October Records

Wagner: Tristan & Isolde, Excerpts from Act III (Lauritz Melchior and Herbert Janssen with the orchestra of the Colon Opera, Buenos Aires, and the Columbia Opera Orchestra, Roberto Kinsky and Erich Leinsdorf, conductors; Columbia; 10 sides). A superb slice of Tristan's last act, including almost everything except the famed Liebestod (which is separately available). Melchior, greatest of living Tristans, sings his mad scene as though he meant it. Recording: excellent.

Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 4 for Piano and Orchestra (Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting, with the composer at the piano; Victor; 8 sides). By the time the late great Sergei Rachmaninoff got around to his fourth concerto, his powers as a composer were on the wane, but his powers as a pianist kept their vigor. Performance: excellent. Recording: good.

Mozart: Quartet in E Flat Major (K. 428) (Busch Quartet; Columbia; 8 sides). A slightly heavy but well-tooled performance of a topflight Mozart item. Recording: excellent.

Claudia Muzio: Operatic Recital (with orchestra conducted by Lorenzo Molajoli; Columbia; 8 sides). One of the ironies of music is that as modern high-fidelity recording reached near perfection, the number of operatic voices really worth recording dwindled to a handful. One great voice that lasted long enough to be well recorded was Soprano Claudia Muzio's. Probably no living soprano (she died in 1936) approaches the vocal assurance and dramatic power recorded here in arias from Norma, Traviata, Forza del Destino, etc. Recording: good.

Bach: Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, transcribed by Dimitri Mitropoulos (Minneapolis Symphony, Mitropoulos conducting; Columbia; 4 sides). Magnificent Bach effectively if somewhat lushly transcribed. Performance: good. Recording: excellent.

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