ORFEO International – New Releases

New Releases briefly introduced

September 2009 — August 2010

August 2010

Der Ring des Nibelungen

Clemens Krauss’s appearances at the Bayreuth Festival were limited to a single season. The conductor of the world premières of four operas by Richard Strauss, he was – at the height of his career – in charge of the Bavarian and Vienna State Operas as well as the Salzburg Festival.
C 809 113 RThe calibre of his conducting at the 1953 Bayreuth Festival is summed up by a remark attributed to Wieland Wagner, who on hearing his chosen tempo for the Ride of the Valkyries is said to have commented that this was exactly how he had always imagined and wanted it conducted. This first Ring under Krauss was intended to launch a new era not just in terms of the conductor’s choice of tempos but also on account of Krauss’s ability to generate a palpable tension between the stage and the “mystic abyss” of the orchestra pit and to invest that relationship with a very real energy. That nothing came of this plan was the result of Krauss’s tragically premature death in Mexico in the spring of 1954, while he was on tour there. Only a short time earlier his brilliant international career, which had started up again very quickly after the Second World War, had suffered a setback when the coveted post of director of the Vienna State Opera went to Böhm rather than Krauss. There were no discordant notes, however, when it came to Krauss’s work with his singers at the Bayreuth Festival. This was the third Festival since its reopening in 1951, and it included a number of new singers in leading roles. One of these singers was Wolfgang Windgassen, who had made his Bayreuth Festival début in 1951 as Parsifal and as the young god Froh in Das Rheingold. In 1953 he sang the two Siegfrieds, improving perceptibly throughout the cycle and delivering a particularly fine account of the final act of Göttterdämmerung. He remained Bayreuth’s Siegfried of choice until 1958. His successor as Froh was Gerhard Stolze, whose powerful tone and clarity of diction made it seem as if he, too, was destined for heldentenor roles, and it was not long before rumours began to circulate that he would be Windgassen’s successor as Tristan. Ultimately, however, it was character roles such as David, Loge and Mime that became his speciality. As Mime, there is no doubt that it was Paul Kuën who was the most sought-after singer in this part throughout the 1950s. It was a role he sang in opera houses from Munich to the Met and also, of course, in Bayreuth, where he was equally comfortable with the transparency of Keilberth’s chamber-like textures as he was with Krauss’s impulsive drive. The same is true of Gustav Neidlinger as Alberich, his monolithic vocal presence and expressive power virtually unsurpassable in this role. As his stage progeny, Hagen in Götterdämmerung, Josef Greindl scored a personal triumph that placed the coping stone on a season in which he had already sung King Henry in the new production of Lohengrin that opened the Festival and, in earlier parts of the Ring, both Fafner and Hunding.
Presentation of the "Ring" at the Press Conference on 28th of July 2010 in Bayreuth
Foto: Pressearchiv der Bayreuther FestspieleHans Hotter had made his Bayreuth début only a year earlier, but by 1953 he was already an institution on the Green Hill. His Wotan under Clemens Krauss followed on from three Strauss premières under the same conductor: Friedenstag, Capriccio and – its unofficial première – Die Liebe der Danae. In every case, Hotter, with Krauss’s help, combined authority with poetry, an aura of divinity with psychological subtlety and human weakness. Ira Malaniuk assumed the two roles of Fricka and Waltraute and thus it fell to her to draw Wotan’s attention to those weaknesses and, as Waltraute, to report on them to Brünnhilde. She had first sung Fricka in Bayreuth the previous year, taking over at short notice from an ailing colleague, but now she became a Festival stalwart with her mellifluous mezzo-soprano voice. That she was later followed in the role by Regina Resnik was a development that few could have anticipated in 1953, when this legendary singer, famous above all for her appearances in all the great American opera houses, was still performing soprano roles, albeit with a darker and more sensuous tone colour than one often hears in these roles. As Sieglinde, her tone blended particularly well with that of Ramón Vinay, a former baritone who, following his sensational début as Tristan in 1952, returned in 1953 not only for more performances of this uniquely gruelling part but also as Parsifal and Siegmund, in every case creating a furore. One of his two partners as Isolde that summer was Astrid Varnay, who was also appearing as Ortrud and Brünnhilde and in doing so demonstrating her credentials as arguably the most versatile hochdramatisch soprano of her generation. That this was not undertaken at the cost of a vocal levelling down is clear from her development under Kraus from the “wish-maid” of Die Walküre to the redemptive figure of Götterdämmerung, which few singers have succeeded as well as she did in turning into the unforgettable high point of the cycle. And yet this Bayreuth Festival was no competition or display of vocal prowess but a team effort, as is clear from the total commitment of singers such as Ludwig Weber, who in 1953 appeared not only as Gurnemanz and King Marke but also as the bass soloist in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Paul Hindemith and as a touchingly sensitive Fasolt in Das Rheingold, while Hermann Uhde, having held the reins for Hans Hotter as the Rheingold Wotan in 1952, now appeared as Donner and Gunther in the Ring – luxury casting indeed – and as a brilliant Telramund in Lohengrin. Cameos such as Erich Witte’s mercurial Loge, Natalie Hinsch-Gröndahl’s Gutrune, whose handling of both words and music was no less sophisticated than Witte’s, and Rita Streich’s lively Woodbird were all relatively short-lived assumptions, making one regret that not all singers and voice types can be given the same scope to develop in Bayreuth.
Press Conference on 28th of July 2010 in Bayreuth
Foto: Pressearchiv der Bayreuther FestspieleAll the more remarkable, therefore, is the impression of unity created by Krauss’s conducting during his only appearances at the Festival. It almost defies belief that he sorted out the right balance from the very outset, the sounds rising up from the covered pit finally finding adequate and unoccluded expression in the present CDs, which are taken from the original tapes. All the easier is it to overlook the fact that the price to be paid for his taut tempos and his ability to run the whole gamut from feather-like lightness to crushing power is sometimes a lack of coordination between pit and stage. This only serves to increase the sense of spontaneity enshrined in this live recording. Wagner himself once said that a perfect performance of Tristan und Isolde would drive people mad, a remark one is tempted to apply to the present performance of the Ring. Given Bayreuth’s status as a workshop, it is a matter for deep regret that Krauss had only one summer to shape his musical vision of Wagner’s works on the hallowed stage of the Festspielhaus.

