Borodin: Prince Igor (artists and orchestra of the Bolshoi State Theater, U.S.S.R.; Asch, 10 sides). A top-drawer company, featuring communal teamwork instead of star soloists, distinguishes this streamlined Moscow recording of a pre-Soviet opera. Well recorded on unbreakable vynalite. Performance: good.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 ("Choral") in D Minor (Philadelphia Orches tra, Eugene Ormandy conducting, with Stella Roman, Enid Szantho, Frederick Jagel, Nicola Moscona and the Westminster Choir, John Finley Williamson conducting; Columbia, 16 sides). The first U.S. recording in German of this colossus for orchestra and voice is many shades below Columbia's superlative prewar waxing by Felix Weingartner and the Vienna...
