Old Favourites and New Tunes

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 752, 11 December 1953, Page 22

Old Favourites and New Tunes

A Monthly Review by

OWEN

JENSEN

‘OT another "Fifth"? The "Fifth" again? Yes, another "Fifth" — Symphony No. 5 in C Minor (Beethoven), played by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer (Vox PL7070); another recording of the "Fifth" ... And why not? This is the sort of thing that keeps the gramophone from being altogether a museum showcase, the record collection from fossilising into a mausoleum of embalmed "masterpieces," and the sort of thing, too, that keeps your listening alert. It has become somewhat taken for granted that the gramophone, like the camera, cannot lie, that. what goes round must be good; but only new and fresh performances can keep the music alive and bring the listener closer to the composer. Take this recent version of the Beethoven "Fifth." Klemperer treats the matter very differently from, say, Toscanini, At first you may not like his interpretation-no fireworks, no extravagances of expression. With Klemperer, Fate flies out the window as good solid musicianship knocks at the door. He keeps meticulously to the score, so much so that one may feel now and again that he misses what may be legitimately and desirably read between the lines. Klemperer’s. inhibitions about accuracy take the edge a little off some of the excitement, but nevertheless this is fine playing. Perhaps you may feel that you are hearing the Beethoven Fifth for the first time. Delius appears prominently in this month’s bundie,-not with one: disc, but two. The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Collins (Decca LXT 2788) play Brigg Fair, On Hearing the First Cuckoo, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, and A Song of Surmer. Felix Slatkin and the Concert Arts Orchestra (Capitol CTL 7029) have selected On Hearing, etc., Summer Night on the River, Intermezzo and Serenade from Hassan, Caprice and Elegy and Prelude to Irmelin. You will not wish to acquire both these discsmaybe you won’t want either-but you should hear the two of them. Anthony Collins obviously knows. what he is after but he doesn’t quite get there. One feels thet he cannot give himself over completely to Delius’s purely sensual music -or is it that Beecham reached so far into Delius’s imagination that there is little more to be said? Whatever it may be, this Delius music is here more like a painted sunset than the real thing. Some of the glow is missing. As for Mr. Slatkin and his Orchestra, perhaps the less said the better. He and his friends seem good hearty types who play Delius as if they meant it-but this

isn’t generally what Delius meant. Dvorak’s Concerto for ’Cello and Orchestra is given another airing with M. L. Rostropovich’ as soloist and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Vaclav Talich joining him in battle | (Supraphon LPM { 88/89). This is the

way Dvorak’s ’Cello Concerto always strikes me-a contest, with the odds heavily in favour of the _ orchestra. Vaclav ‘Talich, however, feels for Dvorak. The Czach Philharmonic brings out Dvorak’s Bohemian fire and makes him sound something more than a wallowing sentimentalist. M. L. Rostropovich is no devastating virtuoso, but he brings out the poetry of Dvorak, leaving most of the fireworks to the orchestra. Although the recent Decca recording with the London Symphony Orchestra and Nelsova is better recorded, the Czech Philharmonic is, on the whole, a more acceptable presentation. It has the disadvantage, however, of being spread out on three sides of two ten-inch LPs with Dvorak’s symphonic tone-poem, The Mid-day Witch-not a very exciting witch-filling up the fourth side. Maybe not such a good bargain after all. For something right out of the box, keep on eye and an ear on Camilla Wicks playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Stockholm. Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sixten Ehrling (Capitol CTL 7026). There is both fire and poetry in Camilla Wicks’s playing, a confident and almost impeccable technique and a rich tone. The Stockholm Orchestra do their part well. At the bottom of the pile of old favourites what should turn up but a dise with a vaguely familiar picture on the dust cover, none other than the Don Cossack Choir. They are apparently the same singers! Certainly the singing is the same, the music is the same, and so is the enjoyment (Columbia 33SX 1008). Music at Home Sitting the other day surrounded by the bric-a-brac of domesticity with a gargantuan loud-speaker turning out music by the LP-full, I had to confess to myself that it seemed rather odd to be listening to opera, symphony and Berlioz’s 135-piece funeral cortege in a room twelve by what-have-you, with no other listening companions than a tank of tropical fish, an incongruity inconceivable except in the fantasy of the 20th Century. The proper music for intimacy is surely chamber _music-some of it anyway. Straightening the antimacassar and freshening up the aspidistra, I turned to Nixa’s enthusiasm for Fauré who, living well into this century (died 1924) belongs most. evidently to the better days of a bygone age. To. the String Quartet and Violin Sonata reviewed a few weeks ago, has been added the Piano Quartet in C Minor, the Piano Quintet in the same key, and, with the Piano Quartet,

Sonata No.2 for ’Cello ‘and Piano in G Minor, Op. 117; I have always had a secret affection for the Piano Quartet, either in playing it or in listening. Gaby Casadesus and members of the Guilet Quartet (Nixa QLP 4007) do nothing to disturb this. In fact, they play the work

very beautifully. The ‘cello sonata, on the other side, suffers the fate of so many ‘cello sonatas, that the string instrument has a hard job sometimes to keep its head above water. When it does rise about the piano-and the other occasions are no fault of the pianistthe effect is very ingratiating. The Piano Quintet is well played by the Pascal Quartet and Ray Lev, pianist (Nixa CLP 1093), but it is a work which I have never been able to find other than dull, being in the way of much ado about nothing. For chamber music, however, you do not need to stop at Fauré. There is the Pascal Quartet’s Beethoven, Op. 130 (Nixa CLP 1210), beautifully played but not so beautifully recorded,. being inclined to shrillness; a, String Quartet by Milhaud, with La Oracion del Torero, by Turina, on the reverse side, both played by the WQXR Quartet (Nixa QLP 4004); and two Mozart String Quartets-K.168 in F and K.458 in B Flat (The Hunt), played by the Griller Quartet (Decca LXT 2728). The WQXR Quartet is an ensemble attached to the American radio station WQXR, for whose programmes it has played since 1947. The Milhaud work may surprise you by its easy listening. The WQXR Quartet plays it with understanding and loving care. As for the Griller Quartet, if you liked them on the concert platform, ‘you will most certainly want to acquire this disc. _ Of course, if you will wish to share an opera with the tropical fish, there is Tosca, with Renata Tebaldi as Tosca, and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, conducteg by Alberto Erede (Decca LXT 2730/31). This is magnificent theatre even without the stage trappings, and this is a grand performance. A brief note about sheer beautytwo pianists and a singer. Much has already been written about the sensuous pianism of Dinu~Lipatti. Suffice to add then that his playing of the Chopin waltzes is now available on LP (Columbia 33CX1032). Robert Goldsand presents a disc of Schubert-Sonata in A Major, Op. 120, and Moments Musicaux, Op. 94 (Nixa CLP 1148). Goldsand never plays to the gallery, never sacrifices musicianship to virtuosity. His Schubert has warmth and sentiment, ‘but not sentimentality; and this is as it should be. And then there is Kathleen Ferrier in a recital of Bach and Handel Arias, with Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Decca LXT 2757). This is Kathleen Ferrier remembered at her best.