Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mahler Symphony No. 4 in G Major. A 1939 radio broadcast by a conductor who knew Mahler well, took detailed notes on the composer-conductor’s interpretation of the Fourth Symphony, and wrote them into his own score of the work. The result is a performance full of extravagantly romantic gestures whose authenticity, if problematic, is almost always convincing to the ear. Not that it matters, but the sound is quite tolerable (TT).

Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, Songs of Angels: Christmas Hymns and Carols (Telarc). Had it up to here with super-slick holiday musical fare? Then allow me to direct your attention to this 1994 CD, in which America’s most celebrated choral conductor remade the much-loved a cappella arrangements of traditional carols that he first recorded on 78 in 1946. The singing is lovely, the arrangements tasteful. Guaranteed to cleanse your ears of Christmastide commercialism (TT).

Rumer Godden, In This House of Brede. (Simon & Schuster, $25). In this quietly absorbing 1969 novel, the author of the book on which Jean Renoir’s The River was based tells the story of a well-heeled British civil servant of a certain age who renounces the world, gives away her earthly possessions, and enters an abbey to become a cloistered nun. Whatever your religious views, if any, my guess is that you’ll be impressed, not least because Godden portrays the social life (so to speak) of a tightly-knit religious community with absolute candor (TT).

Mitchell’s Christian Singers, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 1 (1934-1936) (Document). The rough-hewn, sometimes startlingly dissonant a cappella harmonies of this vocal quartet, which traveled from North Carolina to Carnegie Hall in 1939 to sing at John Hammond’s first From Spirituals to Swing concert and subsequently got written up in Time, have since caught the ears of everyone from Bob Crosby to Maria Muldaur. The first volume of Document’s comprehensive reissue of the group’s 78 recordings contains its best-known side, “Traveling Shoes,” plus plenty of other gospel songs that swing and shout like nobody’s business (TT).

John P. Marquand, So Little Time. All but forgotten today, this 1943 study of a disappointed playwright who married up and sold out is also a powerfully evocative snapshot of America on the eve of World War II. It’s not a great book by any means, and Marquand would work the same turf more effectively in Point of No Return and Women and Thomas Harrow, but I can’t think of another American novel that does a better job of suggesting what it felt like to watch the world sliding toward catastrophe (TT).

H.L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy. Underrated by critics ever since its original publication in 1926, Mencken’s pithy “treatise” on democracy (he wrote similar books on religion and morals) was reprinted last fall by Dissident Books in a paperback edition. It is greatly deserving of a new audience. For all the inescapable limitations of Mencken’s damn-the-boobs point of view, Notes on Democracy, in addition to being among the most personal of his books, is also the most artfully written and least well known of his many essays on democracy and its discontents. If you’re feeling disillusioned with the wisdom of the masses–no matter what your reasons–you’ll find it grimly amusing and hugely diverting (TT).

I Know Where I’m Going! This 1947 Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger film, surprisingly little known in this country despite its release on DVD by the Criterion Collection, is a fantasy-tinged romcom about a priggish young woman (Wendy Hiller) who decides to marry a rich older man but is swayed from her course by a Scottish laird (Roger Livesey) who, unlike her, is in tune with the quiet joys of village life. The film’s surface charm conceals a tough-minded critique of contemporary materialism, yet Powell, Pressburger and their delectable cast never allow it to become obtrusively heavy-handed. I’ve no idea why this wonderful film isn’t as popular as the Ealing comedies (TT).

Creole Rhapsody: Duke Ellington in the Thirties (ASV Living Era, two CDs). An unusually well-chosen 2007 collection of key recordings from a decade in Ellington’s long career that in recent years has come to be overshadowed by his extraordinary studio recordings from 1940-42. In addition to the title track, it contains “Mood Indigo,” “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” “Echoes of the Jungle,” “Reminiscing in Tempo,” the original studio version of “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” and 39 other essential performances. The engineering is a bit spotty but generally good. This is the grab-and-go Ellington album that I currently pop in my bag before embarking on a road trip (TT).