Excellent Good Fair Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“Henry Mancini and Friends.” Sony. $19.95. Taped in 1980 at an auditorium in Edmonton, Canada, this is definitive middle-American music, impeccably performed by a large ensemble with strings. Concert-in-the-park sounds (“Inspector Clouseau Theme”) are mixed with easy-listening Mancini piano solos (“Moonlight Sonata”), pre-rock pop songs (Vikki Carr sings “The Best Is Yet to Come”) and theatricality (Robert Goulet in the “Soliloquy” from “Carousel”). There’s even a touch of jazz in an intense Don Menza tenor solo. Craftmanship is the keynote throughout, with excellent sound and camera work.