Records: Chamber Music

Unlike operas, which are best seen in opera houses, and symphonies, which are best heard in concert halls, chamber music is meant to be enjoyed at home. Originally designed for the palaces of the rich, it now makes ideal hi-fi listening, but for years American record buyers ignored the fact, turned the volume up and delightedly let the high decibels of opera and symphony beat them down. Chamber music accounts for only a small fraction of U.S. classical record sales, but there are some signs that the situation may be changing.

U.S. record companies have put out a huge repertory, covering the range of chamber music from its charming origins in Renaissance Italy and England to Schoenberg's atonal lung-and-mind exercise, the Quintet for Wind Instruments, Op. 26 (Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet; Columbia) and beyond. Eight of Boccherini's Quintets, sparkling with gaiety and glowing with warm Italian exuberance, have been polished up and lovingly presented on four LPs with two more to come (Quintette Boccherini; Angel). All of Haydn's 80-odd Quartets were planned for recording, and 47 were put on vinyl by the Haydn Society before it went down to noble defeat (1955) and had to go out of business. Almost all of Beethoven's chamber music has been recorded and most of Mozart's (good recent Mozart bets: two versions of four gracious, lighthearted Flute Quartets, on Vanguard and Epic, and six String Quintets on Columbia).

Many reluctant record buyers believe that chamber music is colorless and dull, hear only the scraping of strings. But often there are no strings attached, as in Rossini's racy, unfailingly amusing Quartets for Woodwinds (Period). Many listeners have come to realize that even string works--Schubert's Death and the Maiden, Beethoven's last quartets--can be as poignant as any symphony. In some cases, record buyers have bitten hard at chamber music, e.g., the Westminster version of Schubert's lusciously Viennese "Trout" Quintet sold 100,000 copies in five years and is still going strong; the peppery, well-publicized Budapest String Quartet sells about 50,000 records a year (Columbia). Most significant shift in the wind: RCA Victor, after acting for three years as if chamber music did not exist, put out four chamber music releases last month (including the eighth current, and rather saccharine, LP version of "The Trout"). RCA's reasoning: hi-fi and good sense will gently lead listeners to the delicacies of chamber music.

Among the latest delicacies:

Mozart: Divertimenti (Vienna Philharmonic Wind Group, Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet; Westminster, 5 separate LPs). Three of these disks for various combinations of woodwinds have an outdoor note that adds a tart delight to indoor listening. They are cleanly played, gay, youthful craft pieces composed for special occasions. The music bounces and jumps, always with 18th century dignity, puts no strain on the intellect. The other two disks are scored for strings and have a bit more body and substance.

Beethoven: Trio No. 7--"The Archduke" (Emil Gilels, piano; Leonid Kogan, violin; Mstislav Rostropovich, cello; Monitor). Three virtuosos demonstrate that the Red Russians can do as well as Whites. The players melt their individual talents into a superlative ensemble performance which makes this latest version of an exquisite trio close to irresistible.

The Two Oistrakhs: Bach's Sonata for Two Violins and Piano, Mozart's Sonata No. 15 for Violin and Piano, Beethoven's Trio No. 9 with Pianist Vladimir Yampolsky, and the Gilels, Kogan, Rostropovich trio; Monitor). Singly and together, papa David and son Igor Oistrakh show that the Russians know how to play Bach and Mozart with purity and cool grace.

Beethoven: the Late Quartets Nos. 12-16 (Hollywood String Quartet; Capitol, 5 LPs). Despite its frivolous name--its members are movie studio musicians--the Hollywood Quartet is a first-class outfit, and it meets this Everest of chamber music on its own heights. It lacks the bite, power and drive of the Budapest, whose Beethoven performances are unique, but its tone is warmer. In the haunting sighs and groans of the tragic No. 14, the Hollywood dips beneath the surface to the inner life of a matchless work.

Bartok: Complete String Quartets (Parrenin Quartet; Westminster, 3 LPs). These six quartets were written over a period of 30 years, between 1908 and 1939. Even the earliest reveals a musician of size and depth. Impressively played, all reveal a dazzling ability to create new sounds about old torments, a gift for making strings do everything but talk. Sometimes, in the strange musical idiom Bartok invented, they seem to do even that.

Italian Chamber Music (soloists and Societas Musica Orchestra of Copenhagen; Vanguard). A delicious antipasto of Italian baroque, featuring Albinoni's melodies in the Trio Sonata in A, Opus I No. 3 for two violins, cello and virginal; Alessandro Scarlatti's serene Sonata in F; and a highly stylized love song for tenor accompanied by cello and harpsichord, by a 17th century Casanova named Alessandro Stradella. The power of his music was legendary. Once, so a story goes, assassins hired by a prominent Venetian (whose mistress Stradella had carried off) caught up with him in a church where one of his oratorios was being performed; the music so moved the henchmen that they warned the composer and let him escape. But when a jealous actress sent other assassins after him in Genoa, no music was being played--or the assassins were not musical--and Stradella, only 37, was murdered.

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