Martha Modl: The Portrait Of A Legend

$12.99
Label
Profil
Release Date
April 24, 2012
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      WAGNER STRAUSS FORTNER REIM
    • PERFORMER
      Martha Mödl
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      April 24, 2012
    • UPC
      881488120066
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      PH12006
    • LABEL
      Profil
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      2
    • GENRE
      Vocal
    Works ⌄

    1. Rienzi, Act III: Gerechter Gott

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Heinrich Hollreiser

    2. Act II: Doch nun von Tristan … Genau will ich's vernehemen

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bayerisches Staatsorchester

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Hertha Töpper

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    3. Act I: Begehrt, Herrin

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bayerisches Staatsorchester

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Ludwig Suthaus

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    4. Act I: War Morold dir so wert

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Bayerisches Staatsorchester

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Ludwig Suthaus

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    5. Act II: Nicht Hornerschall tont so hold

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Grace Hoffman

      Conductor: Ferdinand Leitner

    6. Act II: Dein Werk? O tor'ge Magd!

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Grace Hoffman

      Conductor: Ferdinand Leitner

    7. Act II: So sturben wir, um ungetrennt

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Grace Hoffman, Gustav Neidlinger

      Conductor: Ferdinand Leitner

    8. Tristan und Isolde, Act III: Mild und leise wie er lachelt

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bayerisches Staatsorchester

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    9. No. 1. Der Engel (The Angel)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bamberger Symphoniker, Bayreuther Festspielorchester

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    10. No. 2. Stehe still (Stand Still)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bamberger Symphoniker, Bayreuther Festspielorchester

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    11. No. 3. Im Treibhaus (In the Hothouse)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bamberger Symphoniker, Bayreuther Festspielorchester

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    12. No. 4. Schmerzen (Pain)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bamberger Symphoniker, Bayreuther Festspielorchester

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    13. No. 5. Traume (Dreams)

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bamberger Symphoniker, Bayreuther Festspielorchester

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    14. Act I: Der Manner Sippe sass hier im Saal

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bayreuther Festspielorchester

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    15. Act I: Du bist der Lenz

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Bayreuther Festspielorchester

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Joseph Keilberth

    16. Act III: Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Orchestre Symphonique de Vichy

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Georges Sébastian

    17. Act III: Mein Erbe nun nehm' ich zu eigen

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Orchestre Symphonique de Vichy

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Georges Sébastian

    18. Act III: Grane, mein Ross

      Composer: Richard Wagner

      Ensemble: Orchestre Symphonique de Vichy

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Georges Sébastian

    19. Elektra, Op. 58, TrV 223: Was willst du? Seht doch, dort!

      Composer: Richard Strauss

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Berlin

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Otmar Suitner

    20. Bluthochzeit (Blood Wedding), Act II: Nachbarinnen! Mit einem Messer ... - Schlusszene der Mutter

      Composer: Wolfgang Fortner

      Ensemble: Wurttemberg State Theatre Orchestra Stuttgart

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Ferdinand Leitner

    21. Melusine, Act III: Heut, hier und jetzt wird es entschieden

      Composer: Aribert Reimann

      Ensemble: WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Josef Greindl

      Conductor: Reinhard Peters

    22. Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades), Op. 68, Act II: Schweigt doch endlich! Alles Luge Ich bin mude

      Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

      Ensemble: Chor der Oper Graz, Graz Symphony Orchestra

      Performer: Martha Mödl

      Conductor: Niksa Bareza

    23. No. 1. Bitten

      Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Michael Raucheisen

    24. No. 2. Die Liebe des Nächsten

      Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Michael Raucheisen

    25. No. 3. Vom Tode

      Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Michael Raucheisen

    26. No. 4. Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur

      Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Michael Raucheisen

    27. No. 5. Gottes Macht und Vorsehung

      Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Michael Raucheisen

    28. No. 6. Busslied

      Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

      Performer: Martha Mödl, Michael Raucheisen




MARTHA MÖDL: THE PORTAIT OF A LEGEND • Martha Mödl (sop, ms); various vocalists; various conductors; various orchestras • PROFIL 12006 (2 CDs: 158:17) Live: 1950–82


