The Year's Best

CLASSICAL

SCHUMANN: FANTASIESTUeCKE, OP. 12; DAVIDSBUeNDLERTAeNZE, OP. 6 (Columbia). A notable recording debut by a lyric virtuoso of the piano, Murray Perahia, 26.

WAGNER: PARSIFAL (London, 5 LPs); BEETHOVEN: NINTH SYMPHONY (London, 2 LPs). Two grand conducting achievements by the liege of the American orchestral scene, Sir Georg Solti.

BERLIOZ: LA DAMNATION DE FAUST (Philips, 3 LPs). Conductor Colin Davis' exemplary latest chapter in the resurrection of Hector Berlioz.

BRAHMS: COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS, OP. 51, NOS. 1 AND 2, OP. 67 (RCA, 2 LPs). Another impressive disc debut, this one by the Cleveland Quartet.

PURCELL: THE FAIRY QUEEN (London, 2 LPs). One good English composer deserves another, or so it seems from this triumph by Benjamin Britten.

BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS; VARIATIONS IN THE ITALIAN STYLE (Angel, 2 LPs). Baroque classics brought entertainingly to life by Harpsichordist Igor Kipnis.

BARTOK: CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA (Columbia). Conductor Pierre Boulez finds heart as well as anxious nerve in a 20th century classic.

PUCCINI: LA BOHEME (London, 2 LPs). Conductor Herbert von Karajan and friends make the bohemian life worth living--and listening to--all over again.

BEETHOVEN: FIVE PIANO CONCERTOS (London, 4 LPs). Vladimir Ashkenazy reaffirms his position as a truly great Beethoven interpreter.

BOULEZ: LE MARTEAU SANS MAITRE (Columbia). A bright, precise contemporary landmark conducted by the bright, precise man who wrote it, Pierre Boulez.

POP

STEPHEN SONDHEIM: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Columbia). The year's most distinguished musical makes the year's best original-cast LP. i AM A SONG (RCA). England's empress of the jazz song, Cleo Laine, in a scintillating U.S. recording debut.

THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII (A & M). Using everything from synthesizers to pipe organs, England's Rick Wakeman has produced a provocative rock LP (not a score from the movie or TV series of the same name).

BROTHERS AND SISTERS (Capricorn). A masterly essay from the Allman Brothers in how to blend rock, jazz and white rural Southern blues.

SCOTT JOPLIN: THE RED BACK BOOK (Angel). Joyful orchestrations of ten classic rags by Gunther Schuller and his New England Conservatory rag-mops.

THERE GOES RHYMIN' SIMON (Columbia). A lesson in what a wistful, literate and probing composer-singer Paul Simon still is.

A LITTLE TOUCH OF SCHMILSSON IN THE NIGHT (RCA). Having gone from pop poet to hard rocker in recent years, Harry Nilsson here croons his way back into the 1930s and 1940s.

SHOOT OUT AT THE FANTASY FACTORY (Island; dist. Capitol). Recorded in Jamaica, with the Nestors of British rock, Traffic, at the peak of their maturity.

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (Harvest; dist.Capitol). Space-Rock's Pink Floyd in a hair-raising orbit.

GOAT'S HEAD SOUP (Rolling Stones; dist. Atlantic). The uncensorable Stones in fighting trim.

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