Word: lps
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Complete Works of Anton Webern (Columbia, 4 LPs) lays before us a lifetime of composing in roughly three hours of listening time. (A further set, presumably comprising Webern's juvenilia and unpublished works, is planned for release at a later date.) The generally excellent performances, recorded over a period of 41/2 years under Pierre Boulez's direction, feature the London Symphony Orchestra and such guest artists as Violinist Isaac Stern, Pianist Charles Rosen and the late Gregor Piatigorsky. They supplant in every way the pioneering complete Webern recorded by Robert Craft in the 1950s, also on Columbia...
...composer who is perceived as an epochal innovator, Webern never saw himself in opposition to the Austro-German musical tradition that extends from Bach through Mahler. To his composition students he held up Beethoven's sonatas as the supreme models of craftsmanship. The Columbia LPs conclude with a 1932 recording of him conducting his own orchestration of some Schubert dances-a gesture of homage that was not unusual for him. What passed for classicism in his own day, he wrote in one of the letters quoted by the Moldenhauers, ''emulates the style without knowing its meaning . . . whereas...
Pavarotti is one of those magnetic performers, like Nureyev in dance and Olivier in theater, who not only please the cognoscenti but also wow the masses. His LPs reach well beyond the normal opera market, making him the bestselling classical vocalist on records today. At any given time over the past 18 months, at least four albums featuring him have been on the charts. The man in the street, who may care little about opera, knows Pavarotti as that bearded guy with the boyish grin and the funny accent on the TV commercial for American Express cards. Millions have seen...
Bach: Six Sonatas for Clavier and Violin (Violinist Henryk Szeryng, Harpsichordist Helmut Walcha, Philips; 2 LPs). Several virtuosos have recorded these crystallizations of the baroque sonata style (Oistrakh, Menuhin, Laredo), but none can beat the suave brilliance of this set. Szeryng plays with an impassioned aristocrat's clarity, grace and brio. Walcha, a virtuoso in his own right, is appropriately brought to the fore by Philips' bright tonal presence...
Haydn: String Quartets, Opus 20, Nos. 1-6 (Juilliard Quartet, Columbia; 3 LPs). Propulsive rhythms, a biting attack, hard tonal sheen - these are the qualities listeners have come to expect from the Juilliard, and they are not necessarily the best qualities for Haydn. But the surprise of this set is the mellowness and suppleness, the emotional inwardness of the performances. All to the good, since these are pivotal works. In them the 40-year-old Haydn deepened the content of his lightly ingratiating early quartets, incorporating folk tunes into a more tightly woven texture and often finishing off with...