top

July 2010

ORFEO 3 CD C 805 103 D

Charles Gounod: Faust

The Vienna State Opera – at least in these, the last days of the Ioan Holender era – is one of the last remaining opera houses in the world in which a repertoire system is rigorously maintained.
C 805 103 DBut the absence of opening-night tension in repeat performances by no means brings any loss in quality – on the contrary, often the reallocation of roles and the more relaxed atmosphere in the audience can lead to an increase in quality instead. That was the case in 2009, when after its opening night Gounod’s Faust became a real feast of singing. The conductor Bertrand de Billy was in the pit of the Vienna State Opera, and with his unerring mastery of style and idiom he enjoyed a triumphant success with the audience.
Gound: Faust - CD-Presentation at the Vienna State Opera
Foto: Wiener Staatsoper GmbH/Axel ZeiningerThe two protagonists were new to Vienna: Piotr Beczala as Faust and Soile Isokoski as Marguerite. On CD, too, they prove that they were a real stroke of luck, able to combine vocal brilliance with nobility and subtle characterization. The Polish tenor confirmed his reputation as a versatile master of bel canto and a „knight of the high C“, just as the Finnish soprano (who had already enjoyed success at the Vienna State Opera in the title role of Halévy’s La Juive) proves with her finely drawn vocal lines and her well-nigh limitless palette of nuances that she is not just suited to Mozart and Strauss. Nor is it a secret that the mighty bass voice of Kwangchul Youn is not just a Wagnerian giant, for also in the role of Gounod’s devil he can reach the heights of form with remarkable consistency. And with Michaela Selinger and Adrian Eröd as Siebel and Valentin we have documentary proof that for two decades under Iaon Holender, discovering local talent was a matter of course (though by no means something that comes of its own accord). We can hear in compelling fashion how these singers are brought into small, but still important roles as part of their moulding process. And when one hears the precision of the Vienna State Opera Chorus, one can only join in their final chorus of resurrection. No one could here claim that the final judgement has fallen on repertoire theatre; no, it is saved!

top

July 2010

ORFEO 1 CD C 814 101 A

Piotr Beczala: Slavic Opera Arias

In both the Italian and the French repertoires, Piotr Beczala has already enjoyed success among public and press alike at all the great opera houses of the world.
C 814 101 AThis Polish tenor also excels in the Slavic repertoire, though international trends in programming have meant that this phenomenon has received far less recognition than he deserves. Exceptions that prove the rule have been Beczalals successes as the Prince in Dvorák’s Rusalka at the Salzburg Festival and as Lenski in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Met in New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and elsewhere. Beczala’s recital here naturally includes highlights from the aforementioned works, but he also offers proof of the rich possibilities – hitherto largely ignored – that this repertoire offers for a tenor to display both vocal grace and melancholy. He is accompanied by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra from Warsaw under the direction of its chief conductor, Lukasz Borowicz.
Piotr Beczala
Foto: Johannes IfkovitsIt was in Warsaw that many of the operas were premièred of which Beczala offers us highlights here – such as Straszny Dwór (“The Haunted Manor“), Flis (“The Raftsman“) and Halka by Stanislaw Moniuszko. He was one of the driving forces behind the patriotic opera aesthetic of the newly founded national states in 19th century Europe, an aesthetic not just restricted to Poland. These three operas offer intensely atmospheric scenes of reminiscence and contemplation for their tenor protagonists, and they are joined here by the later, almost veristic operas Janek by Wladislaw Zelenski and Legenda Baltyku (“The Baltic legend“) by Feliks Nowowiejski. Such fiery declarations of love as these are naturally found in equal diversity in the Russian and Czech repertoires, such as in Smetana’s celebrated Bartered Bride and Borodin’s Prince Igor. The latter has enjoyed better times in the popularity stakes in the west, so it is fitting that Beczala here reminds us once more of the qualities of Vladimir’s romance from it. Vaudémont’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s Jolanthe is a similar case, though the work’s rarity has not prevented Piotr Beczala from being able to play the role on stage already. A more dramatic note is heard in Herman’s arioso from the gambling scene in Pique Dame. The musical spectrum is here completed by examples of exoticism and local colour with excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko (in two different orchestrations!) and Majskaja noè (“The May Night“) and from Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Arensky’s Raphael (two representatives of the next generation). This is a solo programme from one of the great tenors of our time that is as varied as it is rich in discoveries.

top

June 2010

ORFEO 1 CD C 789 101 B

Lucia Popp

top

June 2010

ORFEO 2 CD C 806 102 I

Mirella Freni

Mirella Freni,
Mirella Freni
Foto: Foto Fayerwho celebrated her 75th birthday a few weeks ago, is one of the utterly exceptional singers who have emerged from Italy, the home of opera. And unlike those other exceptional talents who crop up every few years (and who, despite their qualities, often disappear again just as quickly), Mirella Freni’s standing is merely heightened by the exceptional length of her career, which was so rich in peaks and free of troughs. That success finds confirmation in the selection of archive recordings on the present CD, chosen from the more than three decades during which Mirella Freni sang at the Vienna State Opera. She began with a sensational debut as Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème. Within the space of half a year, her Mimì won the public’s heart at both La Scala Milan and in Vienna, each time under Herbert von Karajan. Her Rodolfo at the time was Gianni Raimondi, though the Viennese archives also document her longstanding partnerships with Luciano Pavarotti (under Carlos Kleiber) and Plácido Domingo. It was also with Domingo (under the baton of James Levine) that Mirella Freni repeated at the Vienna State Opera her Salzburg Festival success as Desdemona in Otello.
C 806 102 IAs with her Mimì, her Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo under Claudio Abbado in 1989 was astonishing, for her voice had lost none of its freshness in the ten years since singing the role under Karajan. In that same decade, she was thus also able to portray with conviction the youthful roles of Amelia in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. Once again at Pavarotti’s side, this time for a Verdi concert in 1990, her public was inspired by her excerpts from Aïda – an unusual role for her. And at this time she also proved with two Tchaikovsky roles that she was more than just a diva in her mother tongue alone. Neither her Tatyana in Eugene Onegin nor her Lisa in Pique Dame (both under the baton of Seiji Ozawa) can be left out of this “Vienna portrait” of her. Nor can her last role at the Vienna State Opera: in singing the title role of Giordano’s Fedora, she joined the ranks of those singers willing to ensure that operatic rarities may return to grace the stage now and then.

