Re-Release of an important item of the back catalogue. The present recording shows the highly acclaimed premiere from 2009 of the original version of Shostakovitch's opera. It represents also the debut of conductor Ingo Metzmacher at the Vienna State Opera. The opera was premiered in 1934 in Leningrad. After Stalin visited a performance in 1936 and then published a scathing review about it, colleagues and critics, who had previously approved of the opera, turned against Shostakovich. It was only about 30 years later that the piece was performed again in the Soviet Union, however, in a toned-down version under the name "Katerina Ismailova". This version was also performed internationally. The original version came to Western Europe only in 1980. The Vienna State Opera performed the original version of Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk for the first time in 2009 - that premiere is to be heard on the present album.

This is re-issue of the previous bestseller C756081 (4011790756127). Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1985 production of "Pagliacci" (and "Cavalleria rusticana") was one of the French director's last assignments at the Vienna State Opera before his untimely death 1988. The sensation of that June evening in 1985 was, however, Placido Domingo's consummate performance in Leoncavallos Pagliacci. He was more than an expressive singer with an incomparable tenor voice, he was also a truly great actor able to convey the whole world of his emotions to every member of the audience. Domingo's ability to bring out utter hopelessness transformed Leoncavallo's hackneyed opera into a highly individual tragedy from whose sway no one could escape. The dramatic intensity of his performance fired the other singers, too: thanks not least to her extraordinary vocal skills, Ileana Cotrubas was able to make Nedda's easygoing attitude as credible as her genuine feeling for Silvio and her struggle to safeguard the new love that had entered into her life; Wolfgang Schone gave Silvio an unusually clear-cut character and Heinz Zednik's presence in the cast likewise gave Peppe a whole new dimension. Finally, the French baritone Matteo Manuguerra was able to display thanks to his great and powerful voice a "terrifyingly evil" Tonio. By the end of the evening the public and the critics "were genuinely gripped"

This recording brings together two of the biggest sacred works written by Mozart and Haydn, the friends and contemporaries caught at opposite ends of their musical lives. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the substantial Mass in C minor (K. 139) for the consecration of the Waisenhaus (Orphanage) Church in the Rennweg when he was just twelve years old. The Mass received its first performance on 7 December 1768. While Mozart was overseeing the consecration of the Waisenhaus, Joseph Haydn was in the third year of his promotion to Kapellmeister at the palace of Esterházy, under Prince Nikolaus I. It was a post to which he returned in 1795, serving under Nikolaus II on a part time basis. This second term saw the composition of six Masses, with the penultimate – nicknamed the ‘Nelson Mass’ – widely regarded as his finest setting.

OPERNARIEN

KINDER- UND WIEGENLIEDER

‘The Miraculous Mandarin’ (Op. 19, Sz. 73) is Bartók's last work for the stage. The plot revolves around prostitution, brutality, robbery, murder, being an outsider, (unrequited) love, and finally, as a catharsis, a kind of love-death. The music is relentlessly sharp for long stretches, garishly dissonant, radical—probably the most modern score Bartók created. The premiere (1926) in Cologne was a scandal, and Konrad Adenauer, then Lord Mayor of Cologne, immediately cancelled the performances.The Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz. 112, was composed between August 1937 and December 31, 1938, shortly before Bartók's emigration to the United States in view of the increasingly oppressive political and social climate in Hungary. Unlike the ‘Mandarin,’ the work quickly established itself after its premiere in Amsterdam in 1939 as one of the central violin concertos of the first half of the 20th century, and at the same time, as one of Bartók's greatest creations.

In the course of his long career, Michael Gielen has been Music Director of the Royal Opera in Stockholm, the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels, the Dutch Opera, and the Frankfurt Opera. He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Berlin, as well as Chief Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Südwestfunk Symphony Orchestra.

Taken from a live performance in February, 1992, this recording by the Bavarian State Opera bears some similarities to similar live efforts from the Vienna State Opera: the orchestra is clearer than usual and it plays very well. In this case, the balance is fairer to the singers than it has been in Vienna, and a good thing, too, because one of them, Julia Varady, is among the elite Leonoras, and is surely the reason why this set is out there, for Stefania Toczyska is merely a solid, slightly (and not inappropriately) rough Azucena, one of several good ones, while the male stars are in a bit over their heads. Dennis O’Neill’s voice is in somewhat better shape than it was on his Chandos “Opera-in-English” recordings, which came later in his career. One wants to like him because he’s a passionate Manrico who throws himself into the role. “Di quella pira” is shortened a bit, but he doesn’t transpose it and even gets off a strangulated high C. It may be it was this kind of fearless, fiery singing that did him in. Wolfgang Brendel sounds like he’s in the downward phase of his career. We can appreciate the intelligent way he finesses his way through his part. In “Il balen,” for example, his good breath control enables him to do long phrases without punching the music out, but he has to sing it too loudly. Harry Dworchak handles “Abbietta zingara” fairly well but, like all Ferrandos, he’s unable to sing “Morodi paura” at his conductor’s tempo. Although touted as a “singers’ opera,” Il trovatore responds to the ministrations of a strong conductor, and the playing of the orchestra has energy and power but not rigidity. As for Varady, she makes a beautiful sound and usually executes all the notes—in act IV she simplifies a cadenza and, at another point, resorts to a simpler option in the score, but she hits a clean high D? in act I. Such proficient singing would be impressive in itself, but it’s also expressive, beautifully nuanced singing, even if it may not be enough to make this entry a “must buy” affair; but I’ve only heard about a half-dozen Leonoras who can compare with her. There is a cued plot summary as well as a cue list and some notes about the artists. There is no libretto.

