Recordings: High Cost of Gold

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From a critical standpoint, RCA's first Philadelphia records are a distinct disappointment. Recorded in the Philadelphia Academy of Music rather than in the ballroom used by Columbia, their sound is often dry and devoid of the luster for which the orchestra is famous. Charles Ives' Third Symphony and an LP of Grieg and Liszt concertos with Pianist Van Cliburn as soloist are the best of the lot. But the Chopin F-minor Concerto with Artur Rubinstein is heavy and graceless, and Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony lacks the bite and immediacy of a nine-year-old version that Columbia re-engineered and rereleased last year. Bruckner's Seventh Symphony has a glossiness that does not suit the music at all. Mozart's Jupiter and Schubert's Unfinished symphonies are the most unresonant of all.

Royalties and Pops. Nonetheless, the orchestra itself has reason to be content with its new lot. Royalties are coming in from both companies. In addition, Ormandy can now record material that was closed to him at Columbia, because Mahler belonged largely to Bernstein, and Mozart to Szell. To be released in the fall are Philadelphia versions of the Mahler First Symphony and Mendelssohn's Elijah. After that will come DeFalla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain with Rubinstein, Mahler's Second Symphony, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and several contemporary works, including Krzystof Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.