BARBER. School for Scandal Over- turet. HANSON. Pastorale for oboe, strings and harp. Robert Sprenkle (oboe), Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Hanson. Mercury Mono XEP9014 (7 in. 1 ls. plus 3s. 7d. P.T.). Item marked t previously available on MRL2507 (11/56).

Only devotees of American music I would say, can take any interest in this disc. Barber's Overture to The School for Scandal, written in 1932 at the age of twenty-two as a "graduation exercise", is a professional but conventional piece of bustle, with a folky subsidiary tune; it is described on the sleeve as "among the classics of the American repertoire", but it seems to me to lack the spontaneous if limited inspiration of such a work as John Ireland's London Overture. Howard Hanson's Pastorate, which dates from 1949, is a neatly-tailored bit of Gebrauchsmusik, strangely unreposeful and urban-sounding, considering its title. This impression may be caused by the forceful and hurried treatment it receives under the composer, but one supposes that he knows how he wants it played. Barber's Overture is given a lively but less than absolutely precise performance; the recording is excellent. D.C.