Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesdav. November 3I 968 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY ITu e JcfrAIt 1Nckjv -mII Iul I d- 1j ' jR i records Hark! New herald 'Angels sell By R. A. PERRY Ah, the Christmas B e a s o n creeps up upon us again! The Sunday Times is getting thick- er and PrettysBooks have begun to fill Folletts. Record compan- ies too have started to issue their holiday gift-giving specials. Angel, for instance, is promot- ing three of their top artists, each in a three-record set that sells for the price of two. Two of these sets - those which feature Victoria De Los Angeles and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau- win approval; a third set star- ring Yehudi Menuhin is more questionable. The sets present previously released material. It may be unlikely that ad- mirers of opera and art songs would not already own some of the De Los Angeles performanc- es gathered on the new Angel set, SCB-3728, yet obviously the compilers of this anthology have sought to avoid the too familiar. One record which fea- tures the Spanish singer in opera, for instance, contains arias from. Puccini's Suor An- gelica, Verdi's Simon Boccane- gra, and Catalani's La Wally, as well as more familiar fare from La Traviata and Mefistofele. A second disc presents t h e otherwise unavailable Cinco Canciones Negra by Xavier Montasalvage and four madri- gals by Joaquin Rodrigo, b e s t know for his guitar composi- tions. On the flip side are Ray- cinema el's luxurious Sheherezade and Two Hebrew Melodies. These selections are all sung with the subtly expressive phrasing and tonal purity associated with De Los Angeles artistry. A third disc assembling tradi- tional songs and lieder must be subjected to light criticism. Perhaps it seems captious, but in some ways the Spanish singers' voice has too much class, is too cultured and refined for some of the less serious songs she of- fers in this part of her recital. I prefer, for instance, even Joan Baez's more waif-like Plaisir d'amour. Certainly De Los An- geles cannot approach the hu- mor and flippancy, not to men- tion the coloratura interest, that Mado Robin brought to Delibes' Les Filles de Cadiz. Another minor criticism of this disc: more space might have been given to the singer's ac- complishments in German lie- der - only two Schubert songs are offered - rather than to further examples of anonymous Spanish songs. In any case, for those unfamiliar with De Los Angeles' artistry, this anthology, can only be a highly recom- mended bargain. Anyone with the least inter- est in vocal music has to be familiar with Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau. The German baritone, unquestionably the ablest lied singer today, has recorded just about every possible song cycle written for male voice, as well as almost every baritone opera role. His voice too has been so perfected in timbre and nuance of tempo that he does, I feel, sometimes miss a level of hu- man involvement. For this rea- son I prefer Hermann Prey's performance of Schubert's Schwanengesang to F is c he r- Dieskau's; though the latter's is "perfect" in every way, it does not have the'power to move and excite as does Prey. Angel has packaged in the three-records-for-two set (SCB- 3729) a representative selection of the baritone's specialities, though the modern repertoire has unfortunately been avoided. The best bands are those in which the baritone exercises his mastery of German art songs: familiar Schubert (a very pow- erful Der Doppelganger, three of Schumann's Eichendorff songs, and songs by Wolf and Strauss. Another record is devoted to Bach, two arias from Cantatas 8 and 73, as well as the com- plete Cantata 158. Again, in the Bach the singer's voice always sounds felicitous, yet there is an emotional blandness to his performance that lowers the in- tensity of his rendition. This is, perhaps, a very personal judge- ment, and perhaps can, in an ironic way, be attributed to overexposure of the singer's sound. A third record is devoted to excellent performances of Verdi and Wagner roles; also the Of- fertorium from Faure's Requiem receives an expressive reading. Incidentally, the Angel complete recording