Old 'Crimson's' Guide to Christmas Cheer

Four more shopping days 'til Christmas--and no present yet for Aunt Edna, eh? It's always the same: she can't read, hates fresh fruit, and thinks scent is sinful. You gave her a cut-glass rose vase last year and a hand-painted four-in-hand the year before. Well, how about a record for once? We've heard 'em all. Come closer; listen closely.

Christmas Music

There's a new Messiah out this year (no surprise), but don't buy it. Joan Sutherland is its major attraction, and Sir Adrian Boult its conductor. And unfortunately, Sir Adrian is one of those who thinks that Miss Sutherland can only sing well when she is singing Puccini (a palpable falsehood). Consequently, Sir Adrian has ripped Handel's oratoria from its century, making it as operatic and as nineteenth-century as he can. The result is a sprawling, unkempt orchestra, bawling, dyspeptic singers, and crawling, inept tempos. (London A 4357--you'll recognize the album by the ugly crucifix on its cover.)

The best Messiah now available is the Angel recording conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent (Angel 3598 C). Its soloist's names are relatively unfamiliar in this country (with the possible exception of the tenor, Richard Lewis), but Sir Malcolm, unlike Sir Adrian, has restrained his extravagances, and has produced a restrained, lyrical and perfectly balanced Messiah.

Angel now also has one of the best recordings of J. S. Bach's Magnificat in D (Angel 45027). Here the tenor is again Richard Lewis, whose Deposuit potentes de sede is one of the clearest and most satisfying interpretations of that aria; Geraint Jones conducts his own capable orchestra. On the same record--and, though unseasonal, it is probably this fact that leads us to prefer Jones' recording--is a performance of Henry Purcell's magnificent and rarely heard Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary. (Her majesty died of small pox on the fifth of March, 1695.)

Harvard College figures in several recent Christmassy records. The renowned E. Power Biggs can be heard playing Twelve Noels by the eighteenth-century French composer, Louis Claude Daquin on the reedy, mock-sixteenth-century Flentrop Organ in the Busch-Reisinger Museum (Columbia ML 5567). And the Harvard Glee Club has recorded on a local label a handsome selection of the more worthwhile Christmas carols--Volume I (Cambridge Records CRS-401), for instance, includes Vaughan Williams' arrangements of the Gloucestershire and Yorkshire Wassails, "Lo, How a Rose," Gustav Holst's Personent Hodie, the sussex Carol, and "The Holly and the Ivy." The Glee Club, recorded in Memorial Church, sings under the direction of G. Wallace Woodworth, and performs with its usual fluency and competence.

The modern carols of Benjamin Britten have now been recorded by London (London 5634, or Stereo OS 2527) by the boy Choristers of Canterbury Cathedral, under the direction of Dr. Sidney Campbell. Personally, we are suckers for the voices of boy sopranos, and when, as here, they are echoed and enchanced by the vastness of Canterbury, they can sing with great purity.

Even more lovely, if possible, are the voices of the Choristers of King's College, Cambridge, whose annual Christmas Eve Festival of Lessons and Carols London has also recorded (London 5523). This is the record our Aunt Edna will get, if we can bear to part with it. The simple and elegant service (the lessons are read by a chorister, a choral scholar, three fellows, the dean and the provost) and the truly remarkable carols (such as "Once in Royal David's City," and "Adam lay ybounden") combine to make this record the best of the Christmas offerings.

That dwindling band of eighteenth-century gentlemen (that was once, in better days, the mainstay of this institution) will be cheered by the bracing news that it now has a Christmas record all to itself. Called An Eighteenth-Century Christmas, it's put out by Vanguard (Bach Guild BG-569) and includes Corelli's Christmas Concerto, Torelli's Pastoral Concerto for the Nativity, several pieces by J. S. Bach, and the Haydn Toy Symphony (by Leopold Mozart). I Soloisti di Zagreb are the instrumentalists (dam' fine fellahs, too) and they are led by Antonio Janigro.

Finally, there's the Play of Daniel, the twelfth-century, semi-secular, demi-liturgical Christmas drama from Beauvais. Noah Greenberg has recorded his recent and acclaimed performance at the Cloisters. Russell Oberlin is a soloist (Decca DL-9402).

Recent Releases

But then, maybe your Aunt Edna doesn't really like Christmas at all, and you'd better confine your choice to something extra cathedral. Like, perhaps, Sviatoslav Richter, three of whose recordings have recently been released by American firms. Columbia has hit upon the dubious practice of recording concert performances: Richter's Carnegie Hall recital of five Beethoven sonatas last year, and a performance in Sofia, Bulgaria of Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Mr. Richter's playing is not enchanced by an impromptu counterpoint of mid-winter colds, thumping tape-recorders, passing BMT trains (in the Carnegie Hall record), and strange, unidentifiable Eastern European noises (in the Sofia one). (The Beethoven recital is M2L 272; the Moussorgsky ML 5600.)

Happily, RCA Victor has issued a studio recording of two of the Beethoven sonatas--the "Funeral March" and the "Appassionata" (LM 2545). Not so happily, Richter's studio performance is but a flabby facsimile of his live one.

News of the recordings of other pianists--all recent and all recommended--must be telescoped into the following list: Van Cliburn, Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto--exciting only in the final moment (RCA Victor LM/LSC 2562); Robert Casadesus, Schumann's Papillons, Waldscenen and Symphonic Etudes--a delightful record (Columbia ML5642/MS6242); Mr. Casadesus and his wife Gaby, Mozart's Concerto for two Pianos, K. 365--an incomparable performance (Columbia ML 5674/MS 6274); and Alexander Brailowsky, Chopin's 14 Waltzes--a workmanlike but rather bored interpretation (Columbia ML 5628/MS 6228).

On second thought, though, the best bet for your Aunt Edna is a multiple album it'll take her 'til Epiphany to get through: George Szell and the Cleveland orchestra have just put out what is, to our mind, the definitive recording of Schumann's Four Symphonies (Epix SC 6039/BSC 110). With them are Leon Fleischer and a sparkling performance of the Piano Concerto in A Minor, and that perfect niche-filler, the Manfred Overture. The whole is a wonderfully compact way of having the best of Schumann all to oneself.

Well, enough. We've said our piece; and at least we've decided what we want. The best of luck to you. And Merry Christmas.