New Records

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (Victoria de los Angeles, Tito Gobbi. Giuseppe Cam-pora, Boris Christoff; Rome Opera House Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Gabriele Santini; Capitol-EMI, 3 LPs). Verdi constructed his stately, somber-hued monument to paternal love and loyalty midway in his career, saw it fail at the box office and later agreed with the public that it was a "monotonous and cold'' work. Nevertheless, he returned to it after 25 years and extensively revised it. Not often performed, the revised Boccanegra is a fascinating melange of early Verdian flamboyance and late Verdian depth. In this LP version a superb cast kindles enough vocal splendors, especially in the ensemble passages, to suggest Boccanegra as a candidate for frequent restaging.

Puccini: Madame Butterfly (Anna Moffo, Cesare Valletti, Rosalind Elias, Renato Cesari. Fernando Corena; Rome Opera House Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf; RCA Victor, 3 LPs). A young cast attempts to filter the turgid dramatic tars so often found in Puccini's graceful "thread of smoke." as he called it. The result is a bright and bracing version, full of rarely realized charms. Soprano Moffo's Cio-Cio-San is vocally arresting, more woman than Japanese doll.

Birgit Nilsson: Opera Arias (Angel). In her first American release, rising Swedish Soprano Nilsson sings selections from Wagner and Verdi in a big, flashing, vibrant voice long on power and drive, sometimes short on dramatic intensity.

Raffaello de Banfield: Lord Byron's Love Letter (Astrid Varnay. Gertrude Ribla, Mario Carlin. Nicoletta Carruba; Academy Symphony Orchestra of Rome, conducted by Nicola Rescigno; RCA Victor). An adventurous musical reading of Tennessee Williams' curdled little tale about a New Orleans lady of reduced circumstances who supports herself and her granddaughter, illegitimately descended from Lord Byron, by displaying a love letter she received from Byron in the "gold and azure days'" of their love affair. Italian Composer Banfield's score offers some green and willowy moments of vocal beauty, but its lush-styled orchestration is finally too heavy for a Williams fancy as languid as summer, as wispy as smoke.

The Play of Daniel (New York Pro Musica; Decca). In a fascinating excursion into the Middle Ages, the nation's most avid collectors of musical antiquities present an early church musical drama in the original Latin text. The vocal parts suggest everything from Gregorian chant to folk song, the orchestra includes such authentic curiosities as a rebec, a vielle and a minstrel's harp. The result is a sound as finely jeweled, as warmly colored, and often as moving as an expanse of stained glass.

Andrew Imbrie: Third String Quartet (Walden String Quartet; Contemporary Records). A sinewy, inventive, virtuoso work by one of the most gifted of the younger U.S. composers. Bold of theme, rawly colorful in its sonorities, it is both an abrasive and a stimulating musical tonic.

Haydn: The Salomon Symphonies, Vol. I (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham; Capitol-EMI, 3 LPs). The first six of the twelve famous symphonies Haydn wrote under the sponsorship of London Impresario J. P. Salomon in the late years of his life. Conductor Beecham gives them a fine, forthright reading that underscores their coltish exuberance, plays down their romantic charms.

Vladimir Ashkenazy Plays Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Prokofiev (Angel). Russia's newest cultural export plays with ice-edged articulation and singing tone. The 21 -year-old pianist is at his best in Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Corelli, in which the keyboard sound swells and fades with the fitful ease of sunlight playing across water.

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