NO SUMMER HIATUS HERE! COLUMBIA RECORDS GIVES YOU AH TA DAY ALL THROUGH AUGUST NOT ONE BUT ALL THESE EXCITING NEW ALBUMS ON SALE NOW! PLAYS WAILIN AT THE TRIANON 4, "''-LE KM ä1 R;p: 4 M.DC,.A _, too c:altd-ia slutrlM- r,a,,,t- I>rn,,.. M :9eY is SPORTS ~' ` .. AGinl !WM 4111 -' 4 ! i ttuett . . Ytl 50ttM MI&uTaft MIL Made IT mutt *NITS* CAW tevsn .:+ ot UM ttl.tflwpJy ORTS dF,. wt là:.: , :tt .i' MR_ NFNOLLSN)H ". TCHAIKOV5KY ;-i.i Ixi 1\il ZtNO f0.AN(.t SCAT Ii L. VIVALDI 1.111E \II:UIILE1\EtIE DORIS oar,,,,., VIENNA HOLIDAY \IOOLUL0 12 -5 ART LIN KLETTER's r`''f" it -.7. NO-4. ii,..\ ' f\ It iqr for [Ter FREE HITA DAY "SAMPLER" ALBUM Yours for the asking -a special recording containing full -length selections from many of the featured HIT A DAY albums. There are no strings attached. This valuable album is yours FREE. Visit your record store today -look over the new Columbia releases and take home your FREE HIT A DAY "Sampler" album now! 42 For a Good Time, Anytime- Play COLUMBIA'/ RECORDS "The Sound of Genius" s "Columbia", ;i,, t T. M. HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE
RECORDS Records in I Reviewed by PAUL AFFELDER NATHAN BRODER C. G. BURKE RAY ERICSON ALFRED FRANKENSTEIN ROLAND GELATT JAMES HINTON, JR. J. F. INDCOX ROBERT KOTLOWITZ HOWARD LAFAY JOHN S. WILSON Classical Music, listed by composer 43 Dialing Your Disks 5o Recitals and Miscellany 53 Building Your Record Library 55 The Music Between 58 The Best of Jazz 59 Folk Music 62 Wagner on Microgroove, Part II 64 CLASSICAL BACH Concerto for Two Violins in D minor; Concerto for Violin in A minor; Concerto for Violin in E major Reinhold Barchet, Willi Beh, violins; Pro Musica String Orchestra (Stuttgart), Walther Davisson, cond. Vox PL 9150. 12 -in. 55.95. The special feature of this recording is the inclusion, for the first time, of all three of Bach's surviving violin concertos on one disk. The soloists play pleasantly and tastefully in the fast movements, and rather poetically in the searching slow movements. But there is an easygoing air about these performances, and as a result the Vivace of the Double Concerto, for example. seems not vivacious enough and the Largo a bit draggy. In the solo concertos, I prefer Heifetz's more vigorous and livelier playing. N. B. BACIl Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, Nos. , -3 Janos Scholz, viola da gamba; Egida Giordani Sartori, harpsichord. Vox PL 9010. 12 -in. 55.95. The first and third of these sonatas are highly regarded by Spitta, and all three are admired by Schweitzer and other writers. The present reviewer humbly reports that he does not find the knee -viol the most ravishing of solo instruments, and that to him these works - for all the good tunes that can be found in them and their impeccable workmanship - seem rather humdrum. They are nicely played by both artists and well recorded. The balance could have been improved in those passages where the gam - ba, leading for the moment, is covered up by the harpsichord. There were some faulty AUGUST 1955 grooves near the end of the first movement of the G minor on the review disk. N. B. BARTOK Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, No. 3 Monique Haas, piano; RIAS Symphony Orchestra, Ferenc Fricsay, cond. tMartint Petite symphonie concertante Irmgard Helmis, harp; Gerty Herzog. piano; Silvia Kind, harpsichord; RIAS Symphony Orchestra, Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DECCA DL 9774. 12 -in. 53.98. Frank Martin's Petite symphonie concertante is a product of a subtle mind coming admirably to grips with the subtle and exacting problem of composing a symphony for strings and a solo group of harp, piano, and harpsichord. To manage these close -lying timbres in such a way as to exploit both their differences and their similarities and keep the entire sound- picture crystal clear is no mean feat, and it was no mean feat for Deutsche Grammophon's engineers to maintain that clarity throughout the recording. Martin's work is a delight to the ear and the mind; but when one turns the disk and experiences the urgency and incandescence of Bartók, one is significantly instructed in the difference between a minor and a major composer. Mlle. Haas does very well by the Bartók concerto, though its solo part can be thrown into stronger relief without damaging the composer's conception. A. F. BARTOK Concerto for Orchestra Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, cond. COLUMBIA ML 49'3. 12 -in. $4.98 An able performance and an extremely brilliant recording of this celebrated symphony for orchestral virtuosos. It is the fifth LP version in current catalogues, and all of them are good, but the one by Fritz Reiner - also issued by Columbia (and probably stxm due for release on the Entre label) - seems to me the best because it stresses the line and structure of the work more than do the others. Ormandy brings out its color superbly, however, and color is certainly a major value in a composition of this kind. A. F. BEETHOVEN Quartets: No. 12, in E flat, Op. 127; No. 13, it) B flat, Op. 130; No. 14. in C -sharp minor, Op. 131; No. 15, in A minor, Op. 132; No. 16, in I Op. 135; Great Fugue, in B fiat. Op. ,33 Hungarian Quartet. ANGEL 3514 -D. Four 12 -in. 519.92, or 513.92. The records may he bought separately for $4.98 or 53.48 each, according to the standard Angel formula. The higher price in this instance commands a disk inspected and sealed, plus notes by Maurice Hewitt and a pocket score of the music recorded. Quartets No. 12 and 16 are on one record. 35112; the Great !,Igoe follows Quartet No. 13, for which it was the original finale. on 35113; and Quartets No. 14 and 15 occupy each an entire disk, 35114 and 35115 respectively. Thus Angel concludes the most thorough and thoughtful physical presentation of the seventeen works specifically composed by Beethoven for the classic quartet of strings. The two preceding volumes have been reviewed here [HIGH FIDELITY, January 1955. May 19551 without enthusiasm for their musical presentation. Volume III incites a critical emotion altogether tepid, for what we hear in it is very good quartet playing. and a very disappointing statement of the insides of this viscero- cerebral music. The outcries are subdued; the pain and exaltation are reproved. The rhapsody of the Great Fugue is iced. and the C -sharp minor Quartet, which penetrates all the sensibili- 43
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