Music: New Records, Apr. 24, 1950

• Share

Verdi: Falstaff (Giuseppe Taddei, baritone; Saturno Meletti, baritone; Emilio Renzi, tenor; Gino Del Signore, tenor; Giuseppe Nessi, tenor; Cristiano Dalla Mangas, bass; Rosanna Carteri, soprano; Lina Pagliughi, soprano; Anna Maria Canali, mezzo-soprano; Amalia Pini, mezzo-soprano; orchestra and chorus of Radio Italiana, Mario Rossi conducting; Cetra-Soria, 6 sides LP). This is a slightly different Falstaff from the one NBC listeners have just heard from Arturo Toscanini (TIME, April 10). Orchestrally, it lacks the carefulness and cleanness of Toscanini's performance, and Conductor Rossi allows his singers, all excellent, more swagger and sway. But stylistically it is all of a piece and just as valid. Recording: good.

Bach: The Art of the Fugue (the Radio Orchestra, Beromunster, Switzerland, Herman Scherchen conducting; London FFRR, 6 sides LP). Bach died before he finished this last testament, and before he had noted down just what instrument or instruments should play it. Hence it is variously performed on the organ, by string quartet, and, as here, by a small orchestra. This performance is clear and calm, but short of vitality and vigor. Recording: excellent.

Bartok: Divertimento for Strings (string orchestra conducted by Tibor Serly; Bartok Recording Studio; 2 sides LP). Composed in the same period (1936-39) as the Music for Strings, Celeste and Percussion and the Violin Concerto, this music stands with them among Bartok's best. Performance and recording: excellent.

Bartok: Sonata for Violin Solo (Yehudi Menuhin, violinist; Victor, 6 sides 45 r.p.m.). Few composers since Bach have been able to write successful sonatas for solo violin. Bartok did, a year before his death in 1945, and Menuhin proves it. Recording: excellent.

Chopin: Mazurkas (Maryla Jonas, pianist; Columbia, 2 sides LP). Polish Pianist Jonas is a big woman who plays small music best; here she plays nine of Chopin's exquisitely turned little dances with more charm than accuracy, and with her usual beauty of tone. Recording: good.

Gillis: Saga of a Prairie School (the New Symphony Orchestra, Don Gillis conducting; Texas Christian University, 6 sides). Composer-NBC Producer Gillis composed this, his "Symphony No. 7," in 1948 for the diamond jubilee of his alma mater. The pastoral passages have the feel of the prairie—of space and sagebrush, and there is some low-down hoedown too. The performance is good, the recording, made by London FFRR, excellent.

Mozart: Symphony No. 41, K. 551 (the London Symphony Orchestra, Josef Krips conducting; London FFRR, 2 sides LP). Vienna's Conductor Krips has a wonderful way with the pulse and pace of Mozart's operas; playing the "Jupiter" with style and finish, he shows he knows how to handle the symphonies too. Recording: excellent.

Puccini: Turandot (Gina Cigna, soprano; Armando Giannotti, tenor; Luciano Neroni, basso; Francesco Merli, tenor; Magda Olivero, soprano; Afro Poli, baritone; EIAR Symphony Orchestra and chorus, Franco Ghione conducting; Cetra-Soria, 6 sides LP). Puccini's last, but not best opera gets as good a performance as possible. Recording: good.