RECENT RECORDS
THE most interesting of these records are orchestral. For H.M.V. Sir Adrian Boult and the L.S.O. have recorded Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony, excellently except for a slight lack of subtlety in the last movement. Toscanini and the N.B.C. Symphony Orchestra give some most beautiful playing in scenes from Berlioz's Romeo and juliet, and Sir Thomas Beecham and the R.P.0 make one forget the length (or should I say the circumference ?) of Dvorak's Golden Spinning Wheel by the fire and brilliance of their playing. Decca issues a recording of Nielsen's Expansive Symphony, a pleasant eclectic work with a vocal movement (two good soloists) and well played by the Danish Radio Orchestra. Schumanes B flat major symphony played by the New Symphony Orchestra under Piero Coppola is hardly distinguished enough to overcome, or even palliate, the weaknesses of Schumann's orchestration, and the Meistersinger Overture by the Suisse Rornande Orchestra under Knappertsbusch is so lacking in rhythmic steadiness as to lose all solidity. The Neglected Masterpieces Recording Company have issued records of Mozart's Serenade K.I85, the so-called Andretter-Musik. Though the aim of the company seems excellent, these recordings by the Orchestre Symphonique de Chambre under Oubradous are con- siderably below the standard of the large commercial firms.
Chamber music is represented by a string quartet in D major of Boccherini, well played by the New Italian String Quartet (Decca) and a fine recording of Ravel's Tzipme by Ginette Neveu (Col.). The most unusual of the vocal records is by Victoria de los Angeles, whose singing of a Tonadilla by Granados and a more popular Spanish song entitled Hdblame de amores is quite enchanting. Janine Micheau's Valse Song from Gounod's Romeo and Juliet is agile but Jacking in tenderness (Decca), and I confess that I found the thin purity of Schwarzkopf's voice in Mozart's Exunate Jubilate very tedious. Erich Kunz's Leporello (Catalogue aria) is excellent, and Adriana Guerrini's Un bel di is only spoiled by the painful shrillness
of her top mister. (All three arc Columbia.) MARTIN COOPER.
Previous page
