S. WAGNER Der Kobold • Frank Strobel, cond; Rebecca Broberg ( Verena ); Regina Mauel ( Gertrud ); Andreas Mitschke ( Ekhart ); Achim Hoffmann ( Trutz ); Johannes Föttinger ( Fink ); Philipp Meierhöfer ( Kümmel ); Volker Horn ( Friedrich ); Nicholas Isherwood ( Der Graf ); Martina Borst ( Die Gräfin ); Ksenija Lukic ( Jeannette ); Marco Bappert ( Jean ); Joachim Höchbauer ( Knorz ); Heike Kohler ( Käthe ); Young Jae Park ( Seelchen ); PPP Music Theatre Ens; Nuremberg SO • Marco Polo 8.225329 (3 CDs: 195:27)


Each time I listen to this recording of The Goblin , I am utterly unnerved—do not be fooled by the descending flute figures that cue the overture, like Pan himself coming down to bless the land. Obviously, there is no shortage of warped and twisted librettos, which tend to serve as jumping off points for music yet more warped and twisted, but my goodness, our man Siegfried was exorcising some personal demons with this work—ironically, by enlivening some.


The first “sung” note, once the gentle, autumnal instrumental opening has concluded, is a scream, one that comes through on the recording like a spike—no reverb, no vibrato, just fear, hammered home. We are dealing with a dramatis personae of goblins (including one whose entrance into the world comes courtesy of a mixture of a hanged man’s seed and the yellow grass below), a wizard, some assassins, night phantoms, a few satyrs, a circus collective, a rapist, and such cheery pursuits as infanticide, abortion, flesh trading, and prestidigitation for, shall we say, less than salubrious ends. Good luck sorting out the plot, which is about as close to postmodernism as Siegfried ever got, and features an opera within the opera, and a climax not dissimilar to F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu , which had the subtitle, intriguingly enough, of “A Symphony of Horrors.”


The quality of the recording itself will jar you, but that’s part of its effectiveness—weapons crash to the ground as though they’ve landed on microphones, or like something is kicking inside the speakers and trying to get out. It’s a fascinating, weird kind of audio-vérité, that further unsettles the nerves; but distortion was Siegfried’s ally in the creation of this work, and some passages even appear, at first, to be atonal. Rebecca Broberg as Verena, the opera’s heroine—a default designation, really, in this case, given her successive and ultimately defeating tragedies—is really stretched on the rack in her exceedingly taxing role, and it is through her vocal lines that we experience whatever empathy—which often takes the forms of anxiety and fear—the opera has to offer. It’s been remarked that for all of its fantastical elements, Der Kobold is something of a gangster story, but the noir -ish element becomes almost hallucinatory in the constant churn of crises, a vortex of demonism, you might say—of both the supernatural and human variety, the latter, of course, always being worse. Cpo has a Siegfried Wagner sampler disc with the West German Radio Symphony Orchestra and Roman Trekel handling an excerpt, but for the whole, vivid nightmare, you’ll need this set to be properly shocked and disturbed. And for those who cherish their illusions of childhood, there is perhaps no 20th-century opera that poses such a menacing threat to any and all forms of latency.


FANFARE: Colin Fleming

From time to time, the general idea gains currency that national anthems are nowadays an anachronism. According to the critics' arguments, these anthems were the product of a period of awakening nationalism. Today, however, there is wide endeavour to overcome narrow, national ways of thinking and acting, with the great aim of promoting the peaceful community and union of nations, to realize which should be the first principle for politicians all over the world. Criticism of this kind may surely be justified, considered from the standpoint of those seeking a United Europe. On the other hand we must not underestimate the sanctity accorded national anthems, carefully guarded symbols which enjoy the same respect and protection as national flags. They express love of the fatherland, pride in the native country, and trust in the nation. This is the reason for the sincerity with which people regard and sing their own national anthem, and the respect accorded to the anthems of other peoples. The solemn, dignified start and close of each official meeting between peoples divided by national borders is provided by national anthems. Yet when before have meetings between representatives of different nations been as frequent as today? Peoples meet at sporting events, at international youth gatherings, or at political conferences, heads of the states and delegations are received, cultural weeks and festivals are celebrated, and on such occasions the national anthems surely contribute to the understanding of other peoples, as well as offering the occasion for personal contact among individuals. Nothing, then, is more important in our time than mutual understanding, since misunderstandings and prejudices have in the past brought so much disaster to the nations of the world. Since publication of the CD-set Complete National Anthems of the World, Vols. 1-6 (Marco Polo 8.206001) in 1998, the following independent states have introduced new national anthems, restored from former anthems of the earlier history of their respective countries: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Congo-Kinshasa (formerly Zaire), Georgia, Iraq, Mozambique, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia and Turkmenistan. It has therefore been necessary to produce a complete new set to replace the previous series. In addition to the national anthem of the newly independent state of East Timor, the Grand Ducal Hymn of Luxembourg and the Swedish Royal Song, the previous set furthermore included many state hymns of autonomous dependencies, overseas territories, other regional administrative bodies and ethnic groups, as well as the hymns of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the United Nations Organization, the European Union and the International Olympic Committee. The anthems are performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava under the conductor Peter Breiner (born 1957), who has arranged and orchestrated all the anthems with great sensitivity. It is a highly successful undertaking which will arouse the enthusiasm of music collectors, ethnologists, heads of protocol and sports promoters.

