Emily Hinrichs singt die stratosphärisch hohe Partie der Elsa, der Opernchor der Bühnen von Weimar und Erfurt meistert die vielfältigen Aufgaben und kommentierenden Einsätze brillant, und Máté Sólyom-Nagy gibt die Titelpartie fulminant. Spaß machen die Orchestereffekte und die Einfälle, mit denen der Komponist das Libretto von Heiner Müller regelrecht klanglich illustriert.

Ein Zerrspiegel und Parforceritt durch die Musikgeschichte von Bach bis Gounod und Wagner bis Jazz samt dissonanter Provokation kennzeichnet dieses alle Genregrenzen sprengende Stück Musiktheater sui generis.

Unter den deklamatorischen Protagonisten seien – stellvertretend für eine geschlossene Ensemble-Leistung – Oleksandr Pushniak als Drache und Máté Sólyom-Nagy als Lanzelot genannt. Auch die atemberaubenden Chöre lassen sich hören

Unter den deklamatorischen Protagonisten seien – stellvertretend für eine geschlossene Ensemble-Leistung – Oleksandr Pushniak als Drache und Máté Sólyom-Nagy als Lanzelot genannt. Auch die atemberaubenden Chöre lassen sich hören

Unter den deklamatorischen Protagonisten seien – stellvertretend für eine geschlossene Ensemble-Leistung – Oleksandr Pushniak als Drache und Máté Sólyom-Nagy als Lanzelot genannt. Auch die atemberaubenden Chöre lassen sich hören

Paul Dessaus Oper Lanzelot wurde im Dezember 1969 an der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin uraufgeführt. Das Libretto von Heiner Müller und Ginka Tscholakowa beruht auf dem Märchenstück Der Drache von Jewgeni Schwarz.

In der Programmnotiz heißt es: «Die Parabel Der Drache wurde 1943 vor dem Hintergrund des Naziterrors geschrieben und war wegen der allzu deutlichen Kritik am totalitären Regime Stalins in der Sowjetunion zunächst 17 Jahre lang verboten. 1965 brachte Benno Besson das Stück über den Drachentöter in einer legendären Inszenierung am Deutschen Theater in Berlin heraus. Dessau entdeckte darin eine operntaugliche Vorlage mit den für ihn so wichtigen gesellschaftspolitischen Bezügen: Ein freier Held möchte die Drachenstadt von seinem inhumanen Usurpator befreien, doch er stößt auf Desinteresse bei den Stadtoberen und der Bevölkerung, die sich arrangiert hat. Die Gleichgültigkeit schlägt in Feindseligkeit um, als Lanzelot den Drachen besiegt. Die offene Diktatur des Drachen wird umgemünzt in eine verdeckte Ausbeutung der Bevölkerung, in eine Herrschaft weniger über viele.»

Die Musik ist prägnant, farbig, oft schlagkräftig, aber manchmal auch sehr lyrisch, grotesk und real, mit Anklängen an Barockmusik, Beat und Mozart sowie Zitaten von Chopin, Rossini und Wagner.

Das Werk wurde im November 2019 am Deutschen Nationaltheater Weimar unter der Regie von Peter Konwitschny und der musikalischen Leitung von Dominik Beykirch erneut aufgeführt. Der Dirigent gibt Dessaus abwechslungsreicher Musik eine große Vitalität und lässt sie über die interessante und immer noch aktuelle Handlung hinaus rein musikalisch höchst attraktiv werden.

Unter den Solisten fallen Emily Hindrichs als Elsa und Mate Solyom-Nagy als Lanzelot ebenso auf wie Oleksandr Pushniak als Drache und Wolfgang Schwaninger als Bürgermeister. Aber auch alle anderen Sänger lassen keine Wünsche offen.

Und weil der Hörer sich ohne Bühnenhandlung und Dekoration voll auf den Sound konzentrieren kann, kommt die Musik unwahrscheinlich gut zur Geltung und macht diese audite-Veröffentlichung besonders wertvoll. Wer sich dennoch von der Bühne einen Eindruck verschaffen will, kann das anhand von zahlreichen Fotos im Booklet tun. Hervorragend ist auch der gut erklärende Einführungstext von Dominik Beykirch.


