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This is perhaps Mercury's most significant issue yet in their series devoted to American music, since it couples on a single disc the two American symphonies of our time which have made by far the greatest impact on the world at large (the Harris was originally coupled with the less significant...

This is the first appearance in our catalogues of Bart6k's Two Rumanian Dances, Opus 8a, composed (for piano) in 1909-10, and orchestrated in 1939 by Leo Weiner. The themes are "invented" folk material: that is to say, they are original melodies composed in the style and spirit of Rumanian folk...

Pritchard gets some nice playing from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, though the smsemble is a little rough round the edges here and there; but then it usually is with this orchestra. The music is presented sensibly and without either frills or thrills. I would have liked more timps, especially in...

I find it a pleasure to be able to recommend a D.G.G. Jochum/Beethoven disc wholeheartedly for once, having been rather hard on several previous ones. The performance is as finely organised and beautifully played as is usual with Jochuna and his orchestra, and—more important— the...

J.N., our regular Pastoral reviewer, is on holiday, and so this version falls to me, one who is well out of date as to the competition, and I must leave him to come back to Kubelik's reading when he next deals with the symphony.

In fairness to hi-fl addicts I should make clear straightaway that this is not a new recording. Although it has not been issued previously in this country it appears to have come out originally on 78s some time before 1953. With this in mind you will hardly expect the most realistic sound that...