James Miller, Fanfare Magazine

Classical Music

There is already one version of Bassariden in the catalogue, a Berlin Radio performance from 1991 conducted by Gerd Albrecht, and that remains the one to buy. But this Orfeo recording of the Salzburg premiere, conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi...differs from the version conducted by Albrecht in one important respect: the third part of the opera, the lengthy slow movement in Henze's scheme, was originally interrupted by a lighter, distinctly camp intermezzo. By the time of the Albrecht recording, Henze had decided to remove it from the score, and so this recording is the only chance to hear the omitted passage. - Guardian

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

As the head of the Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio, Rafael Kubelik was one of the major personalities of post-war German music life. His proverbial modesty and his creed of absolute faithfulness to the original work earned him many admirers, especially during his years in Munich as principal conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio (1961-79). Let it be noted that it was less the person Kubelik that was venerated, but rather his interpretation of music: uncompromising concentration on what was essential, unadulterated and relevant in the best sense of the word. Examples of this can be shown by these audio recordings of two of Ludwig van Beethoven's best-known works, the Missa Solemnis, in which Beethoven like in no other work thematized his life-long struggle with faith, and the famous Symphony No. 9, which by including a choral movement broke with the conventions of Viennese Classicism like no other symphony of the time and was viewed as a ground-breaking work. With Helen Donath, Brigitte Fassbaender, Peter Schreier, John Shirley-Quirk and other voices from the very top 'league' of the concert and song guard of the 1970s and 1980s, these Munich recordings also go far beyond the status of historical sound documents - they are veritable reference recordings!

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Libretto booklet in German only. Plot synopsis in German and English.

Schreker scored a succès d'estime with his ballet Der Geburtstag der Infantin in 1908. Zemlinsky then approached Schreker for a libretto on the same plot. Schreker became so wrapped up in the emotional tensions associated with physical ugliness obliterating the chances of expressing physical love that the project fell away. Instead Schreker produced Die Gezeichneten.

The setting is 16th century Genoa. Alviano is the architect of a temple to debauchery where moneyed profligates have orgies with abducted women. Tamare is one of the profligates who desires Carlotta who is a painter and she in turn prefers to catch Alviano's soul in a painting. Tamare is determined to win Carlotta and Carlotta while painting Alviano discloses her love. Betrothed to Alviano, Carlotta repents of her entanglement, now appalled by Alviano's repugnant face. She goes off with Tamare. Alviano having found them in flagrante delicto kills Tamare. Carlotta dies calling on the name of Tamare; Alviano, distraught, collapses into insanity. The large chorus represents nobles, citizens, soldiers, maids, servants, women, maidens, silent children, fauns, naiads and bacchantes.

The music is utterly gorgeous - jewelled, mystic, silvery, haunted, euphorically climactic in episodes fully worthy of the operas of Korngold, Schoeck (including Massimilla Doni and Schloss Durande) and Strauss. This is voluptuous stuff written in the dazzling hey-day of late-romantic opera with a footing in the twin heritages of Wagner and Puccini. Listen, for example, on CD1 to the surging flowing romance of the Halloh! Vitelozzo (tr. 3) or the tenderest of orchestral gestures in Holde Martuccia (tr. 5). This is the material which Hollywood was later to mine in light-flooded scores written for the screen romances of the 1940s by Korngold and Waxman. The Verwandlung in Act II Track 9 (CD1) is yet another ultra-romantic and, let's face it, irresistible, affirmation of the passionately tear-stained musical line that Korngold was to purvey in Hollywood (e.g. in the marsh music of Elizabeth and Essex and the great theme from Anthony Adverse). All those who love their Korngold need to add this set to their shelves as soon as possible. Get it now before it disappears. If you remain unconvinced then try listening to CD2 track 6 which is Carlotta's song 'Ah Welche nacht' in which she is joined by the choir which shines at first quietly and later with greater passion in an echo from Delius's A Mass of Life. At the peak moving directly into tr.7 and in Adorno and Carlotta's duet, there is some unsubtle romance-exalted material but overall this is grand opera at its hyper-sentimental apex. Wonderful singing from Becht and Martin but then I did not detect any really weak links in this cast.

This 1984 performance dates from the first flushed up-rearing of interest in Schreker and Zemlinsky. At this stage Albrecht was busy with many such revivals. Two years previously at the same Salzburg Festival, Albrecht directed a rare revival of Schoeck's Penthesilea. Austrian Radio's engineers made a superb job of this recording which has now been digitally remastered. There is the occasional creak and cough but miraculously few - even in the moments of greatest quiet. Speaking of which, here is an opera which, for all its superheated storms, revels in glimmering Baxian webs of orchestration, fine tintinnabulation and the softest gong impacts. Schreker could not resist ending the work (CD2 tr. 12) with a hideously retching and yawing apostrophe to inimical fate.

The set is well documented but sadly I cannot provide the registers of all the singers as these details are not listed in the booklet. Only the sung German text is given. There is no English translation. The notes and a very good synopsis are in both German and English.

There are other recordings of this work of which only one is currently available. The deleted Decca recording (444 442-2(3)) was issued in 1993/94 as part of the now cob-webbed and threadbare ‘Entartete Musik’ series and now reissued as an ArkivCD. The Berlin Deutsche SO conducted by Lothar Zagrosek. There is also a still currently available recording on Marco Polo.

The opera was premiered at Frankfurt-am-Main on 25 April 1918. Its UK premiere came on 31 January 1965 on the Third Programme.

This set should be on the wish-list of every collector who values their operatic Zemlinsky, Schoeck, Korngold, Pfitzner or Schreker. I am now all the more regretful that I missed Schreker's Irrelohe while it was still available on Sony.

- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International