SYMPHONIC, ETC.

Bartok: Mikrokosmos, Volume I (Bela Bartok, pianist; Columbia; 6 sides; $3.50). Hungarian Modernist Bartok neatly pecks out some of the 153 pungent, tricky-rhythmed pieces from his Mikrokosmos (little world), which he composed for piano students--much as Gertrude Stein might write an English grammar.

Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals (Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski, with Cellist Benar Heifetz, Pianists Jeanne Behrend and Sylvan Levin; Victor; 6 sides; $3.50). Slick virtuoso performance of banal zoological portraits--elephants, cuckoos, tortoises, pianists, critics, the famed "dying" swan.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 ("Little Russian") in C Minor (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens; Victor; 8 sides; $4.50). A folk-tuneful work, never before recorded, gets a good performance from an orchestra new to discs.

Gluck: Ballet Suite No. 1 (arranged by Felix Mottl) (Boston "Pops" Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler; Victor; 4 sides; $2.50). Stately dances by periwigged Composer Gluck, in a recording as cool and sparkling as jellied soup.

Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E Flat (London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham; Columbia; 6 sides; $3.50). Sir Thomas, famed for his way with Mozart, made this recording just before he left England last year. One of the three greatest Mozart symphonies, it has been in the grooves before but never so perfectly.

Mendelssohn: Capriccio Brillant (Joanna Graudan, pianist, with the Minneapolis Symphony conducted by Dmitri Mitropoulos; Columbia; 3 sides; $2.50). Pre-Victorian showpiece, faded but not without charm, brilliantly played by the Latvian-born wife of the orchestra's first cellist. On the fourth side, an elegant minuet from Lully's The Temple of Peace.

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