Sony Classical’s Debut Lacks Adventure

Two months ago in these pages, Gunther Breest, the president of Sony Classical, the new major label on the block, noted that he wasn’t happy with all the projects he had inherited from CBS Masterworks, whose catalog and commitments are now part of the Sony enterprise.

One wonders how many components of this initial batch of Sony Classical releases are original Breest projects, for while it offers certain items of value, the sense of adventure promised by the much-publicized debut is lacking in the product.

Among the more pleasant surprises are three recordings that may give Zubin Mehta’s battered reputation a lift.

Richard Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony” (45800), universally considered beneath contempt a decade ago--a bombastic, rehashing/trashing of earlier Straussian ideas--has lately insinuated itself into both the catalog and the concert repertory through the offices of such celebrity conductors as Karajan, Solti, Haitink and Previn. And now Mehta. Whether he adds to what little need be known about the work is questionable, but his enthusiasm is palpable, as is the sumptuous execution by the Berlin Philharmonic. Junk food for the ears, perhaps, but tasty.

The companion piece is the delightful E-flat Horn Concerto, written when Strauss wasn’t yet rehashing himself, but assimilating ideas picked up from Schumann and Mendelssohn. The performance, by the same forces and with BPO principal Gerd Seifert as soloist, is absolutely first-rate.

Although the prospect of yet another Bartok Concerto for Orchestra fails to excite, Mehta--for whom slapdash performances became a way of life in New York--combines with the Berlin Philharmonic for an interpretation that is cohesive, finely detailed, almost chamberlike in its clarity. The accompanying “Miraculous Mandarin” Suite, Bartok’s most raucous score, is given the all-out virtuoso treatment, and it’s a thriller (45748).

Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic do not, however, provide the sensitive accompaniment due Murray Perahia’s refined interpretations of the Chopin piano concertos (44922), but Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic are congenial, gracious partners in the 1990 New Year’s concert of music by the waltzing Strausses (45808).

Two other conductors featured in Sony’s initial outpouring are Daniel Barenboim and Pablo Casals. Barenboim is both piano soloist and conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven’s C-major Concerto and Seventh Symphony in “Das Konzert” (45830), which took place last November in the presence of an East German audience celebrating the toppling of the Berlin Wall. Musically it is redundant; emotionally, it arrives too late.

Elsewhere, Barenboim and the BPO provide heavyweight backing for 65-year-old Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Mahler’s “Wayfarer” and “Wunderhorn” songs (44935), both of which he has recorded previously and, not surprisingly, in better vocal estate.

The Casals material, originating at the Marlboro Festival in the 1960s, consists of the Beethoven First and “Pastorale” (45891) and Seventh and Eighth Symphonies (45892) as well as the Bach Second and Third Orchestral Suites (45892).

The Beethovens, except for the “Pastorale” all previously released, are in the gruffly affectionate vein typical of Casals’ work at Marlboro. The Bach suites are simply ponderous. The latter disc also offers a set of canons, in effect Bach’s further variations on the “Goldberg” theme, recorded in 1976, three years after Casals’ death. The stylistically inapt realization is credited to “Marlboro Musicians” and the ensemble features pianist and festival director Rudolf Serkin.

The late Vladimir Horowitz’s last recording (45818) finds him fussing with Chopin but striking sparks with a dynamic, crisply articulated Haydn Sonata in E-flat (Hob. 49); and the listener not swept up by the voluptuousness of tone and sentiment the venerable pianist brings to Liszt’s tarting-up of Isolde’s “Liebestod” must be made of wallboard.

Isaac Stern’s playing is spirited and stylish and Daniel Barenboim is in peak form in Schubert’s undervalued oeuvre for violin and piano (44504, two discs). Together, they capture the music’s elusive combination of Romantic sentiment and Classical vitality.

The agglomeration of Stern, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Mstislav Rostropovich, on the other hand, likely had a better time than those who will be exposed to their rough, each-man-for-himself assault on works by Mozart, Telemann, J.C. Bach and Reicha (44569).

The Bulgarian production of Borodin’s complete, four-act “Prince Igor” (44878, 3 CDs), in many respects admirable, has two gaping holes at the center: Boris Martinovich fails to provide the vocal heft (with lashings of cream) demanded by the title role, and Nicolai Ghiaurov’s once-noble instrument is in tatters, with the veteran artist further unable to supply the dramatic punch to pull him through the potentially scene-stealing paces of the Polovstian Khan. Nicola Ghiuselev blusters amiably as the dissolute Galitsky, and the two women, Stefka Evstatieva as Yaroslavna and Alexandra Miltcheva as Konchakovna, are vocally accomplished and dramatically alert.

The Sofia Festival Orchestra and National Opera Chorus, both very fine, are under the lively, colorful direction of Emil Tchakarov.