Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, January 9, 1970 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY records Random thoughts on random records By R. A. PERRY Angel's set of the Five Piano Concertos of Beethoven-team- ing pianist Daniel Barenboim and conductor Otto Klemperer - was a runnerup in High Fi- delity's "Best Recording of the Year" sweepstakes; in my opin- ion the set is a disaster, or at least an overwheifling bore. The very pairing of Klemperer and Barenboim is absurd: Klemper- er the Germanic master. who paints with a housepainter's brush and Barenboim the young virtuoso overburdened with en- gagements that disallow the maturing of taste. As expected, Klemperer choses broad, slow tempi too often lugubrious, but at times, of a dignified power and beauty, as in the Adagio of the Emperor. Against this heavy backdrop, Barenboim offers a contrasting random aesthetic of almost whimsical and precocious phras- ing. His playing lacks convic- tion, ardor, and intellectual :commitment; if these w o rd s seem harsh, simply listen, if you have a chance, to the second and third movements of t h e Emperor for uninspired piano playing. With their options nev- er converging, Klemperer and Barenboim plow through the concerti, revealing neither poet- ic Insights nor architectural structure; movements come to an end like the wind going out of a balloon. The Angel set (SD-3752) fur- thermore has been ridiculously pressed for automatic changers, involving annoying disc handl- ing. The sound is over-ripe and undistinguished. If you desire a set of the Beethoven piano con- certi, the Fleisher/Szell read- ings still demand allegiance; many excellent single disc re- cordings on budget labels are also available, however. Pro Musica concert set New York Pro Musica, a group of 10 vocal and instrumental vir tuosi conducted by John Reeve Whte, will give a concert at 8:3 p-m. ;Jan. 12 in Rackham Lectur Hall. The concert is part of the University Musical Society' Chamber Arts Series. The group has performed in Ann Arbor on five previous occasions Pro Musica was founded in 1953 by the late Noah Greenberg, who remained- its musical director un til his death in 1966. White, th second musical director, has en sured the continuity of the en semble in two brilliant seasonsn 1 nearly 200 concerts. A Pro Musica concert is an ex cursion into the great musica past; sacred works first perform ed in the cathedrals of 13th cen tury France; lustry songs, dances and delicate ballades from the medieval French court anld coun tryside; dramatic pieces of Ren aissance Spain; music in the Flem Ish tradition, and the sounds o the glittering Tudor reign in Eng land. Standing-room-only tickets fo Monday's concert remain at $ at the offices of the VMS in Burton Tower. Another loser is Angel's re- cording of the Chopin Nocturnes as played by Alexis Weissen- berg. (SB-3747) The pneumatic fingering t h a t Weissenberg brought to the Chopin concerti on a recent Angel recording cre- ated appropriate excitement, like the clashing of swords, but in the Nocturnes, the pianist's bravura technique is misplaced. These short works, equaled only perhaps by Schubert's Improm- tus for epigrammatic lyricism, are shorn of all sentiment and atmosphere. Heavy yet skeletal, Weissenberg's Nocturnes never add up to anything but the sum of the notes, the effect being akin to Romeo's balcony speech being spoken in a monotone. About the only thing interest- ing in this set is the arrange- ment of pieces; by playing the Nocturnes in random rather than chronological order, cer- tain expectations of sequence are shattered to good effect. I still find Moravec's renditions on Connoisseur Society the most subliminally beautiful, though Rubinstein and Novaes offer splendid versions. With most young pianists to- day substituting virtuosic, note- perfect display f o r truly felt emotion, three pianists stand out for their excellent t a s t e among the under-thirty group: Stephen Bishop, Mischa Dicht- er, and Augustin Anievas. Anie- vas is perhaps the least known of the three, though his first two records on the Seraphim la- bel, one of the Chopin Etudes and the other of Brahms, were both thoroughly outstanding. They revealed a pianist who had not only the requisite technique but also a command of style and an unblinking control. Anlevas's new recording of the Chopin Waltzes, including - five seldom heard, posthumous- ly published waltzes, is wonder- fully communicative while be- ing controlled enough as to pre- vent aberrant stylistic slips. His playing is strong without being aggressive, and sweet without being treacly; in a word t h e young man has Taste and his version of the-Waltzes can stand next to Lipatti's (if down a few s rungs). Raymond Lewenthal is a p- sanist who exalts virtuosic tech- nique, but he has had the in- genuity and courage to apply 1his powers to recording works by late (and perhaps decadent) Romantics whose names had slipped from memory - Alkan, Schwarenka, and Medtner. An early Lewenthal recording of