Records: Michelangeli Returns To Studio

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30940, 22 December 1965, Page 5

Records: Michelangeli Returns To Studio

Arturo Benedetti Mlchelatueli has been coaxed back into the recording studio and the flrst recital has appeared only a few month* after It* British release on Decca stereo SXLM.6IBI (12in, 42s M). This Italian pianist had become a legendary figure, for he had made few recordings —the last in 1958—and after a serious illness was busier teaching than giving concerts. But now, like Horowitt, who he is said to match in technique, he is expanding his activities. A "Financial Times” reviewer, writing on this page after a London concert earlier this year, ranked Michelangeli with Serkin end Richter as “one of the handful of great pianist-musicians of this age.” The record shows him in uneven moods. The major work, Beethoven’s Op 111, Sonata No. 32 in C minor, is beautifully played but it is more good playing than great. The flrst movement is small in scale, while a pianist friend is still muttering about the way Michelangeli desynchronised his hands for some

chords in the slow movement (mind you, he insisted on hearing it again). Tha other works strike fire: three sonatas by Scarlatti and one by Galuppi, played gracefully and full of delightful nuance. Kiri Te Kanawa cannot fail to delight. On her third recording, Kiwi mono EA. 117 (7in, 13s 6d), she sing* four English folk songs, “My Lady Greensleeves,” “Soldier, Soldier," ■’Geordie,” and “False Love,” with an instrumental playing a beautifully spare arrangement for harp, oboe and cello by Dorothea Franchi. Good songs, New Zealand’s soprano discovery spinning sparkling tones, excellent recording—what more could you want?

Some children called in the midst of the week's reviewing ■nd were treated to Menotti’a “Amahl and the Night Visitor*” on RCA Victor mono LM.2762 (12in, 42s 6d). This agreeable Christmas opera was written in English for television (and has been shown here) and is about the night the Three Kings stayed in the hovel of Amahl, the crippled shepherd boy, on their way to Bethlehem. The tale and telling are better than the music, but the children enjoyed it all, except the seven-year-old who could not follow all the words and had to be given a running commentary. The performance is good and, of course, the sound is much better than could be expected from any TV set. This version will be broadcast from 3YC on Saturday evening.

There seemed too many other Christmas recordings to mention, because so many singers, from Lome Greene and Elvis and Bing to Joan Sutherland, had turned out seasonal pot-boilers, but then a 7in local disc was brought to this column’s attention. On Robbins EP.6I (13s fid) the Sacred Heart Girls’ College Schola has recorded “Four International Hymn Favourites.” The works are “Brother James's Air,” “Ave

Verum,” “Were You There?” and "Godhead Here in Hiding," which have some hard parts, but the young voices are well trained and musically sensitive and are heard to admiration. The sound is fair. This Is the choir’s third record in two yearsA two-record set at Bach Flute Sonatas is completed by the issue of the second volume on World stereo 5RZ.6131 (12in, 30s). There is a slight change from the first volume, for three sonatas here have a cello part to support the harpsichordist’s left hand, and one is for unaccompanied flute. The three forces, JeanPierre Rampal (flute), Robert Veyron-Lacroix (harpsichord) and Jean Huchot (cello), are beautifully balanced and recorded, and their virtuosity breath-taking.