I am surprised, given the quality of sound on this recording,
that Opera d’Oro has seen fit to re-issue it under their
“Grand Tier” de luxe label. It has long been available
in their standard series but has drawn some justifiably acerbic
comments regarding the muddiness and inconsistency of sound,
with virtually no higher frequencies and ensembles dissolving
into mush. Individual voices fare better but this still sounds
more like a poor amateur recording than the usual acceptable
mono radio broadcast. Most of Act 3 is horribly muffled.
Furthermore, only four years later Karajan made an excellent
studio recording of this opera for Decca with many of the same
cast, using the fuller, later, 1908 revision by Rimsky-Korsakov;
here Karajan streamlines the opera, using mostly Rimsky-Korsakov’s
first version from 1896 but also making some large cuts, including
Pimen’s first narrative and he rather perversely swaps
the order of certain scenes, so that the scene in Pimen’s
cell precedes the Novodievichy Square scene and the last two
scenes are reversed, such that Kromy Forest precedes the death
of Boris. This might be said to conclude the opera more dramatically
but it also undermines Mussorgsky’s intention to switch
the audience’s attention back to people, who in themselves
constitute a major character in this opera. It also subverts
the pathos of giving the last word to the Simpleton. I am thus
mystified as to why anyone would see this live performance as
more desirable than the 1970 studio recording, given the cuts,
tinkering and its gross sonic inferiority.
A case might, however, be made for the enhanced drama of a live
occasion and more energy in Karajan’s direction yet tempi
are only marginally slower in the Decca recording and it in
any case provides so much more clarity and detail that the comparison
becomes otiose. Another claim is that Nicolai Ghiaurov is fresher
and more animated live in 1966. I hear little difference; we
are talking about only four years when he was still in his absolute
prime, singing perhaps his greatest role under a conductor who
rarely revised his approach to a score once he had worked it
out to his satisfaction. Again, a preference could be expressed
for the darker-voiced Marina of Sena Jurinac over that of a
slightly squally Vishnevskaya but both are excellent. Anton
Diakov’s Varlaam is a distinct liability in 1966: he is
harried by Karajan’s excessive briskness in his narration
about Ivan the Terrible in the town of Kazan and bawls his way
through it horribly sharp; things go better with him at a less
hectic pace in the studio recording. Otherwise, apart from where
the roles are taken by the same singers, the differences amount
to a game of swings and roundabouts: both Finnish basses Kim
Borg and Martti Talvela (himself a notable Boris) are imposing
as Pimen, Zoltán Kéléman reprises his oily,
menacing Rangoni, and a slightly effortful but heroic Ludovic
Spiess marks an improvement on Alexei Maslennikov, who was promoted
to Grigori by Karajan in Salzburg but is happier reverting to
the Simpleton for Decca.
Oddly, Opera d’Oro does not provide the full cast list
so I have supplemented it above by recourse to another source.
Although having a libretto is not so much welcome as vital to
Anglophones, it is odd that they insert photographs of a clearly
much older Ghiaurov (as King Philip?) and another of Borg whereby
both are clearly costumed for other roles in other operas. I
do not see a strong case for preferring this live Salzburg version
over the later studio recording. Although Karajan’s “diamond
and sables” approach to the score has been criticised
as too opulent, for me, he and Ghiaurov still manage to bring
out the searing drama of this epic opera in both versions. The
difference is that in 1970 you can hear it properly.
Ralph Moore
Boris - Nicolai Ghiaurov (bass) 