MARCO POLO FILM SAMPLER

MERCADANTE: Elena da Feltre

Music of the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279)

MARSCHNER: Overtures

This enchanting album features movie themes from the 1940s. Songs include Heaven on Earth, If I Don’t Have You, Shanghai Nights, Flames of Love, and more. Performing these timeless works is the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yip Wing Sie.

For Louis Spohr, virtuoso violinist and composer, the string quartet ran like a thread throughout his life. Strongly influenced by both the Viennese classics and the French violin school, he wrote a series of works that incorporated both of these models as he became one of the most important and esteemed composers of the first part of the nineteenth century. Both of the quartets on this recording reflect these different elements of his music, from the elegant refinement and impressive lyricism of the Quartet No. 23 to the thrilling panache of the technically demanding Quartet No. 26. This is the penultimate volume in the Marco Polo series of Spohr’s string quartets. - Marco Polo

LUMBYE: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5

Popular Chinese Piano Pieces: Scenes from China & Music of W

MERCADANTE: Vestale (La)

A genuine discovery—constantly inventive music of considerable achievement, for which Gérard Korsten obtains performances of real distinction from his orchestra.

First things first. Adolf Fredrik Lindblad was a Swede, born in Skänninge, not too far from Stockholm, in 1801. He was a precocious composer (with a flute concerto premiered at the age of 15) in a country where there was no real audience for serious symphonic composition, other than as middle-class divertissement. Sent to Germany to learn a trade, he returned to Sweden where, thanks to perceptive friends in Uppsala, he was sent back to Germany to study with Zelter in Berlin; another of Zelter 's pupils was one Felix Mendelssohn, and he and Lindblad became friends. On his return to Sweden, Lindblad founded and directed (until 1861) a piano school, composing vigorously all the while; he died in 1878.

Some of Lindblad's 200 songs later gained considerable popularity thanks to his pupil Jenny Lind with whom, P.-G. Bergfors's notes tell us, he had an affair. Those songs earned him the nickname of "the Swedish Schubert"—but the link with Schubert is not only a superficial one of similitude: Lindblad's two symphonies (written in 1831 and 1855) show that he also inherited something of Schubert's symphonic manner, though probably without actually knowing much (or any?) of the music.

The first movement of No. 1 wrestles with a thematic fragment from Beethoven's Ninth, and reminiscences of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Weber dart and weave through the textures here and elsewhere; Lindblad also shows himself to be particularly fond of the Beethovenian sforzato. The finale—which begins with a bright fugue—brings Lindblad closest to his slightly older contemporary Franz Berwald, especially when he uses the same driving rhythmic figures, stiffened by the trumpets, that Berwald so often deployed. The Second Symphony shows a quantum improvement in confidence: Right from the start of the Maestoso slow introduction of the first movement, there's a sense of power waiting to be released, confirmed by the energetic, optimistic sonata-allegro that follows, again with Berwaldian touches of color in an orchestration, which otherwise owes more to Beethoven and Mozart than anyone else. A dignified, though busy, Poco allegretto instead of slow movement (doubtless learned from Beethoven Seven) and a knockabout scherzo lead to a finale that shows Lindblad to have been following the progress of early Romanticism on the Continent—not that early by 1855, perhaps, but his sound world seems already to have been established by the time of the First Symphony. In its sheer buoyant, lively enthusiasm the closest relative of this Second Symphony of Lindblad's is Bizet's Symphony in C, written in exactly the same year—indeed, the two works sometimes sound uncannily alike, though it's almost 100% certain that Lindblad won't have been acquainted with the Bizet, which was completely unknown until its first performance in 1935 (just after it was discovered in Bizet's papers, bequeathed to the Paris Conservatoire by his wife's second husband).

A genuine discovery, this—constantly inventive music of considerable achievement, for which the South African conductor Gérard Korsten obtains performances of real distinction from his Swedish players. The sound isn't terribly polished, but who cares? The main thing is to put across the music in as lively and communicative manner as possible, and here they succeed admirably.

Good, bright sound with plenty of depth. Recommended with considerable enthusiasm, then, as another corner of musical history is uncovered.

-- Martin Anderson, FANFARE [11/1999]

Includes work(s) by Johann Strauss Sr.. Ensemble: Camerata Cassovia. Conductor: Christian Pollack.

STRAUSS II, J.: Edition - Vol. 48

STRAUSS II, J.: Edition - Vol. 37