sScriabin has just been re-re- leased by Westminster on their valuable "Collector S e r I e s. Scriabin's early (thus less ad- - AUDITION for Arts Chorale - AUD C-ANGELL HALL T & Th-3-5 or Phone 764-2506 PROF. KLEIN, conductor venturesome) a n d melodious Op 11 Preludes (the complete twenty-four) and the later mys- tical conglomerates-: Vers la flamme (Op. 72) and Five Last Preludes (Op. 74) - are given fine performances where tech- nique does not swamp meaning. The mono sound is quite good. o n e of Toscanini's greatest recordings was of the Mozart Divertimento No. 15, K. 287; whether or not you agree that the style suited Mozart, you had to admire the uncanny ensem- ble precision that served a most beautiful plastic articulation of phrasing. David Blum and the Esterhazy Orchestra's perform- ance of the K. 334 Divertimento (on Vanguard VCS-10066) is by no means as quicksilver, b u t Blum, like Toscanini, rarely al- lows phrasing to be perfunctory, and subsequently the music be- comes a language with content. Blum choses a warm, not clip- ped, approach but does not blur lines or sacrifice details. The "rondo allegro" is especially de- lightful, and the excellent re- cording has clear, bass-rich Dol- by sound. Christopher Parkening, twen- ty-two year old disciple of Se- govia, has recorded for Angel (SFO-36021) eleven Spanish works of encore weight t h a t show Parkening m o r e relaxed and more expressive than on his two previous recordings where one felt a certain com- pulsive rigidity. Parkening has been groomed for the concert stage and, as fine a guitarist as he is, lacks the joie de vivre that marked Julian Bream's youth- f u 1 Westminster recordings. Still, this Angel album is quite lovely in a musky way, perfect for late, cold wintry nights. Anyone who has appreciated{ the purity of Teresa Stich-Ran- dall's soprano voice, w i t h its special distinction in legato phrasing, should listen to a new Westminster recording (WST- 17160) in which the Connecti- cut-born Kammersangerin sings Schubert arias and Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben. I have Held Over 3rd Week always thought Stich-Randall's voice best suited for masses and oratorios, where her angelic tim- bre need not worry too much about close textural expressivi- ty. Although her Schubert is strained in just that latter mat- ter, the Schumann, more with- in her range, has been given a fine reading blending voice and text well. "Du Ring an meinem Finger," the climax of this arching cycle, is especially well- sung. Finally, Columbia's "Historic Organs of I t a 1 y" '(MS 7379), finds globe-trotter E. Power Biggs putting on vinyl the sounds of four ancient Italian organs, using passages from the compositions of Frescobaldi, Gesualdo, the Gabrielis, and other more esoteric composers. The longest piece runs only four minutes, and I find such collec- tions of organ tidbits less aes- thetically satisfying than a pre- sentation where the music, and not the instrument, requires at- tention. Someone, somewhere, must enjoy knowing, however, the length of each pipe on each organ for Columbia has taken great pains in this department. LI First film of the semester VIVA ZAPATA Dir. ELIA KAZAN, 1952 Marion Brando and Anthony Quinn in Oscar-winning movie of Mexican Revolution 7 & 9 Architecture 662-8871 75cAuditorium - ------ ------ UmtedITS AsLs -GeORce HARRISO Meg,';: Cpuo'GM1, .SrE.* 0i'. so APEFILMS presents a KING FEATURES production COLOR byDeluxeo UntdAptists on y 11 4 4 I &G" 4,4 aS. --- 4 The Colorful Adventures of --. are more Colorful than ever ..in COLORI EASTMANCOLOR AUNITED ARTISTS RELEAS4 SATURDAY AND SUNDAY MATINEES ONLY, not continuous with "MEDIUM COOL" Christopher Parkening Lawrence . DurreU's 20th Century-Fee r"ants a Pardoa & B rSerrage C"botProduction 01 tawwoOuren lrd 'JUSTINE" starring ANOUK AMUt, 0ON1KBOGAFV-. ROOKRT I lER AINA KARMA PHIIPPERNOIRET. bICHAEE YORK co-starring John Vemon. Jack Albertson, George Bake. haelm Dum. Produced byPadro & Berman, Dieeed by George Culy. Screenplay by Lawiena U.Mucus. B~ased or) The Alexandria Quartet"' by Lmwenrce Darrell. Music by Jerry 6oldsmilh Panravisirrn Color try De luxe I Sub-l2:30 p.m. Help-2:00 p.m. Sub-3:30 p.m. Help-5:00 p.m. adults--$1 .50 children--75c P IPTH 'OtUM "r* M AVaNu~q1t uwwY vsYOC m quomwoopmurrampopolsomwqom" 4-M TODAY AT 1 -3-5-7-9 ~The Reivers" is roltickin4 ii am- Dial 5-6290 ' ~ *PANAVISIoNaTEcH NICoLOR1 SHOWS AT 1.00, 3:40, 6:20, 9:00 P.M. J I O* Try Daily Classifieds 1% --W I I g!" Pauline Kael, New Yorker Steve McQueen "The Reivers A Cinema Center Films Presentation A National General Pictures Release i9J U U f bob 616 -bo"W, aSS&MOZ 06 M E % . ., ., ^ f./... . f f " . M f _ 1 f f 4 I also starring SHARON FARRELL-WILL GEER ARBOR ART MART PAINTINGS and POTtery Jewelry, Wood Sculpture, Metal Work SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 1970 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. -a I 'WBWhrS -AnArr . n -.v,>,-,r :. . :-Y:KtN",r:-::>r i!i. 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