Music: New Records, Apr. 25, 1955

Blacher: Orchestral Variations on a Theme of Paganini (RIAS Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ferenc Fricsay; Decca). The same theme (for solo violin) used by Brahms for his famed Variations gets some plain and fancy going-over by one of Germany’s most successful living composers. Boris Blacher uses a big orchestra in opulent style, with emphasis on suave clarinet murmurings, massed brasses in swing-band style and ingratiating melodies. The disk is Vol. I of Decca’s New Directions in Music and Sound. Debussy: Pelleas and Mélisande (Janine Micheau, Camille Maurane; chorus and Lamoureux Orchestra conducted by Jean Fournet; Epic, 3 LPs). Maurice Maeterlinck’s dewy drama of innocent love and death made luminous by Debussy’s timeless score. The performance is excellent, and the recording has a presence that lends impact to the vaporous score. Prokofiev: Semyon Kotko Suite (Radio Berlin Symphony conducted by Rolf Kleinert; Urania). Eight orchestral selections from the 1939 Prokofiev opera. The plot deals with the 1918 Ukranian uprising against the Germans, but it would be hard to guess it from the suite; despite moments of real strength, its character is mostly sweetness and light. Ravel: L’Enfant et les Sortileges (soloists, chorus and Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet; London). Collette’s enchanting ballet-opera about an enchanted child, which Ravel reluctantly finished in 1925 after years of procrastination. The child is throwing a tantrum when the magic begins: the armchair (bass), clock (baritone), teapot (tenor), fire (coloratura soprano) come to life to terrify him into better behavior. Despite its size, the orchestra twiddles and tweaks lightly, and the tunes are often as naive as The King and I. Performance: a knockout. Von Weber: Four-Hand Piano Pieces (Arthur Gold, Robert Fizdale; Columbia). A gifted romantic at his most melodious. Weber puts as much sweet pathos and lilting grace into these little charmers as he does into his more famed operas (Der Freischutz, Oberon, Euryanthe). Other notable new releases: Brahms’s German Requiem (soloists, Frankfurt Opera Chorus and Orchestra and Museum Orchestra conducted by Georg Sold; Capitol, 2 LPs); Giuseppe Torelli’s Twelve Concert!, Op. 8 (Stuttgart Pro Musica String Orchestra conducted by Rolf Reinhardt; Vox, 3 LPs). Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, in fine performances by Jascha Heifetz and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra under Walter Susskind (Victor), and Zino Francescatti and the New York PhilhaononicSymphony under Dimitri Mitropoulos (Columbia); Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. I (Nathan Milstein and the St. Louis Symphony conducted by Vladimir Golschmann; Capitol); Mendelssohn’s Elijah (soloists, choirs and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Josef Krips; London, 3 LPs).