Word: deccas
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Bartok: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Monique Haas; Berlin's RIAS Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ferenc Fricsay; Decca). Bartok was racing death when he composed this strongly appealing work, because he wanted to leave his pianist-wife something to play for her living. (He died in 1945 with the last few bars uncompleted.) French Pianist Haas is up against some stiff competition from other recorded versions, but, perhaps because the concerto was written for a woman, her delicately imaginative performance is hard to beat...
...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...