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JUDITH. If the apocryphal Jewess was as fascinating as Rosemary Harris' portrayal of her, it is not difficult to believe that she could save Israel with her beauty and courage. What Jean Giraudoux probes is the psychology of why she did what she did.
A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. Arthur Miller treats epic themes in his story of a Brooklyn longshoreman who destroys himself and his family because of incestuous longings for his niece.
RECORDS
Virtuosos
HOROWITZ PLAYS SCARLATTI (Columbia). Scarlatti intended his miniature sonatas for the harpsichord (a pianoforte can distort them beyond recognition). Pianist Horowitz, who selected twelve of the 550 little pieces to show the 18th century master's range and "daring," allows an occasional chord to crash, but sensitively inflects the whispered dialogues and makes the dreamy passages more cantabile than any harpsichordist could.
SVIATOSLAV RICHTER: CHOPIN, RACHMANINOFF, PROKOFIEV, RAVEL (RCA Victor). The album was recorded by the introspective Russian at two of his 1960 recitals in the U.S. He casts a hypnotic spell with Ravel's La Vallee des Cloches and Chopin's Scherzo in E Major, then snaps wide awake with Prokofiev's Gavotte from Cinderella and the sharply etched Visions Fugitives.
CHRISTIAN FERRAS: SIBELIUS' VIOLIN CONCERTO (Deutsche Grammophon). A grandiose production of the romantic work by the young French violinist and the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan. The orchestra, dark with woodwinds, is an immense and sometimes cavernous-sounding backdrop for the deep, round voice of Ferras' violin, swift with chromatic leaps and flaming trills.
FOU TS'ONG: CHOPIN'S MAZURKAS (Westminster). One could scarcely dance i i these 18 mazurkas played by Fou Ts'ong he sometimes rushes the rhythms, sometimes lingers behind to savor every delicacy. But the Poles liked the spirit and grace of his mazurkas so well that they awarded the young Chinese a prize in their International Chopin Competition of 1955.
GLENN GOULD PLAYS BEETHOVEN PIANO SONATAS NOS. 5, 6, 7 (Columbia). Actually Gould both plays and hums the piano sonatas, accompanied by the squeaks of his piano stool. When Gould rushes headlong into a presto and comes out alive to brood over a largo, however, one stays to listen.
RUGGIERO RICCI: PAGANISM'S VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 2 (Decca). Although Paganini gives an artist little chance to plumb emotional depths, one hardly notices when the surface shimmers with such excitement. Ricci has dazzling technique, a clear, buoyant style and a sensuous tone that sweetens the devilish Italian's operatic melodies. The album also marks the return to recording, after ten years, of the excellent Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, under Max Rudolf.
JANOS STARKER: TCHAIKOVSKY'S VARIATION ON A ROCOCO THEME (Mercury). Tchaikovsky never wrote a cello concerto but this 16-minute piece makes the orchestra a shining display case for the instrument and for Starker. The theme dimly reflects Tchaikovsky's love for the 18th century and especially for Mozart, "the musical Christ," but the variations are strictly 19th century, as romantic as Swan Lake. Starker and the London Symphony Orchestra under Antal Dorati also play the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A Minor.
CINEMA