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LALO: Symphonie Espagnole; SARASATE: Zigeunerweisen. Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin, with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Orchestre National de France (Angel; LP or CD). The Symphonie Espagnole is a puzzlement. Neither a symphony nor a concerto, and no more authentically Spanish than Chabrier's Espana or Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole, Lalo's five-movement showpiece for violin and orchestra has never won a firm place in the standard repertory. Sometimes in performance, it even has its third movement omitted, for unfathomable reasons. But a high-spirited, sensitive soloist can make it effective, and Mutter, 22, is that ideal performer. A German whose effortless technique and voluptuous sound put her in the forefront of today's young instrumentalists, she lights up the Iberian peninsula with her dazzling technique. If anything, her performance of Sarasate's lusty Gypsy fantasy Zigeunerweisen is even more spectacular.
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Sinfonia Antartica. Bernard Haitink conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Angel; LP only). Many of Ralph Vaughan Williams' nine symphonies evoke a specific place or mood, among them the choral "Sea" Symphony, the matchless "London" Symphony and the gentle "Pastoral" Symphony. Others, like the exquisite Fifth Symphony, quote from the British composer's other works (in this case, the opera The Pilgrim's Progress). His Seventh Symphony, the "Antartica," does both. It began as music for the 1948 movie Scott of the Antarctic, and a few years later was transformed into a five-movement work. However suspect its origins as a film score, the "Antartica" is a rumbling, frightening opus, summoning up the terror and wonder that the explorer experienced on his fatal adventure. Haitink, who has a strong affinity for British music, admirably realizes the score's sense of impending, dispassionate, impersonal doom.
BENNY GOODMAN: Private Collection. Chamber music of Brahms, Beethoven and Weber. Benny Goodman, clarinet, with Leon Pommers, piano, and the Berkshire String Quartet (Musicmasters; 2 LPs). The King of Swing's classical recording career dates back to 1938, when he recorded the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with the Budapest String Quartet. These performances of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and Trio in A Minor, Beethoven's Op. 11 Trio for piano, clarinet and cello, and Weber's Clarinet Quintet, which date from about 25 years ago, are | distinguished by Goodman's bright, bracing tone and fleet fingerwork. Although the clarinet naturally predominates, Goodman hands off the musical lines just as deftly as he did in a different kind of chamber music, accompanied by Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson and the late Gene Krupa. Good musicianship, like gold, is negotiable anywhere.