March Records

Schumann: Quintet in E-Flat Major (The Busch Quartet with Rudolf Serkin, pianist; Columbia; 8 sides). Up-to-date sound technique and sympathetic playing make this the finest recording of Schumann's chamber-music masterpiece.

Sibelius: 7th Symphony (N.Y. Philharmonic-Symphony, Sir Thomas Beecham conducting; Columbia; 6 sides). Between this and last month's 7th (by Vladimir Golschmann and the St. Louis Symphony, for Victor), Sibelius fans will find it hard to choose. Beecham's has slightly more vitality. Golschmann's version is better recorded.

Songs of Free Men (Paul Robeson, baritone; Columbia; 8 sides). An anthology of leftist folk and propaganda songs is sung (in Russian, Spanish and English) as only Robeson can sing them. Included is the stirring Song of the Plains, popularized on previous records by the Red Army Chorus of the U.S.S.R., two rough-hewn numbers from Dzerzhinsky's Soviet opera Quiet Flows the Don, scheduled for its Manhattan premiere this summer.

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