Classical Records

Stravinsky Conducts--1960(Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky conducting; Columbia, 3 LPs). This labor of love and profit offers Stravinsky's own readings of Le Sacre du Printemps and Petroushka, plus his recorded commentary on the composition of Le Sacre ("The idea of Le Sacre du Printemps came to me while I was still composing ze Firebird"). The performances have his expectable tautness and clarity. The accompanying text and pictures make the album a fitting tribute to one of modern music's living monuments.

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Birgit Nilsson, Fritz Uhl, Regina Resnik, Tom Krause; the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Georg Sold; London, 5 LPs). This first complete recording of the opera in stereo comes close to equaling London's celebrated stereo recording of Das Rheingold. The sound of the orchestra is glowing and massive, and Nilsson's voice soaring through it and over it is a delight. For those anxious to peek behind the scenes, London has included a bonus recording of a rehearsal explaining how it was done.

Mozart: Quartet in G Minor for Piano and Strings, K. 478 (Artur Schnabel, piano; the Pro Arte Quartet; Angel). This addition to Angel's fine "Great Recordings of the Century" is one of the best. Recorded in London in 1934, it has better quality than the date might suggest. The piano, generally, comes through more clearly than the strings, which is no tragedy, since Schnabel's performance is supple and airy.

Poulenc: Gloria in G Major for Soprano, Chorus & Orchestra (Rosanna Carteri; the French National Radio-Television Orchestra, conducted by Georges Pretre, with chorus conducted by Yvonne Gouverne; Angel). Poulenc's 'joyous hymn to God," commissioned last winter by the Koussevitzky Foundation is recorded for the first time. It is a remarkable work fashioned with greater simplicity than some of Poulenc's more brittle pieces, in turn reverent, mischievous and exultant.

Rossini: The Barber of Seville (Gianna d'Angelo, Renato Capecchi, Carlo Cava, Nicola Monti, Giorgio Tadeo; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Bartoletti; Deutsche Grammophon, 3 LPs). As an effervescent Rosina, Soprano d'Angelo confirms the promise of her recent Metropolitan opera debut, but the honors here belong to Baritone Capecchi, whose Figaro is vibrant-voiced, flamboyant and believable.

Giuseppe De Luca: Golden Anniversary Concert (Asco). The great Italian baritone was 70 when he gave this farewell recital in Manhattan in 1947. Although De Luca claimed he sang with "the interest--never the principal," of his voice, it is apparent in the dry, papery quality of the upper registers, that some of the principal is gone. But the phrasing and intonation are as exact as ever, and the range of styles is impressive: Bottegari, Handel, Monteverdi, Mozart, Alfano.

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1 (Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Sanderling; Artia). When it received its premiere in 1897 in St. Petersburg, the First Symphony was so violently unpopular that Composer-Critic Cesar Cui nominated it for first prize at "a Conservatory in Hell." Rediscovered in 1945, it proves no more shocking to modern ears than Richard Rodgers' Victory at Sea. A romantic but vigorous work, it gives little hint of Rachmaninoff's later rhapsodies. The Leningrad Philharmonic is properly muscular.

Schumann: The Four Symphonies and The Piano Concerto (Leon Fleisher, pianist; the Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell conducting; Epic, 4 LPs). Szell's readings are blazing or majestic as the occasion demands, and they may even temporarily lay to rest the old debate about whether Schumann knew how to write for any instrument other than the piano.

Wagner: The Complete Piano Works (Bruce Hungerford, pianist; The Bayreuth Festival Master Classes, Inc., 2 LPs). All that survives of Wagner's small output for solo piano is seven pieces, three of them written during his Leipzig student days, when he was 18. Although the early exercises in this first recording reveal a Wagner with an ear still attuned to Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert, the later pieces--Arrival at the Black Swans (1861), Album Leaf for Betty Schott (1875)--sound intriguing, Tristan-like echoes of the curving melody that surges through his operas.

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