top

June 2010

ORFEO 2 CD C 810 102 A

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: Johannes Brahms

With an artist such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who has engaged successfully with the work of so many composers, it makes little sense to assign Johannes Brahms a special place in his repertoire (alongside Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf and innumerable others).
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Foto: www. karlkreuzer. deAnd yet his 85th birthday is perhaps an appropriate occasion to point out that in the case of Brahms, the conductor Fischer-Dieskau cannot be separated from the singer (no less than either can be separated from Fischer-Dieskau the painter or writer). It is perhaps with no other composer that Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s universality comes to such fullness of expression. There is here an awareness of tradition, form and historical contrasts, both in competition and in equilibrium with each other (and all the greater for it), a never-ceasing delight in discovery and above all an honest desire to communicate in the languages of music and poetry (but of course – who else could have made Die schöne Magelone as popular in the dual role of singer and speaker?). He was able to realize this brilliantly on the conductorÕs rostrum, as is proven by this live CD recording with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin in its home on the Gendarmenmarkt in December 2002.
Konstantin
C 810 102 ALifschitz is a piano soloist in the Second Piano Concerto who is as thunderingly virtuosic as he is subtly aware of form. And the Fourth Symphony by Brahms offers a marvellous example of how breathing and phrasing is the basis of all common music-making, not least in the symphonic repertoire (and just as much in the concerto here that was in Brahms’ day scolded as being a „symphony with obbligato piano“). Dense agogic and dynamic elaboration and a sense of withdrawn contemplation do not just alternate in this piano concerto, but rather emerge one out of the other. The same is true of the symphony’s formal coherence, from the directness of its opening to its abrupt, almost brusque close. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Konstantin Lifschitz and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin reveal in every moment that musical beauty in Brahms, whether calm or passionate, is always grounded in a consistent musical rhetoric, and that this beauty must be striven for – a process that is as exciting as it is, in the end, mellow and enriching.

top

June 2010

ORFEO 1 CD C 750 101 A

Felix Mendelssohn: Works for Cello and Piano

Chamber music is an intimate genre, that we know. But in the case of Felix Mendelssohn‘s cello works, it was also family-inspired. For his younger brother Paul was obviously a good cellist, and it was to him that Felix dedicated his two cello sonatas and his Variations concertantes op. 17. Daniel-Müller-Schott presents all three works here, accompanied by Jonathan Gilad at the piano.
C 750 101 AThe playful virtuosity of the Variations, modelled after Mozart and Beethoven, inspires the duo to equally virtuosic brilliance, be it in the passionate eruptions in the seventh variation or the superb, subtle coda as it fades away. The First Cello Sonata is also light and airy, and the Müller-Schott/Gilad duo savour to the full its prevailingly cheerful, merry mood. The grace and passion that Mendelssohn‘s contemporaries already admired in him are here to be found throughout. In the Second Sonata, we find the most beautiful melodicism alongside moments of drama and sound colours that seem not so far removed from the world of Mendelssohn‘s Midsummer Night‘s Dream.
Bei der Aufnahme
Foto: Privatarchiv Daniel Müller-SchottMüller-Schott and Gilad here pull out all the stops. We also offer two shorter works for the same instruments: an “Assai tranquillo” in b minor and a “Song without words” in D major op. 109 that is graceful in its outer sections, more agitated in the middle. These here frame two song arrangements by Daniel Müller-Schott that are wholly Mendelssohnian in style: “On the wings of song” and “Schilflied” – two works whose rather melancholic, cantabile melodic lines “sing” beautifully even without the words of Heine or Lenau (perhaps even more so without them), especially in Müller-Schott‘s superb, moving interpretation, not least when accompanied by a congenial partner such as Jonathan Gilad.

top

May 2010

ORFEO 9 CD C 808 109 L

Friedrich Gulda - Beethoven

The appearance of a new, complete recording by Friedrich Gulda of the Beethoven sonatas – made before his two previously known cycles – can be regarded as a sensation. If a pianist makes three recordings within twenty years of the most important cycle for his instrument – the 32 piano sonatas by Beethoven – then it would be regarded even by today’s standards as extraordinary.
C 808 109 LBut to have done it in the 1950s and ’60s was a unique achievement. It would be a matter worthy of explanation in the case of any pianist of his rank, but only in the case of Friedrich Gulda is it something utterly comprehensible.
C 591 021 B
C 745 071 B
C 263 921 B This cycle of works is the greatest, most significant of all in both musical and pianistic terms, and while it may have been canonized as the “New Testament” of pianists back in the reverential 19th century, the business of capturing it as a sound recording in the early 1950s was still something brave and new in every way. Schnabel’s recording from the 1930s had the ill luck of being made at the “wrong” time, when the world was busy with greater problems; the same was more or less true of the first recording that Wilhelm Kempff began, but did not complete, during the War. To be sure, the history of sound recording has meant that constant technical advancements (the LP, stereo and digital techniques) have been the prime reason for artists to make lavish, new complete recordings of the same works.
C 795 091 B
C 746 071 B
C 710 081 B All the same, Gulda’s second complete recording, for Decca in London (hitherto believed to be his first) still counts among the most audacious early recording projects of the sonatas in the post-war years. The recording that preceded it, which we have been authorized to publish here, was made for Austrian Radio. Gulda went to the Viennese studios to make it at the turn of 1953/4, at a time when the city was still under the control of the Russian occupying power. This young pianist, born in Vienna on 16 May 1930, had begun his international career in spectacular fashion by winning the Geneva Competition in 1946. He performed Beethoven’s sonatas in the autumn of 1953 in several Austrian cities. He was so “played in” that it seems to have been a mere matter or routine for him to record up to six big sonatas in the space of just two days in the studio. This was an incredible achievement that is in no way diminished by the minimal glitches to be found here. If anything, these inaccuracies enhance the spontaneity and vibrancy of Gulda’s performance, which even at this early stage of his career was distinguished by a headstrong personality and exceptional abilities. His choice of tempi is fearless and stringent, while his high degree of precision is fostered by an economical use of the pedal and a rejection of any arbitrary accelerandi or ritardandi (as for example in the Hammerklavier Sonata). It is such aspects of his playing in particular that reveal a de-Romanticization of Beethoven. This was a process to which Gulda’s interpretations contributed, yet which detracted not a whit from the Master’s Titanic greatness. On the contrary: it is precisely the simplicity and the clarity of Gulda’s Beethoven interpretations – despite their occasional stylized moments – that make evident the humility and modesty of the pianist in the face of the supreme genius of the composer. The Sonatas are here complemented by the Six Bagatelles op. 126, the Diabelli Variations op. 120 and the Eroica Variations op. 35.

