Werner EGK (1901-1983)
Die Zaubergeige (The Magic Fiddle) highlights (1935) [50:57]
La Tentation de Saint Antoine (Temptation of St Anthony) (1945)
[23:12]
Kaspar - Marcel Cordes (baritone); Gretl - Erika Köth (soprano);
Ninabella
- Elisabeth Lindermeier (soprano); Amandus - Richard Holm (tenor);
Guldensack
- Max Proebstl (bass); Cuperius - Gottlob Frick (bass); Fangauf - Karl
Ostertag
(tenor); Schnapper - Josef Knapp (baritone); Richter - Paul Kuen (tenor);
Lakaien
- Emil Graf/Walter Bracht (baritone)
Bavarian State Chorus and Orchestra/Werner Egk (Die Zaubergeige)
Bernard Lefort (baritone); Georges Ales, Pierre Doukan (violins); Pierre Ladhuite
(viola); Roger Albin (cello)/Louis de Froment (La tentation)
rec. Herkulessaal, Munich, 26 September 1954 (Zaubergeige); first
issued
1956 (La Tentation). mono. ADD
These recordings derive from LP stock: DG LPE19062 and L'Oiseau-Lyre OL
50134,
1956.
no text or translations included but booklet has full synopses
detailed track-list at end of review
MAGDALEN RECORDINGS METCD8018 [74:09]
Egk’s music is resourceful and inventive. On the evidence of these
two
scores it is tonal and accessible if you enjoy your Richard Strauss or
Maurice
Ravel perhaps with a light Iberian or Stravinskian dusting.
We are not exactly overwhelmed with the quantity of Egk CDs. That’s
at
first blush. In fact moderate persistence among the pages of the Amazon
Marketplace
yields quite a list. Close to home we start with a Brilliant Classics CD
of
the Janet Baker DG version of the Tentation.
Add to this a Signum CD: not the Signum we know now but a German label
based
in Heidelberg. Their 1996 CD includes Egk’s Kleine Symphonie
(1926),
the Tango from Peer Gynt (1938), the Triptych from
the
ballet Joan von Zarissa (1940), the Französische Suite
(after
Rameau) (1949) and the Zaubergeige overture. The Staatsorchester
Frankfurt
(Oder) is conducted by Nikos Athinaos. If you can find it that Signum CD
(SIG
X86-00) is the place to go after this engaging Magdalen disc.
Die Zaubergeige is not free from Hispanic influence but then
neither
is one of his most controversial scores, the ballet Abraxas.
Fricsay
recorded a little suite from the ballet in 1951 for RIAS. It’s on Symposium
1258. Abraxas (1948) can be heard in full on Oehms OC574 with
the
Landeskapelle Eisenach conducted by Mark Mast. That dates from 2005.
Egk’s operas are more than respectably represented on the almost
self-effacing
Orfeo label: Peer Gynt c. Heinz Wallberg on C005822H;
Columbus
c. Werner Egk C549012I; Die Verlobung in San Domingo c. Werner Egk
C343932I;
Furchtlosigkeit und Wohlwollen (Fearlessness and Goodness) c.
Istvan
Kertesz C510011B and Irish Legend c. George Szell C564012I . These
are
supplemented by Der Revisor on Oehms OC912 in Augsburg conducted by
Hans
Norbert Bihlmaier.
Die Zaubergeige is a comic opera in three acts and was premiered on
22
May 1935 in Frankfurt am Main. Ferdinand Leitner took it up some two
decades
later in a revised version in Stuttgart’s Württembergische
Staatstheater,
Staatsoper. The full work runs to about 110:00 so we are hearing about
half
of the music. It’s light of heart - almost French.
Die Zaubergeige combines frou-frou jollity with a mastery of
diaphanous
and mobile textures. The character of the piece as represented by these
extracts
is a sort of German equivalent of Holst’s fun opera The Perfect
Fool
with occasional raids from Stravinsky’s Easter Fair from
Petrushka.
It’s not short on Hispanic high spirits, relying at times on an
eruptive
blend of Bolero and Rosenkavalier with the odd dash of
Falla’s
Tricorne. The casting is from elite strength and the notes give us
better
than decent career summaries for each artist. As expected, the singing is
full
of character and painted large. Keeping track of the fairy-tale storyline
is
easy enough given the thorough tracking and booklet synopsis. Lindermeier
as
Ninabella is as clear as a bell in the songbird love-play of Meinem
schicksal.
Marcel Cordes will have you asking why we did not have more of him when
you
hearDahin sind all plagen - a real sanguine, quick-pulse Spanish
serenade.
I can see Dahin sind all plagen making a coup on the next celebrity
tenor
compilation. It would have suited Carreras in his prime. Cordes can do the
patter-song
routines as well. In the Duet of Ninabella and Kaspar (14) silver
motes
fall enchantedly around the couple in slow motion. Here was a composer
well
able to step up to the plate established by Rosenkavalier and dust
the
result with Iberian atmosphere. This is a phantasmagorical opera and well
worth
getting to hear. The only down-side is that wiry edge to the violins given
the
recording’s half century vintage; I only really noticed this in the
overture.
The mono sound is no problem.
By contrast La Tentation has a decidedly Gallic brogue which is
probably
accentuated by Bernard Lefort’s Poulencian and sweetly light
baritone.
These thirteen songs have a folksy feel and at times take us towards
Canteloube
and the Auvergne. They are not at all what you might have expected. There
is
a dreaminess here by comparison with the G&S frivolity of Die
Zaubergeige.
Sur un sofa glimmers in magically dusky half lights. The string
quartet
accompaniment is endlessly inventive: boisterous, rapturous, buzzing and
delicate.
Magdalen’s simple yet lissom design values in the booklet and in the
card
insert stand out admirably in today’s marketplace.
If you are looking to challenge your preconceptions and widen your
knowledge
of the deep treasure chest of 20th century music then this disc
is
for you.
Rob Barnett
If you are looking to challenge your preconceptions and widen your knowledge of the deep treasure chest of 20th century music then this disc is for you.
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