TREVOR HARVEY

Barbirolli's two Elgar records head my choice, not merely because I am an Elgar partisan (I can hardly deny that in these pages!) but simply because the music is played and recorded so gloriously. The First Symphony is with the Philharmonia Orchestra on HMV mono ALP1989: stereo ASD540; the Introduction and Allegro and Serenade for strings are coupled with Vaughan Williams's Tallis and Greensleeves fantasias and is superbly played by the Allegri Quartet and the Sinfonia of London on RMV mono ALPI970: stereo ASD52I. The year has also been notable for the issue of all four of Schumann's symphonies by the Cleveland Orchestra under SzelI; I could choose any of them but I shall settle for No. 2—Columbia mono 33CX1853: stereo SAX2496—for while there are other fine versions of the more popular st and 4th, this least-known of them is ,?resented with sympathy, yet with authority, and lin playing of outstanding quality. Then I haven't forgotten that coupling of Mozart symphonies, Nos. 33 and 39 played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Kertesz who on this evidence seems i.to be a born Mozart conductor—indeed, .a born conductor, for it isn't easy to get such fresh playing and so distinguished a ;performance in so much-played a symphony as the great E flat; this is from Decca, .rnono LXT6056 and stereo SXL6056. A Bruno Walter record gets into my list, for I have never heard a better judged and more satisfying performance of Dvoiák's O major Symphony, No. 8, than his; the fill-up is Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, the orchestra is the Columbia Symphony and the disc is CBS mono BRG72097: stereo SBRG72097. Lastly, something of a stunt record, but a very successful stunt. For Bernstein's performance of Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra the narration is spoken (and very well, too) by Master Henry Chapin, still with voice unbroken, while Bernstein himself adds a wholly captivating, as well as instructive, commentary on Saint-Saëns's Carnival of Animals on the other side; the orchestra is the New York Philharmonic and this is another CBS record, mono BRG72072: stero SBRG72072.