top

April 2010

ORFEO 2 CD C 717 102 H

=Robert Schumann - The Symphonies

Robert Schumann the symphonist still stands in the shadow of Schumann the composer for piano and voice (the fate of Schumann the opera composer is no different). The idea that an orchestra with a great tradition of performing the Romantic repertoire should have good reason to play Schumann’s orchestral works gladly and regularly – even offering cycles of them – is something that the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and its chief conductor Fabio Luisi have put into practice, to their credit.
C 717 102 HThe conductor and his orchestra meet all the orchestral challenges that Schumann places before them. They play with the greatest of technical subtlety and beauty of tone, from the spirited First, the Spring Symphony, via the muted atmosphere of the Second, then the Third (the Rhenish) with its rich palette of moods and impressions, to the fantasy of the Fourth (which would have been the Second, were it not for the composer’s extensive revision of it). Schumann’s art of climax and the conclusive manner of his repetitions are here heard just as clearly as are his deft combinations of Romantic colours and shadings. Thus the fourth movement of the Rhenish (sometimes explained as a musical portrayal of Cologne Cathedral) is accorded the sacred tone that is appropriate to it, just as the “Romanze” in the Fourth Symphony is played as if it were a lover’s serenade. Fabio Luisi furthermore masters the tempo shifts and capricious quirks in Schumann’s fast movements. Here, the Vienna Symphonic plays with dizzying brilliance – and all is achieved “live”, without the safety net of the studio. To complement the symphonies, the present recording also includes the Konzertstück for 4 Horns op. 86, a powerful, vital work that stands in close proximity to the Rhenish symphony (not just in chronological terms), and which was composed during one of Schumann’s most productive periods. Schumann utilizes the form of the Konzertstück to explore those spaces between the “competitive” aspect inherent in a concertante work and the ensemble aspect of soloists and orchestra playing together as a symphonic ensemble. At the same time, the composer explores the possibilities of the modern valve instruments that themselves present further technical subtleties (and hurdles too). This work was long regarded as near-unplayable, but it is a matter of course that the horn players of the Vienna Symphonic here play it with complete, sovereign command.

top

April 2010

ORFEO 2 CD C 787 102 I

Nicolai - Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor

Hans Knappertsbusch conducted a far broader spectrum of repertoire – at least in Munich – than his unique reputation for Bruckner, Wagner and Strauss might let us suppose. Knappertsbusch even left his mark on the Romantic comic opera The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai (after Shakespeare). He conducted it at the Prinzregententheater, which became the legendary, temporary home of the Bavarian State Opera in the years after World War Two.
C 787 102 IThe stark contrasts between the tender lyricism of the score and its earthy, humorous elements are savoured to the full by Knappertsbusch and the Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera. Nicolai was born two hundred years ago on 9 June 1810. His different stylistic models all come to the fore here – such as Mendelssohn (whose teacher Zelter also taught Nicolai) and the Italian operas that Nicolai was able to get to know when he worked as an organist in Rome. At the Bavarian State Opera in 1957, the year when Knappertsbusch conducted the opening night of this production, the Merry Wives were above all an example of great ensemble theatre. The most prominent casting was of Mr and Mrs “Fluth” (in Shakespeare the “Fords”), namely Annelies Kupper – Munich’s favourite lyrical soprano of the day, singing roles from Mozart’s Countess via Verdi’s Desdemona to Wagner’s Elsa – and Karl Schmitt-Walter, perhaps the most versatile baritone of his generation, of stage and concert hall alike. Falstaff was sung by Max Proebstl, a perfect example of a singer whose commitment to a single ensemble shows up the pros and cons of today’s industry of the travelling stars. For a basso profondo such as he, possessing the characterizational abilities of a singer in the buffo genre, would enrich the everyday repertoire of any opera house. The second married pair on stage, sung by Lilian Benningsen and Kieth Engen, also offers proof of the virtues of a permanent ensemble, for their characterization of members of the old English bourgeoisie have profited from their experience of singing roles such as Princess Eboli or King Heinrich. As rivals for the hand of Anna (charmingly sung by Liselotte Fölser after the manner of Pamina) we find two brilliant tenors in the shape of Richard Holm (Fenton) and Paul Kuën (Junker Spärlich). And just like them both, the chorus of the Bavarian State Opera also guarantees what are the most important ingredients in a piece such as this (even without the accompanying visuals), namely a delight in humour and playfulness throughout.

top

March 2010

ORFEO 1 CD C 804 101 A

Andris Nelsons - Igor Stravinsky

After their CD of Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky is the next great composer of the 20th century to feature in a recording of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under its music director Andris Nelsons.
C 804 101 AOn this, their third CD with Orfeo, we can hear the attractive contrasts of the composer’s chameleon-like transformations. Stravinsky the youthful avantgardist on his way to world fame is represented by the complete music to the Firebird ballet, while the Symphony of Psalms is a testament to the mature composer at the age of nearly fifty. Nelsons and the CBSO leave us not a moment of doubt that even at the age of 27, Stravinsky could draw on an embarrassment of compositional riches. There is the boldness and the precision of his rhythms, while his rich, varied harmonies and his inspired melodies betray an aesthetic that is still far from anti-Romantic. Andris Nelsons and the CBSO also unfold brilliantly before us the work’s masterful orchestration. As the music sweeps us along, it lets us follow clearly the characters and their dramatic situations. The sparks fly in the strings and woodwind when the Firebird dances, while in the scenes of the Prince and Princess they caress the ear like velvet. And the throbbing, threatening clangour of the brass conjures up the world of the evil sorcerer – though he has already made his presence known in the percussion section, with echoes of the music of the “Mighty Handful” of which Rimski-Korsakow once formed the vanguard.
Andris Nelsons
Foto: Marko BorggreveThese colourful riches are here juxtaposed with Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, with all its Orthodox austerity, its reduced textures and angular contours. The CBSO Chorus was trained by Simon Halsey, who has also worked successfully with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. The Chorus here offers a congenial interpretation in which a high degree of precision in both dynamics and intonation allows the Latin psalms to gain in atmospheric density and tension. This is perhaps the most significant common ground between the Symphony and the Firebird. This performance of the Symphony will captivate the listener from the beginning through to the final cadence of “Laudate Dominum”.

