Minority Tastes
(RECORDING COMPANIES: D, Decca; OL, Oiseau Lyre; R, RCA; T, Telefunken; V, Vox.) WHATEVER criticisms may be made of the big gramophone companies, they cannot be accused of not looking after minority tastes. The number of people in any one country who are prepared to buy a record of twelve concertos by Torelli, or an octet by Poot, would probably go comfortably into one small skiffle-cellar. Both are recorded. To Torelli there is now added Manfredini, also with 12 Concerti Grossi, op. 3, played by I Musici Virtuosi di Milano (V, two records). These are a real find, lively and unflagging in inspiration, as original at their best as Vivaldi at his, and on an average a good match for him. If twelve concertos seems a lot, either record can be bought separately. Equally unfamiliar and attractive, and equally spirited and fertile in invention, are some instru- mental works by Lalande, collected on one record (OL). These have the additional interest of belong- ing to a different convention from that of the Italian concerto grosso, on which the labours of rediscovery have been rather excessively concen- trated. Handel's 12 Concerti Grossi, op. 6, which fall within that convention, were in less need of rediscovery. The new complete set by the Pro Arte Orchestra of Munich, under Kurt Redel (V, three records), already has competitors in the field. It makes a strong challenge to them. The performances are vigorous and expressive, with- out mannerisms, finely played and excellent in tone. My only dissatisfaction was with the occasional cadential flourishes in the continuo part, which I found boring, unimaginative and for that reason probably unauthentic. The set deserved an album-presentation, with a detailed scholarly study in a separate booklet, such as was provided with the Vox Brandenburg Concertos. The one advantage of doing without this is that the records may be bought singly.
Probably the riskiest and most idealistic of all these offerings to the minorities is a complete recording of Couperin's Pieces d'Orgue (OL, three records), consisting of the Messe pour les Paroisses with the plainsong versets sung between the move- ments (two records), and the Messe pour les Couvents (without the sung versets), both played by Pierre Cochereau. These very beautiful works have a musical innocence and simplicity, and an emotional gentleness, that are characteristically French, without the excess of sweetness that for most English tastes mars later French religious music. Their appeal will hardly be wide, but need not be limited to lovers of organ music. They are early representatives of the tradition not so much of Franck's organ works as of Gounod's church music—though they are nearer still perhaps to Faurd's Requiem, and very much purer even than that. Evidently not expecting much sale for the complete set, the publishers have reproduced the same well-informed but sketchy general sleeve- note on all three records. This can be supple- mented by reference to Wilfrid Mellers's critical commentary in Grove's Dictionary. A selection of organ pieces by Frescobaldi played by Sandro della Libera (T) is more austere, and needs a for ger and more assiduously cultivated feeling for early music to be enjoyed fully. For more con- servative tastes there is Claire Coci's performance of a group of well-known bigger works by Bach on the West Point organ (V). They are finely and cleanly played, but now that most of us have been taught to like what the unteachable Vaughan Williams calls the 'bubble-and-squeak' organs, the style may seem too massive. The vocal and choral works from this period offered lately are less recommendable. Lalande's Te Deum (OL) is either less interesting, or (more likely) less well performed, than the instrumental works on the accompanying record already men- tioned, and various cantatas by Bach and Ales- sandro Scarlatti (OL) are all indifferently or badly sung. The exception is an issue of Palestrina's eight spiritual madrigals, Le Vergini, with the Stabat Mater and the motet Super Flumina Baby- lonis (V). Those who think of Palestrina as a soothing and leisurely progression of common chords, one melting imperceptibly into the next, should listen first to the madrigals, which at once prove and dispose of Berlioz's criticism that Palestrina made no distinction of style between secular and religious works. No secular music could have more vigour and animation than these madrigals; the joy of which can be compared only with that of some of Bach's greatest choruses. The vitality and tonal brilliance of the singing, by the Choral Academy of Lecco, contribute much to the revelation.
Minority tastes in modern music are not so well catered for as in ancient. The Sixth Symphony of Walter Piston and the Symphonic Fantasies of Martinu, both written for the seventy-fifth birthday of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, are brought together as much for the 'Sake of the orchestra as for themselves, to show off its tone and technique, as they were intended to, and bril- liantly do, under Munch (R). Both, as it bappens, also show their composers at their most imagina- tive, and well deserved this recording. Otherwise modern music is generally confined to early modern classics, some of them more frequently recorded than Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. Debussy's Images is well justified by a dazzling performance under Argenta, conducting the Suisse Romande Orchestra (D), and La Mer with the Boston Symphony under Munch (R) is equally exciting, though the coupling with Ibert's Escales is not much to my taste. Yet another Rite of Spring, by the Suisse Romande under Ansermet (D), is marvellously clear, only to expose some irritating minor blemishes of execution that can- not be overlooked so easily as they might if the competition were less keen. Gary Graffman's excellent performance of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto (R) is handicapped against other exist- ing versions by being backed with a charmless performance of the Classical Symphony—which also makes the record poor value in playing time. A real rarity, though not quite new to the catalogues, is Strauss's Symphonia Domestica, by the Chicago Symphony under Reiner (R). It is not neglected without justice, and despite first-rate playing and recording is recommended only to in- satiable Straussians—of whom there are perhaps enough to keep the company happy.
COLIN MASON
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