TV Radio Mirror (Jul - Dec 1962)

ON THE RECORD Yes, the high pedestrian walk, above the traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge, in New York. He felt that all that playing would disturb his neighbors, so he used the bridge. A ' considerate chap, this Mr. Rollins! Well, after two years, he returns triumphant! His playing now seems more economical. Less of the former boppish phrasing (and hints even of Lester Young), more concentrated musical thought. The ballads are done as ballads with very little or no gymnastic3. He also appears to have absorbed nothing of the new nihilistic movement in jazz known as "The New Thing." His musical attitude seems now much more personal than contemporary, the solos are light and lean. The simplicity of these vehicles infers their directness as opposed to the current fad in jazz of beckoning us righteously into darkness. There is no doubt in this reviewer's mind that the retreat has paid off. His current group is heard here. The always fertile and sympathetic Jim Hall is heard on guitar, with Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Ben Riley and H. T. Saunders splitting the drumming. "Without a Song," usually heard as a ballad, is done in a light, swinging groove. Also here are "You Do Something to Me," "God Bless the Child," "Where Are You" and two Rollins originals, "The Bridge" and "John S." All first rate. Nothing could make me happier than to see Sonny back again. I hope he'll not vacation again for a long, long time. COMEDY ****Borge's Back — Recorded Live! — Victor Borge (MGM) — Borge the ad-libber, Borge of wrong notes, Borge of the absurdly funny demolition of language, Borge the exceptional, Borge the Greatl This is a definitely unique talent. He has mastered even the use of silence! This album is murder! Having spent some time with Borge one evening in Omaha, Nebraska, I know how incredibly funny his facial expressions are. Believe me, that's the only thing missing in this package. The bits of business he covers range from his general introductory remarks to his audience, which I'm sure could make an album itself, to his own ideas about changing language, to the now famous Borge pianistic sojourns. Every bit of it instilled with Borge's own brand of marvelous nonsense. I could give you examples of some of it, but it would lose in the telling. Just go out and buy it! Highly recommended! CLASSICAL ****Rachmaninoff — Piano Concerto No. 3, Opus 30 — Byron Janis, Pianist, Antal Dorati, Cond. — London Symp. Orch. (Mercury) — This work is the baby brother of the Second Concerto. It is an infinitely more subtle work, though it does not enjoy the Second's popularity. Rachmaninoff often echoes the Second here, but here it is a more integrated concerto we hear. The statements of theme are anything but rhetorical. It's a growing work. Slowly it appears, slowly it develops. Always in evidence, the brooding and melancholy, the constant use of the minor sub-dominant, in the major mode which has the quality of putting tears in the eyes of smiling faces, the flowing, rippling, pulsing lines, crossing from the piano into violins and back, always the emotional, the touching, always Rachmaninoff! Byron Janis plays the work beautifully. His range of dynamics, his fantastic ways of playing exceedingly hard things, with a quiet, crystal-like feeling, the attack, full of body, when needed. (It's this reviewer's humble opinion that Janis is our finest young pianist.) He certainly brings it off. The recording is one of Mercury's 35mm. Series and has the finest sound. Highly recommended. ****Wagner — (Magic Fire Music — The Ride of the Valkyries — Entry of the Gods in Valhalla — Siegfried's Rhine Journey — Siegfried's Funeral March) — William Steinberg Cond. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orch. (Command Classics) — The marriage of the most updated recording techniques (like stereo and, in this case, 35mm. tape stereo) and the music of the romantic giant, Wagner, who, himself, was obsessed with dynamics, is one to investigate. Here the clarity and balance of sound on the recording definitely makes for a more enlightening look at the music. Your reviewer was struck dumb by the opening of "Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey" (from the opera "Gotterdammerung") on side two of the recording. Aside from the absolute genius in the score of Wagner, William Steinberg's handling of this is beautifully controlled. It grows quietly into a surging mass of sound, building transparently through the dawn-like string figures which overlap in Wagner's natural leitmotiv fashion, to a stunning climax with the brass assuming the dominant role. Steinberg takes care to end each repetition of the strings quietly, so as to let the underneath strand come out at its beginning and conversely to edge the bottom and let the upper sing again. (Always building in volume and intensity.) The 35mm. recording technique adds to the beauty. It's what, to draw an analogy,