top

March 2010

ORFEO 1 CD C 751 101 A

Peter von Winter

Posterity has not been kind to the composer Peter von Winter. He was a wunderkind in the Mannheim Court Orchestra who after its removal to Munich worked as its kapellmeister.
C 751 101 ABut his music today is as good as forgotten. And yet he was in Vienna and Italy a celebrated opera composer of international standing. He was praised by colleagues such as Carl Maria von Weber and Louis Spohr, which in itself is a sign of how he served as a model to the Romantics, not least in his art of instrumentation. It is this last point that is taken up by Dieter Klöcker and the Consortium Classicum. At a time when Beethoven’s septets became regarded as ideal examples of how to write chamber music for strings and wind combined, it was in this very field that Peter von Winter displayed all his gifts for melody and instrumentation. In the Quartet, Septet and Octet that are on this new recording of the Consortium Classicum, we find different styles from the outgoing 18th century, both contrasted and fused together. We hear with astonishment motives that are prescient of Schubert and his Octet, alongside contemporary polonaise forms and other latently “national” elements. Winter here pays homage to the same European spirit as do Beethoven and Haydn in their “British” cycles of songs. The pre-Romantic atmosphere provided by the horns is interrupted by virtuosic elements that no member of the Consortium Classicum can let pass him by. And the master clarinettist Dieter Klöcker is a match even for the music’s “operatic” moments in technically difficult registers. Given the multifarious compositional gifts on display here, plus his inventive use of wind instruments, it is no surprise that Winter not only met Mozart several times, but even wrote a sequel to the Magic Flute with Mozart’s librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, entitled The Labyrinth. The impression left by Dieter Klöcker and the Consortium Classicum (as also on their CD Orfeo C 192 031 featuring concertos, symphonies and an aria for soprano and concertante clarinet) will perhaps at last prompt renewed interest in Winter’s operas.

top

February 2010

ORFEO 2 CD C 784 102 I

Verdi: Luisa Miller

It took a long time – more than 120 years –
C 784 102 Ibefore Vienna’s opera fans were able to experience Verdi’s Luisa Miller (based on the spoken drama Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich Schiller) in its original Italian. This first performance did not take place until January 1974, though the impressive cast assembled for it could be said to have made up for the fact. Lilian Sukis, Christa Ludwig
Lilian Sukis
Christa Ludwig
Lilian Sukis, Malcolm Smith
Lilian Sukis
Malcolm Smith
Fotos: FayerIt is this production that can now be heard on CD. Under the baton of Alberto Erede, the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera gave a superb performance such as is sadly all-too-rare for Verdi’s early and middle-period works. The instrumental tone is supple and full of colour across the whole orchestra, which plays as it were in “high definition”, whether at dramatic climaxes or when accompanying the singers. But the protagonists themselves could hold their own too. Lilian Sukis sang the title role of the bourgeois girl Luisa – innocence personified, but doomed by the intrigues of her lover’s aristocratic family. Sukis was from Canada and had already in the 1960s sung at the New York Met. Lilian Sukis, Giuseppe Taddei
Lilian Sukis
Giuseppe Taddei
Foto: FayerShe here gives impressive proof of why she also acquired an excellent reputation in Europe as a lyric soprano. Her slender, but always open, floating voice is a joy in this portrayal of a young girl; here, any artificiality or affectation in the high notes would have been doubly damning. The role of the count’s son Rodolfo is played with lyric-dramatic aplomb by Franco Bonisolli, though without sacrificing nuance or elegance of tone in favour of his brilliant top notes. Giuseppe Taddei was ideal for the role of Miller, finding just the right tone for both the tender love of Luisa’s father and for his anger at those whom society has placed above him, and who misuse their position shamelessly to their own advantage. The villain in question, Count Walter, was given music by Verdi that was almost too “beautiful” for him, though this is no problem in Bonaldo Giaiotti’s authoritative characterization. And that even this powerful man is manipulated by his own secretary is evident from the portrayal by Malcolm Smith, whose bass voice is no less memorable. This extravagantly gifted team of singers is completed by Christa Ludwig as Rodolfo’s fiancée, Federica. She has a brief role with just two appearances, but Ludwig’s unmistakeable mezzo-soprano allows her to convey in succinct fashion the human aspect of this character, swaying as she does between sympathy and jealousy.

top

January 2010

ORFEO 1 CD C 764 091 A

Gottfried von Einem (1918-1996)

The criticism levelled at many composers of the 20th century, namely that they sacrificed personality to the requirements of their respective schools, cannot be made against Gottfried von Einem. Throughout his life he held fast to tonality, though without letting himself be appropriated by conservative circles on the music scene. And even if it’s difficult to regard him as an avant-gardist, his oeuvre is characterized by a dogged questioning and opening up of traditional formal models.
C 764 091 AThus it was important to him in his Dantons Tod Suite that it should not be seen just as a “potpourri” from the stage work that made his name (in 1947 at the Salzburg Festival), but as an independent work for the concert hall. It is in this form that it is represented in the new Orfeo recording by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor designate, Cornelius Meister.
Konstantin Lifschitz
Foto: Serban MestecaneanuThe motto of “transformation” is even clearer in the case of Wandlungen (literally “transformations”), Gottfried von Einem’s introduction to a Divertimento for Mozart that the Donaueschingen Music Days commissioned from a total of twelve different composers in the “Mozart year” of 1956. The Wandlungen are based on Papageno’s aria “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” from the Magic Flute. While von Einem’s concern here is a musical synthesis of different epochs, in the case of his Piano Concerto op. 20 he is no less keen to enrich his music by establishing stylistic connections to jazz and dance music. Konstantin Lifschitz is the soloist in this new recording, and he shows here why his outstanding reputation is not just based on his Bach interpretations. Even when interpreting music of the 20th century, he fascinates us with his sovereign technical command and the transparent structures that he makes audible in von Einem’s Concerto. The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Cornelius Meister are here his precise, dynamic partners. In the remaining works on this new Orfeo compilation CD they have the field to themselves, displaying in impressive terms the subtleties and the atmospheric density to be found in Gottfried von Einem’s oeuvre: here in Night Piece op. 29 and in the Suite after the ballet Medusa op. 24, which even without its scenic component is highly effective.

