Word: lps
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Lauritz Melchior 50th Anniversary (Asco, 2 LPs). This handsome salute to the great Heldentenor introduces him in the days (1913-18) when he was singing in opera and recital as a baritone, and carries him to his 1960 recording of Esultate from Otello. Even as a baritone-and even through the sizzle of old shellac-his voice had the tenoresque freshness, vigor and ringing power that later carried him trii umphantly through 24 years at the Met and 223 Tristans. Among the album's treasures: a 1924 scene from Siegfried ("Nothung! Not hung! Schmiede mein Hammer"), and the Bridal...
Strauss: Die Fledermaus (Hilde Gueden, Erika Köth, Regina Resnik, Giuseppe Zampiere; the Vienna Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan; London, 3 LPs). This otherwise fine recording of the imperishable operetta classic offers a strange side effect. One moment, the listener is tapping his feet to the most tap-pable of old Viennese waltzes; the next, he is caught up in the English rhymes of I Could Have Danced All Night, sung by Birgit Nilsson, of all people, in ponderous and chesty style. In the midst of the second act party scene, the producers have inserted anachronistic "entertainments" sung...
Paisiello: The Barber of Seville (Grazielli Sciutti, Nicola Monti, Rolando Panerai, Renato Capecchi; Virtuosi di Roma, conducted by Renato Fasano; Mercury, 2 LPs). "He has received the homage of his age and has assured to himself that of posterity." Thus Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) paid tribute to himself in a contemporary dictionary. Unfortunately for his prediction, a rival named Rossini later wrote his own Barber of Seville and drove the older work from the stage. In this recording, Paisiello's Barber emerges as a smaller-scaled work than Rossini's but with a gay, quicksilvery score, some limpidly...
Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (Wilhelm Backhaus, piano; Vienna Philharmonic, under Schmidt-Isserstedt: London, 4 LPs). The 76-year-old pianist in a series of grand performances that are lithe, elastic and incisive...
Verdi: Requiem (Leontyne Price, Jussi Bjoerling, Rosalind Elias, Giorgio Tozzi; Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Society of the Friends of Music, under Fritz Reiner; RCA Victor, 2 LPs). A clean-lined, beautifully balanced and honest version, full of tranquil breathing space. The performances by Tenor Bjoerling, in his last, full recording role before his death, and Soprano Price, at the incandescent top of her form, stand out as stunning achievements...