S. Wagner: Bruder Lustig / Fritzsch, Klorek, Thies, Et Al
Marco Polo
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$35.99
Jun 01, 2002
WAGNER, S.: Bruder Lustig
S. Wagner: Bruder Lustig / Fritzsch, Klorek, Thies, Et Al
$35.99
CD
Marco Polo
Jun 01, 2002
8225245-47
Die Lustige Witwe / (Dol Sub)
Videoland
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$32.99
Mar 10, 2015
Herald Serafin; Margarita de Arellano; Mathia Hausmann; Elisabeth Starzinger; Marwan Shamiyeh; Daniel Serafin; Alexander Klinger; Ernst Konarek; Bernd Ander; Doris Nitsch; Peter Branoff; Johanna Hohloch; Peter Lidner; Mirjana Irosch; Claudio Hiller.
Die Lustige Witwe / (Dol Sub)
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DVD
Videoland
Mar 10, 2015
VLMD012
Siegfried und Violetta oder List, Last, Lust und Lunge
Genuin
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$32.99
May 28, 2013
Opera fragment so far unpublished, hypothetically bringing Verdi and Wagner together in Venice. It is the last work of the author Herbert Rosendorfer before his death in 2012. This final work of the wonderful Herbert Rosendorfer brings these two great composers together in a fictitiously meditative dialogue, the virtuoso hornist Christoph Eƒ (Bamberg Symphony Orchestra) and his German Hornsound contribute the entertaining, "shaken not stirred" musical cocktail.
Siegfried und Violetta oder List, Last, Lust und Lunge
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CD
Genuin
May 28, 2013
GEN 13264
Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots (Sung in German)
Walhall Eternity Series
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$8.99
Sep 11, 2015
Despite its enormous success during the 19th c., Giacomo Meyerbeer’s grand opera Les Huguenots is rarely staged today, and arguably not with much more frequency at the time of this 1955 studio broadcast from the Vienna opera in a German-sung production. The conductor Robert Heger leads a cast of whom only Walter Berry and the great Wagnerian Gottlob Frick still have any real resonance today, with Maud Cunitz sneaking in just under the wire of recognition. The cast is a fine one however, with the German lyric tenor Karl Terkal a worthy re-discovery, and Valerie Bak a rare presence on record.
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Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots (Sung in German)
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Walhall Eternity Series
Sep 11, 2015
WLCD0169
Weinberger: Fruhlingssturme / De Souza, Komische Opera Berlin
Czech-born composer Jaromír Weinberger, best known for his opera Schwanda the Bagpiper, was forced to flee to America in order to escape Nazi terror. Frühlingsstürme, staged in 1933 but soon closed down by the Nazi government, was the last operetta of the Weimar Republic. It is filled with cultural complexity, combining serious operatic style with light comedy, and presents a thrilling story involving a doomed love affair set against war between Japan and Russia. This lavish production is staged by the award-winning Australian director Barrie Kosky.
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Weinberger: Fruhlingssturme / De Souza, Komische Opera Berlin
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$26.99
DVD
Naxos AudioVisual
Nov 06, 2020
2110677-78
Lehar: Die lustige Witwe / Schramm, Schock, Stolz
Sony Masterworks
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Aug 14, 2015
Classical Music
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Lehar: Die lustige Witwe / Schramm, Schock, Stolz
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Sony Masterworks
Aug 14, 2015
88697985772
Hesse, Lasker-Schüler: Ich habe dich gewählt. Symphonic poems
Musicaphon
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$16.99
Jul 23, 2021
Lutz-Werner Hesse studied School Music and Composition with Günter Fork and Jürg Baur at the Cologne Academy of Music as well as Musicology, Latin Philology and Ancient History at the University of Cologne. Since 1984 he has been a full-time lecturer, now Professor and Managing Director at the Wuppertal campus of the HfMT Cologne. From 1997 to 2011 he was chairman of the “Bergische Gesellschaft für Neue Musik“, and since 2004 he has been chairman of the “Konzertgesellschaft Wuppertal“, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra sponsorship association. The main focus of Hesse‘s compositional work is on chamber music and orchestral works. Hesse has received numerous commissions for various orchestras in Germany and has worked for important soloists (including Marie-Luise Neunecker, horn and Ulrike-Anima Mathé, violin). His most successful work to date is the composition “Vita di San Francesco – eleven stations from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi” for organ and thirteen gongs, which has now been performed well over eighty times. Hesse‘s works have been performed in many European countries, but also in the United States of America and Japan. The WDR, SR and SWR radio stations produced his works or recorded them at concerts. Albums with works by the composer have been released on the labels “col legno“, EMG classical, Musicaphon and Ars Produktion.
