Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / May 1, 1978, edition 1 / Page 7
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Amper Eine Kleine Mozartmusik Tin1 legend of the four-year-old Wolfgang silting at the piano, atop a mound of pil lows, and boggling the assembled aris tocracy with his incredible musicianship has become a part of western European folklore. Indeed, the image is so pervasive that all child prodigies since have been meas ured against little "Wolfangerel's" imag ined accomplishments. To their detri ment for will) the possible exception of Steve Wonder (remember when he was billed as "Little Stevie"?), it is doubtful if any infant has been born with such raw musical genius as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In little more than 30 years, Mozart produced (2(i catalogued compositions, small and large, including no less than 41 symphonies, 25 concertos for piano and orchestra, 17 operas and operettas, 23 string iiai'tets, and something like ten masses. Half of this output, even a quarter, would have been enough to rank Mozart among the enduring titans of "classical" music. Yet one after the other, the com positions )oured out, mostly written on commission at knock-down prices (50 Viennese ducats for the made-to-order Requiem, his last work). The music came so spontaneously Mozart habitually kept two manuscripts going simultaneously, one darkly serious, the other light and sunny. He would alternate between the two as the mood or practical exigencies demanded. No one can own records of the com plete Mozart; there is just too much. Moreover, a couple hundred are, well, immature, and of interest only to ped ants. With that in mind, this selec'ed list of the prime cuts. As with the Bach recom mendations two months ago, there are numbing omissions, but on the theory that too few are better than too much at least for the pocketbonk we suggest this "top ten." Number one with a bullet is necessar ily Eine Kleine Nachlmusik, otherwise known as the Serenade in G, Mozart's most famous composition. Any of a dozen recordings will do, though a per sonal favorite remains the old Columbia-Odyssey version by Bruno Walter. Next in accessibility is the light hearted Serenade No. 10 for thirteen wind instruments. Mozart's serenades were meant to be entertaining back ground music for the parties of Vienna's upper-crust. The record of choice is clearly that of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble on Philips. Logically, the four horn concertos should follow. Three are engaging works, written literally to tease a horn-playing friend to virtuosic heights; the fourth is shaded with darker strokes, hinting of the profundities which were to emerge in later years. The favored recording here would be that of horn soloist Harry Tuck well on Angel though Denis Brain's out-of-print reading on Angel is one of the truly great recordings of our time. Almost anv of the piano concertos would belong in a good record collection, but a handful of readings would seem to be especially worthy: Peter Serkin's rec ordings of Numbers 14 and 17 on RCA; Alfred Brendel's versions of Numbers 19 and 23 on Philips; Robert Casadesus' pairing of Numbers 26 and 27 on Columbia. Beyond these, of course, is the now famous theme from Elvira Madigan, actually the second movement of Number 20. Qrza Anda couples that with Number 21 on RCA, but the Rudolph Serkin reading on Columbia is equally commendable. A piano virtuoso himself, Mozart w rote a considerable amount of music for that instrument including 17 piano sonatas. Most are short, intended as entertaining parlor music. The Wilhelm Backliaus recording of Numbers 4, 5, 10 and 12 on London would be the record of choice unless the budget will stretch to accommodate the three-record set by the well-matched Lili Kraus on Columbia's bargain-basement Odyssey label. Mozart's symphonies tended to alter nate between stylish amusement and somber philosophies. The problem is that most conductors cannot gracefully accommodate both aspects of Mozart's personality, the riotously profane and the sublime. George Szell's readings with the Cleveland and Bruno Walter's with a variety of orchestras are especially noteworthy. The older Klemperer rec ordings of Numbers 38 and 39 on Angel are exceptional as well. There is a huge library of chamber music for groups of all sizes, but the un challenged accomplishment among all of it are the six quartets dedicated to Franz Joseph Haydn, a composer of no mean accomplishment himself. The Quarneri Quartet versions on RCA are first rate, though the older Juilliard set on Odyssey has a large price advantage and quite ac ceptable sound. The three towering masterworks if that overworked word has any meaning left fill out this top ten. Strictly speaking, The Magic Flute is an operetta since it has spoken lines in it, but this