Peter Uehling, Kategorie „Eine CD für Einsteiger“:
Mozart Klavierkonzert...

Splendid singing, outstanding conducting and lively action ...

Hard on the heels of the old Decca recording under Clemens Krauss appeared this even older version from German Radio. Recorded in 1949 the sound is quite stunning. The clarity makes every detail fully audible and there is a sheen on the strings that leaves the Decca far behind. It is mono of course but of such remarkable quality that I rarely miss the stereo definition. There is a fair amount of distortion, mainly in duets and ensembles, which is irritating but possible to live with. Contrary to the Krauss issue there is dialogue included and it is delivered with theatrical flair and in high spirits. With no texts enclosed one needs to be fluent in German, but those who are not will almost certainly appreciate the atmosphere and the tangible enjoyment from the artists.

Hungarian Ferenc Fricsay was an excellent advocate of Johann Strauss’s music – documented on DG recordings – and his conducting is no less idiomatic than Clemens Krauss’s. Even a real sourpuss must be cheered up by the playing of the overture and when the imaginary curtain rises the plucked strings and harp, preceding Alfred’s serenading, will almost certainly produce shivers down the spine. And it is the conducting and the playing that time and again will make the listener sit up and prick up the ears. The Waltz of Waltzes, An der schönen blauen Donau, is played as ballet insert near the end of act II and this reading can be compared with the greatest of the many versions that have amassed in my collection.

A Fledermaus without good singers is, however, just a half Fledermaus and the Berlin based cast Fricsay had gathered can compare favourably with any of the commercial sets. Two of the singers here were to appear half a decade later on Karajan’s Columbia recording (see review); Helmut Krebs as a clear-voiced and honeyed Alfred and the young Rita Streich as a delicious Adele. As Gabriel Eisenstein we hear Peter Anders, whose 100th anniversary is celebrated this year. He was sadly killed in a car accident in 1954, aged only 46, and this recording is as good an example as any of his capacity. He is a dramatic and more aggressive Eisenstein than most others but he has charm and his singing is glorious – and sensitive. This recording is a worthy tribute to his memory. His Rosalinde is sung by a 22-year-old Anny Schlemm, who sounds more mature than her age and is absolutely splendid in Klänge der Heimat. Herbert Brauer, whose recorded legacy doesn’t seem to be too comprehensive, is an excellent Falke and the minor roles are also well taken with an extra plus for Anneliese Müller’s ‘visual’ Orlofsky.

The recording was for a while available on CD (Deutsche Grammophon) some fifteen years ago. I didn’t hear it then but I’m happy to have had the opportunity now. Considering the age and some technical shortcomings it will hardly be a first choice for a library recording but as a complement to one of the classic sets it is highly attractive. The two Karajan recordings, Boskovsky’s early 1970s version – for long my favourite version but I tend to waver sometimes – Böhm (without dialogue) and Carlos Kleiber (DG) are the cream; for a splendid DVD version there is Domingo’s Covent Garden set with Prey, Te Kanawa and Luxon and for the most Viennese of all the Krauss recording is more than worth the money. Real aficionados will need them all.

Ein Heldenleben is something of a problematic piece. Apart from its – let’s be charitable – slightly tongue-in-cheek biographical programme, it comes from a time when Strauss’s descriptive works were becoming ever longer and more prolix. That process culminated in the Symphonia Domestica of 1903, though he later tightened things up considerably in the Alpine Symphony of 1915, his last work in this genre.

Thus Ein Heldenleben puts mammoth strain on conductor and orchestra. The former has to steer a convincing path through the jungle of contrapuntal detail, while the latter simply have to manage to play their excessively demanding parts while maintaining a convincing ensemble. Given all of that, one has to say that Karl Böhm and his RIAS Symphony Orchestra, in this studio recording from 1951, turn in an impressive and idiomatic performance. Böhm was a great Straussian, having been a close friend and collaborator of the composer, especially during the 1930s. From the very start, with its striding theme in horns and strings opening out into a magnificent paragraph, he drives the music along with controlled impetuosity - if there is such a thing! - an approach of which Strauss would surely have approved. From there, we move on via an encounter with the Hero’s critics (tubas and consecutive fifths to the fore), and his wife (represented by solo violin); through a stirring battle and a review of ‘The Hero’s Works of Peace’ (a loose medley along the lines of ‘Your 100 Favourite Moments from My Greatest Hits’); to a restful, sunset-like finale. All of these passages are realised with imagination and presented with passion by Böhm and his forces.

For such an ancient recording, the sound is I suppose fairly good. But it doesn’t do justice to the players, because the engineers have gone for clarity, which has been delivered at the expense of beauty of tone, so that string sound is scratchy, woodwind tone often scrawny, and trumpets shrill. And, despite the essential quality of the playing, it has to be said that ensemble is often ragged and intonation dubious. Sadly the final wind chord is a real shocker.

