newjerseynewsroom.com

BY WARREN BOROSON

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

There’s an irresistible article in the latest BCC Music Magazine (January 2012): “The 50 Greatest Recordings of All Time.” Based on the votes of 35 of “the world’s finest critics.” Mostly British critics.

My verdict: The selections of both music and performers prove patchy and not a little partial.

Regarding partiality, three of Benjamin Britten’s works? And two of Elgar’s concertos? (Both composers British.) But nothing by Copland? Dvorak? Or Mendelssohn? And only one opera by Puccini (“Tosca”), and only Verdi’s Requiem?

Re the performers, there are such great artists as Schwarzkopf, Kleiber (father and son), Ludwig, von Karajan, Sutherland, Flagstad, Gould, and Kathleen Ferrier.

But no Enrico Caruso at all! The singer credited with introducing recordings to the general public, and whose rendition of “Si pei ciel” from “Otello” with Titta Ruffo has been considered the single best recording of all time.

And no Toscanini, no Heifetz, no Rubinstein, no Wunderlich, no Rethberg, no Melchior, no John McCormack, no Chaliapin, no Rosa Ponselle, no Ezio Pinza, no Horowitz, no Rachmaninov (as a pianist), no Rostropovich.