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LISZT: TWELVE TRANSCENDENTAL ETUDES; HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY NO. 3; SPANISH RHAPSODY (Melodiya/Columbia, 2 LPs). Lazar Berman, the latest superstar from Russia, in an electrifying display of pianistic fireworks...
Wagner, Die Meistersinger: Baritone Norman Bailey, Tenor Rene Kollo, Soprano Hannelore Bode; Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Opera Chorus, Sir Georg Solti conducting (5 LPs, London). Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Tenor Placido Domingo, Soprano Catarina Ligendza; Chorus and Orchestra of the German Opera, Berlin, Eugen Jochum conducting (5 LPs, Deutsche Grammophon). Here are two performances-one extraordinary, one merely excellent-of an operatic marvel that over the years has proved difficult to commit to disc. The Solti is the more spacious and relaxed of the two; because of London's typically distant engineering, it also has a more homogenized sound...
Schubert, Symphony No. 9 in C; Debussy, Ibéria and La Mer; Berlioz, Queen Mab Scherzo; Respighi, Feste Romane; Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Strauss, Death and Transfiguration; Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique): The Philadelphia Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini conducting (5 LPs, RCA). When Toscanini made these recordings in 1941-42 with the orchestra Leopold Stokowski had built, it was astonishing, then as now, to note how readily the musicians yielded their lush sound and fat phrasing to the brilliant, transparent, sharply contoured style that Toscanini favored. The resulting interpretations are still splendid to hear-spacious...
Handel, Messiah: Soprano Elly Ameling, Contralto Anna Reynolds, Tenor Philip Langridge, Bass Gwynne Howell; Academy and Chorus of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner conducting (3 LPs, Argo). This is a masterly lesson in the art of making a familiar classic sound fresh and spontaneous. Marriner's authentically baroque phrasings, rhythms and instrumentations have much to do with that. So does his seemingly effortless ability simply to make music sing...
...LPs contain 17 songs, with an overflow 7-in. disc holding four more. As usual, Stevie operates as a virtual one-man music company. Throughout the album, he acts as composer, singer, instrumentalist and producer. Despite his multiple involvement, Songs has all the spontaneity and relaxation of a jumping jamboree. Indeed, there has not been a pop album this good or this diversified since Wonder's Fulfillingness's First Finale in 1974. Stevie growls at times like an old delta blues shouter, but for the most part he sings in his distinctive black/white style, which occasionally echoes Paul...