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FROMTHEHpUSE

THEDtAD

JANaCEK: From the Hottse of the Dead. Jiff Zahrudnićek. lvo Zidck; Vicnna Philharmonic. Charles \tuc-kerras. London LDR 10036 (2).

The Fourteenth A i nual High Fidelity/ International Record

Critics Awards

by James R. Oestreich

This yf.ar. as in 1975. the finał balloting for the International Record Critics Awards was done by mail. Though this purely economic expedient presented its problems. it did furnish a ready opportu-nity for us to become slill morę ‘‘International.” So for the first time sińce 1968. when Kenji Tsumori served on the origi-nal panel, we had a Japanese judge, Toshio Oka. Our attempts to add a Ca-nadian judge. however. were unavailing. The finał voting was done on a weighted basis. with each judge rating his top five recordmgs from the nominated list.

From both the preliminary nomi-nations and the finał judging. it appears that the Janaćek opera recording may have been the year’s most impressive achievement. One of the few objections to giving it an award was registered by Alfred Hoffman, who felt that we should not again honor the same Charles Mac-kerras senes that produced a 1978 win-ner. Katya Kabanova. Even over his de-murrer. however, House of the Dead scored highest in the voting.

Two of this year’s other awards also hark back to earlier ones. The Tokyo Quartet’s first recording. a Haydn/ Brahms coupling in Deutsche Grammo-phon’s Debut series, won an award in 1972. The Bartok project, of which the Second and Si\th Quartets have been re-leased preeiously. reflects the group’s first personnel change, in 1974. but not its most recent; these were among the fi-

Serge and Olga Koussevitzky International Record Award

The Koussevitzky Award. now ad-ministeredjointly by the MusiciansCIub of New York and High Fidelity. recog-nizes the work of a livingcomposer in very tangible form—with a $2.000 contri-bution to hislivelihood Any work that includesa sizable orchestra and hasap-peared in its first recording in the previ-ousreleaseyear(May I toApri!30. by our definition) is eligible. Though not continuous. HF’sconnection to the award dates back to the beginnings of IRCA.when theannual international "best record” awards were established in conjunction with the September 1968 Montreux Festival.

Just previously, at the June 1968 Al-deburgh Festival. David Atherton had

^ • • - * HARRISON BIRTWISTLE: Pinich and.huiv Stephen Roberts. l)avid Wilson-Johnson: London Sinfonietta. Da-vid Atherion. Decca Headline HEAI) 24/5(2).

conducted the premiere of Punch and Judy, British composer Harrison Birt-wistle’ssettingofa libretto by the expa-triate American musicianand writer Stephen Pruslin. Nowcomes that work*s first recording. with Atherton again at the hełm. and ifs a beauty; in fact. in ad-dition to Edward Greenfield’s Koussevitzky nomination, it received enough preliminary votesto make the IRCA “best records^ł,list. The opera w on handilyin the finał Koussevitzky ballot-ing. This is the second such award in three years fora work recorded in the Headline series, and Decca s taut performance. thorough documentation, and meticulous production do fuli justice to this fascinating and enigmatic concep-tion—“a tragical comedy or a com ical tragedy.” Into a single Parsifal-scaled act is packed a fuli quota—even by operatic standards—of mayhem, as Punch kills offcharacter aftercharacter in his quest for Pretty Polly. Of course. this is all par-ody. and these are just puppets. (Of course.)[See Nicholas Kenyon’s review in this issue ]

The only other work to attract sig-

nificantattention from thejudges was

John Corigliano s clarinet concerto, in

the New World recording (N W 309) by

Stanley Drucker and Zubin Mehta,

which apparently ran a closer race than

the American composer’s oboe concerto

-did in 1978.

*

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HIGH FIDEI ITY