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Rossini: Stabat Mater (Maria Stader, Marianna Radev, Ernst Häfliger, Kim Borg; RIAS Symphony conducted by Ferenc Fricsay; Decca, 2 LPs). The composer who was once advised by Beethoven to stick to comic opera, here turns up in a churchly (if not always churchlike) mood. The chorus sings some lofty and properly devotional counter point, but the lovely solo voices have arias that bounce and flow with the joyfulness of the Barber of Seville. Performance: elegant.
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 4 (Tchaikovsky Quartet; Vanguard). A lovely and often compelling work written in 1949, now on LP for the first time (it was recorded in Russia). The music is not dissonant, but neither is it obviously slanted for mass consumption. Its slow movement is a full-blown melody, its scherzo trips along in anapaestic rhythm, its finale builds a sonorous castle of tone. On the reverse: Shostakovich's Quartet No. 5.
Other noteworthy new records: Bach's Double Concerto, played by Yehudi Menuhin and Gioconda De Vito (Victor); Debussy Piano Music, played by Robert Casadesus, sometimes assisted by his wife Gaby (Columbia, 3 LPs); 50 Years of Great Operatic Singing (Victor, 5 LPs) ; The Saint of Bleecker Street, with the original cast, including David Poleri and Gloria Lane, conducted by Thomas Schippers (Victor, 2 LPs); 60 Harpsichord Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, played by Ralph Kirkpatrick; Columbia, 4 LPs).