Felix Slatkin was a musical Renaissance Man. A first-rate violinist who was one of the founders of the miraculous Hollywood String Quartet of the 1950s, he morphed into a marvelous conductor who recorded lots of 'Pops'-type classical music for Capitol Records, back in the day when Capitol vied with Mercury for top honors among music labels boasting top-rated sonics. And every once in a while, Capitol asked him to record somewhat weightier stuff than the Grieg and Strauss and Offenbach which he conducted so very beautifully. Case in point, this set featuring the very well known -- and completely delightful -- Britten score and Dohnanyi's more rarely performed Variations On A Nursery Tune. Both scores are orchestration miracles, and Slatkin and his orchestra perform them to maximum dramatic and coloristic effect. Stereo sonics are completely up to Capitol's best and HDTT's transfer is amazingly three dimensional and gorgeous to the ear. By the way, Slatkin was married to Eleanor Aller, the cellist of the Hollywood Quartet; conductor Leonard Slatkin is their son. Victor Aller, the stunning pianist in the superbly Romantic yet tongue-in-cheek Dohnanyi piece was Eleanor's brother and the pianist on legendary Capitol Hollywood Quartet recordings of the Brahms Piano Quartets and the Brahms and Schumann Piano Quintets (which may be still available on the UK Testament label).
