Handel: Messiah (Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Malcolm Sargent conducting; Huddersfield Choral Society, with Isobel Baillie, soprano, Gladys Ripley, contralto, James Johnston, tenor and Norman Walker, basso; Columbia, two albums—38 sides, $22.50). An outstanding performance but not quite as good as the version done by Sir Thomas Beecham more than 15 years ago. Performance: orchestra and chorus, excellent; soloists, fair.
Khachaturian: Gayne (pronounced "guy-nuh") Ballet Suite (New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, Efrem Kurtz conducting; Columbia, 6 sides). The furious-paced, but sometimes silkily lush music for Khachaturian's ballet on Soviet collective farm life. The ballet, which...