top

January 2010

ORFEO 2 CD C 786 102 I

Albert Lortzing: Der Wildschütz

In comparison to French opéras comiques, German comic operas with spoken dialogue have always struggled to maintain a foothold in the repertory, a state of affairs that begs a number of questions. After all, one of the best-known representatives of the genre, Albert Lortzing (1801–51), successfully combined the most disparate elements in his stage works: witty librettos with a dash of social criticism, great ensembles in the Mozartian manner and Romantic melodies and orchestral colours.
C 786 102 IAll these features are found in Der Wildschütz, a comedy of mistaken identity that the Vienna State Opera staged in 1960 with a finely balanced and ebulliently witty ensemble headed by Irmgard Seefried, whose Baroness is a precursor of Lehár’s Merry Widow, seeking a new husband in a whole series of new disguises. In the role of the Baron, Waldemar Kmentt once again proves an ideal partner in every sense of the term, his youthful tenor both radiant and powerful. In Georg Völker’s Count he has a rival who at the end of the work generously admits that he has been courting his own sister – in Lortzing’s opera the incestuous entanglement eschews the tragic outcome found in Wagner’s Die Walküre, a work in which the baritone’s father, Franz Völker, had scored some of his greatest successes. In the 1960 Vienna production, the aristocrats’ social inferiors were played by no less distinguished singing actors: Renate Holm is an altogether ravishing Gretchen with her clearly focussed light soprano voice, while opposite her – confirming the proverb that opposites exert a magical attraction – is Karl Dönch in the part of her elderly fiancé, who is also the alleged poacher of the title. His ability to point up the text and bring original insights to the part in the finest buffo tradition confirms the reputation of Vienna’s opera ensemble during the post-war period, a reputation based on its impressively large number of distinctive personalities. The conductor in 1960 was Heinz Wallberg, who coaxes from his soloists, chorus and orchestra a performance that reveals their evident delight in the task in hand, while the spoken dialogue, as rehearsed by the director Adolf Rott, is a source of unbounded delight.

top

December 2009

ORFEO 1 CD C 803 091 A

Andris Nelsons - Richard Strauss

For all its undoubted brilliance, Ein Heldenleben – especially at a first hearing – remains one of Strauss’s most problematical tone poems. Dating from the dying moments of the nineteenth century, it is notable for the late Romantic exuberance of its opening;
C 803 091 Afor the tonally extremely free motifs associated with what are described in the musical programme as the hero’s enemies; for the sweetness and the capers on the solo violin and in the orchestra that characterize the hero’s “companion”; and for the subsequent martial and transfiguring stages in the musical argument. And yet all of this can easily give the impression that the work carries an excessive amount of often autobiographical baggage. What the piece needs is not only a first-class orchestra but also a conductor with a clear sense of the work’s underlying structure, a conductor, moreover, who is able to maintain the tension and respond quickly and consistently to the work’s countless details. This is certainly how Andris Nelsons sees his task, a task that he realizes magnificently in this, his second Orfeo recording with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra and its music director allow the orchestral colours to gleam and ensure that the individual sections that make up the score flow smoothly, sweeping the listener along with them. From start to finish this reading of Ein Heldenleben has such a stringency and rigour that many of the aesthetic objections to the work merely add to our pleasure at individual details, while never calling into question the piece’s overall design. The fact that Nelsons is also a master of the art of transition in the music theatre and can achieve this on the concert platform, too, is clear from his recording of the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier. For listeners familiar with what is arguably the 20th century’s best-known “comedy for music”, the episodes and high points that make up this suite may seem to be no more than paratactically juxtaposed, but under Nelsons’ direction they merge together to create an impression that strikes even the first-time listener as spontaneously compelling and coherent. If Ein Heldenleben runs the risk of luring interpreters in one particular direction before an unexpected turn of events leads them off in another, then this stratagem turns out to be the guiding principle in the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, providing listeners with delightful surprises and catching them unawares, something that Andris Nelsons and his orchestra take evident delight in doing.

top

November 2009

ORFEO 1 CD C 598 091 B

Irmgard Seefried

Today she would probably be marketed as an all-rounder. After all, Irmgard Seefried was not only an acclaimed opera singer whose interpretation of the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at the Vienna State Opera is said to have inspired Strauss himself to exclaim that until then he had not known how good his Composer was,
C 598 091 Bbut she was also a lyric soprano whose initial engagement in Aachen in 1940, at a time when Herbert von Karajan was the company’s general music director, was followed only three years later by her move to Vienna. Last but not least, she was one of the most sought-after concert singers and lieder recitalists of her age. From an early date it was above all in the intimate, miniature form of the art song that Irmgard Seefried developed her whole range of expressive colours, enjoying the chance to regale her audiences by means of a musical narrative with only her pianist as her partner onstage. Not released until now, the many recordings included in the present CD attest to the richness and variety of that palette even during the early years of her career. Her three accompanists are Viktor Graef, Leopold Ludwig, who was later to become the general music director of the Hamburg State Opera and whose fame as an opera conductor also extended to the English-speaking world, and, above all, Erik Werba. With all three, she recorded a cross-section of the song repertory ranging from some of the most famous composers to others who still await their rediscovery. The earliest of these recordings are Peter Cornelius’s Brautlieder from the heyday of the Romantic art song, settings in which the soprano’s exemplary treatment of the words and the vocal line are fully in evidence. The affinities between this cycle of six songs and the traditional German folksong offer the singer – a native of Swabia – a welcome opportunity to colour her tone even further, an approach that is also found in her recordings of songs by Mozart, Brahms, Wolf and two lesser-known composers, Wilhelm Kienzl and Joseph Marx. This compilation of Irmgard Seefried’s recordings from the first ten years of her career in Vienna additionally includes some of Strauss’s most popular songs, songs such as Morgen and Allerseelen that make it clear why, as we noted above, their composer held the soprano in such high regard.

