Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1952-10-19
TurntobIe Talk:


hear King Frederick TX Of Den
mark (by tape recording) con-
Quoting a symphony orchestra
on the radio last Sunday after
noon may have had the same
thought I did. The thought
was, why hasn't some enter
prising record-maker latched
onto this obviously good thing?
The faint of commercialism
no doubt bars such a develop
ment. Not so, however, with
that excellent orchestra which
the Danish government sup
ports and his musical majesty
occasionally superinte n DIS.
washington will hear it to-
night for the first time in con-
cert.) The Danish State Radio
Symphony Orchestra has made
many records. Besides its we'll
regarded musical abilities, it
plays in one of the finest halls
in Europe and it also has had
the benefit of exceptional lead
ership.
Many of the recordings have
not yet crossed the Atlantic.
But some outstanding ones
have. Recently mentioned the
new HMV LIP issue of Carl
Nielsen's Fourth Symphony"
which is on the program to-
night. I called attention also
to the HMV disc bearing Mo-
zart's Linz symphony, led by
Fritz Busch, which I consider
one of the finest Mozart records
Of all time. Busch had a large
part in building this orchestra
to its present eminence.
Next month the orchestra will
gain new currency. Victor is
listing several of its perfor-
mances among the first in a
new series of low-priced classic
issues scheduled to revive the
Bluebird lakeland incidental
ly make a significant inroad
into the present high record
price structure.
There is already another ex-
ample Of the State Radio Or
chestra's fluency available to
collectors, from London. This
is another Nielsen symphony
the first. It is directed by
Thomas Jensen, who conducts
tonight.
Nielsen died 81 years ago.
Considering this and the fact
that the Danes regard him as
their greatest composer. plus
the symphony itself, it is hard
to understand why it has been
so long finding it's way here.
The music is splendid-rich,
melodic. sweeping. The jacket
annotator aptly calls Nielsen in
this work a kind of Scandinavian
Brahms. The engineering is
some Of the best London has
done.
SWitZerland's composers also
are being well served by record
ings.
A piano concerto Otis called
concertino) by Bernard Reichal
and a viola concerto by Conrad
Beck are paired on new Lon
don disc. Both were written
three years ago. The piano work
is fresh and stimulating. The
viola concerto-a rare COM
modity-leans more to dis
sonance but not alarmingly so.
It's composer once won an Eliza
beth Sprague Coolidge prize for
a concerto for string quartet and
orchestra. Christiane Montan-
don and Walter Kagi are the
soloists, respectively. and the
orchestra is L'Orchestre de Ia
Suisse Romande.
Paul Mueller's Sinfonia for
String Orchestra and Willy
Burkhard's Toccata for Four
Wind instruments, Percussion
and String Orchestra also have
been paired by London. Fol-
lowers of Bartok and Hinde-
NTH will be attracted by the
Toccata, "a year-old dissonant
work influenced by those COM
posers. The 1914 sinfonia is
less radical. barking back to
medieval polyphony. The Col
legium Museum of Zurich, led
by Paul Sacher, does the play
ing. Both discs are well en-
gineered.
\ X +
Some of the most evocative
music I've heard in a long
while is contained on a new
disc from Esoteric. It's two
delightful ballet scores by Al
bert Roussel, a French composer
who deserves more appreciation.
Roussel died in 1897, but I