New Records

In the judgment of doting listeners, Arturo Toscanini's 1947 broadcast of Verdi's Otello may well have been the finest performance ever heard on the air. Soloists Herva Nelli, Ramon Vinay and Giuseppe Valdengo sang as if they were in a state of musical exaltation, and the NBC Symphony's orchestral commentary was both dramatic and tender. Recently, after long refusing, Toscanini agreed to let RCA Victor make records from the monitoring transcription, and last week the three LPs were released. It is probably the Maestro's masterpiece.

Other new records:

Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin (Jascha Heifetz; Victor, 3 LPs). Master Fiddler Heifetz brings some of the repertory's toughest music to life with his superb confidence and technique. There are a few passages where technique seems uppermost in his mind, but for the most part the slow movements have appealing warmth and the fast ones take off in whirlwinds of color.

Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet (Chorus and soloists with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch; Victor, 2 LPs). Musical sweet talk in its sweetest, if not most stimulating, performance on records. Included are some meltingly graceful choruses (sung by Harvard and Radcliffe groups) and solos by Contralto Margaret Roggero, Tenor Leslie Chabay and Basso Yi-Kwei Sze.

Gershwin: Concerto in F (Leonard Pennario, pianist; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Steinberg; Capitol). After his Rhapsody in Blue tipped Manhattan on its ear in 1924, Gershwin got to work on his ambitious concerto. Less jazzy than its predecessor and more of a patchwork than old-line concertos, it nevertheless teems with vitality and fun. Pianist Pennario lays into his job with a will, and the orchestra turns in a high-spirited performance.

Masterpieces of Music before 1750 (Danish soloists and ensembles directed by Mogens Woeldike; Haydn Society, 3 LPs). Fifty brief selections, carefully performed and recorded. The first disk begins with the constricted Gregorian chant beginning with the 7th century, goes up to 16th century instrumental dances. No. 2 takes the story from large motets by Lassus and Byrd up through early Italian opera by Monteverdi and massive 17th century organ music. The final disk contains mostly Bach and Handel works. A scholarly collection, but with plenty of appeal to the ear as well.

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor (New York Philharmonic-Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter; Columbia). A majestic reading whose importance is somewhat dimmed by the fact that it is the 15th LP of this famed work. Columbia's reason: Walter's 77th anniversary year. Other Walter anniversary recordings: Mozart Arias (2 LPs), sung by Eleanor Steber and George London.

Mussorgsky-Ravel: Pictures from an Exhibition (Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy; Columbia). Big star of this one is neither Composer Mussorgsky nor Orchestrator Ravel but Conductor Ormandy and his incredibly polished crew; even the thickest Muscovite treacle is bearable when cut by these magnificent winds and brasses.

Other newsworthy releases:

Bach's St. Matthew Passion, in a vintage 1939 recording by Willem Mengelberg and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra (Columbia); Respighi's Pines and Fountains of Rome, played by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony and wrapped in one of the fanciest album packages to date (13 pages of photographs of Rome, with text by Vincent Sheean) at no extra cost (Victor).

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