Word: conductor
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Mozart: The "Great" Mass in C Minor, K. 427 (New Philharmonia Orchestra, Raymond Leppard, conductor; Seraphim; $3.98). Over the years, publishers have used the word great to distinguish this work from a Mass in the same key written when Mozart was still in his teens. But if ever a score deserved that adjective without qualification, it is K. 427. Composed in 1782-83, its style looks backward to the cantata-type Mass of Bach's day, but its expressiveness and symphonic drive anticipate Beethoven and the romantic era. The performance, led by Conductor-Musicologist Leppard, would be worth having...
Charles Ives: Holidays Symphony (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, conductor; RCA; $6.98). The holidays are Washington's Birthday (winter), Decoration Day (spring), the Fourth of July (summer) and Thanksgiving (autumn). Ives, the great American innovator, originally composed this symphony as four separate pieces, starting in 1897. Some 16 years later he fused them to make a series of aural reminiscences of his boyhood holidays in Danbury, Conn. Firecrackers explode, a village band escorts the parade to the cemetery to decorate graves, fancy fiddling and a twanging Jew's-harp reverberate through a winter barn dance. Turkey in the Straw...
Dvorak: Piano Concerto in G Minor, Op. 33 (Justus Frantz, soloist; New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, conductor; Columbia; $6.98). Critics frequently poke fun at this stepchild of the late 19th century piano repertory. The orchestral Sturm und Drang, it is said, overpower the naive keyboard design. There is nothing naive about Frantz's virile interpretation, however. The young Polish pianist effortlessly bounces off rippling melodies and roaring cadenzas...
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92 (The Marlboro Festival Orchestra, Pablo Casals, conductor; Columbia; $6.98). Few performances of this eloquent work can stand comparison with the 1936 recording by Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic (still available on RCA Victrola). This one can. Taped during a live performance in 1969 when Casals was 93, it is a summing up of all the attributes associated with him as a conductor: full-blooded sonorities, razor-sharp attacks, irresistible rhythms, shadings of almost chamber-music delicacy. Are there more like this in the Columbia vaults...
Vivaldi: Juditha Triumphans (Birgit Finnilä, contralto; Ingeborg Springer, mezzo-soprano; Elly Ameling, soprano; Annelies Burmeister, contralto;. Berlin Chamber Orchestra, Vittorio Negri, conductor. 3 LPs; Philips; $23.94). Vivaldi composed his 1716 oratorio for his students at the Ospedale della Pietá. the Venetian orphanage where he taught music. The subject was a bloody one for schoolgirls: after beguiling the barbarian commander with words and wine, Judith seizes his sword and chops off his head. The score is sumptuous, propelled by the Baroque master's typical unflagging vitality. In this recording both male and female solo roles are sung...