In the past six weeks the record market has been mildly flooded with repressed albums unobtainable during the war. Space forbids any adequate treatment of these, allowing criticism only of two of the most significant new Victor releases issued during the past two weeks.

Vladimir Horowitz's new recording of three Chopin selections (DM-1034) contains not only examples of the most widely different Chopin moods, but equally valid illustrations of the best and worst in Horowitz.

The Grande Valse Brillante in A Minor, Opus 34, is a waltz only by virtue of its three-four time; its tempo (lento) brings it closer to the dark introspective nocturnes and preludes. To Horowitz, however, a waltz must be a waltz; by speeding it up to almost twice its generally accepted tempo, he gives it a ballroom flavor it was never meant to have.

In Opus 22, an Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise in E flat, a work hampered both by an episodic lack of coherence and by a certain shallow virtuosity, Horowitz's amazing command of keyboard technique, unfortunately combined with a lack of feeling and perception, becomes especially noticeable.

His frequent performances of the overworked A flat Polonaise have varied considerably; the recorded version coincides with his Boston presentation in emphasizing its tympanic brashness rather than its heroic power.

By substituting harpsichord for piano, Victor has produced a version (DM-1035) of J. S. Bach's Third Sonata for violin and clavier in E flat more faithful to the Seventeenth Century style than the recording cut several years ago by Yehudi Menuhin and his sister Hepzibah. Although the harpsichord part may be slightly less important than the violin, the precision and vigor commanded by Wanda Landowska provide a better accompaniment for Menuhin than the carefully uninspired piano performance by his sister.

Menuhin has often been accused of stylizing his performance to provide a better display of his virtuoso technique, but here no such criticism can be offered, for his presentation contains the proper lyric and melodic qualities without the affectation which detracted from his playing of the late Mozart sonatas. oaf