of this work, directed by Andre Cluytens, is one of the best available, except that the sound has been made vastly overreverberant. A third set (Angel SCB 3727) will interest only those people just starting a record collection, and to them some warnings must be issued. This set features the famed British violinist Ye- hudi Menuhin as soloist, con- ductor, and chamber music par- ticipant. As soloist, he performs the Beethoven Violin Concerto in a virtuosic manner that is not al- ways firm in pitch. Less excit- ingly tensile than Heifitz and less graciously sweet than Gru- miaux, Menuhin's able perform- ance receives heavy and drag- ging support from Otto Klemp- erer's baton. The recorded sound is harsh. As for the Brahms Sextet Op. 18, I can only say that when as magnificent a rendition as the Casals/Prades Festival re- cording exists (Columbia ML 4703), why look elsewhere? The Menuhin ensemble performance is not bad-warm, well-balanc- ed, sympathetically phrased- but they simple throw away so many chances for expressive searching that the power and moving profundity of the Casals performance becomes insipid and simple-minded under Men- uhin's group. In the role of conductor, Men- uhin leads a very rhythmically interesting reading of the popu- lar Water Music (complete) by Handel. I must say that I pre- fer a cleaner and leaner string sound-as can be found in the Boulez-led rendition on None- such-but the Bath Festival Or- chestra do deliver a dynamic performance.' poetry and prose Titles in search of a library By MARCIA ABRAMSON If you want to read Kurt Vonnegut or Jerry Kosinski, borrow their books from your friends. Not because the books are always out of the library. But because most of them were never there in the first place. I know, because I wrote a story about the writers-in-residence and ended up feeling like a real arty philistine because I haven't even read Cat's Cradle or The Painted Bird. (Sometimes I think I have read Cat's Cradle because everyone I know assumes everyone they know must have read Vonnegut by now.) Anyway, I ambled over to the Undergraduate Library in search of Vonnegut and Kosinski. I looked in the card catalogue, but they weren't there. I looked on the shelves, but they weren't there either. So I went over to the Graduate Library, and finally found two books by Vonnegut. But both of them were out, and neither one was Cat's Cradle. There were some Kosinskis in the card catalogue, but they all seemed to be 19th century Polish physicists. I'm not sure because I can't read Polish; it just seemed like they must be. It was nice of the writer-in-residence program to sell the books in the fishbowl, in paperback even, but as usual I didn't have any money. Besides, I believe with all my heart in libraries. So I called up Dr. Myron Wegman, director of all the University libraries and told him my problem. He told me he didn't really have any idea what I was talking about and suggested I call Mr. Stewart, the assistant director. Mr. Stewart told me he didn't really know either, and suggested I try further down in the library bureaucracy by calling the lady who runs acqu'isitions for the Graduate Library. She kindly asked me to spell Kosinski and Vonnegut a few times, and then finally got down to thelproblem. First of all, it seems the University libraries had a policy of avoiding anything remotely tinged with the stigma of science fiction for a long time, so Vonnegut never made it. However, she said the library people had finally changed their minds about science fiction being not serious and unacceptable for the University's libraries. When I told her about the writers-in-residence, she even said they'd buy more Vonnegut. I didn't try to explain that Vonnegut only started out in science fiction, which apparently is the library bar sinister. Since The Painted Bird keeps winning all these distinguished literary prizes, Kosinski was doing a little better. They apparently' have a couple copies on order that might come in ;two or three weeks. The grad library lady even asked me to send her some informa- tion about Kosinski and Vonnegut so she could order some more books. "I wish they'd let us know earlier," she said. But the -lady at the UGLI