11ALCOLM MACDONALD

Two versions of Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra must both be mentioned: Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on RCA-Victor mono RB6518: stereo SB6518 for their splendidly fiery sound; and Maazel and the Philharmonia on Columbia mono 33CX1823: stereo SAX2467 for their refinement and beauty (and also for their additional inclusion of Till Eulenspiegel). Zarathustra, however, is not to everybody's taste; greater modesty in music and in orchestral resource can be rewarding, and is so in two concerto records: HMV mono CLP 1656, on which Leon Goossens and the Philharnionia under Susskind give the Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto and Tovey's extraordinarily effective reconstruction, for oboe d'amore, of Bach's A major harpsichord concerto; and DGG mono APM14318: stereo SAPM1983 18, on which four soloists and the Emil Seiler Chamber Orchestra expound Vivaldi's convincing views on how to write concertos for the flautino, the 'cello, the violin with echo violin, and the viola d'amore with lute.

Wind ensembles have been gratifyingly forthcoming. Perhaps, on disc, the best of the smaller ones was the London Wind Quintet playing quintets by Seiber, Gerhard, Fricker and Arnold on Argo mono RG326: stereo ZRG5326; of the larger ones Jack Brymer's London Wind Soloists playing the Mozart E flat Serenade and two Divertimenti on Decca mono LXT6050: stereo SXL6050. Finally, the year's solo spot must break precedent in going not to the guitar but instead to its cousin the harp: on Delysé mono ECB3164 Maria Korchinska offers suitably ravishing sounds envisaged by composers from Handel to Hindemith.