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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...
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (Bass Martti Talvela, Tenor Nicolai Gedda, Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Semkow conductor, Angel; 4 LPs). At long last, here is the Boris Godunov that Mussorgsky actually wrote. For too many years the work was heard in the brilliant, often gaudy revision of Rimsky-Korsakov, who in the guise of correcting a friend's mistakes dispelled much of Mussorgsky's haunting, earthy musical originality. This new recording measures up to both the music and the debt owed Mussorgsky. Martti Talvela is rich of voice (less a black bass than a walnut) and unforgettable...
Verdi: II Trovatore (Soprano Joan Sutherland, Mezzo Marilyn Home, Tenor Luciano Pavarotti, Baritone Ingvar Wixell, National Philharmonic Orchestra, London Opera Chorus, Richard Bonynge conductor, London; 3 LPs). Having come only recently to the roles of Leonora and Manrico, Sutherland and Pavarotti will undoubtedly have additional things to say about them in the future. For now, it can be said that this is a bella voce album of the first order. Devotees of the Leontyne Price-Placido Domingo set, or Price-Richard Tucker, or especially the old Zinka Milanov-Jussi Björling classic-all much more dramatically vivid-may safely...
Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ (Mezzo Janet Baker, Tenor Eric Tappy, Baritone Thomas Allen, London Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis conductor, Philips; 2 LPs). Just as he could roar thunderously in the Te Deum, so Berlioz could write with reverent calm in this exquisite tapestry on the early events in Jesus' life. The music is kept deliberately simple by a chamberistic use of the orchestra and frequent resort to medieval modes and other archaic devices. Yet how fresh, urgent and devoted the result, notably in the central section-The Flight into Egypt. Continuing his pioneering Berlioz cycle, Colin Davis...
Schumann: Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 (Pianist Lazar Berman, Columbia/Melodiya). Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Pianist Lazar Berman, London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado conductor, Columbia). Liszt: Annees de Pelerinage (Pianist Lazar Berman, Deutsche Grammophon; 3 LPs). More product, to borrow the record-company jargon, from the pianist who burst out of Russia two years ago and has been a one-man industry ever since. The less said about Berman's Schumann the better: he simply does not feel the music. No problems with the Rachmaninoff. Here is the fabled Berman technique operating with all its power, speed and subtlety...