The earlier tone-poem, Tod und Verklärung of 1891, is more successful, in large part because it is a more convincing piece. The thematic material is typically glorious, and Strauss finds ways of repeating his tunes with sufficient variation so that they accumulate expressive power throughout. The composer retained a life-long affection for this youthful work, which graphically describes the final hours of a man on his deathbed, as, in between the agonies of his illness, he recalls his past life and looks forward to what may be to come. The booklet notes - brief but serviceable - tell us how Strauss on his own deathbed in 1949 told his son “I can now tell you that everything I composed in Tod und Verklärung is perfectly correct: I lived through it exactly in the last few hours.”

Though similar problems exist here to those that affect Ein Heldenleben, the earlier work is simpler and more dramatic, and the performers give an intense and committed account of it. Karl Böhm does take some liberties – holding back for possibly unnecessary emphasis here, pushing forward too hectically there – but his overall reading is true to the spirit of the man he knew so well.

If these were truly great performances, the shortcomings of the recordings might have been of relatively little significance. But they don’t quite aspire to that highest level, and those who want a ‘historic’ version of Ein Heldenleben might be better advised to go for Barbirolli and the LSO on EMI Gemini, or Kempe and the Dresden Staatskapelle on EMI Classics or Brilliant Classics; the latter also include Tod und Verklärung. A fascinating document that Strauss lovers will undoubtedly want to hear.

I apologize for the absurdly long delay since I reviewed Vol. II of this...

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Ferenc Fricsay hat im Laufe seiner langjährigen Chefdirigententätigkeit beim damaligen RIAS-Symphonieorchester etliche Opern eingespielt, die teilweise für die DG entstanden, teils zunächst reine Rundfunkproduktionen geblieben sind. Das Label "audite" hat vor einiger Zeit begonnen, in Zusammenarbeit mit Deutschlandradio Kultur einige RIAS-Opernproduktionen auf CD zu veröffentlichen, so nun auch "Lucia di Lammermoor" von Gaetano Donizetti, eine leicht gekürzte Gesamtaufnahme aus dem Jahre 1953 in deutscher Sprache, wie es damals üblich war.

Wie bei seinem auf Schallplatten erschienen Mozart-Zyklus hat Fricsay auch hier primär mit Interpreten zusammengearbeitet, die ihm besonders am Herzen lagen, mit der Sopranistin Maria Stader, dem Tenor Ernst Haefliger und dem Bariton Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Maria Stader (1911-1999) wurde in Budapest unter dem Namen Maria Molnar geboren, wuchs in der Schweiz auf und machte 1939 auf sich aufmerksam, als sie den 1.Preis beim Genfer Gesangswettbewerb gewann. Ihre internationale Karriere begann nach dem 2.Weltkrieg, wobei sie wegen ihrer äußerst grazilen Gestalt weniger auf Opernbühnen als im Konzertsaal zu erleben war. Auch mit dem Namen Ernst Haefliger verbindet man in erster Linie den Lied- und Oratoriensänger, doch war er über zwanzig Jahre an der Städtischen bzw. Deutschen Oper Berlin als 1. lyrischer Tenor tätig und erzielte vor allem im Mozartfach bedeutende Erfolge.

Intelligenz und Einfühlungsvermögen
Die vorliegende Einspielung zeigt exemplarisch die vokalen und interpretatorischen Qualitäten der beiden: sichere Intonation, feine Legatobildung, Übereinstimmung in der Modifizierung des Zeitmaßes und der Phrasierung wären hier zu nennen. Darüber hinaus verfügt Maria Stader über eine beachtliche Koloraturfähigkeit und eine glasklare Höhe: das es’’’ in der Wahnsinnsszene erreicht sie ohne jegliche Mühe. Mit gewohnter Intelligenz und beträchtlichem Einfühlungsvermögen gestaltet Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau die Partie des finsteren Enrico, der Lucia in eine Ehe zwingen will, um sein Erbe vor dem Ruin zu bewahren, obwohl sie einen anderen liebt. Wie immer bei Fischer-Dieskau wird der durchdachten Wortausdeutung ein wichtiger Platz eingeräumt; hier gelingt ihm die Balance zwischen Wort und Melos, zwischen Deklamation und Kantabilität.

Schlanke Tempi
Auch in dieser Aufnahme zeigt sich deutlich die interpretatorische Handschrift des Dirigenten: Fricsay orientiert sich genau an der Partitur und sorgt für einen beachtlichen Grad an Präzision; zeigt einen ausgeprägten Sinn für das koloristische Momente, etwa in der Introduktion zum 1.Akt, sowie für den Aufbau eines Spannungsbogens, so im berühmten Sextett. Auffallend ist seine Vorliebe für schlanke, zuweilen ungewohnt rasche Tempi, die jedoch stets der dramatischen Situation angemessen sind und nie den Zusammenhalt gefährden - wieder einmal ein beredtes Zeugnis für die geniale Begabung des leider allzu früh verstorbenen ungarischen Dirigenten.

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