Word: decca
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...That Kiss (Peggy Lee; Decca). The incomparable Peggy, in another of her very special arrangements. Kiss, an oldtime cutie-cute number, gets a Latin cha cha cha treatment and blossoms into sheer fantasy. "What is love but a helpin' of an angel cake," croons Peggy, and an insolent flute and a clanking rhythm section confirm the sentiment...
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp (Julius Baker, Lillian Fuchs, Laura Newell; Decca). This is one of the sonatas for various instruments that occupied Debussy in 1915, just before he learned that he was dying of cancer. It is a beauty. Its outlines are firmer than usual, but the darkling tones of the viola, the haunting, woody quality of the low flute, and the romantic harp are as ecstatic as ever. Performance: hard to beat...
Rossini: Stabat Mater (Maria Stader, Marianna Radev, Ernst Häfliger, Kim Borg; RIAS Symphony conducted by Ferenc Fricsay; Decca, 2 LPs). The composer who was once advised by Beethoven to stick to comic opera, here turns up in a churchly (if not always churchlike) mood. The chorus sings some lofty and properly devotional counter point, but the lovely solo voices have arias that bounce and flow with the joyfulness of the Barber of Seville. Performance: elegant...
...COCKTAIL PARTY (Decca; $9.98) and MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL (Angel; $9.98). Eliot's two best plays: the first in a prancing recitation by the original New York cast (Alec Guinness, Cathleen Nesbitt, Robert Flemyng, Eileen Peel); the second read with less than majesty but more than dignity by Robert Donat and the Old Vic company...
Blacher: Orchestral Variations on a Theme of Paganini (RIAS Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ferenc Fricsay; Decca). The same theme (for solo violin) used by Brahms for his famed Variations gets some plain and fancy going-over by one of Germany's most successful living composers. Boris Blacher uses a big orchestra in opulent style, with emphasis on suave clarinet murmurings, massed brasses in swing-band style and ingratiating melodies. The disk is Vol. I of Decca's New Directions in Music and Sound. Debussy: Pelleas and Mélisande (Janine Micheau, Camille Maurane; chorus and Lamoureux Orchestra conducted...