Hesse, Lasker-Schüler: Ich habe dich gewählt. Symphonic poems
$16.99
CD
Musicaphon
Jul 23, 2021
M55727
PeterLicht: Tartuffe oder Das Schwein der Weisen
Die Theateredition
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DVD
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$20.99
Jan 20, 2023
Director Claudia Bauer and her enthusiastic cast translate PeterLicht’s radical rewriting of Molière’s “Tartuffe” into fast-paced comedy. In its colourful pop outfit, betrayal shines all the brighter and our present times are firmly in their sights. The seemingly pious and virtuous Tartuffe deeply impresses the wealthy Orgon and unsettles his entire family, until he is gradually caught in dishonest intentions. So far the story as told by Molière. In his radical retelling, PeterLicht takes up central motifs of the work, taking aim at our present times in the process. “A outrageous exuberant, thoroughly Pop-trendy Molière-transcription of the Cologne music writer PeterLicht. Completely unhinged and inspired." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung )“This Tartuffe is so super! Pure nonsense. A philosophy parody – surely destined to become a cult work.” (Deutschlandfunk)
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PeterLicht: Tartuffe oder Das Schwein der Weisen
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Die Theateredition
Jan 20, 2023
THE08081
Wagner: Parsifal / Knappertsbusch, Modl, Windgassen, London
Andromeda
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CD
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$20.99
Jan 28, 2014
WAGNER Parsifal • Hans Knappertsbusch, cond; Wolfgang Windgassen (Parsifal); Martha Mödl (Kundry); George London (Amfortas); Herman Uhde (Klingsor); Ludwig Weber (Gurnemanz); Kurt Böhme (Titurel); Rita Streich, Erika Zimmermann, Hanna Ludwig, Hertha Töpper, Ruth Siewert (Flower Maidens); Karl Terkal, Werner Faulhaber (Grail Knights); Bayreuth Festival Ch & O • ANDROMEDA 5161, mono (4 CDs: 262:37) Live: Bayreuth 8/1/1952
Once again we have an historic Bayreuth recording from the early Wieland Wagner era, in this case Parsifal under the baton of its once-high priest Knappertsbusch. Possibly due to the overall quieter music, the harsh orchestral sound quality heard on the 1954 Tannhäuser (see my review below) is absent, and if anything the beautiful Bayreuth “sound” permeates this entire performance. Unlike the Tannhäuser, which had formerly appeared on LPs as far back as 1961 and came out on several CD incarnations, this particular Parsifal has only been available (according to the highly reputable web site Opera Discography) on three previous issues, all CD: Melodram, Archipel, and Cantus Classics.
With all due respect to those who enjoy Knappertsbusch’s early-1960s performances (the commercial recording on Philips or the “pirate” version with Jon Vickers), this one simply has more tension and a greater orchestral “sheen” despite the mono sound. And, for me, this cast is simply outstanding in every way. In addition, because of the better orchestral sound, I prefer it to Kna’s 1951 commercially released Decca-London performance from back in the LP days with almost the same principals (except that Arnold van Mill sang Titurel). The one big question mark I had in mind prior to hearing it was Ludwig Weber, a bass who never quite impressed me as both a great voice and a great singing-actor, yet his Gurnemanz in this performance is absolutely first-rate in every respect. The other role I worried about, not vocally but histrionically, was that of the title character, knowing full well that for all his virtues in virtually the entire Wagner canon otherwise, Wolfgang Windgassen was never noted as the most lively or interesting of vocal or stage actors, but he, too, is better than I expected. I suspect that Knappertsbusch’s superb guidance was the answer. Of course, insofar as this conductor and this opera go, they were a perfect artistic match regardless of era (yes, even the 1962 studio recording is good), but to be honest I find his conducting less mannered here, more direct and just as eloquent.
As for the other principals, they are, to my ears, the best in their roles (though I came to appreciate Parsifal rather late, I’ve indeed become a convert and have caught up by listening to several performances through the decades). Mödl’s value always was as much, if not more, as an actress than purely as a singer, and I have admired her ever since Furtwängler’s RAI Ring came out on Seraphim LPs many moons ago. Of modern Kundrys I especially love Waltraud Meier, and purely from a vocal angle her Kundry is better, but Mödl almost gives you the character in 3D. No passive, subservient Kundry she! Mödl’s Kundry, in fact, almost sounds confrontational in the first act, as if she is tired of being treated as a pariah by Gurnemanz and isn’t going to take it any more, and in the second she is pleading with Parsifal rather than just trying to be seductive. And, of course, Amfortas was one of George London’s great roles, so overall we have about as solid a cast (vocally as well as histrionically) as you could hope for. As much as I admire Hans Hotter as a vocal actor, he was simply past his vocal prime after 1957 or so, therefore as much as I like his acting, his singing in the 1962 recording is no match for Weber’s.
And then there is the Bayreuth “sound.” As much as I can like other performances and recordings of Wagner’s music dramas, by and large I am drawn to those that emanated from the Green Hill because of its unusual two-second “decay,” which always seems to add something to the music. Between that aspect of the recording and the magnificent performances, one may wish for the visual element but it isn’t necessary. Somehow or other, Kna manages to conjure up the visuals in your mind as you listen, and even in ancient mono you seem to get a sense of “space” in the sonics that just doesn’t exist in others’ performances, no matter how good—and I, for one, was really blown away by the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012–13 production of this opera when it was broadcast, especially by Jonas Kaufmann’s stellar interpretation of the title role. That one may yet supplant this in my mind (and collection) if and when it comes out on DVD, but in the meantime I could easily live with this recording to the end of my days.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
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Wagner: Parsifal / Knappertsbusch, Modl, Windgassen, London
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Andromeda
Jan 28, 2014
ANDRCD5161
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