Classic and Choice

Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel; Three Intermezzi, Op. 117; Three Intermezzi, Op. 119; Rhapsody, Op. 119 No. 4 (Pianist Van Cliburn, RCA). The Handel Variations are often thought of as a piece that only a pianist, or piano buff, could love. In one of his most appealing albums in years, Van Cliburn puts the lie to that. Leaping from one craggy Brahmsian peak to another as effortlessly as though playing Debussy's Clair de lune, Cliburn gives the work a warm romantic allure yet never loses hold of its classic-baroque underpinnings. What ingenuity and surprise Cliburn finds in this music! What stunning sound--almost orchestral in its power and variety--he gives it! The miniatures on the flip side are played and recorded every bit as grandly.

Manuel de Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat. (The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, conductor Deutsche Grammophon). Like much ballet music heard outside the theater, The Three-Cornered Hat calls for some imaginative listening. Written for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, it is enormously theatrical, punctuated with expectant pauses from the first fanfare to the last triumphant Jota. Ozawa leads a bright, brassy performance of the Fandango, Seguidillas and Farucca. Teresa Berganza fans will only wish that she had more to sing.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concertos in E and A-minor; Concerto for Two Violins in D-minor; Air from Suite No. 3 in D (Henryk Szeryng and Maurice Hasson, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner conductor, Philips). Bach was the field marshal of the concerto form, regimenting the fluid lines of such Italian masters as Vivaldi and Corelli into complex string masterpieces. Szeryng, the Polish-born virtuoso, and Second Fiddle Hasson demonstrate great authority within Bach's polyphonic ranks. Their counterpoint in the double concerto is superb, as is the accompaniment led throughout by Neville Marriner. One quibble: Szeryng's treatment of the slow movements tends to be brooding rather than introspective.

Puccini: Tosca (Soprano Montserrat Caballe, Tenor Jose Carreras, Baritone Ingvar Wixell, orchestra and chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Colin Davis conductor, Philips; 2 LPs). This interpretation of Tosca is nothing if not eccentric. Davis' reading of the florid score is rich and clear but systematically undramatic. As the idealistic painter Cavaradossi, Carreras gives a properly ardent performance, but it seems lost on this particular Tosca. The elegant Caballe can no more be made into the hot-blooded actress than the eyes of Cavaradossi's Mary Magdalen can be changed from blue to black.

This version is for those who would like a second (or third) recording of the opera and would enjoy the sheer musicianship of Davis and Caballe.

Antonin Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81 (the Juilliard Quartet, Rudolf Firkusny pianist, Columbia; the same work played by the Cleveland Quartet, Emanuel Ax pianist, RCA). This concert perennial is easily recognized by its opening second movement theme, a sound- alike for the late 1940s popular song Nature Boy. The quintet is often said to reflect the composer's sunny, lyric disposition, and even the swift changes in tempo and sudden clouds of melancholy cannot dampen the work's high spirits. Both the Juilliard with Firkusny and the Cleveland with Ax are faithful to the Dvorak spirit. The older Juilliard brings a muscular exuberance to the piece, while the youthful members of the Cleveland achieve a light, effortless expressiveness well suited to the music's many moods. It is a matter of taste--like preferring Burgundy or claret--though both interpretations are from excellent pressings.

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