Word: grammophone
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Schubert: String Quintet in C major (Melos Quartet, Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; Deutsche Grammophon). This is a near-perfect recording of Schubert's greatest chamber work. The playing and the balance between instruments are all but flaw less; Rostropovich's singing bass line is outstanding, and the gay third movement scherzo is joyous as a Highland fling...
Puccini: La Fanciulla del West (Soprano Carol Neblett, Tenor Placido Domingo, Baritone Sherrill Milnes; Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Zubin Mehta, conductor; Deutsche Grammophon; 3 LPs). Fanciulla (1910) is a second-rate Italian opera comically posing as a shoot-'em-up thriller. Neblett makes a dramatic frontier heroine. Domingo, as her lover, sings everyone else under the bar, and Milnes is dashingly villainous. With Mehta in the saddle, chorus and orchestra ride smartly home...
Mozart: Mitridate, Re di Ponto (Sopranos Arleen Augér, Ileana Cotrubas and Edith Gruberova, Mezzo Agnes Baltsa, Tenor Werner Hollweg, Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg, Leopold Hager, conductor; Deutsche Grammophon; 4 LPs); La Clemenza di Tito (Mezzos Janet Baker and Yvonne Minton, Tenor Stuart Burrows, Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Colin Davis, conductor; Philips; 3 LPs). Mozart composed Mitridate when he was only 14; La Clemenza came just before he died at 35. Both works are all but forgotten. They are opera seria, the early style of Italian opera that can present obstacles for the modern...
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor; Deutsche Grammophon). In the case of the "New World" Symphony, familiarity has bred lack of imagination: conductors tend to blast through the great crescendos and wallow in the well-known themes. Not Giulini, however, whose byword is subtlety. The Chicago's famous brass is brilliant, not blaring, and Giulini achieves unexpected nuances of color and volume. Those who prefer their "New World" brooding and Slavic should stick with Stokowski's various recordings, but those with an ear for freshness will like this interpretation...
CLASSICAL. Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (RCA, 3 LPs). The Houston Opera production, a hit on Broadway, is now the best Porgy on records. Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon, 8 LPs). Herbert von Karajan, the Berlin Philharmonic and Beethoven, at their best. Schubert: Symphony No. 9 (Philips). Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra produce the finest modern version of this noble epic. Beethoven: "Waldstein" Sonata; "Eroica" Variations (RCA). At 28, Emanuel Ax comes of age as a master of the classical style. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (Angel, 4 LPs). Mussorgsky's original version on records for the first time, lovingly...