New Records

When a record company gets as old as Victor (57 years), its attics become loaded with faded treasures. Victor saw no sense in letting them turn to dust; on the other hand, it had to use discretion, or some old relatives and friends might be offended. Result: two record series on the company's low-priced Camden label, with none of the famed performers identified. The records are dubbings from Victor's pre-LP catalogue, with their dark-hued old sounds partly hi-fizzed through electronic tinkering. The first series contains all of Tchaikovsky's six Symphonies performed by such fictitiously named orchestras as "Centennial," "Warwick," "Cromwell."* The second batch, called The Heart of the Opera, contains excerpts from eleven popular operas (Carmen, Faust, Figaro, Traviata, etc.), some of them excellently sung by voices that are familiar music-room words./- The sound is poor to moderately good, but the price ($1.98 per LP) is just fine. Furthermore, the disks provide a brand-new musical guessing game.

Other new records:

Antheil: Ballet Mecanique (New York Percussion Group conducted by Carlos Surinach; Columbia). This notorious composition (written in 1924 for an abstract film) started wild fistfights at its Paris concert premiere and a quieter scandal in Manhattan. Thirty years after, its buzzing doorbells, roaring airplane propellers and four mechanical pianos seem just quaint and noisy. But the work has moments that are actually tender, and is surprisingly convincing.

Chavez: Toccata for Percussion (conducted by Izler Solomon; M-G-M). Probably the most recent (1953) of its genre, this is a taut and restrained composition for six players and 18 instruments. Partly because of a recording job of rare fidelity and superior performance, partly because it is a master-crafted composition, this is a stunning record.

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Norman Foster, bass-baritone; Bamberg Symphony conducted by Jascha Horenstein; Vox). These beautiful "songs for dead children," written more than 50 years ago, limn the gloomy sentiments of the discouraged Mahler and the aging splendor of turn-of-the-century Vienna. Boston's Norman Foster does them with a fine, lyrical sense.

Rossini: L'ltaliana in Algeri (Giulletta Simionato, Cesare Valletti; La Scala Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini; Angel, 2 LPs). A gay, foolish romp through romantic North Africa, featuring a harem, a love-bored bey and a high-spirited Italian girl. Hardly an ounce of musical passion, but plenty of pretty coloratura parts and some elegant singing by the principals.

Strange to Your Ears (with Jim Fassett; Columbia). Fun and games with a tape recorder (on LP), showing how musical tones and the sounds made by dogs, birds and babies change when drastically sped up or slowed down. The effect is startling and instructive, e.g., a piano played in reverse sounds like a reed organ with hiccups, a canary's trill slowed eight times sounds like a baying hound.

* Real names: Boston Symphony (Kousse-vitzky), Philadelphia Orchestra (Stokowski), Cincinnati Symphony (Goosens).

/- Among them: Rose Bampton, Leonard Warren.

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