WAGNER Rienzi: Gerechter Gott! Tristan und Isolde: Doch nun von Tristan; Begehrt, Herrin was ihr wünscht; War Morold dir so wert; Nicht Hörnerschall tönt so hold; Dein Werk? O tör’ge Magd! So stürben wir, um ungetrennt; Mild und leise. Wesendonck Lieder. Die Walküre: Der Männer sippe; Du bist der Lenz. Götterdämmerung: Starke Scheite … Grane, mein Ross, sei mir gegrüsst. R. STRAUSS Elektra: Was willst du? Seht doch dort! FORTNER Bluthochzeit: Nachbarinnen! Mit einem Messer. REIMANN Melusine: Heut, hier und jetzt wird es entschieden. TCHAIKOVSKY Pique Dame: Schweigt doch endlich! BEETHOVEN Bitten. Die liebe des Nächsten. Vom Tode. Die ehre Gottes aus der Natur. Gottes Macht und Vorsehung. Bußlied


I can’t claim to be an expert on the recordings of Martha Mödl, but to the best of my knowledge Profil has issued all of these for the very first time. At least, the company claims so on the CD insert, and I for one have never seen commercial recordings by her of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder or any of the Beethoven songs.


Mödl’s strengths as a singer were, ironically, her defects as well. Although she had a superb voice that was well trained, once she was onstage singing she let herself go in a way that was as exciting as it was harrowing. With no thought of technique, she threw herself into the music, often sacrificing tonal security or beauty for a complete identification with the character or words she was singing. The liner notes compare her to Callas, and that is a fair assessment, but I find it ironic to remember that she was not always considered a legend when she was still alive. I still recall, when Furtwängler’s RAI Ring cycle was issued on Seraphim LPs, how many critics who shall remain nameless actually apologized for Mödl’s contribution, although, to be fair, they usually added that when you saw her in person you overlooked the explosive, blown-out high notes because of the intensity of her interpretations. I also heard from an acquaintance of mine that once, in a performance of Elektra with Astrid Varnay in the title role and Mödl as Klytemnestra (which she sings in the excerpt on this set), Varnay got so caught up listening to Mödl that she almost forgot to re-enter.


From a strictly vocal standpoint, her voice is under better control on CD 2 than it is on CD 1. So many of the high notes on the first disc are attacked with such vehemence that you are almost afraid that she is going to blow the voice out, then and there, especially the two high Cs (feared by Flagstad, but apparently not by Mödl) in Isolde’s act I curse. Ludwig Suthaus was a fine singer, but not necessarily for Tristan, which lay very uncomfortably in his range, but he gives it the old college try and, sparked by Mödl, is far more intense here than in his 1952 commercial recording with Flagstad and Furtwängler. The Tristan excerpts go back and forth between two different venues and three different performances (the love duet excerpt with Wolfgang Windgassen was performed at London’s Royal Festival Hall, but not, apparently, with the Royal Philharmonic), and the singers sound rather off-mike in the 1958 Munich performance, but regardless of time or place Mödl is locked into the character with an almost psychic intensity. It’s interesting to hear such an intense vocal actress performing the Wesendonck Lieder , but this is where her high notes are more out of control than anywhere else in the set.


Turning to CD 2, we hear at the outset a much more in-control Mödl, her voice intense but warm and well placed for Sieglinde’s two act I excerpts and a phenomenal Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung conducted by Georges Sebastian. Mödl often said that this was her favorite role of all, and she certainly makes you think the world is coming to an end! Following this, we jump a decade to a 1967 performance as Klytemnestra (unfortunately, not with Varnay) in which she is appropriately intense, but by now the voice has a wobble. The two excerpts from modern operas, Wolfgang Fortner’s Bluthochzeit and Aribert Reimann’s Melusine, are not really my kind of music (this is from the Ugly 12-Tone Era), but they do show that Mödl was not only a great stage actress but an excellent musician, capable of learning any style of music and infusing it with dramatic energy. The liner notes indicate that Reimann composed this scene especially for Mödl.


More interesting is her fascinating performance as the old Countess in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades. Though sung in German (I hadn’t realized that Germany was still performing foreign operas in the vernacular as late as 1982), she delineates the character of the old woman with perfect feeling and a meaning for the text.


Oddly, this survey of Mödl’s career ends with the earliest performances on the set, a series of Beethoven Lieder from 1950. Her voice is at its freshest here (perhaps Profil wanted to leave us with that sound in our ears), her interpretations are all excellent and not all over the top, and it’s interesting that her accompanist is Michael Raucheisen, who had recorded a large group of Lieder performances with the legendary tenor Leo Slezak back around 1928. They make an excellent pair, and these readings are exceptionally fine in every respect.


Despite the flaws, this set is absolutely indispensable for Mödl fans (and I’m certainly one), for Wagner lovers, and for anyone who wants to hear one of the most intense artists of the 20th century. We’ve had so many cookie-cutter Wagner sopranos in recent years that it’s nice to remember a time when, for some of them at least, performing this music was more than a job. It was almost a matter of life and death.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley