceptable is Bernstein in Schumann's Second. which is less a war-horse, and also, curiously, in Tchaikovsky's Sixth — though there is no need or justification for more ver- sions of this, for Kleiber's (D), and little as for his. Another American, Steinberg. shows a sense of style in Strauss's Till Euletzsplegel, with Death and Transfiguration (Cap). though Furtwangler's coupling of it with Don Juan (H) will probably he preferred. The Strauss symphonic poems arc a happy hunting- ground, and Krauss, whose special territory they were, gives brilliant performances of Romances
cording to temperament. An outstandingA us Hallett (D) and, with Fournier, Don Quixote (D). The latter, however, has now been surpassed by Piatigorsky and Munch in an outstanding disc (H). Munch has two other notable successes, in Schumann's fairly un- fashionable First Symphony (H) and Berlioz's neglected and astonishingly original Romeo and Juliet (H, four sides), a more valuable addition to our musical experience than Karajan's self-conscious virtuoso performance of the Fantastic Symphony (C). Ansermet also gives us several neglected French classics, including Debussy's remarkably Vaughan Williams-like incidental music for Le Mar- tyre de Saint Sdbastien (D), which in its en- tirety here is recommended above Cantelli's more glossy performance of three extracts from it, with La Mar (H); and Bizet's delight- ful Symphony (D), which is very welcome. The same can hardly be said of Andre's com- petent performance of the French symphony (Franck's), nor does Kcilberth persuade us that another version of Brahms's Third was necessary (both T). There was more room for Dvoriik's Fourth, but Sallawisch makes it too intense and destroys its pastoral character (C). Biihm's coupling of Schubert's Eighth and Fifth (D) must be preferred to Schwarz's Eighth (H), which is equal in quality but, coupled with pieces by Liszt and Weber, meets no real demand. The same objection applies to most batches of overtures, such as Malko's of Beethoven's Leonora 3, Coriolan and Prometheus (H)—though an exception might be made for Krauss's Leonora I. 2 and 3 and Fidelio (D)—and to many miscellanies of orchestral pieces such as Susskind's Mus- sorgsky selection (P) and a Russian assortment by Markovich (C), in spite of its including the best of several performances of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. Fistoulari pairs it more suitably with the Hamlet Overture (P), but is not so well recorded, and Perlea throws it in with 1812, the Italian Capriccio and the Marche Slave—good value if you happen to want all that (V). Perlea appears again in three early Mozart symphonies (Nos. 25. 29 and 33), but these are inferior to existing versions (V). Nos. 27 and 30 under G. L. Jochum (OL) and Haydn's Nos. 100 and 102 under Solti (D) are excellent. Less familiar and even more attractive is a disc of three enchant- ing early Mozart divertimenti (K.136-7-8) conducted by Redd (OL). Finally, on the other fringe of the popular repertory are two of the Bruckner symphonies, No. 3 under Knappertsbusch (D), more recommended on grounds of performance, unfamiliarity and economy than No. 4 under Van Kempen (T). which runs to three sides, with Sibelius's Seventh on the fourth.
COLIN MASON
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