Word: choraler
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Verdi: Aïda (Leontyne Price, Rita Gorr, Jon Vickers, Robert Merrill, Giorgio Tozzi; Rome Opera House Orchestra and Chorus, Georg Solti conducting; RCA Victor, three LPs). Soprano Price's tigerish passion and luminous voice discover a moving Aïda-and cleave through the massed choral and orchestral sound unfalteringly...
...composer's inspiration was five poems by young Soviet Poet Evgeny Evtushenko (TIME cover, April 13). Less a symphony than a symphonic cantata, the work evolves in a five-movement cycle, alternating choral recitations with interpretive orchestral comments, building in emotional power until it returns on the wings of ardor to the theme that set it going...
Song of Praise. The first movement is a scorching retelling of "Babi Yar,' Evtushenko's angry denunciation of Soviet antiSemitism. Into a flowing dirge, chanted in solo and choral recitation. Shosta kovich pours rafter-shaking eruptions of drums and orchestra, recapturing his old, uninhibited enthusiasm for color and excitement, rekindling the fire of Evtushenko's poem. The second movement is based on "Humor," a poem that makes the point that tyrants cannot imprison laughter, and the music - perfectly in the spirit of things - becomes impish, light and gay. The third movement, on a poem about a lonely...
...best Messiah now available is the newish Angel stereo recording conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent (Angel 3598 C). It's not up to the old mono recording--the Huddersfield Choral Society are worse than usual--but it's not unacceptable. The soloists' names are relatively unfamiliar in this country (with the possible exception of the tenor, Richard Lewis), but Sir Malcolm, unlike Sir Adrian, has used them to good advantage, restrained his extravagances, and produced a restrained, lyrical, and generally balanced Messiah...
...Festival of Lessons and Carols, London has also recorded (London 5523). This is the record our own Aunt Edna and Cousin Thelma will get, if we can bear to part with a single copy of it. The simple and elegant service (the lessons are read by a chorister, a choral scholar, three fellows, the dean, and the provost) and the remarkable and memorable carols (such as "Once in Royal David's City" and "Adam lay y-bounden") combine to make this record the best of the Christmas offerings...