English translation:

Paul Dessau’s opera Lanzelot was premiered in December 1969 at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. The libretto by Heiner Müller and Ginka Cholakova is based on the fairy tale play Der Drache by Yevgeny Schwarz.

The program note says: «The parable Der Drache (The Dragon) was written in 1943 against the backdrop of Nazi terror and was initially banned for 17 years in the Soviet Union because of its overly explicit criticism of Stalin’s totalitarian regime. In 1965, Benno Besson staged the play about the dragon slayer in a legendary production at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Dessau discovered in it a template suitable for opera with the socio-political references that were so important to him: A free hero wants to free the dragon city from its inhumane usurper, but he encounters disinterest from the city’s superiors and the population, which has come to terms. Indifference turns to hostility when Lancelot defeats the dragon. The dragon’s overt dictatorship is transformed into a covert exploitation of the population, a rule of the few over the many.»

The music is concise, colorful, often punchy, but sometimes very lyrical, grotesque and real, with echoes of Baroque music, Beat, and Mozart, as well as quotations from Chopin, Rossini, and Wagner.

The work was performed again in November 2019 at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, directed by Peter Konwitschny and musically conducted by Dominik Beykirch. The conductor gives Dessau’s varied music great vitality and makes it highly attractive in purely musical terms, beyond the interesting and still topical plot.

Among the soloists, Emily Hindrichs as Elsa and Mate Solyom-Nagy as Lancelot stand out, as do Oleksandr Pushniak as the Dragon and Wolfgang Schwaninger as the Mayor. But also all other singers leave nothing to be desired.

And because the listener can fully concentrate on the sound without stage action and decoration, the music comes across incredibly well and makes this audite release particularly valuable. If you still want to get an impression of the stage, you can do so with the help of numerous photos in the booklet. The well-explanatory introductory text by Dominik Beykirch is also excellent.

We seem to be in the middle of a true Werner revival. Gregor Joseph Werner is little more than a footnote in music history books, where he is almost exclusively treated as Haydn’s predecessor in the position of Kapellmeister of the Esterházy family. As far as his activities as a composer are concerned, his Musicalischer Instrumental-Calender is virtually the only piece from his oeuvre that is relatively well-known and is available in several recordings. That is one of the few instrumental works of his pen that have come down to us. Most of his instrumental output has been lost. The largest part of his extant oeuvre – around 420 works – consists of sacred vocal music, including about 70 masses, three Requiems, four settings of the Te Deum, 18 oratorios on German texts and a large number of liturgical works. In recent times several recordings of his oeuvre have been released, such as his oratorio Der Gute Hirt, directed by György Vashegyi (Accent, 2020). Recently Christophe Rousset directed a performance of his oratorio Job. It is to be hoped that this work is going to be released in the near future.

Werner started his career as an organist of the Stift Melk; he lived for some years in Vienna, and it is generally assumed that he may have been a pupil of Johann Joseph Fux. However, Lajos Rovatkay, who has studied Werner for a long time, believes that it was rather Antonio Caldara, who was Werner’s teacher. “Some harmonic-expressive characteristics, initially perceived as being typically ‘Viennese’, which then turn out to be genuinely Venetian in Caldara’s music, are raised to another level in Werner’s music.” In 1728 Werner was appointed Kapellmeister at the Esterházy court. In his incumbent years he brought the chapel to a high standard, and there is no reason to consider him a rather mediocre composer and to neglect him. It is unlikely that the Esterházy’s would have appointed him as Kapellmeister if he would not have been a very good musician. It may be his negative attitude to Haydn which has damaged his reputation. In 1761 the latter was appointed as vice-Kapellmeister who was mainly responsible for the writing of instrumental music, whereas Werner concentrated on the composition of sacred music. It didn’t take long until Werner accused Haydn of neglecting his duties and being responsible for the decrease of the chapel’s standard. It was probably mainly his resentment against the modern style of his time which caused the conflict between the two men. It didn’t prevent Haydn from holding Werner in high esteem, though. In 1804 he published six fugues by Werner which were taken from his oratorios and which he scored for string quartet (recorded complete by Ars Antiqua Austria; Challenge Classics, 2012).

