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CLASS1CAL Record Reviews

(Continued from page 80) ficient familiarity with his musie that we don’t need to have it “drummed in.” In-deed, many of the repeats in these revo-lutionary nineteenth-century creations were even then merely pro forma con-cessions to earlier traditions—about as useful to the musical organism as the ap-pendix is to the human one. Still morę to the point, long sectional repeats-if they are taken—provide an opportunity to vary the materiał slightly, to present sub-tly different facets for scrutinization. Sir Colin, true to modem “intellectual” practice, will have nonę of it; to him, a repeat is a repeat, and union scalę being

what it is, single “takes” may simply have been duplicated and spliced in.

Davis does, however, have a few unconventional notions about tempo re-lations. In the Andante introduction to the first movement, he sets a leisurely— even sluggish — tempo and doggedly maintains it right up to the Allegro ma non troppo, which he attacks boldly, with a disconcening jauntiness. Both tempos seem wrong. The first lacks alla breve flow when the opening horn motto combines with the string triplet ostinato. (Davis all but admits his error when he has to return, at a much faster tempo, to the same materiał in the coda.) The sec-

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ond is constricted and lacks organie breadth in the shaping of phrases. (Tos-canini, supposedly so “rigid,” molds the same materiał and makes plastic transi-tions to the second subject in his unfor-gettable 1941 Philadelphia recording and even in his morę metronomie later NBC accounts.)

The Andante eon molo gets off to an auspicious start, its rhythm poised and well-sprung, its tonę gloriously red-blooded; my only quibble relates to Davis’ Szell-like slowdown for the epi-sode following the big, clipped climax. The Scherzo suflers most from its deadly profusion of repeats and has little rhyth-mic spring. The Boston Symphony plays gorgeously, however, and the Philips recording is especially kind to Schubert’s unique soft timpani scoring. The Finale^ fast pace seems disproportionately frivolous following the weighty Scherzo, but again, the playing is distinguished.

The literał completeness of this ren-dition gives it a valued place in the ar-chives, but those seeking a flesh-and-blood, living and breathing musical ex-perience should look elsewhere. h.c.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Manfred, Op. 58.

Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink.cond. Philips9500778. S 10.98. Tape: 7300 852, S 10.98 (cassette).

London Symphony Orchestra. Michaet Tilson Thomas, cond. [Steven Epsiein. prod.J CBS MaSTERworks M 36673. Tape: MT 36673 (cassette). [Price at dea!er’s discretion.)

comparisons:

Toscanini/NBC Sym.

RCA Victrola VICS 1315 Ashkenazy/New Phil.    Lon. CS 7075

Manfred has always been one of Tchaikovsky’s most problematic scores. a long and episodic work difficult to present as a convincing totality. Yet it contains some of his most glorious musie. such as the powerfully surging motto theme with rhythmic accompaniment that closes the first movement and recurs in the finale, and the exquisitely lovely second theme of the scherzo. While the work is still a rarity in the concert hall, recent years have brought a steady in-crease in the numberof available record-ings. With the CBS release, the London Symphony Orchestra makes phono-graphic history of a sort: This is its fifth Manfred! (In fact. it’s the only orchestra to have recorded it morę than once. In case you’re wondering, its previous ver-sions were conducted by Goossens. Markevitch, Ahronovitch, and Previn.)

To succeed, Manfred demands nothing less than passionate commit-ment. The best recorded performance to datę is Toscanini’s with the NBC Symphony, still available in electronic stereo-successful in spite of. and also because of, the fact that Toscanini madę a huge cut in the finale and retouched the

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