top

November 2009

ORFEO 2 CD C 785 092 I

=Bedrich Smetana: The Bartered Bride

Vienna has played an important role in the performance history of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride ever since the work achieved its international breakthrough in the city at the time of the 1892 World Fair. Performed in German, it has long been a regular part of Vienna’s mainstream operatic repertory.
C 785 092 IIn 1959, for example, Günther Rennert’s new production at the State Opera went on to achieve cult status, enjoying a grand total of ninety performances in all. In 1960 this production was captured by the microphones and recording equipment of Austrian Radio in a performance that immortalized the interpretations of the original principals from 1959. The cast was headed by Irmgard Seefried, a great favourite with Viennese audiences and one whose natural musicianship still seems particularly well suited to the character of Maøenka, or Marie as she is always known in German-language performances of the piece. At the time of this recording she could already look back on a stage career lasting two whole decades, and yet she had been able to retain the youthful freshness of her tone – an indispensable prerequisite for any successful interpretation of this role. The other half of this dream couple was Waldemar Kmentt as Jeník, or Hans, one of the roles with which the Austrian tenor was rightly most closely associated. With his dark-toned tenor voice, vivid diction and radiant top notes, he provides a wholly convincing portrayal of the youthful lover who is also a cunning gambler. The tragicomedy of his stuttering stepbrother is well caught by Murray Dickie with both skill and an equally beautiful tone, avoiding all sense of buffo excess. That the self-infatuated and vainglorious marriage broker Kecal is bent on palming off the bride on him, treating her as a mere object, seems entirely plausible when the role is played by another Viennese operatic institution, the distinguished Upper Austrian bass Oskar Czerwenka, an outstanding singing actor who invests the part with an altogether unmistakable profile. Even the smaller roles are cast from strength by singers of the calibre of Hilde Konetzni, Rosette Anday and László Szemere, all of whom milk their brief scenes for all that they are worth. A lively and yet always well-disciplined performance is further guaranteed by the Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera under the direction of Berislav Klobuèar, who, often criminally undervalued, presided genially over countless repertory performances in Vienna.

top

October 2009

ORFEO 1 CD C 760 091 A

Petra Maria Schnitzer • Peter Seiffert: Richard Wagner

To describe Petra Maria Schnitzer and Peter Seiffert as the dream couple of the Romantic world of Wagner’s operas and music dramas would be an otiose exercise indeed.
C 760 091 ADuring the last three seasons alone they have appeared together as Elisabeth and Tannhäuser in San Francisco, Barcelona and Madrid and as Sieglinde and Siegmund in Florence and Valencia, affording their audiences ample opportunity to appreciate their partnership onstage. The 2009/10 season, too, began with performances of Tannhäuser in Berlin, while their diaries for the next twelve months contain many other joint engagements, not just in Wagner but in works by other composers, too, all of them at leading houses. As Elsa and the eponymous Lohengrin, finally, they will be appearing in Vienna and elsewhere. Both singers can be heard in excerpts from all three of these Wagner operas in this new CD on the Orfeo label, in which they are joined by the Munich Radio Orchestra under its principal conductor, Ulf Schirmer. It is clear from all these excerpts of solo scenes and duets that both of these internationally acclaimed singers have long been associated with these roles and that they have appeared together on many different occasions. Rarely has Wagner been sung with such clarity of diction and such beautiful phrasing, producing a wonderfully cantabile approach to this repertory. One of the reasons for this is no doubt the fact that both Petra Maria Schnitzer and Peter Seiffert have built up their careers very slowly and without undue haste, initially proving themselves in the Mozart repertory before facing up to the challenges posed by Wagner’s music dramas. In this way the word-tone relationship demanded by the composer is given its due, and the Sprechgesang so often derided as the “Bayreuth bark” is avoided. Elsa’s Dream, the scene in the bridal chamber in Act Three and Lohengrin’s Grail Narration have rarely been sung with such nuanced, subtle lyricism, while Elisabeth’s Greeting to the Hall of Song and the following duet for Elisabeth and Tannhäuser are both crowned with radiant top notes. In Tannhäuser’s Rome Narration, the character’s inner turmoil and defiance are brought out to highly expressive effect, while avoiding the “effects without causes” decried by the composer himself. The great duet for the incestuous lovers in Die Walküre is a worthy conclusion to this Wagner CD, the success of which is underscored by the playing of the orchestra, which under Ulf Schirmer’s direction is notable for its tonal beauty and avoidance of all bombast.

top

October 2009

ORFEO 3 CD C 763 093 D

Felix Mendelssohn – The Complete String Symphonies

According to a well-known German proverb, no one is born a master, but this adage is hard to credit when the master in question reveals his genius at the tender age of ten.
C 763 093 DIt is said that soon after starting lessons with Carl Friedrich Zelter, the young Mendelssohn had already outgrown his mentor. The thirteen string symphonies that he wrote between 1821 and 1823 are not only evidence of his exceptionally rapid development, they are also, and above all, examples of wonderful, virtuoso music in the galant style that reveals the influence of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
Michael Hofstetter (li)
Foto: Deniz SaylanOther influences, especially in the slow movements, which often recall chorales and anticipate Mendelssohn’s later mastery in the field of the oratorio, are those of Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel. This mixture of traditional and forward-looking features is particularly clear from the new complete recording of these works on the Orfeo label. Founded more than fifty years ago, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra has gradually built up a repertory that extends from the Baroque to the present day, thereby guaranteeing a flexible and keenly differentiated kind of playing, a flexibility due not least to the ensemble’s principal conductor, Michael Hofstetter, who is likewise at home in a wide variety of styles. The verve of the first symphony’s opening Allegro is maintained throughout all the fast movements, while the slow movements are characterized by their gently flowing cantabile lines, which extend to the quotations of folksongs found in the two “Swiss” symphonies. The last two symphonies, finally, are notable for their contrapuntal procedures and polyphonic accomplishment. Here the composer and his interpreters have found an appropriately playful approach to complex fugal subjects and developments. In this way this set of youthful works is brought to a suitably masterly conclusion, providing a further powerful addition to the 2009 celebrations marking the Mendelssohn bicentenary.

top

October 2009

ORFEO 2 CD C 783 092 I

Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff

Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff, the last opera of the Master from Busseto, is one of the most multi-facetted scores in opera history
Falstaff
Foto: Wiener Staatsoper/Axel Zeininger(and for that reason is perhaps one that needs several hearings in order to grasp it). It is at once comic and serious, an intimate chamber opera and a large-scale ensemble work, and it draws cleverly on musical tradition while at the same time indulging in near-avant-garde boldness. Falstaff has a long performing history in Vienna (it was first performed there in 1893), and just as long is the list of great conductors who have conducted it at the Vienna State Opera. These include Lorin Maazel, who presented his interpretation of the work there in 1983. He took great pleasure in sending the listener off on the wrong track, only to catch him by surprise again a moment later. No orchestral detail was left out, and yet he always maintained close contact with the stage.
C 783 092 IFor that stage also featured a magnificent ensemble of singers, first and foremost Walter Berry, who in the Indian summer of his career conquered a stellar role for himself once more, this time as fat Sir John. He was equally at home in the joviality of the role and in its ruminative moments as he was in its roguish and impulsive emotional outbursts. The portly knight’s object of desire and his antagonist was Pilar Lorengar as Alice Ford, possessed of vocal luminosity and perfect accentuation. Her jealous husband was played as an unbridled, dashing cavalier by the baritone Giorgio Zancanaro. As the young lovers, the silvery-bright soprano of Patricia Wise and the dark-toned tenor of Francisco Araiza complemented each other charmingly, both in timbre and in the naturalness of their intertwined phrasing. Nor did Christa Ludwig hold back in her renowned interpretation of Mrs Quickly, luring both Walter Berry and the Viennese public to their assignations in Ford’s house and under Herne’s Oak. With an ensemble such as this, the final fugue can truly make us believe that all the world’s a joke – and listening to this live recording merely confirms it.

