Record Boom

By last week the counters of U.S. record shops were beginning to look like the walls of college dormitories. Never in recording history could a record-buyer buy the same song under so many different labels.

Among them : Capitol, Hit, Asch, Beacon, Blue Note, Comet, Commodore, De Luxe, Dix, Apollo, Savoy, Harmonia, Keynote, Exclusive, Feature, Musicraft.

The reasons for this sudden flowering are two : 1 ) retailers, cramped by wartime shortages, are stocking practically any thing; 2) small record companies, formerly devoted to such specialties as race songs or Elizabethan madrigals, have taken advantage of the Petrillo feud with Victor and Columbia (TIME, Dec. 6, 1943, et ante} to enter the popular field.

Meanwhile the production of classical symphonic records continues in a slow but steady trickle. The latest releases: Morton Gould: Latin American Symphonette (Rochester Philharmonic, Jose Iturbi conducting; Victor; 6 sides). A skillfully concocted olla podrida of Latin American nightclub idioms sizzling in Stravinskian sauce with occasional Straussian dumplings. Performance: excellent.

Recording: excellent.

Haydn: Symphony No. 103 ("Drum Roll") (Halle Orchestra, Leslie Heward conducting; Columbia; 6 sides). Rather heavy-handed version of an ingratiating classic. Performance : fair. Recording : fair.

Offenbach: Gaite Parisienne Suite (London Philharmonic, Efrem Kurtz conducting; Columbia; 4 sides). Sparkling anthology of some of Composer Offen bach's best Second Empire hits. Performance: excellent. Recording: good.

Debussy: En Blanc et Noir (Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson, duo-pianists; Columbia; 4 sides). Late, comparatively poor-quality Debussy, principally interesting for the quaint way in which the war-saddened composer (who died during World War I) surrounds and satirizes a Lutheran hymn. Performance: good. Recording: good.

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