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E. POWER BIGGS PLAYS THE HISTORIC OR GANS OF EUROPE/SWITZERLAND (Columbia). A tour through nearly 900 years of musical history, from the circa-850 Sic gloria Domini, in plainsong style, to J. S. Bach's sophisticated Prelude and Fugue in B Minor. Appropriately enough, the vast range of compositions are played on ancient and venerable Swiss instruments: the oldest resides in the church of Notre-Dame-de-Val-ere in Sion, Switzerland, and was built around 1390. The elegant simplicity of old organ music underscores the fallacy that complications must mean progress.
TCHAIKOVSKY: VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR (Melodiya-Angel). An extraordinary father-son act: David Oistrakh, 58, conducts the Moscow Philharmonic, while his son Igor, 35, fiddles. David, long considered one of the world's great violinists, now proves himself, after only five years on the podium, a conductor of major talent, while young Igor shows every indication of keeping the Oistrakh name in the annals of superior violinists. Together, they exploit every nuance in Tchaikovsky's eternally popular concerto, an exercise in wild conversation between the persistent, articulate voice of the violin and the rumbling, colorful orchestra.
PROKOFIEV: CONCERTO NO. 2 IN G MI NOR; SIBELIUS: CONCERTO IN D MINOR (RCA Victor). Itzhak Perlman, the 21-year-old Israeli violinist, has already made an impressive name for himself in the concert circuit. This is his recording debut, and it confirms his growing prestige. He manages to make Prokofiev's percussive, rather frantic concerto sing, and his considerate understanding of Sibelius' darkly sad Romanticism is powerful. Conductor Erich Leinsdorf's Boston Symphony gives Perlman rich support.
MOZART: FANTASIA AND SONATA IN C MINOR AND SONATA NO. 8 IN A MINOR (Westminster). Daniel Barenboim, the peripatetic Israeli prodigy who, at 24, travels all over the world meeting the insatiable demand for recitals, plays three of the most brilliant, and saddest, of Mozart's works for the piano. The album offers great music well played—which is something to cheer about.
CINEMA
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. Sean Connery is back as Agent 007, this time blowing up a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. haunt hidden in the cra ter of a Japanese volcano. But the Bonds —which have grossed $125 million to date —are beginning to tarnish a bit around their gilt edges.
THE DIRTY DOZEN. A tough film about a misfit World War II major (Lee Marvin) who trains a squad of case-hardened criminals and psychopaths for a suicidal mission behind enemy lines.
TO SIR, WITH LOVE. Sidney Poitier in the role of an engineer-turned-teacher in a London slum school. The interim job becomes a dedication to turning hippies and chippies into grownups.
THE DRIFTER. Director Alex Matter and Photographer Steve Winsten make the ordinary something to celebrate in this fragile film about a young vagabond.
A GUIDE FOR THE MARRIED MAN. Walter Matthau, as a suburban husband looking for greener grasses and keener lasses, proves that the person who plays the common man must be an uncommon actor.
BAREFOOT IN THE PARK. Author Neil Simon has taken a plot as bland as a potato, sliced it into thin bits—and made it as hard to resist as potato chips. Jane Fonda, Robert Redford and Mildred Natwick are as crisp as the script.
BOOKS