New Records

Bach: Concerto In D Minor for Two Violins (Jascha Heifetz with the RCA Victor Chamber Orchestra, Franz Waxman conducting; Victor, 4 sides). Both violin parts are played by Heifetz, who recorded each part separately and then matched them. Stunting with Bach is asking for trouble, but Heifetz carries it off pretty well. Recording: excellent.

Bach: Sacred Arias (Carol Brice, contralto, with the Columbia Broadcasting Concert Orchestra, Daniel Saidenberg conducting; Columbia, 4 sides). The Agnus Dei and Qui Sedes from the B Minor Mass, and two arias from the Magnificat, warmly sung by a Negro of considerable talent, who is not yet a Marian Anderson. Recording: good.

Bartok: String Quartet No. 4 (Guilet String Quartet; Concert Hall Society, 6 sides). Like most of Bartok's experimental work, this is mostly hard going. Performance: good. Memorial Album (Vox, 4 sides). A collector's item: Bartok at the piano plays superbly some of his best Hungarian folk music. Recording: fair.

Mozart: Piano Concerto in B Flat (K.450) (Kathleen Long, pianist, with the National Symphony Orchestra, Boyd Neel conducting; Decca Record Co. Ltd., 6 sides). This version of one of Mozart's greatest concertos merely glimmers where it should sparkle. Recording: excellent.

Dvorak: Symphony No. 1 in D (Cleveland Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf conducting; Columbia, 10 sides). Small wonder Brahms wrote to his publishers: "I took much pleasure in the works of Dvorak of Prague." This symphony, actually the sixth of Dvorak's nine, is largely a Brahmsian echo. Performance: good.

Wagner: A Wagner Program (NBC Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini conducting; Victor, 8 sides). The selections are the familiar Siegfried Idyll, Faust Overture, Ride of the Valkyries. Performance: excellent.

Duke Ellington Plays the Blues (Victor, 8 sides). Some good, but not the best, Ellington, with the Duke and Arranger Billy Strayhorn taking turns at the piano in Drawing Room Blues. Also Memphis Blues, Transblucency, Beale Street Blues and St. Louis Blues. Recording: fair.

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