Masonic mystery tour flashes from giddy humor to religious solemnity to philosophic musing. The version led by Karl Bohm on Deutsche Gratnmophon is excellent, with the Georg Solti set on London also worthy. Don Giovanni is quintessential Mozart, sophisticated in style, its melodies im mediately attractive, its message endlessly provocative. The Barenboim set on Angel, the Colin Davis on Philips, and the Bohm on Deutsche Gratnmophon are all excellent, with perhaps a slight edge to Davis. Finally, the Requiem, Mozart's last composition, left unfinished at his death in 1791, a work of sublime beauty w hich he recognized would be his funeral ode. The Barenboim version on Angel has the best soloists, but the Davis reading on Philips the grander, more moving overall conception. Necessarily, so much is not here the clarinet concetto, the violin sonatas, the quintets but this sampling will serve by way of introduction. And beyond these, there are some (KM) other works to discover for yourself. Ed Cray J Heavy Metal Mayhem Wailin' Van Halen Van Halen (Warner Bros.) If I could have written the script to A Star Is Born, it would've read something like this: high-school garage band forms deep in the heart of Hollywood with Aerosmith illu sions, allusions, and delusions of grandeur. Group spends a year playing everything you wanted to know about Kiss (but valued your sanity more in comparison), moves to origi nal material, clubs, and a few opening slots at local UFO concerts, gets big recording deal, cuts an album that makes Montrose look like the Mouseketeers, sells a zillion copies, inherits the earth, destroys the evil Empire, and rules the universe. Barbra can play Rhinestone (a groping groupie) and I would cast Kris as Rat Scabies in this Hora tion Alger abortion. But the real stars of this show are Van Halen, an Old Wave reincar nation of all those things you really like in a rock V roll band, such as blazing guitar telepaths, Robert Plant eunuch screams, and bass runs that crack the foundation, plus real songs instead of glorified two-chord razor-blade rampages. Their story may be a bit typical, but their sound is somewhere be tween Cheap Trick and the Apocalypse in terms of original heavy-metal mayhem. It's been a long, lonely, lonely time since such tiffs have blown through my Advents, but there isn't one wasted groove on Van Halm, a power-packed debut disc that should send pacemakers pumping in Ted Nugentland for months to come. Ed Van Halen's distortion drama and greased fret-board frenzy will surely appease the Mahogany Rush guitar-garbonzos in the audience; he plays like a one-man Blue Oys ter Cull on every rut, while microphone extension David Roth redefines Jim Dandy and grafts Sammy Hagar onto his own dis tinctive vocal hi-jinks. Couple this to a rhythm section 'hal'll alert the National Guard after two bars, and you've got some thing that may bury the Led Zeppelin myth for good. No turkeys on this Derringer death-wish, even though Van Halen's been influenced by everything since Steppenwolf was hatched. "Runnin' with the Devil," "Little Dreamer," and "Feel Your Love Tonight" come from the Bad Co.-Foreigner book of laser-licks, while "Jamie's Crying" and "I'm the One" make Rick Nielsen sound like Rod McKuen, and "Atomic Punk" and "Eruption" should knock the rocks out of Queen's pretty little heads for a while. But "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," "On Fire," and a Waring-blender version of "You Really Got Me" are the clinchers on this real rocket to Russia, to hell with the bollocks. Rock isn't dead, just backdated, and Van Halen may just be the band to redirect us from the blank generation to the days when it was considered an asset to be exceptional songwriters and talented musi cians (it has been a long time, hasn't it?). Am I nuts over this or just plain nuts? Only your psycho-analyst knows for sure, but don't blame me if he starts puking blood on your carpet. Chris Clark Little Feat: Waiting tor Columbus (Warner Bros.) Little Feat enjoy the reputation among many of their fans as the finest band in America. Personally, I'm a little nervous about making commitments like that, but if some crazed hipster were to hold a gun to my head and demand to know who's best, I probably wouldn't hesitate too long before answering Little Feat. And if this crazed hipster demanded proof, I'd immediately ofier to play him the new live Little Feat album, Wailing for Co lumbus. Like most live albums, Waiting for Colum bus is pretty much a greatest hits package. And, like most live albums these days, it's a two-record set. Unlike most live albums, the versions of the songs included here arc al most without exception superior to the orig inal studio tracks. Except for the very nice touch of adding a
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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