November Records

SYMPHONIC ETC.

Dmitri Shostakovich: Fifth Symphony (Cleveland Orchestra, Artur Rodzinski conducting; Columbia; 10 sides). Most popular of Fire Warden Shostakovich's big, embattled symphonies, the Fifth has already been recorded by Stokowski and the Philadelphians for Victor. The Clevelanders do a brilliant job, but Stokowski's recording is still tops.

Debussy: Iberia (Pittsburgh Symphony, Fritz Reiner conducting; Columbia; 6 sides). Debussy's moon-drenched impressionist landscape of Spain (one (of his finest orchestral works) has yet to get an ideal recording. The Pittsburghers lack the New York Philharmonic's (Barbirolli; Victor) finish, but Conductor Reiner paints Debussy's highlights more subtly.

Max Bruch: Concerto in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra (New York Philharmonic-Symphony, John Barbirolli conducting, with Nathan Milstein; Columbia; 6 sides). One part fireworks, two parts schmaltz, no intellectual bitters, well shaken by a brilliant fiddler and guaranteed to warm the spirits of any fiddle fan.

POPULAR

Gems of Jazz, Volume 5 (Decca; 10 sides). Latest addition to Decca's excellent historical anthology. Selected tidbits of the best small-scale Chicago and New Orleans style playing by such immortals as Jimmie Noone, Zutty Singleton, Eddie Condon, Jimmy McPartland. Notable items: Liberty Inn Drag and Get Happy, by the orchestra of famed Pianist Art Hodes, who has not made a recording since the '20s.

Cow Cow Boogie (Freddie Slack and his Orchestra; Capitol). Blues prairily twanged by Vocalist Ella May Morse.

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