Classical Records

Virgil Thomson: Music for the Films (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Neville Marriner, conductor; Angel; $6.98). Virgil Thomson is best known for his operas Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All. Among America's serious composers, however, he pioneered the art of writing music for films with his scores for a pair of Department of Agriculture documentaries. The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1937). Thomson borrowed hymns ("the doxology") and cowboy songs (The Streets of Laredo) and added his own folk-style tunes in The Plow. These two scores were Aaron Copland's inspiration for several famous ballet scores, including Appalachian Spring.

Brahms: Sonata No. 2 in A, Op. 100; Prokofiev: Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80 (David Oistrakh, violin; Sviatoslav Richter, piano; Angel Melodiya; $6.98). It was the perfect pairing, Oistrakh and Richter, on the most famous of the Brahms sonatas for violin and piano. This recording was made during a 1972 Moscow recital, 2 1/2 years before the death of the great Soviet violinist. With loving attention to detail, at times unexpectedly puckish. Richter traced each phrase. No question, however, the show belonged to Oistrakh. Springlike and tender or with great gusts of Wagnerian passion, the music flowed from his bow with the ease of raindrops chasing down a windowpane.

Faure: Requiem and Pavane (Elly Ameling, soprano; Bernard Kruysen, baritone; Daniel Chorzempa. organ; The Netherlands Radio Chorus; Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean Fournet, conductor; Philips; $7.98). Orchestra and chorus are fully integrated in a crystalline performance of this seven-part choral work by a romantic Frenchman who admired classic Greek proportion. The purity of Ameling's soprano makes the prayer Pie Jesu an expression of faith as well as of grief. The recorded sound suggests a church rather than a studio, which is particularly effective in the solemn Pavane.

Angel Romero: Classical Virtuoso Masterworks for Guitar (Angel; $6.98); Spanish Virtuoso Romantic Music for Guitar (Angel; $6.98). At 29, Romero belongs to the new generation of guitar virtuosos. But the Spanish-born musician is no stranger to the concert hall; along with Brothers Celin and Pepe, Angel has been appearing with Papa Celedonio Romero's family quartet since he was six. Angel's Spanish guitar music vibrates with the heroic digital work and high coloration associated with the repertory. He peels off Tarrega's Chopinesque Estudio Brillante in a fiery burst of romanticism. He can be soft-spoken when the music calls for it: his Scarlatti is a model of baroque clarity and balance.

Beethoven: Sonatas Nos. 30 in E, Op. 109, and 32 in C Minor, Op. 111 (Artur Schnabel, pianist; RCA Victrola; $3.98). Schnabel's recordings of all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas, made over a four-year period in the 1930s (now available on Seraphim reissues), remain landmarks of the phonograph. Until now they were thought to have been his last words on the subject. Here, however, are previously unreleased versions of two of the greatest sonatas, recorded by Schnabel in 1942. Perhaps because of wartime shortages of materials, RCA put them on the shelf. It then forgot about them. Recently rediscovered in the archives, the new album is a find. Schnabel seems to have refined ever so slightly that particular blend of tranquillity and strength that make his Beethoven such a poetic experience.

Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D, K. 385 ("Haffner"); Overtures to The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni (the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Antonia Brico, conductor; Columbia; $6.98). In the midst of a resurgent career, Conductor Brico, 73, made these recordings last summer after concerts at New York's Lincoln Center. Though an idol of Brico's was Bruno Walter, she reminds one more of Beecham. That means broad tempos, crisp phrasing and careful attention to Mozart's inner voices. The allegro first movement of the "Haffner," for example, is really more maestoso than the prescribed con spirito. But Brico convinces: her way gives the music a power many conductors overlook. This is a notable recording debut.

Chopin: Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28 (Murray Perahia, pianist. Columbia, $6.98; Maurizio Pollini. pianist. Deutsche Grammophon, $7.98; Alicia de Larrocha, pianist, London. $6.98). Chopin's Preludes are becoming as much of a must item for pianists as Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata was in days gone by. Last year brought Claudio Arrau's overly cloying version on Philips, and now within a month's span here are three more. Admirers of De Larrocha undoubtedly will want her performance, but others may be disturbed by the percussiveness both of her style and the recorded sound. The choice between Perahia and Pollini is less easy. Each plays Chopin with appropriate flair and zest; each manages the essential feat of having something personal to say while remaining loyal to the composer. If Perahia excels in the end, it is partly due to the exceptional warmth and clarity with which he has been recorded, partly because he has an ingenious way of bringing out every note and making it count.

Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major (Nathan Milstein, violinist; Vienna Philharmonic, Eugen Jochum, conductor; Deutsche Grammophon; $7.98). Once one of the most frequently recorded violinists, Milstein. 71, did little in the studios in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Just how much he has been missed was shown last year by his masterfully baroque way with Bach's six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin, and now by this equally successful interpretation of one of the nobler concertos of the romantic era. Milstein's aristocratic style turns out to be an appealing and effective foil for the more ruddy, biting approach of Jochum and the Vienna Philharmonic. Here is a distinguished album.

Judith Blegen and Frederica von Stade (Charles Wadsworth, piano and harpsichord; Gervase de Peyer, clarinet: Gerard Schwarz, trumpet; Columbia: $6.98). Two brilliant young American-born singers team up with a superior set of instrumentalists in a glowing recital of vocal music. The mood shifts in a varied repertory that encompasses Schumann's playful duet Das Glueck as well as Chausson's haunting Chanson Perpetuelle, sung with grave beauty by Von Stade. Blegen's supple trills whirl with Gerard Schwarz's bright trumpet through Alessandro Scarlatti's aria Se geloso e il mio core.

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