The present disc brings together specimens from two categories in Werner’s oeuvre. He composed around twenty Pastorellas for performance at Christmas Eve in the chapel of the Esterháza palace. They are scored for organ and strings. With these pieces he linked up with a tradition in Austria; Rovatkay mentions here Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (who worked in Innsbruck) and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (who was in the service of the court in Vienna). They are in three movements, modelled after the Venetian concerto, best-known from the oeuvre of Vivaldi. Rovatkay notes the folkloristic elements in these pieces, which may be hard to recognize for those who are not familiar with this kind of music. One may be inclined to consider these pieces as a kind of ‘light’ music, but that would be a mistake. These are substantial pieces, and some include quite some expression. The Pastorella with the addition ‘Eisenstadt‘ is particularly good example. The Pastorella III/298 is a special case: it comprises only two movements, although the first is divided into two sections (tempo ordinario – largo). The second movement is a fugue. It is the only one of those performed here without a concertante organ part.

The second category from Werner’s oeuvre that is included here is the Salve Regina. It is one of the most frequently-set texts in the history of Western music. The reason is that it belongs to the core of the Roman Catholic liturgy. It is one of the four Marian antiphons which are sung at different seasons in the liturgical calender. The Salve Regina is sung from Trinity Sunday to Advent. It is not quite clear who the author is, but it seems to have its origin in the circles of the Cistercians. In Italy composers mostly set it for soprano solo with strings. Werner composed around sixty Salve Reginas, and the six settings that were selected for the present disc show the different ways he approached this text.

The two first settings performed here (III/104 and 127), for instance, are very different. The former is rather short (3:26), the latter more than twice as long (7:08). The vocal scoring is the same: SATB. The former has four sections: the two opening verses (Salve Regina, Ad te clamamus) are taken together; the latter is divided into five sections. In the former setting the second verse – “Ad te clamamus, exules filiae Evae, ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle” – is full of expression through the use of marked dissonances. In the word “suspiramus” the syllables are separated by short pauses. The second setting opens with a unisono of soprano and alto in plainchant with organ. The second verse is much more restrained in expression. The third verse – “Eia ergo” – has the form of an aria for tenor. The last verse – “O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria” – is very concise in the first setting and much more extended in the second. The Salve Regina with the addition ‘Eisenstadt‘ is a solo for soprano, very much in the Italian tradition. The first and third sections include much coloratura. “Ad te clamamus” is set to a rising figure. The Salve Regina III/130 is the longest in the programme, and is divided into seven sections. It opens with an aria for alto (not soprano, as the track-list has it). The third section – “Ad te clamamus” – is an aria for bass in a wide range. In the fifth section the tenor is accompanied by strings, which now and then play pizzicato. The Salve Regina III/121 opens with a section for four voices, but the soprano is singled out here through virtuosic coloratura. The closing section – “O clemens” – is largely homophonic, and includes passages in which the two pairs of voices (SA/TB) sing in unison.

As a kind of bonus we get at the end of the programme the closing section of a larger-scale setting of the same text from 1729, for four voices and basso continuo. It is written in the stile antico, which was still often used in sacred music by Italian composers (Alessandro Scarlatti is a prominent example). That does not prevent Werner from producing a very expressive account of the closing phrase of this antiphon.

It makes much sense to bring together Pastorellas for Christmas Eve and Salve Reginas, as the Virgin Mary played an important role in Christmas celebrations in Catholic regions of Europe. For modern ears the Pastorellas don’t sound very ‘Christmassy’ and that makes this disc suitable for being played throughout the year. It is an impressive testimony of Werner’s skills as a composer, in the field of vocal as well as instrumental music. His case is served ideally by the performers here. Four outstanding singers bring his Salve Reginas to life and fully explore their expressive features. Lajos Rovatkay delivers excellent accounts of the organ parts in the Pastorellas. La festa musicale’s role is modest, but its playing is just what the repertoire needs. A second disc with music by Werner, which includes one of his Requiems, has already been released. I am looking forward to that one.

C’est dans cette œuvre que l’interprète Anna-Victoria Baltrusch montre le plus ses qualités de grande virtuose et de musicienne très subtile dans le choix des jeux, des équilibres et du côté orchestral donné à ces pages. Par une grande musicalité, elle nous fait aimer Liszt organiste, alors que lui-même le fut assez peu, bien que grandement inspiré dans ces compositions.
Voici une version qui fait partie désormais des références, sur un orgue exceptionnel de plus de 100 jeux et dans une prise de son très soignée.

