Hugo WOLF (1860-1903)
Verborgenheit (orch. Joseph Marx)
Er ist’s, Elfenlied (orch. Günter Raphael)
Anakreons Grab,Mignon
Richard STRAUSS (1864 -1949)
Befreit, Op. 39, No 4
Anton BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
Symphony No 7 in E major (ed. Haas)
Renée Fleming (soprano)
Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann
rec. live, 1 September 2012, Semperoper, Dresden
German texts, English and French translations included
Video Director: Henning Kasten
Region Code 0; Picture Format NTSC 16:9. Sound format: LPCM 2.0
OPUS ARTE OA1115D DVD [106:00]
The event preserved on this DVD was Christian Thielemann’s
inaugural evening as Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. The
concert was reviewed for Seen
and Heard by
Jens F. Laurson.
Thielemann invited the American soprano, Renée Fleming to be
his guest soloist on this occasion. I don’t know to what extent
they’ve collaborated in the opera house in the past but they’ve
certainly worked together on the concert platform: they can be viewed
performing music by Richard Strauss with the Vienna Philharmonic in 2011,
performances that excited David A. McConnell (review). Here they perform five songs by Hugo Wolf,
three of them in the composer’s own orchestrations.
Verborgenheit has a lovely Straussian feel in the
orchestration by Joseph Marx (1882-1964). Renée Fleming’s tone
is sumptuous and the line is always lovely. Unfortunately, here and
elsewhere her words are not always very clear. Although the texts and
translations are printed in the booklet there are no subtitles - unless
I’ve missed them, which I don’t think is the case. Frankly, for
a premium product such as this the lack of subtitles is unpardonable; one
wants to watch the picture and not to be constantly glancing at the booklet.
The performance of Er ist’s is light and eager;
Wolf’s scoring is very effective here. Miss Fleming’s singing is
ecstatic at the end and the orchestra matches her when they take over to
bring the song to its conclusion. The orchestration of Elfenlied is
by Günter Raphael (1903-1960), whose first name is misspelt in the
booklet, I think. His scoring is gossamer light and very delicate.
Renée Fleming’s engaging performance is sheer delight.
She’s very expressive in the slow, serious Anakreons Grab.
Mignon (‘Kennst du das Land?’) was orchestrated twice by
Wolf - we learn from the notes that he left the first version on a tram and
only recovered the score when he’d done the work all over again: the
second version is used here. It’s one of Wolf’s greatest and
grandest songs. Renée Fleming gives a fabulous, passionate reading of
it, alive to every nuance.
As an encore she and Thielemann treat us to a gorgeous account of
Befreit, a Strauss song that is also on the aforementioned Vienna
Philharmonic DVD. Incidentally, it’s worth mentioning that if you play
this DVD straight through you will watch an awful lot of well-deserved
applause after the Wolf group and again after the Strauss encore and the
Bruckner symphony.
In the notes John Williamson states that Christian
Thielemann’s approach to Bruckner is firmly in the tradition of
Furtwängler, Karajan and Böhm - and though he might have added the
name of Eugen Jochum to that list I wouldn’t disagree with his view.
On the podium Thielemann cuts an immaculate figure. His bearing is
aristocratic and as he’s conducting an orchestra with an aristocratic
sound it’s unsurprising that the results in this Bruckner performance
have no little nobility. Incidentally, Thielemann is one of what seems like
a growing number of today’s conductors who favour splitting the
fiddles left and right. That’s something of which I heartily approve,
not just because this arrangement gives us the antiphonal effect that
composers like Bruckner would have expected but, just as importantly,
because it places the cellos as well as the violas at the heart of the
orchestral sound.
In this performance the sound produced by the Staatskapelle Dresden
is magnificent. There’s a wonderful depth to the tone, whether
they’re playing loudly or softly - and when the volume is loud
there’s never a question that the tone is being forced. You can hear
this tonal depth right through the spectrum of volume at the end of the
first movement when Thielemann and his players build up to the closing
peroration with great dignity and fine control. In fact the whole of the
first movement is very distinguished. The pacing is unerring from start to
finish and the music unfolds spaciously and with a feeling of inevitability.
The second movement is gloriously sonorous. Thielemann shapes the long
paragraphs with great skill and a fine sense of line and the reading is very
noble. He and his players exhibit exemplary control and the conductor
displays a keen sense of musical architecture, as he did in the preceding
movement, guiding the players to a magnificent realisation of the main
climax. This is a profoundly satisfying reading.
I’m less sure about the remaining movements, however. The
scherzo is strong and energetic. However doubts begin to creep in when the
trio is reached. Here Thielemann is very relaxed indeed. To be sure, the
beauty of the playing is highly persuasive but the way the music is
presented is just too moulded and expansive. Momentum is lost to an
extent that I’m not sure Bruckner intended. The finale opens
promisingly; the opening theme is sprightly and cheerful, as it is each time
the material reappears. However, whenever Bruckner relaxes into a more
lyrical vein Thielemann slows down rather more than is warranted.
Furthermore, his expansive speeds at climaxes make the music sound grandiose
rather than grand. So while there’s a great deal to admire in this
reading of the Seventh Symphony there are some things in the last two
movements that I find disconcerting.
Despite those reservations, however, the concert overall is most
enjoyable and rewarding and there’s little doubt that Christian
Thielemann’s Dresden tenure was auspiciously launched. As for the
technical presentation by Opus Arte, I’ve already mentioned the very
disappointing lack of subtitles. That earns a black mark but set against
that the visual presentation is excellent and the glorious playing of the
Staatskapelle Dresden and Renée Fleming’s gorgeous voice are
reproduced in good sound.
John Quinn
Masterwork Index
: Bruckner symphony 7
Christian Thielemann’s tenure with the Staatskapelle Dresden auspiciously launched.
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