TCHAIKOVSKY. The Tempest— Fantasy Overture. FEKETE. Caucasus—Ballet Suite, Op. zo. Vienna State Opera Orchestra conducted by Zoltan Fekete. Concert Artist LPA 3024 (12 in-, 36s. 51d.).

When the Russian critic Stassov heard Romeo and Juliet he made the lunatic complaint that Tchaikovsky had left out the Nurse. Three years later he offered the composer three plots for a similar work: Taras Bulba, Ivanhoe and The Tempest. Tchaikovsky chose The Tempest. So Stassov prepared a scenario and put everything in—except that he nearly forgot Prospero. (Curiously enough the six chords that represent Prospero on his two brief appearances reveal him to have been a Russian gentleman; the nationality is unmistakable.) Stassov's scheme is something as follows: The Sea (Tchaikovsky told Rimsky-Korsakov that this was copied from the Rheingold Prelude) ; Ariel being ordered by Prospero to raise a storm:. the

Shipwreck;. the Dawn of Love' between Ferdinand and Miranda ('cello solo) Arid; Caliban; "the Lovers abandon themselves to the charm of victorious Passion" (I quote the sleeve; such words would not have occurred to me personally); Prospero renouncing his powers (brass chords) ; the Sea.

I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this farago. The chief trouble is that the music is so shapeless, and this of course is Stassov's fault. If the Ariel and Caliban episodes were omitted (Caliban in any case is only Mendelssohn's donkey interval a la russe) the love music would develop in one unit instead of two, leaving more space for Prosperoski's tune. But there are some lovely sounds, a splendid storm, and generally the piece seems to me to be about as good as Francesca da Rimini. It was popular enough in the composer's life-time and it is hard to see why it should have become so completely forgotten. I had never heard a note of it before myself.

The performance is reasonably good, though lacking in precision of attack, but the balance of the instruments is not satisfactory. There is no mellowness about the string tone—and after all they are Viennese violins and cannot really sound like this. The microphone, presumably too close, is picking up too much from too few desks, and the result is edgy tone with some distortion on climaxes.

On the other side there is a piece by the conductor who is not known by Grove or any other book of reference that I can find. Readers will notice that he has been doing a lot of recording in Vienna lately. According to the sleeve he is a Hungarian who has lived in America since just before the war. Had I not been told, I would have guessed that his Caucasus was the work of a pupil of Rimski-Korsakov writing in the i8go's. It seems to me to be quite without merit.

R.F.