acquisitions department wouldn't commit herself. She said they had no books by either author, and none on order. She did say she'd inform the proper channels of my call, but she couldn't promise anything.. I resolved to call the writer-in-residence people and tell them the whole problem. But they weren't home. Not catalogued, not shelved / a film made by Frederic Rossif from documents of the Spanish Civil. War-"Beautiful, unforgettable." Judith Crist, N.Y.H.T. Shown Sun., Mon. Nov. 17-18 1 7 and 9, Aud. A Adm. $1-SDS -Next- BARBARELLA NO 2-6264 A 'mod-Odyssey' in Technicolor, From Yale., First a chart-topping hit record, now a full-length feature car- toon: it's those Beatles again, cavorting their way to you in Disney- land form. R. H. Philipp, Owner 1031 E. Ann, near the hospitals DELICIOUS SANDWICHES, SALADS, SOUPS 95c DAILY SPECIAL Open Daily 11:00 a.m. 'til 6:00 p.m. CLOSED SATURDAY and SUNDAY * Imported Art Prints " Portrait Posters of Contemporary Writers Logo's Bookstore 611 Church St. 662-4563 F Coes: SHOWS AT 7:10 & 9:20 1-3-5 5th WEEK I I rsonren United Artists is soon to present John, Paul, George and Ringo in Yellow. Submarine, starring Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, straight from-Pepperland. United Artists wanted to base the whole thing on the three M minute plot of Yellow Sub'marine, which mainly consists of repeat- p ing the chorus a lot. t But they had trouble getting a script written, so they called in an S assistant classics- professor from Yale. He supplied all kinds of nifty S A ideas for what United Artists calls a "mod-Odyssey," with "imagery p inspired by the mythical voyages of Greek and Roman adventurers, t complete with weird monsters and strange places." f The professor's ideas were so good that he ended up writing more plays, movies and the like, including a musical with Richard Rogers H and the screenplay for an upcoming Norman Jewison film. a But, as the professor (his name is Erich Segal and United Ar- b tists press releases tell you his father is Rabbi Segal) becomes more and more famous (John once called him up at 3 a.m. and everything), s he remains loyal to academia. Ar "If I had to choose one life or 'the other it would be the univer- AD D sity," he says. act Coming attractions This week, the School of, Music has several major events planned. Today, at 12:30 p.m., here will be a presentation of String Chamber Music in the School of Music Recital Hall, And tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m. in Rackham Lecture Hall, he Stanley Quartet will per- orm. Saturday at 8:00 p.m. in Hill Aud., the annual Bandor- ama program will be conducted y Dr. William Revelli. Second class postage paid at Ann bor, Michigan, 420 Maynard St.. Ann bor, Michigan, 48104. Daily except Monday during regular ademic school year. -1 W- North Campus Committee with -- the Endorsement of I HA and Bursley Council presents FADING FALL a candlelight dinner dance with the JOHN HIGGINS QUINTET 11 i 1{ :A 11 I ii November 22, 1968 Tickets: $8.00 6-11 p.m. at UAC-Union offices North Campus Commons t Ae MWAPFA Wednesday & Thursday 4:10 P.M. DEPARTMENT OF SPEECH STUDENT LABORATORY THEATRE presents THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT by Joel Oppenheimer and PIGEONS by Lawrence Osgood Subscribe TO THE MICHIGAN DAILY Phone 764-0558 DOUBLE FEATURE-TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY November 13th & 14th Arena Theatre, Frieze Building Admission Free 'k, * W, Dial 8-6416 o Ends Wednesday Ii h AUGIWF UE Jp GQIs ~ I 11 ANNE BANCROFT star of "THE GRADUATE" ACADEMY AWARD WINNER--Best actress of the year for "The Miracle Worker" 11 I SIDNEY POITIER in I p Q r r ,. C! x ,, ,y- 4 . ,y i . O . } t J ,y i t ' ,....f :; t ;;;: = . i i II r ' " r ' i '. ' \ .r ,: PLUS --THURSDAY- ,wA JOY.TOWATCHI" "VRY MUHIN THETRDIT ffEW WAVEWE= "DaiCIQUSY WACKY STORY ...THE AUIENE ATE T I?.. "AN INVENTIVE COMEDY ...WITH FRESH, DECEPTIVE SIM. PLICITY THAT MAKIES ITA RIP TO WATC1." ;;,'+^ 6'"''dp , 'NAZARINisoneof the great 'More Bunueal than "i'mlafnu"'c - 'BELLE DE JOUR'" sic. An exceptionalafilm to savor more than once."also lassic short LuISBUNUEL'S _ "Tuir AmnAI IlelAi nnf_'y ;s I II I i I I I UlbIert (U )Su~l~ln" I