Earnest: Wit To Equal Moderns

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30445, 20 May 1964, Page 10

Earnest: Wit To Equal Moderns

OSCAR WILDE: Th* Importance of Being Ernest. Sir John Gielgud, Roland Culver, Dame Edith Evans, Pamela Brown, Celia Johnson, Jean Cadell, Aubrey Mather, Brewster Mason and Peter Sallis. Produced by Sir John Gielgud. Record Society mono RZ.60911/2 (two 12in, 60s).

It is difficult to imagine a better recorded performance than this of Wilde’s perennially amusing play. Gielgud, as John Worthing, underplays with splendid style, while Roland Culver, with a generous share of the good lines, plays the more gratifying role of Algie with impish vitality. For this reviewer Edith Evans is Lady Bracknell, and no more need be said. Pamela Brown is elegance personified as the Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax, and her scene with Cecily (the excellent Celia Johnson) is a masterpiece of timing. Jean Cadell must flinch every time she hears the slight slip she made in the speech expressing Miss Prism’s pleasure at the return of the bandbag—on the stage it would not have been noticed, but the extra syllable should have been snipped out of the tape —but her gasp when she is confronted by Lady Bracknell is ample restitution. Aubrey Mather chants piously as Dr. Chasuble, and the butlers, played by Brewster Mason and Peter Sallis, are models of discretion. In short the whole production is a joy. This wonderful set has been recently deleted in Britain, and those who do not take this chance of acquiring it may not have another. There is more lasting enjoyment to be obtained from it than from the records of present-day comedians and satirists—and the wit is equally pointed.

FALLA: The Three Cornered Het Suites Wes. 1 and 2. RAVEL: Alborada del Cracloso; Daphni* and Chloe Suite Ho. 2. Carlo Maria Glulini conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra: World Record Club stereo SPZ.S4O (12in, 15s). Mono also available. A record like this brings home to one that the loss of the Philharmonia Orchestra is going to be keenly felt by record collectors everywhere, for when it was at its peak form, as it is here, the Philharmonia had few rivals. Giulini gives such vital, bril-liantly-coloured performances of the suites that one wishes he had recorded the great

Falla and Ravel ballets in their entirety. The stereo sound is first-class.

BEETHOVEN: Mass In D, Op. 123 (Missa Solemnii). Elisa beth Schwarzkopf (soprano). Christa Ludwig (mezzosoprano), Nicolai Gedda (tenor), Nicola Zaccarla (bass) with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Singvereln des Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and the Philharmonia Orchestra. World Record Club stereo STZ.2I4/5 (two 12in, 535), Mono also available.

No-one should throw away the old Toscanini edition of the Missa Solemnis in favour of the Karajan set,.in spite of the new version’s superior sound. Karajan’s conducting

is fervent and deeply felt, but it lacks the fiery glow and drama that Toscanini brought to the work—the trumpet and drum passage in the Agnus Dei, for instance, is not nearly as electrifying. Those who find Toscanini’s version theatrical may, on the other, hand, be completely satisfied by this more romantic and lyrical performance. The Viennese choir sings splendidly and the solo quartet is a fine one, although the recorded balance of the soloists varies. Schwarzkopf, especially, often seems too distant. The stereoimage has a tendency to wander and the level of sound is rather low, defects which may account for the non-issue of the stereo edition in Britain. The mono edition should be better.

FRANCK: . Symphony In D minor. Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. RCA Victrola mono V1C.1034 (121 n 29s 6d).

Munch, one of the leading interpreters of French music of our time, directs a vigorous and stirring performance of Franck’s Symphony, and this appears to be the only version of the work now available here. The Boston Symphony plays with sumptuous tone and great precision, snapping out the Sudden fortissimo chords in the first movement like rifle shots. The sound is good in a reverberant way, apart from some over-prominent woodwinds