Russian pianist Sergei Koudriakov was born in 1978 and trained primarily in...

George Gershwin's ‘American folk opera’ Porgy and Bess was first performed in New York in 1935 with a cast of classically trained African-American singers. With a libretto by DuBose Heyward (based on his novel Porgy) and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, it’s set in fictitious Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s and tells the story of Porgy, a crippled black man, and his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her pimp, and Sportin’ Life, the drug dealer. The groundbreaking music incorporates blues and jazz elements into the classical art form of opera, though the work was not generally accepted as a legitimate opera until 1976, when the Houston Grand Opera staged a triumphant production of Gershwin’s complete score. A 1952 revival by Blevins Davis and Robert Breen had previously restored much of the music cut from the original Broadway production, including many recitatives, and divided the opera into two acts, making a more operatic form. This double CD captures that legendary 1952 production and is the only official release remastered from the original master tapes in the DLR archives. The conductor is Alexander Smallens, who also conducted the original New York premiere, and the superb cast is headed by the young Leontyne Price as Bess and William Warfield as Porgy, with Cab Calloway (Sportin’ Life), John McCurry (Crown) and Helen Colbert (Clara). This a sensational rediscovery of a recording that reveals the musical and dramatic intensity of a work that Gershwin considered his finest composition. ‘There is singing, shouting, crying, arguing, fighting, intermittent praying, dancing, howling, stamping. Nobody seems to be acting but simply offering their unique temperament, vitality and sheer existence.’ - Berliner Kurier, 1952. This atmospheric release is an indispensable addition to the discography of a thrilling masterpiece.

Ferenc Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály and Ernst von Dohnányi. He had a meteoric rise to fame, making his first appearance as a conductor at age 15, and became music director of the newly formed RIAS Symphony Orchestra in Germany in 1949. He specialised in the music of Mozart and Beethoven and conducted Carmen relatively seldom in the opera house, though more frequently in the recording studio. This CD from audite features the first production that he recorded for the RIAS Berlin in 1951, containing a compilation of key scenes from Bizet’s ever-popular opera Carmen. The orchestra sound is slender and transparent and he picks fresh but not exaggerated tempi. His choice of soloists – including mezzo-soprano Margarete Klose (Carmen), tenor Rudolf Schock (Don José) and soprano Elfriede Trötschel (Micaëla) - reveals marked contrasts in character. Fricsay considered recordings to be a synthesis of the arts in which audio engineering played a major role, and this recording demonstrates the extent of evocative effect that could be achieved by monaural means. Fricsay’s interpretation possesses a surprising modernity and this is a fascinating historic recording one of the world’s most popular operas.

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Nous vous avons récemment parlé du Porgy and Bess avec Cab Calloway dans le rôle de Sportin' Life enfin disponible en CD. Après avoir traîné de longues années dans les archives de la radio allemande, fait quelques apparitions chez les collectionneurs ou sur Internet, il y a désormais une deuxième édition du même enregistrement du 21 septembre 1952 au Titiana Palatz de Berlin, que je vous ai présenté en juillet dernier.

La respectable maison germanique AUDITE présente donc rigoureusement les mêmes pistes, sans doute dans la même qualité sonore (formidable, étant donné les moyens de l'époque). Reste à savoir si le livret sera plus intéressant que celui édité par Guild Music.

Bonus attractif s'il en est pour des fondus comme moi, Audite propose en complément un dossier téléchargeable sur leur site, présentant les critiques de l'époque.