Evening star., 1953-06-28
Seems Better Than 1t Is
Ormundy and Philadelphia Orchestra
Serve Composers MuenificentIy
By jones 6. Deone

Fortune Teller" and three less
familiar pieceS-"Pan Ameri-
cana" American Fantasy"
and Irish Rhapsody"-rate
equal treatment with Tschai-
kowSky's March Slav" and
1872 Overture" in Columbia's
low-price "AAL" series. Per-
sonally. I like the Herbert best.
An interesting Swedish Rhap-
Sody" by a composer named
Alfven and some Grieg peer
Gynt" tidbits make another
attractive coupling.
Besides "Lemminkainen,"
Columbia's recent service to
Sibelius includes q splendid
new recording of the first SYM
phony' by Beecham and the
Royal Philharmonic. Eduard
Van Beinum and the AmSter-
dam Concertgebouw also paid
their homage with a coupling
of EN- Saga" and "Tapiola,"
one of the earliest and one of
the latest, respectively. of the
Finnish composers works, but
not radically different from
one another for all the 30
year span between. The engi-
neering herein this case
London's-is very good, too.
and so is the playing.
Fluent Violin
Prokofieff'S G minor violin
concerto, of less questionable
standing than the new SYM
phony, is handled f1uently by
FranScescatti and Mitropoulcs
on another Columbia release.
The violinist and George
Sell give a typical big-scale
concert hall performance Of
Bach's E major concerto on
the reverse, a treatment not
universally admired but un-
questionably ear-fllling. The
New York Philharmonic Is the
orchestra.
Mendelssohn's Scotch"
Symphony, which seems pop
ular enough to stand 1t. Is
available in another new ver-
sion. George Solti Is the able
conductor Of the London
Symphony, and London's engi-
neers perform admirably. Also
from London comes yet one
more version of the ''Varia-
tions on a Theme Of Haydn"
coupled in this instance with
Brahms Tragic" and "Aca-
demic Festival 'overtures. The
variations certainly don't sup
plant the Toscanini set, but
Conductor Van Beinum's judi
cious, measured pacing will
appeal to some Brahmsians.
Spectacular Beethoven
Victor'S Bluebird economy
series continues to adhere to a
gratifying standard. A sam
pling Of the latest batch finds
Aldo Ciccolini playing a spir-
tied version Of the TSchaikow-
sky B fiat concerto: Benno
MoiSeiwitSch dashing off Gap
parently without embarrass-
ment at a few slips in finger
ing) some Chopin preludes and
scherzi-a 1istenable collection,
slips or no; Schumann's Car
naval" in its splendid orches-
trail arrangement, coupled with
the sprightly Sylvia" ballet
music by Delibes, Robert Irv-
ing and Louis Fourestier being
the conductors; Tullio Sarafin
and Fernando Previtali con-
Quoting some attractive or
chestral excerpts from "Wil-
liam Tell, Italians in Algiers,"
Samson and Delilah" and
Spontini's La Vestale";; and
a competent performance Of
the Mendelssohn violin concer-
to by Siegfried Berries and the
Berlin Philharmonic, coupled
with the italian Symphony"
under Barbirolli.
None Of these is as spectacu-
lar, though, as Columbia's lat
est Entire" issue-Beethoven's
Ninth together with the
Eighth) for $7.57! Won Kara
jan, the Vienna Philharmonic,
and f1rst-rate choristars and
soloists are involved. But the
sound dates back to 78s and
shows its age, and the per-
formance isn't up to the his
toric Weingartner. Anyway,
I'll still take Tnscanini