Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-14
TurntdbIe Talk
Living Room Theoter
Murder in the Cathedral Recorded
ExceIIentIy by Old Vic Troupe
By james 6. Deone

8. Deone
agine a more eloquent EXPOSE
ton of exalted faith.
Change Of Poce
Robert Donat is the Beckett
of this recording. and he fills
the role superbly. His delivery
Of the Christmas sermon which
comes between the two acts
Is a high point of the perform
ance. The rest of the cast are
handsomely complementary
Newton Blick, the third
tempter. is the excellent con-
fldential clerk Eggerson of the
new Eliot play. And lest any,
one suppose from what has
been said that Murder in the
Cathedral" is entirely austere,
let attention be called to the
startling Act Two appearance
OF the murderers to defend
their deed before the congre-
gation-a change of pace that
is just as effective on the rec
ord as it must have been in
church, except that one can't
hear the gasps.
Angel, which has this record
ing to it's credit, has also
brought from England a per-
Torrance of Oscar Wilde's
THE Importance Of Being
Earnest" which, while it lacks
the Old Vic imprimatur, is
acted almost entirely by Old Vic
alumni, and illustrious ones at
that. John Gielgud, Pamela
Brown and Dame Edith Evans
are among them. Dame Edith
Is my own favorite as a magni-
ficently Stuffy Lady Blackwell.
While Gielgud still manages
admirably as the 28-year-old
John Worthing it seems to me
54-year-old Roland Culver
(who vocally resembles Ronald
Colman) sounds a bit implaus-
ible for a younger brother.
Aside from this I have no quar-.
rel with either casting or act.
ing. which breathes new life
into this imperishable favorite.
Each Of these Angel sets in
wolves two LIP discs.
Not InfoIIibIe
Even the Old Vic is not in
fallible. and I must confess
some disappointment in the
Romeo and Juliet" that has
come to us from Victor. AS a
whole the production is an es-
timable one, but I find neither
Claire Bloom. as Juliet, nor
Alan Babel as Romeo as con-
Sistently convincing as both
should be. Miss Bloom in par
tlcular seems at times to be
treading on the surface of the
role rather than within it. Still,
the three discs offer a lot Of
good Shakespeare. There are
couple of dozen cuts, includ-
ing scenes four and five in Act
Four. but most are quite small.
AS a permanent reminder
OF pianism in the grand man
ner and in its natural habitat,
nothing is likely to supplant
soon Victor's on-the-spot re-
cording of Vladimir Horo-
Wits 1858 tWenty-fifth ami
versary recital in Carnegie
Hall. I would question. how
ever, whether this recording
procedure satisfactorily meets
requirements beyond those Of
a souvenir. A chief virtue of
records is selectivity, both as
to the performer and the
performed. Here one must
accept Schubert. Chopin.
Scribin, List, Debussy and
Prokofieff, as we'll as the par
ticular Horowitz conception Of
all six, along with the other
customary drawbacks of the
concert hall coughs and APP
plause that anticipates the last
note).
Schnobel Preferred
In the case of the longest
piece. the posthumous Schu-
bert B-f1at sonata. would
much prefer to have the
Schnabel recording long ago
promised by Victor but never
issued. AS for the Scriabin,
could do without it altogether.
A certain interest attaches to
Scriabin's orchestral music be-
cause it is so seldom performed.
I am not sure the neglect is
unjustif1ed, but Pierre Monteux
clothes the Poem of Ecstasy"
with more than usual signifi-
canoe in a new recording with
the Boston Symphony. The
Reading is crisper and better
ordered than that by Mitrop-
oulos and the New York Phil
harmonic on a Columbia disc.
LISTS Les Preludes." the
Monteux companion piece,
suffers from shrill, bassless re-
production. however, and the
Columbia coupling is the more
logical Scriabin sequel, Poem
of Fire" so choosing becomes a
case of weighing liabilities
and assets. If. that is, one
wants to bother.
With the new Munch-Bos-
ton Don QuiXote" of Richard
Strauss we return to more
elevated ground. This greatly
exceeds in energy the version
Klemens Krauss gave us re-
Gently, Piatigorsky does splen-
didly on his cello. and the
engineering is more represen-
tative Of Victor's current ca
pacities.
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