Cut-Rate Classics

RECORDS Cut-Rate Classics In the modern supermarket, the hapless shopper is besieged at every turn by labels of BARGAIN BONANZA! slapped on everything from brussels sprouts to lawnmowers--and, of late, records. In the past, the quality-cautious shopper could rightfully assume that those cut-rate LPs racked next to the vegetable bins were, from a musical standpoint, about as choice a bargain as last week's Bibb lettuce. Recently, however, several giants of the recording industry have launched new lines of low-cost (from $1.98 to $3) classical records that are honest-to-goodness bargains. Designed for distribution in supermarkets and drugstores as well as record shops, many of these cut-rate classics are as good as and in some cases better than albums being peddled at two and three times the price.

Freshly Pressed. Although the catalogues and record jackets discreetly avoid mentioning the fact, these new records "for budget-conscious connoisseurs" are mostly freshly pressed reissues of classical standards cut before 1960. In a fiercely competitive market where the consumer is conditioned to demanding the newest rather than the best Beethoven Fifth, say, the life expectancy of many a first-rate classical LP has been growing shorter every year. Fifteen years ago, Schwann's LP catalogue listed 489 classical titles offered by eleven recording companies. Today there are some 14,000 classical titles available from 118 companies, which are spinning out 300 or more new releases each month. In the avalanche, touched off in part by the boom of stereo, close to 6,000 classical LPs have been discontinued and swept into oblivion in the past four years.

London Records was the first to exhume a number of its buried treasures, reissuing under the Richmond label such gems as George Szell conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Brahms's Third Symphony and the Mozart Requiem conducted by Josef Krips at the bargain-basement price of just $1.98 per record (formerly $4.98). Sales were brisk, so London reissued ten operas, including Renata Tebaldi in La Boheme and Madama Butterfly. Mercury followed London's lead, establishing its Wing label, featuring such surefire favorites as suites from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker and Swan Lake ($1.98 for mono, $2.98 for stereo), ably rendered by Antal Dorati and the Minneapolis Symphony.

Since then, Capitol, Victor and Vanguard have charged into the market. Capitol dubbed its revivals Paperback Classics ($1.98 for mono, $2.98 for stereo). Among the highlights are a rousing Brahms First Symphony with William Steinberg conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony, and a brace of Beethoven piano sonatas, the "Appassionato" and "Waldstein," masterfully played by Pianists John Browning and Rudolf Firkusny respectively.

Just the Answer. Victor, which hauled out its venerable old Victrola label to kick off its new line, offers a rich lode of glittering bargains ($2.50 for each mono LP, $3 for stereo). Among them: Puccini's Tosca with Soprano Zinka Milanov; Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" with Pierre Monteux and the Boston Symphony; and Brahms's Concerto No. 2 with Russian Pianist Emil Gilels backed by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony. Vanguard Records' new line, Everyman, includes a fine performance of Haydn's Creation, conducted by Mogens Wo"ldike.

While a few audio purists might quibble over the fidelity of some of the vintage vinyls, the quality is more than satisfactory for the average listener. For the man with a new hi-fi rig who is looking to build the nucleus of a good standard record library without having to hock his children, the 200-plus selections available in cut-rate classics are just the answer.

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