New Records

Bartok: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Julius Katchen; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet; London). One of Bartok's last works and also, with its richly sustained orchestration and fluent melodies, one of his most accessible. Pianist Katchen (TIME, March 1) gives it a mellow, sensitive performance.

Beethoven: Bagatelles (Grant Johannesen; Concert Hall). Into these "trifles," Beethoven poured some of his loftiest imaginings and fiercest humors. The Johannesen performance covers 26 numbers. On a Cook LP, Pianist Leonid Hambro plays half a dozen of the late Bagatelles, together with Beethoven's powerful 32 Variations in C Minor. Both performances are first-rate.

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis (Robert Shaw Chorale, NBC Symphony and soloists conducted by Arturo Toscanini; Victor, 2 LPs). Beethoven's most massive vocal work. Cruelly demanding on both singers and listeners, it was performed only once during his lifetime. It is no less demanding today, and some of the strain shows in this version. The Maestro gives it a feeling of magnificent urgency despite the fact that the soloists sound faint and distant.

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Rudolf Serkin; Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell; Columbia). A superior account of a highly romantic score. Pianist Serkin's steely fingers ripple out a performance that yields but never sags, shouts but never blasts.

Mozart: Bastien und Bastienne (Ilse Hollweg, Waldemar Kmentt, Walter Berry, soloists; Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Pritchard; Columbia).

Written with eloquent precocity by a twelve-year-old Mozart, this one-act masterpiece is packed with charm and freshness. Its story of lovers' jealousy, scheming and reunion is spiritedly sung, and Soprano Hollweg is brilliant.

Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Emil Gilels; State Orchestra of the U.S.S.R. conducted by Kiril Kondrashin; Vanguard). Top-ranking Soviet Pianist Gilels. in a rare U.S. hearing, sounds every bit as impressive as his reputation. His tone can melt or soar, and he has power to spare. Recording: good.

Schoenberg:Gurre-Lieder (Chorus and orchestra of Paris' New Symphony Society and soloists conducted by Rene Leibowitz; Haydn Society, 3 LPs). The first complete LP recording of a turning-point (1901-11) masterpiece by Atonalist-to-be Schoenberg. The vast score calls for an orchestra of 155 instruments, a minimum chorus of 180 and six soloists, spins out the supernatural romance in a delicate blend of Wagner and Mahler. Performed and recorded with enthusiastic care.

Songs and Ballads of America's Wars (Frank Warner; Elektra). An informal collection of old pulse-bumpers, many of them all but forgotten. They range from Felix the Soldier, a delightfully wry recollection of the French and Indian War by a conscript Irishman, to such truculent songs of the Confederacy as The Bonnie Blue Flag and The Old Unreconstructed.*

Other noteworthy new records: two LPs of music of the 13th t017th centuries recorded by the Collegium Musicum, Yale University School of Music, under the direction of Paul Hindemith (Overtone); Liszt's Sonata in B Minor, played by Alexander Uninsky (Epic); a Millstein Recital, Pergolesi to Milstein himself (Capitol); Schubert Quartets, Nos. 13-15, played by the Budapest String Quartet (Columbia, 3 LPs); a complete version of Wagner's Lohengrin as sung by Eleanor Steber, Astrid Varnay and Wolfgang Windgassen at Bayreuth last summer (London, 5 LPs).

* Sample verse: I rid with Old Jeb Stuart and his band of Southern horse

And there never were no Yankees who could meet us force to force.

No! they never did defeat us, but we never could evade

Their dirty jurrin politics and their cowardly blockade.

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