Classical Records

Strauss: Die Fledermaus (Hilde Gueden, Erika Koeth, Regina Resnik, Giuseppe Zampiere; the Vienna Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan; London, 3 LPs). This otherwise fine recording of the imperishable operetta classic offers a strange side effect. One moment, the listener is tapping his feet to the most tap-pable of old Viennese waltzes; the next, he is caught up in the English rhymes of I Could Have Danced All Night, sung by Birgit Nilsson, of all people, in ponderous and chesty style. In the midst of the second act party scene, the producers have inserted anachronistic "entertainments" sung by some of opera's grandest names--Giulietta Simionato and Ettore Bastianini wander through Anything You Can Do, Leontyne Price sings Summertime from Porgy and Bess. "Gershwin?" quips the introductory dialogue. "But Gershwin isn't even born yet." The gag, unfortunately, dies with the first listening.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9 (London Symphony, under Sir Malcolm Sargent; Everest). A first stereo recording of one of the most ebullient, eccentric and delightful of Shostakovich's works. When the composer's orchestra--raucous, slapdash and happy--moves into battle, the effect is of a regiment under fluttering pennons posting to the attack.

Frank Glazer Plays Musical Autographs (Concert-Disc). The musical calling cards of the great composers as they were inscribed in various souvenir albums. Included are Mozart's Marche Funebre del Signor Maestro Contrapunto (Funeral March of Master Counterpoint), a mock-heroic exercise for his pupil, Babette Ployer; Beethoven's graceful and pensive Bagatelle for Therese Malfatti, the 18-year-old niece of his doctor; Wagner's Ankunft bei den Schwarzen Schwaenen (Arrival at the Black Swans), which sounds a little like Tristan und Isolde as written by Frederic Chopin.

Brahms: Concerto No. 2 (Sviatoslav Richter, piano; the Chicago Symphony under Erich Leinsdorf; RCA Victor). In this first Richter recording made in the U.S., the great Russian pianist gives a performance as taut as a bent bow. At the end of the session, Richter turned to Conductor Leinsdorf and said: "Please explain to the orchestra that I could do no better." Nor could anyone.

Paisiello: The Barber of Seville (Grazielli Sciutti, Nicola Monti, Rolando Panerai, Renato Capecchi; Virtuosi di Roma, conducted by Renato Fasano; Mercury, 2 LPs). "He has received the homage of his age and has assured to himself that of posterity." Thus Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) paid tribute to himself in a contemporary dictionary. Unfortunately for his prediction, a rival named Rossini later wrote his own Barber of Seville and drove the older work from the stage. In this recording, Paisiello's Barber emerges as a smaller-scaled work than Rossini's but with a gay, quicksilvery score, some limpidly graceful airs, and several scenes of truly inspired buffoonery. Soprano Sciutti, fresh-voiced and fanciful, makes Rosina seem one of the most appealing heroines in opera.

Elliott Carter: Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello & Harpsichord (Columbia). One of the most original and least played of contemporary U.S. composers, Carter (now 51) appears in a work of characteristic complexity and charm. After a series of opening sonorities that explode on the ear, the sonata evolves into a dialogue between the harpsichord--querulous and spidery--and the other members of Carter's oddly assorted chamber group. For all its skirmishing, the sonata has no trouble finding its witty way home.

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor (Leon Fleisher, pianist; the Cleveland Orchestra, under George Szell; Epic). When he won Belgium's famed International Concours in 1952, recalls San Francisco-born Leon Fleisher, he was known as a garden-variety YAP (Young American Pianist). In time he became a DYAP (Distinguished Young American Pianist); now, at 32, he is a fully developed DAP (Distinguished American Pianist), as this superb reading of a popular war horse (22 available LP versions) demonstrates. Fleisher finds a Schumann that is virile, sinewy, full of sharply-profiled contrasts of tone and tempo.

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 4 (the Philadelphia Orchestra, under Eugene Ormandy; Columbia). A rare LP recording of one of the early Prokofiev symphonies all but forgotten in Western concert halls. The composer here is less acerbic, more expansive than in the Scythian Suite or Love for Three Oranges, and the score is curiously uneven, mingling occasional film-score banalities with splendid rhythmic inventions.

Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (Wilhelm Backhaus, piano; Vienna Philharmonic, under Schmidt-Isserstedt: London, 4 LPs). The 76-year-old pianist in a series of grand performances that are lithe, elastic and incisive.

Verdi: Requiem (Leontyne Price, Jussi Bjoerling, Rosalind Elias, Giorgio Tozzi; Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Society of the Friends of Music, under Fritz Reiner; RCA Victor, 2 LPs). A clean-lined, beautifully balanced and honest version, full of tranquil breathing space. The performances by Tenor Bjoerling, in his last, full recording role before his death, and Soprano Price, at the incandescent top of her form, stand out as stunning achievements.

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