Die Musiker setzen Hubers buchstäblich an-sprechende und unmittelbar fesselnde Musik ebenso präzise wie poetisch ins Werk.

Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli, also known as the Piazza del Duomo, contains the Cathedral, the Baptistry, the Campanile (aka the Leaning Tower) – and the Camposanto Monumentale. Among its murals is an impressive fresco entitled Il trionfo della Morte: ‘The Triumph of Death’. Once attributed to Orcagna, nowadays to Buonamico Buffalmacco or, by some scholars, to Francesco Traini, it was created in 1338‑39. Five hundred years later, one of those who came to the Camposanto to admire the work was Franz Liszt in the company of his mistress the Countess Marie d’Agoult. It was the sight of this, it is said, that first inspired the composition of his Totentanz – Danse macabre, though it would not appear in its final form for nearly three decades.

The couple had eloped in 1835, leaving Paris for Geneva and thence, for the next few years, travelling through Switzerland and Italy absorbing scenery, places, literature and painting, while producing three illegitimate children. The first of these was their daughter Cosima, later to become the wife of Hans von Bülow and latterly of Richard Wagner. From this period of Liszt’s prolific output came early versions of the 12 Transcendental Études, the Six Études de Paganini and the first two volumes of Années de pèlerinage, and much else besides. Totentanz, a series of variations on the Latin plainsong chant of the ‘Dies irae’, can be considered ‘the spiritual sister’ of these ‘Years of Travel’ (indeed, Variation 5 puts one in mind of the central section of the Dante Sonata).

The gestation of Totentanz was protracted and complex. Without going into great detail, basically there exist two versions: the first, dated October 21, 1849, with the title Fantasie für Pianoforte und Orchester was not published until 1919 (in an edition by Busoni); it is generally known as the ‘De profundis’ version because it incorporates the plainsong setting of Psalm 130 (‘Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord’).

Liszt continued tinkering with the score between 1853 and 1859, when a second version appeared. This dispenses with all of the ‘De profundis’ material and other sections never sanctioned for publication by the composer. It was issued with the title Todtentanz [sic] (Danse macabre) – Paraphrase über ‘Dies irae’, and published in 1865, the same year in which Liszt’s versions for solo piano and two pianos were published. It was dedicated to his son-in-law Hans von Bülow and it was he who gave the first performance of this version on April 15, 1865, in The Hague with an orchestra conducted by the Dutch composer Johannes Verhulst. Though there are several other editions, notably by Liszt pupils Alexander Siloti, Bernhard Stavenhagen and Eugen d’Albert, it is Liszt’s second version that is most frequently heard today,

Liszt was not the first – and by no means the last – to use the ‘Dies irae’ (‘Day of Wrath’, used for centuries in the Roman Catholic rite of the Mass for the Dead). Berlioz quotes it in his Symphonie fantastique (1830), the premiere of which was attended by Liszt. The music is a sequence of variations on the theme, interspersed with three cadenzas, a development section and a coda. Only the first five variations are so numbered in the score but it is possible to identify over 30 different treatments of the theme (or part of the theme) by the piano or other instruments in the course of the work, often variants within the variations.

This survey is concerned principally with the second version. Why? Despite the two versions having many sections in common, they are two distinct and different works. Version 2 represents Liszt’s final, definitive thoughts (ie he decided his intentions were better realised by cutting the ‘De profundis’ material) to form, in this writer’s opinion, a tone poem that expresses itself more powerfully with greater economical means.
[…]
The version for solo piano is also the basis for its adaptation as a work for organ, an instrument to which Totentanz is particularly well suited. There’s a new recording of it, this one based on the two-piano arrangement, made and played by Anna‑Victoria Baltrusch (reviewed on page 71). It’s impressive enough but not the equal of the quite stunning performance by Thomas Mellan on the organ of the First United Methodist Church, San Diego (available to view on YouTube), one of several filmed accounts on the organ. This one, while properly thrilling, highlights the ‘Dies irae’ quotations more clearly than many accounts of the second piano-and-orchestra version, recordings to which it is now high time we turn.