Records: Summer's Choice

By William Bender

Everything You Always Wanted to Hear on the Moog (Columbia; $5.98).

The work of Columbia Producers Andrew Kazdin and Thomas Shepard, Everything is actually something less than that, a Franco-Spanish program including Chabrier's Espana, Ravel's Bolero, a mini-suite from Bizet's Carmen and the Malaguena of Ernesto Lecuona (only Latin in the group). Infinitely superior in sound quality and Moog mastery to the same company's alltime classical bestseller Switched-On Bach, Everything is not to be confused with the originals, nor is it to be condemned for its license. Harmless fun and easy to take, it asks the question: Has the time come to judge Moog programmers on their interpretive skills? If so, Kazdin and Shepard rate four stars for just tempos, bold colorations and wit.

Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41 (Herbert von Karajan; Berlin Philharmonic; Angel, 3 LPs; $5.98 each). Six testaments to the delectable creations in which Mozart not only prophesied the symphonic era that followed him but very nearly said the last word on the subject. Von Karajan's distinctive blend of rich phrase and richer orchestral sonority customarily works well. But this time he seems surprisingly nonchalant. His drowsy Jupiter, for instance, might better be called Saturn. The best set of these symphonies remains Otto Klemperer's (also on An gel), and-- for crisp, detail-laden sound-- George Szell's versions of 35, 39, 40, and 41, recently offered at a bar gain price ($6.98) by Columbia.

Penderecki: The Devils of Loudon (Philips, 2 LPs; $11.96). Focusing his threnodies and oratorios on man's worst moments (Hiroshima, Auschwitz, to name but two), Poland's Krzysztof Penderecki has emerged in recent years as the Hieronymus. Bosch of contemporary music. Here, in his first opera, he examines the nightmarish moods surrounding the torture and execution (at the stake) of a falsely accused 17th century French provincial priest. Penderecki's lurid vision of hell on earth rivals Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu. Splendidly performed by the Hamburg State Opera, Devils is clearly the operatic record of the year, though not for the easy listener.

New Music of Czechoslovakia (RCA; $5.98). Musicologists and conductors coming out of Prague these days speak fervently of the new school of young composers flourishing there. Here, at last, is convincing recorded documentation, performed by the London Symphony and Conductor Igor Buketoff. Vladimir Sommer's Vocal Symphony and Jan Klusak's First Invention are impressive enough, but the real "find" here is 15 Prints After Duerer's "Apocalypse" by 35-year-old Lubos Fiser (pronounced Fisher). Read musical episodes for prints, and you have a work that does not so much interpret Duerer, as reflect the austere purity of his graphic art.

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Nonesuch, 2 LPs; $5.96). Every Mahlerian worth his Knaben Wunderhorn knows the name and work of Kiev-born Conductor lascha Horenstein. Nearly two decades ago, Vox Records issued his performances of the Mahler First and Ninth, and they are still unsurpassed for their particular blend of pathos and playfulness. Recently, Horenstein, 73, has begun recording regularly again with the London Symphony Orchestra and has now produced a lofty version of Mahler's hymn to nature that is more than a match for the honored interpretations by Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf and Rafael Kubelik.

Songs by Hugo Wolf (Seraphim; $2.98). A single LP made from off-the-air tapes of one of Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's finest and most famous hours as a lieder singer-- her recital in the Salzburg Mozarteum on Aug. 12, 1953. Words and melody blend the way they do partly because of her eminent piano accompanist, Wilhelm Furtwangler, who on this record plays the way he usually conducted: rounding phrases majestically, seeing to it that voice and instrument are blended perfectly

The Complete Symphonies of Haydn Volume I (Nos. 65-72) .Volume II (Nos. 57-64) (London Stereo Treasury, 4 LPs each; $11.92 a set). Many a record company has set out, intending to offer Haydn's complete this or that, only to founder along the way. With 88 more symphonies to go, London deserves approval and support. In these largely unknown middle-period symphonies played by Antal Dorati and the Philharmonia Hungarica, Haydn's mind is always fascinating to follow, even though he is not yet the sovereign master of symphonic repartee revealed in later works like the Oxford and London.

Acoustic Research Contemporary Music Project (Deutsche Grammophon, 6 LPs; $2 each). The makers of AR loudspeakers and other audio equipment are offering records devoted to 16 American composers largely ignored so far by the record-industry majors. Especially worthwhile are Milton Babbitt's Philomel, for soprano (Bethany Beardslee) and synthesized sound, and an airily atonalistic set of madrigals by Pulitzer Prizewinner George Crumb. The records are available by mail from AR, Inc., 24 Thorndike St., Cambridge, Mass.02141.

Verdi: Aida (RCA, 3 LPs; $17.98). Erich Leinsdorf's conducting recalls the dramatic sweep of Toscanini. Gorgeous sound from the London Symphony Orchestra, with Leontyne Price at her recent best in the title role, and Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, Grace Bumbry and Ruggero Raimondi at their all-time grandest in support.

Piston's Symphony No. 2 (DGG, $6.98). Like Randall Thompson's mellifluous Symphony No. 2 (Leonard Bern stein; Columbia), this eloquently traditional 28-year-old work has survived the original scorn of avant-gardists who should have been hung by their own dog mas. Proud of theme, opulent of chord, it is performed with missionary brio by Michael Tilson Thomas and the Bos ton Symphony.

William Bender

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