ORFEO International – Catalogue

CDs

	Christa Ludwig Live Recordings 1955-1994 Orfeo • 3 CD • 3h 53min Order No.: C 758 083 D

Composers/Works:
W.A. Mozart: Non son più cosa son, cosa faccio (from: Le nozze di Figaro) R. Strauss: Seien wir wieder gut - Musik ist eine heilige Kunst (from: Ariadne auf Naxos) W.A. Mozart: A guarda sorella (from: Così fan tutte K 0588) W.A. Mozart: Barbaro fato! W.A. Mozart: Sento, o Dio (from: Così fan tutte K 0588) W.A. Mozart: Gehn wir beide nicht auch? ... Empfange, Geliebte, das Herzchen zu eigen G. Rossini: Sposa ... Signor, perdona L.v. Beethoven: Abscheulicher! - Komm, Hoffnung, laß den letzten Stern (from: Fidelio op. 072) R. Wagner: Geliebter, komm! ... Wie hätt' ich das erworben A. Berg: Und ist kein Betrug in seinem Munde erfunden worden A. Berg: Dort links geht's in die Stadt R. Strauss: Ich fürchte, Frau Gräfin, Sie werden nach dieser Einführung H. Pfitzner: Schönste, ungnäd'ge Dame R. Wagner: Erhebe dich, Genossin meiner Schmach R. Wagner: Elsa! - Wer ruft? ... Entweihte Götter! G. Bizet: L' amour est un oiseau rebelle (from: Carmen) G. Bizet: Près des remparts de Seville (from: Carmen) R. Strauss: Da geht er hin – Ach du bist wieder da – Die Zeit ist ein sonderbar Ding (from: Der Rosenkavalier) R. Strauss: Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren G. Verdi: Ambizioso spirto tu sei - Vieni! t'affretta! G. Verdi: La luce langue (from: Macbeth) G. Verdi: Una macchia è qui tuttora G.v. Einem: Das Herz mit deinem und meinem Namen G. Verdi: Duchessa ... Duchessa tu m'appelli! H. Berlioz: Pardonne, Iopas - O pudeur! Tout conspire R. Wagner: Weiche, Wotan, weiche! Flieh des Ringes Fluch! P. Tschaikowsky: Schweigt doch endlich G. Verdi: Reverenza - Kommt's gute Frau nur näher C. Debussy: Voici ce qu'il écrit à son frère Pelléas R. Strauss: Was willst Du? – Seht doch, dort (from: Elektra)
Artists:
Christa Ludwig (Mezzosopran) Paul Schöffler (Bariton) Hilde Güden (Sopran) Walter Berry (Bariton) Karl Dönch (Tenor) Waldemar Kmentt (Tenor) Dagmar Hermann (Mezzosopran) Emmy Loose (Sopran) Ludwig Welter (Bass) Hans Beirer (Tenor) Margaritha Lilowa (Mezzosopran) Lisa della Casa (Sopran) Robert Kerns (Tenor) Otto Wiener (Bass) Sena Jurinac (Sopran) Claire Watson (Sopran) James King (Tenor) Gwyneth Jones (Sopran) Hilda Groote (Sopran) Sherrill Milnes (Bariton) Ljubomir Pantscheff (Bass) Gildis Flossmann (Sopran) Eberhard Waechter (Bariton) Karl Terkal (Tenor) Fritz Sperlbauer (Tenor) Franco Bonisolli (Tenor) Horst Laubenthal (Tenor) Guy Chauvet (Tenor) Nicola Ghiuselev (Bass) Hans Sotin (Bass) Brigitte Fassbaender (Mezzosopran) Josef Hopferwieser (Tenor) Nicolai Ghiaurov (Bass) François Roux (Bariton) Hildegard Behrens (Sopran) Axelle Gall (Mezzosopran) Cathy Berns-Rund (Sopran) Wiener Philharmoniker (Orchester) Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper (Orchester) Chor der Wiener Staatsoper (Chor) Karl Böhm (Dirigent) Josef Krips (Dirigent) Alberto Erede (Dirigent) Herbert von Karajan (Dirigent) Leopold Ludwig (Dirigent) Georges Prêtre (Dirigent) Robert Heger (Dirigent) Lorin Maazel (Dirigent) Leonard Bernstein (Dirigent) Horst Stein (Dirigent) Gerd Albrecht (Dirigent) Zubin Mehta (Dirigent) Dimitri Kitaenko (Dirigent) Claudio Abbado (Dirigent) Heinrich Hollreiser (Dirigent)

Christa Ludwig

The wide-ranging repertory in which Christa Ludwig appeared at the Vienna State Opera, spoiling her audiences and often surprising them over a period of many years, is central to the present set of three CDs issued to mark her eightieth birthday. It begins with her Cherubino from Le nozze di Figaro and her Composer from Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, both of which she sang at the Salzburg Festival soon after her Vienna State Opera début in 1955. Another of her early roles in Vienna was Dorabella in Così fan tutte, while Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola was a lyric mezzo-soprano part that she sang only infrequently but to which she brought a stupendous coloratura technique.
Christa Ludwig ORFEO CD C 758 083 DHer increasingly dramatic roles are represented by excerpts from Beethoven’s Fidelio, Berg’s Wozzeck, Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Lohengrin and Verdi’s Macbeth, which also demonstrate the astute use of her resources in those roles that extend well into the soprano register. It was very much Christa Ludwig’s ability to cover the whole dynamic range from the most delicate pianissimo to the greatest fortissimo outburst that allowed her to encompass the most dramatic passages without forfeiting any of her intensity, causing audiences to break into spontaneous applause even in a through-composed work like Lohengrin. Under Leonard Bernstein’s conducting, the subdued melancholy of her Marschallin is even more overwhelming in the present live recording than it was in the studio. No less impressive is the way in which Christa Ludwig was able to forge a successful working relationship with each of the very different conductors with whom she appeared, be it Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado or the conductor of the most recent New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna, Georges Prêtre. That her distinct timbre never suffered from the pressures that were placed on her voice was repeatedly confirmed and, indeed, encouraged by her regular return to the mezzo-soprano repertory. New productions were not always planned around her, as they were with her Dido in Berlioz’s Les Troyens and her assumption of the title role in Gottfried von Einem’s Der Besuch der alten Dame, a work based on a libretto that Friedrich Dürrenmatt adapted from his own stage play of the same name, with its central role written specially with Ludwig in mind. Throughout her career, she retained a company spirit and never thought it beneath her to appear in smaller roles such as Clairon in Strauss’s Capriccio, Federica in Verdi’s Luisa Miller, Erda in Das Rheingold and, towards the end of her career, in character parts, including the Old Countess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande and, above all, Klytämnestra in Elektra, the role in which she bade farewell to the stage in 1994. This final appearance – almost forty years after her Viennese début – also brings to an end our musical tribute to Christa Ludwig, recalling an altogether exceptional career by this honorary member of the Vienna State Opera.