TRAWLING THE AIRWAVES Radio recordings continue to impress ention of Chicago's broadcast trawl brings me to this month's batch of radio recordings. Busoni's Piano Concerto played by Gunnar Johansen is a major find, especially as Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt's conducting (NDR Symphony, NDR's Men's Chorus) is so consistently impressive, both artists at their best in the Pezzo serioso third movement. Music & Arts has effected a decent transfer from the 1956 tape, sonically on a par with Arbiter's latest release devoted to the art of pianist Mieczystaw Horszowski, taken from live performances given between 1966 and 1968. The most impressive is Mozart's C minor Concerto, K491, with the San Juan Festival Orchestra under Alexander Schneider, one of the few recordings of this mighty work that releases its darker side while holding fast to classical values (Horszowski plays Denis Matthews's first movement cadenza). Fluidity of pace and touch, and a certain contained urgency, also distinguish Schubert's last Sonata, Moments musicaux and Impromptus, D935 (the last is incomplete). Only Bach's D minor Concerto, with Frederic Waldman conducting, seemed to me just a mite pedantic, whereas the rest of the set is rich in insights and therefore urgently recommended.

The pianist Monique Haas is one of various instrumentalists recently commemorated by Tahra, most notably with a sensitive account of Mozart's Sonata K330 (1954). We're also given a Schumann Concerto under Eugen

Jochum (1957), Debussy's Pour le piano (the central 'Sarabande' is especially memorable) and a Toccata for piano and orchestra by Haas's husband Marcel Mihalovici. Equally impressive is a programme devoted to Marcel Meyer, principally a free and rhapsodic account of Chopin's Barcarolle (though her piano had evidently seen better days) and a exuberant if not entirely accurate account of Poissons d'or' from Debussy's second book of Images (both books are played complete, recorded in 1957). Also includes is Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain conducted by Mario Rossi (1958). So-so sound.

Bridge has released a further instalment in its series of recordings featuring members of the Budapest String Quartet in 'Great Performances from the Library of Congress'. Violist Boris Kroyt makes a mostly ravishing job of Hindemith's Viola Sonata, Op 11 No 4 (recorded in 1966), the opening melody surely the most memorable that Hindemith ever composed. The excellent pianist is Artur Balsam who also takes part in the other two works, Brahms's Horn Trio (1951), with John Burrows and Budapest Quartet violinist Jac Gorodetzky at times sounding remarkably like Adolf Busch (who famously recorded the work for EMI in the 1930s), and Shostakovich's Piano Quintet (1952). The Shostakovich has moments of great purity though I'm not sure its spirit is quite captured. Unlike Tor Mann's big, muscular Nielsen, five of the symphonies in vintage recordings (some live) dating from between 1944 and 1958, all with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Idiosyncratic at times maybe — and not always terribly well played — but always thoughtful and never unidiomatic. The First is hefty and forceful, the Second full of energy (though most of the finale is missing), the Third not unlike Bernstein's in its big-hearted exuberance, the Fourth triumphant at key climaxes and the Sixth fairly classical in style though sonically compromised. The 'historic' sound quality is pretty variable all round (sometimes bothered by extraneous noise) though the main item — a concert performance of Saul an.d David with Sigurd BjOrling as Saul and Joel Berglund as Samuel — is pretty good. This valuable collection also includes A Saga-Dream and the 'Oriental March' from Aladdin. 41

I HE RECORDINGS Busoni Piano Concerto Johansen Music & Arts ® CD1163 Mozart, Schubert etc Horszowski Arbiter ® a) 145 Mozart, Schumann, etc Haas Tahra TAH567 Chopin, Debussy, Falla Meyer Tahra TAH564 Hindemith, Brahms, Shostakovich Budapest String Quartet, etc Bridge e 9175 Nielsen Symphonies; Saul and David Mann Danacord DACOCD627-630