New Records

Johann Sebastian Bach was 37 when he applied for the job of musical director at Leipzig's churches of St. Thomas and St. Nicolas. He was asked for some assurance that he could "maintain the music." What, for instance, could he offer for the coming Good Friday service? Bach produced his brand-new Passion According to St. John and got the job. Last week RCA Victor released the first complete recording of the St. John (6 sides LP) ever made in English.

To capture the sound and spirit of Bach's day, Conductor Robert Shaw cut the RCA Victor Orchestra down to 23 pieces, kept choruses small for most of it. As soloists, Blanche Thebom, Mack Harrell and Leslie Chabay are first class. The result is one of the most magnificent recordings of the year.

Other new records:

Beethoven: Quartets Op. 131 and Op. 59, Nos. 1, 2 and, 3 (the Pascal String Quartet; Concert Hall Society, 8 sides LP). Distinguished performances of one of the great "last" quartets and of the three "Rasoumovsky" quartets from Beethoven's middle years. The Paganini Quartet, playing with a more refined tone, offers an equally distinguished performance of the superb Quartet Op. 132 (Victor, 2 sides LP). Recordings: good.

Berg: Wozzeck (Eileen Farrell, soprano; Mack Harrell and Ralph Herbert, baritones; David Lloyd, tenor; Choruses of the Schola Cantorum and High School of Music and Art; the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting; Columbia, 4 sides LP). An excellent recording of Conductor Mitropoulos' memorable concert performance in Carnegie Hall last spring (TIME, April 23).

Copland: Old American Songs (William Warfield, baritone; Aaron Copland, piano; Columbia, 1 side LP). Simple arrangements, sung with spirit, of The Boatmen's Dance, The Dodger and I Bought Me a Cat. Other interesting home products can be heard in "Music in America's" Early American Psalmody (the Margaret Dodd Singers) and Ballads in Colonial America (sung by Jean Ritchie and Tony Kraber; New Records, 4 sides LP). Recordings: good.

Debussy: La Mer (the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini conducting; Victor, 1 side LP). Toscanini has never been satisfied with his own, or anyone else's, navigations of this impressionistic evocation of the sea. In this, his first recording, his performance has subtlety, majesty, color and power--and less perfumery than most conductors give the piece. Recording: excellent.

Milhaud: La Creation du Monde (the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein conducting; Columbia, 1 side LP). Composer Milhaud made two trips to the U.S. in the early '20s, and went back to Paris jumping with jazz. In this score for a Ballet Negre (1923), he proves that he caught the inflection better than many a serious U.S. composer has yet. The performance (with Benny Goodman taking the solo clarinet part) is in the groove. Recording: good.

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro (Audrey Mildmay and Luise Helletsgruber, sopranos; Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender and Roy Henderson, baritones; Italo Tajo, bass, and others; with the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Fritz Busch conducting; Victor, 4 sides LP). A reissue from Victor's "Treasury," first recorded in 1935 and still hard to beat. It is lighter and more sprightly than the Vienna version just issued by Columbia, although Vienna's voices are individually better.

Wagner: Die Meistersinger (Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano; Hans Hopf, tenor; Otto Edelmann and Erich Kunz, baritones, and others; the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan conducting; Columbia, 10 sides LP). In this extraordinary Bayreuth performance of Wagner's merry masterpiece, the pedantic Beckmesser (Erich Kunz) sings the Prize Song better than Walter, the hero (Tenor Hopf is far from sufficient). But Schwarzkopf is a splendid Eva, and Edelmann an adequate Sachs; the orchestra and chorus sound good. Recording: good.

Songs of the Auvergne (Madeleine Grey, soprano, with orchestra conducted by Elie Cohen; Columbia, 1 side LP). Famed Interpreter Grey first recorded these charming and picturesque French folk songs in 1931; they were reissued in 1948 and now make their deserved appearance "by request" on LP. Recording: good.

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