Music

...With no visual distractions, it is possible to concentrate on Barber's skill as an orchestrator, and many interesting effects show up more clearly on the recording than in the opera house...

...It is easy to see why...

...On the recording, I have no reservations at all: Her performance of the title role is just short of a disaster and quite frequently succeeds in completely dissipating the fragile mood that the librettist and composer work so hard to build...

...Moving from the piano to grand opera, a complete recording of Samuel Barber's Pulitzer Prize Vanessa has been issued by Victor (LM 6138...

...MUSIC By Hibbard James Vladimir Ashkenazy & Samuel Barber VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY, the latest entry in the international piano sweepstakes, made his American debut in Washington some weeks ago with the National Symphony under the direction of Howard Mitchell, and performed like a thoroughbred...

...Ever since he won first prize at the Brussels International Contest in 1955, the press of Europe has been rhapsodizing about his playing...

...In spite of my uncharitable feelings about the lady, the recording is technically excellent and well worth hearing...

...By and large, the music improves on rehearing...

...Any such doubts can be quickly dispelled by listening to another Ashkenazy performance on Angel...

...I have never been among the most fervent admirers of Choftin, but after hearing Ashkenazy, both in the flesh and on record, I am prepared to revise my ideas a little...

...When I first heard Vanessa, I had considerable reservations about the performance by Eleanor Steber...

...Conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos and featuring the stars of the original cast at the Metropolitan, the recording shows the same strengths and weaknesses as the stage version, though it lacks the visual impact provided by the Cecil Beaton sets and costumes...

...Rather than choosing one of the thunderous, flashy warhorses beloved by the players who want to make a quick impression, Ashkenazy took a much more dangerous course...

...Their interpretations of the rather stock young niece and the aging, Chekhovian family doctor go a long way toward overcoming the handicaps imposed by Miss Steber's blowzy bleating...

...If Barber has not yet fully mastered the exacting requirements of a completely successful opera, he still gets an "A" for effort, and a vote of thanks is due Victor for the recording and to the Metropolitan for keeping it in the repertoire...

...On this disk (35647), Ashkenazy plays such diverse pieces as Liszt's Mephisto Waltz (flashy enough to appease the most exacting), Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Corelli and the Prokofiev Sonata No...

...He has also recorded the Brahms Concerto No...

...Ashkenazy is only 21, and if he continues to develop at his present rate and Van Cliburn doesn't learn some new numbers, I am afraid the Russians will be ahead of us in pianists as well as sputniks...

...The only caveat that one or two critics seem to have had about Ashkenazy's playing was that his seeming restraint might actually mask an inability to play more powerfully...

...2 in F Minor, an extremely difficult piece to play really well because of its unostentatious poetry and subtle shadiness...

...I think Barber has written an excellent and sensitive score, but it is only rarely that the music of an opera triumphs over a weak libretto (and don't write in about The Magic Flute-Barber is no Mozart), and that is exactly what Gian-Carlo Menotti provided him with...

...He approached the concerto with a deftness of touch that made the piano respond with a sweetly eloquent tone that is altogether too rare, and always managed to convey a sense of restraint that made the piece both moving and beautiful...

...He chose the Chopin Concerto No...

...7 in B Flat...

...With one notable exception, the opera's cast remains excellent...

...Such cases are not unknown...

...2 which I haven't heard yet...

...The story line is vaguely Chekhovian without Chekhov's insight into character, and the one real crisis of the opera-the attempted suicide of Erika-turns out to be basically phony...

...The other singers make ample restitution, however, and I find it hard to imagine that the performances of Rosalind Elias and Gioggio Tozzi could be improved upon...

...in the case of the baritone Gerard Souzay, his apparent restraint turns out to be the lack of a decent forte...

...For those who will not be fortunate enough to hear Ashkenazy on his current cross-country tour (at the moment, the State Department is being cross about the cities-and even boroughs-that he will be allowed to visit), Angel has just released a stunning recording (D35403) of the same Chopin concerto in which Ashkenazy is backed up by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Z. Gorzynski...

...This is one of three recordings Ashkenazy made for Angel in Berlin, and they are enough to establish him as a coming major figure in the world of the concert piano...