SYMPHONIC, ETC.

Alban Berg: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Louis Krasner with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodzinski; Columbia; six sides). Much of the music of Viennese Composer Berg, who died in 1935 (a disciple of Atonalist Arnold Schonberg), sounds like tortured, caterwauling doubletalk. But in this concerto, his atonalism is for once eloquent and heartfelt; it is Composer Berg's elegy on the death of his friend Manon Gropius, daughter of famed Architect Walter Gropius. The Clevelanders and Modernist Krasner give a stirring performance.

American Works for Solo Wind Instruments and String Orchestra (Eastman-Rochester Symphony conducted by Howard Hanson, with Flutist Joseph Mariano, Oboist Robert Sprenkle, Bassoonist Vincent Pezzi, Clarinetist Rufus Arey; Victor; four sides). These works, by three teachers and a recent graduate of the nourishing Eastman School of Music, are easy to hear. Wayne Barlow's oboe rhapsody, The Winter's Past, says its piece most persuasively. Others: Serenade (clarinet) by Homer Keller; American Dance (bassoon) by Burrill Phillips; Soliloquy (flute) by Bernard Rogers.

Berlioz: Les Francs-Juges Overture and King Lear Overture (BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult; Victor; six sides). Fine first recording of a brace of youthful, passion-tattering works.

Schumann: Symphony No. 3 ("Rhenish") in E Flat Major (New York Philharmonic-Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter; Columbia, eight sides). German Exile Walter makes this romantic symphony as light and clear as Rudesheimer Schlossberg.

Dvorak: Quintet in E Flat Major (Prague String Quartet with Richard Kosderka, second viola; Victor; eight sides). Czech Dvorak's U.S. visit in the 1890s inspired this and other "American" works (From the New World, "American" Quartet, etc.), in which Negro and Indian themes are always on the verge of doing a polka. Good first recording.

Beethoven: Concerto No. 3 in C Minor (Jose Iturbi, pianist and conductor, with the Rochester Philharmonic; Victor; nine sides). In one of the great concertos, Iturbi again performs his pet virtuoso stunt; mechanically better than the earlier Victor recording by Beethoven Specialist Artur Schnabel.

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