Pick of the Pack

By William Bender, Joan Downs

Schumann: Fantasiestuecke, Op. 12; Davidsbuendlertaenze, Op. 6 (Murray Perahia, pianist; Columbia; $5.98). Schumann's piano music--a blend of heroic stride, demonic fantasy and impish humor--requires the age-spanning wisdom and maturity of a Richter or Rubinstein; rarely are the upstart young up to it. In this brilliant recording debut, Bronx-born Murray Perahia, 26, who last year became the first American to win Britain's Leeds International Competition, proves himself to be the rare exception to that rule. Indeed, Perahia may well take a place as the most eloquent lyric virtuoso since the days of the late Dinu Lipatti.

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel, conductor; London; 3 LPs; $17.94. London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn, conductor; Angel; 3 LPs; $17.98). A typical instance of how the classical record industry can drive its customers berserk and eat up its own profits. The complete version of this score has been almost totally neglected since the LP's birth 25 years ago; now come two competing versions. Ah, free enterprise! Both sets manage to confirm that this is the finest evening-length ballet score since Tchaikovsky. Neither, as it happens, quite equals the poetry and passion of Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony in their old single LP of excerpts (RCA Victrola), but both are otherwise excellent. Maazel has an edge by virtue of his more incisive phrasing, livelier tempos and London's more spacious (and, appropriately at times, more sepulchral) sonics.

Puccini: La Boheme (Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, conductor; London; 2 LPs; $11.96). The LP era has had three recordings of Boheme good enough to be called great. The first two were the Toscanini (with Licia Albanese and Jan Peerce as Mimi and Rodolfo) and the Beecham (Victoria de los Angeles and Jussi Bjoerling), both still available in low-priced reissues. Here is the third, with the unpredictable Karajan sculpting the orchestral part with an irresistible flow befitting the Toscanini approach and a touching songfulness that Beecham might have applauded. The bella voce cast is the finest ever assembled to record this work.

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Op. 31, Nos. 1, 2 ("Tempest") and 3 (Glenn Gould; Columbia; $5.98). Hindemith: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 2 and 3 (Glenn Gould; Columbia; $5.98). It is now a decade since the happy hypochondriac of music abandoned the recital stage to devote his life to producing radio documentaries in his native Canada, staying warm (he still wears sweaters and mufflers on the balmiest days) and, fortunately for the rest of the world, continuing to make some of the finest, most original and pleasantly outrageous recordings of the day.

Gould's current release (5 LPs in all) also includes some of his ingenious Mozart and Bach, as well as his own piano transcriptions of Wagner's Meistersinger Prelude, Siegfried's Rhine Journey, and the Siegfried Idyll, which turn out to be as much fun to listen to as they must have been to record. The Beethoven and Hindemith sets, bursting with pianistic and interpretive daring, yet free of gratuitous eccentricity, top the lot. The Hindemith, in particular, finds Gould doing what he loves best: taking a composer currently out of vogue and playing him better (who else can match Gould's dizzyingly contrapuntal style?) than anyone else. William Bender

Boulez Conducts Berlioz: The Benvenuto Cellini, Beatrice and Benedict and Roman Carnival Overtures; the Royal Hunt and Storm from "Les Troyens" (New York Philharmonic; Columbia; $5.98). The New York Philharmonic is in top form in this program of Berlioz orchestral music for opera -- sensuous, voluptuous, abundantly sonorous. Boulez, the stern modernist, may conduct the music of at least one 19th century romantic better than anybody else. Setting off round after round of fireworks, he scrupulously outlines intricate cross rhythms and harmonic nuances. Dispensing with the grandiose at no sacrifice to grandeur, Berlioz cum Boulez emerges with lucidity, like the monuments of Paris freshly freed from decades of grime.

Boulez Conducts Boulez: Le Marteau sans maitre; Livre pour Cordes (Yvonne Minton, mezzo-soprano; Ensemble Musique Vivante; Strings of the New Philharmonia Orchestra; Columbia; $5.98). Unlike that of many 20th century composers, Boulez's music provides emotional and intellectual adventure. This is especially apparent in Le Marteau, his nine-movement cantata for solo voice and small instrumental ensemble. Like his countryman Berlioz, Boulez emphasizes percussive effects, exploiting the extreme highs and lows of instrumental and vocal range. Yvonne Minton's voice is vibrant and dramatic, with dynamic contrasts that are sharp and effective within the briefest of passages.

Liszt: Concerto Pathetique in E minor for two pianos; Schumann: Andante and Variations, Op. 46, and Six Canonic Studies, Op. 56, arranged by Debussy (John Ogdori and Brenda Lucas, pianists; Argo; $5.98). The young English hus band and wife who customarily perform separately team up in a program of rarely heard works for two pianos. The Canonic Studies, originally composed for a piano with a pedal keyboard, are dispatched with a rather dry authority. The Liszt Concerto, whose opening movement is echoed in the Allegro of the B minor Sonata, is given a thoughtful, balanced reading leading to a finale that is appropriately incandescent."

Joan Downs

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