Evening star., 1952-08-31
7 urntobIe Talk:


Concert programs give Us
scant evidence, but in 1901 the
mighty Ludwig wrote a lengthy
work called THE Creatures OF
PrometheuS." A ballet is just
what it was. All we generally
hear is the overture. but now
London has supplied us with q
better Sampling.
Eduard Van Beinum and the
London Philharmonic are the
performers, and the single LIP
contains a little over half of the
score. including the overture. It
turns out that we really have
been missing something, after
all. Not too much is known
about the choreographic side of
the work. which dealt with the
story Of the Greek NEUROLOGICAL
figure who stole fire from the
Gods for the benefit of man
kind. But that is unimportant,
for the score is sufficiently en-
gaging to stand on it's own.
This is music of the period Of
the first two symphonies, with
"reminiscences of Haydn and
Mozart but plenty of original
Beethoven, too. There is an un-
usual (for Beethoven section
for solo harp and cello, and an
other interlude has the rustic
spirit later expressed in the
"Pastorale" symphony. Even
more notable is the finale
which has the same famous
theme as that of the "Eroica"
symphony and the piano varia-
tions Of the same name.
Van Beinum's reading is
spacious, and the recording is
splendid. The only cause for
regret is that it isn't complete.
Those who are curious may
want to look into a two-record
set issued by Concert Hall,
which is. The latter perform
ance isn't so sumptuous, but it's
good, too.
Familiar Beethoven continues
to pour forth. From West
minister we have yet another
G major concerto, with Paul
Badura -Skoda at the keyboard
and Hermann Scherchen COM
nanding the Vienna State
Opera Orchestra. It Is not too
timely an offering, though,
coming on the heels of the
mastery new Gieseking per-
formance just issued by Colum-
bia. Badura- -Skoda is COM
petent, and the sound is up
to Westminster's usual stand
ard, but the total effort Just
doesn't quite measure up.
Max RoStal, violin, and Franz
Osborn, piano, do considerably
better by the also-familiar
'Kreutzer" sonata for London.
The work has already had two
other good performances on
LIP, by Busch-Serkin and Fran
cescatti-Casadesus Zone cata-
logged for Heifetz hasn't become
available). But the Busch is
. transfer from TBS, and the
Francescatti disc suffers from
muf1ed piano sound. Messrs.
Rostal and Osborn give a sound,
unexaggerated reading which
gets clean. well-balanced re-
cording.
Everybody seems to be record
ing Beethoven piano sonatas.
Hugo Steurer, a German known
here only on records, is doing
them for Urania, and his latest
disc contains three of the less
familiar ones cat least they
lack nicknames)-Op. 81, No.
l; Op. 81 and Op. 80. Herr
Steurer favors a rather heavily
masculine approach, but maybe
that was Beethoven's, too. The
recording has depth.
4 \ 4 4
Herr Badura-Skoda (he's an
Austrian. so he rates the title,
too) is more fortunate in some
new Schubert and Mozart ef-
forts than with the Beethoven.
The eight Impromptus and A
major sonatas Op. 120, are on
two Schubert discs (packaged
in an album, and the Mozart
consists of three more violin
piano sonatas on a single disc.
with Walter Barylli welding
the bow.
The pianist's approach to the
Schubert is contemplative, and
slower-paced than one usually
hears. Rudolf Firkusny, for in
stance, plays much more rapidly
on the recent Columbia disc.
The Impromptus required only
two sides. compared to Badura-
Skoda'S three. (Badura-Skoda'S
teacher. Edwin Fischer nlavS