top

October 2009

ORFEO 1 CD C 781 091 A

Daniel Müller-Schott: Schumann - Strauss - Volkmann - Bruch

On his latest CD, Daniel Müller-Schott devotes himself to the cello’s Romantic and late-Romantic solo concerto repertoire. It is a voyage of exploration that offers things both known and worthy of (re)discovery.
Daniel Müller-Schott
Foto: Christine SchneiderAfter the Classical period, the cello fell out of fashion as a concertante instrument. When that changed again in the mid-19th century, it fascinated composers more than ever, and this in turn had an impact on their creative muse. For Robert Schumann, to be sure, the composition of his Cello Concerto in A minor op. 129 was bound up with major disappointments – he himself did not live to hear its world première. But the concerto’s give and take between soloist and orchestra is exciting, as are its contrasts between discretion and impulsiveness, and it is today well-loved by both audiences and interpreters and a firm feature in the repertoire. The interpretation of the concerto here by Daniel Müller-Schott and the NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg under Christoph Eschenbach is characterized by untrammelled music-making and a homogenous ensemble. Eschenbach’s rich experience as an instrumentalist and in the world of opera is evident in the way his phrasing „breathes“ with the soloist.
C 781 091 AThe dramatic aspect of the music comes as much to the fore here as it does in our recording of the Cello Concerto in A Minor by Schumann’s contemporary Robert Volkmann. It is considerably less popular than Schumann’s, but it thrives on singing, melodic themes and their sophisticated elaboration. These two concertos are complemented by two shorter pieces: Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei op. 47 after Old Hebrew melodies, whose rich musical spectrum is savoured uninhibitedly and to the full by Daniel Müller-Schott, Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony Orchestra. Then there is the Romance in F Major for cello and orchestra by Richard Strauss, who despite his youth (he wrote it when 19) already offers us a hint of the originality of his later tone poems.

For more details, fotos and audio examples see also "www.daniel-plays-schumann.com".

top

September 2009

ORFEO 1 CD C 597 091 B

=Hilde Konetzni, Josef Kripfs: Songs

The recording conditions could hardly have been more dramatic. In the bleak mid-war winter of 1942-3, the lirico-spinto soprano Hilde Konetzni learnt a romantic song programme with Josef Krips as her accompanist and mentor (Konetzni is best known to connoisseurs as the Sieglinde in two complete recordings of the Valkyrie under Wilhelm Furtwängler). The Nazis' policies of “Aryanization” had resulted in Krips being banned from working. So his coaching activities had to be carried out “underground”, under a constant threat to his life.
C 597 091 BThese private recordings were made by Hermann May, the then sound engineer of the Vienna State Opera, and can now be released on CD thanks to their careful restoration by the Eichinger recording studio in Vienna in collaboration with Gottfried Kraus. The resultant sound quality will delight more than just those interested in Josef Krips's legendary talent for carefully coaching singers - a talent that made him a model for later generations, especially as a result of the post-War Mozart performances in Vienna. One might sing Schubert and Schumann lieder with less rubato today and without the portamento usual at the time (such as we hear from Hilde Konetzni here). But all these performances are able to move us on account of the warmth and immediacy of the ensemble achieved by Konetzni and Krips. This is just as evident in the songs by lesser-known composers such as Robert Franz and Joseph Marx. And despite Konetzni's expansive timbre in all the songs, she is still able to offer a trenchant playfulness in certain of the songs by Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss. The Gypsy Melodies by Antonín Dvorák are both the highpoint and the culmination of this recital, not just on account of the interpretative art they display, typical of the time, nor merely as a document of two artistic personalities. They are also a testament to a friendship that was sustained despite adversity, and which enjoyed a brilliant continuation in the frequent collaboration between Hilde Konetzni and Josef Krips as conductor in Viennese operatic life just after the war, when they could at last perform together in public.

top

September 2009

ORFEO 1 CD C 801 091 B

George London

It is not unique, but it will probably remain an occurrence as rare as it is welcome when the leading heroic baritone of his generation is also a master of the „small“, subtle form of the lied. George London was the outstanding Amfortas, Wotan and Dutchman of the late 1950s and early ’60s, but also belonged among those singers with a mature vocal technique and intelligent characterization who were able to enthuse audiences in the concert hall without relying merely on their stage charisma (even though that was present in abundance).
C 801 091 BAt the height of his career – which was cut short tragically – London gave a lieder recital at the Theater an der Wien. He had already sung there as a member of the Vienna State Opera, which was based there during the post-war rebuilding of the opera house on the Ringstrasse. It was there that he had laid the foundations of his European career (and thus also of his later, triumphant return to his native North America). It was also there that he had soon found several of his star roles, such as Don Giovanni, Amonasro, the villains in the Tales from Hoffmann, and Eugene Onegin.

In tune with the spirit of the place, London began his recital with the Heine songs from Schubert’s Schwanengesang, in which he could explore (but not exceed) the dramatic boundaries of songs such as Atlas and Doppelgänger. As Boris Godunov, London travelled the world – from the Bolshoi in Moscow to the New York Met – but in this recital, too, he wandered in the footsteps of Feodor Chaliapin by singing Jacques Ibert’s Iberian-influenced Don Quichotte and finally Modest Mussorgski’s Songs and Dances of Death – tone paintings of archaic grandeur in which he was wholly in his element. In all three cycles, Erik Werba as accompanist completely lived up to his reputation as a modest, but equal partner. In addition to this live recording from Austrian Radio, ORFEO here offers as a bonus the five songs by Henri Duparc with which George London had ten years earlier made his lieder debut before a microphone, in Canada, the country of his birth.

top