Der Freischütz (1819-20) [122:43]
Agathe - Christine Brewer (soprano)
Ännchen, a young cousin of Agathe - Sally Matthews (soprano)
Max, a gamekeeper - Simon O’Neill (tenor)
Kaspar, a gamekeeper - Lars Woldt (bass-baritone)
Samiel, the dark hunter/Ottokar, Duke of Bohemia - Stephan Loges (bass-baritone)
Kuno, the Head Gamekeeper - Martin Snell (bass)
Ein Eremit - Gidon Saks (bass)
Kilian, a rich peasant - Marcus Farnsworth (baritone)
Four bridesmaids - Lucy Hall (soprano)
Huntsmen and retinue, bridesmaids and countryfolk - London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Colin Davis
rec. live, 19 and 21 April 2012, The Barbican, London
German text and English translation included
LSO LIVE LSO0726 SACD [64:20 + 58:23]
Only recently I reviewed
a magisterial LSO Live recording of the Berlioz Requiem by Sir Colin
Davis. Just a couple of months previously he had conducted the orchestra
and its chorus in a pair of performances of Weber’s great Romantic
opera, from which this new recording derives. Those two concerts may
well have been Sir Colin’s last appearances at the Barbican.
At the time, my colleague, Jim Pritchard, reviewedthe
second of these performances for Seen and Heard.
This was by no means the first time Davis had conducted concert performances
of opera which were subsequently issued by LSO Live. There was a 2004
Peter Grimes, which impressed Mark Bridle (review)
and a 2009 Otello, about which Jim Pritchard was most enthusiastic
(review).
There were other operas, not reviewed on MusicWeb International, including
Fidelio in 2007 (LSO0593) and a Falstaff from 2004 (LSO0055)
and we must not forget Sir Colin’s superb Berlioz opera sets.
This recording of Der Freischütz is, then, the last in the
line and, coincidentally, it reunites Davis with two of the principals
from earlier opera sets. Simon O’Neill was his Otello - his
role debut, I believe - and Christine Brewer was his Leonore.
I confess that I’m not sure what to make of this set. Trying
to banish any sense of sentimentality at hearing one of the last recordings
of a conductor I greatly admired I wanted to like it but there
are definite problems with it. One concerns the flow of the action.
Like Die Zauberflöte, this is a singspiel with spoken
dialogue punctuating the musical numbers as, until a few years earlier,
sung recitative would have done. For these LSO performances I understand
that a spoken narration in English replaced most of the dialogue -
we get a few snippets of German dialogue during the musical numbers,
principally in the Wolf’s Glen scene - but the narration has
not been included. That’s understandable: listeners might not
have welcomed the narration every time they played the discs and certainly
its inclusion would have necessitated a third SACD. Also, I recall
Jim Pritchard was irritated by the tone of the narration, so on repeated
listening it might have proved to be too much of a good thing.
The downside of omitting the dialogue is that there’s no link,
no flow, between the musical numbers. Nowhere is this more damaging
than at the start of the finale to Act III into which we’re
rather plunged in media res, finding Agathe presumed shot to
death by Max but actually just about to wake from her ‘dream’.
That’s pretty confusing for those who don’t know the opera
and though the booklet contains a synopsis by David Cairns I strongly
suspect that this is reproduced from the concert programme and that
Cairns wrote it assuming that his readers would understand the action
because they’d heard the narration.
I wonder if in the performances themselves the singers felt a bit
disengaged from the action. In the theatre they would have been participating
in the dialogue but here I presume they sat and listened to stretches
of narration and then stood up to sing. Perhaps this explains why
I had the sense that the performance fails to catch fire for quite
some time though matters do improve somewhat during and after the
Wolf’s Glen scene.
The other reservation I have concerns the voices. How do you visualise
Max and Agathe? It seems logical, I think, to assume that they’re
relatively young people; probably no older than thirty. That’s
not how they sound here. Both Simon O’Neill and Christine Brewer
have big voices - both are seasoned Wagnerians, for a start - but
it’s not just the scale and sound of the voices; neither really
suggests to me total immersion in their respective characters. Davis
recorded this opera many years ago for Philips. I haven’t heard
that recording but I believe I’m right in saying that his Max
was Francisco Araiza and Karita Mattila sang Agathe. As I say, I’ve
not heard that recording but I have heard both those singers, Mattila
in particular, many times and in my mind’s ear I can imagine
that on that earlier recording they would have brought more vocal
lightness and more youthful emotions and ardour to their respective
roles than what we hear in this LSO performance.
Other listeners may react very differently, I appreciate, but I find
that O’Neill in particular is unconvincing. He has a strong
ring to his voice but I don’t find that the tone opens enough;
it just doesn’t sound free. So I miss any sense of youthfulness
or of lyrical ease in his aria in Act 1, though he ends it in suitably
dramatic vein. In the Wolf’s Glen scene, at ‘Ha! Furchtbar
gähnt’, I don’t really get any sense that this is a frightened
young man and, in all honesty, I didn’t really enjoy the sound
of his voice at any time.
Christine Brewer, by contrast, makes some very pleasing sounds but
though she offers some intense singing in her Act III cavatina I can’t
persuade myself that I’m hearing a young - or even a young-ish
- girl singing the music; the voice is too big. I responded better
to ‘Leise, leise, Fromme Weise’, which she sings with
fine feeling; here the LSO’s accompaniment is atmospheric, as
is the case throughout the opera.
Among the supporting cast Sally Matthews does well as Ännchen. Lars
Woldt is somewhat blustery in the role of Kaspar but perhaps that’s
not inappropriate to the part and in the final scene Gidon Saks is
sufficiently authoritative to get his way even over a Duke. Stephan
Loges doubles that role with the spoken part of Samiel. Loges is a
fine singer but on this occasion, well though he sings as Ottokar,
I was more impressed with his speaking: he’s really menacing
in the Wolf’s Glen scene, so much so that even the malevolent
Kaspar is cowed - though he soon reverts to type once Samiel has left
the stage.
For the Wolf’s Glen scene we get some limited sound effects
which, apparently, were dubbed on later. These are not all that spectacular
- but nor are they distracting - and when Kaspar casts the bullets
it’s the whiplash playing of the LSO and the vivid contributions
of the LSO Chorus that really make the impact.
Truth to tell, it’s the orchestra and chorus that are the real
stars of this particular show. The LSO’s playing is consistently
fine while the LSO Chorus makes a strong impact at their very first
appearance in Act 1. They sustain this level of exciting participation
right through to their exultant contribution to the jubilant concluding
ensemble.
I think this may have been one of those rare occasions when the force
wasn’t really with Sir Colin. I don’t think this was a
question of failing powers. Just recently, in a TV programme about
him, I saw some clips from the St. Paul’s Cathedral performance
of the Berlioz Requiem, given two months later. He sat down for most
of the time and, superficially, didn’t seem to ‘do’
much but, as we know from the audio recording, he still galvanised
his forces in a searching interpretation. I don’t feel this
performance is on the same level. It’s good but, as I indicated
earlier, it doesn’t catch fire for a long time and though the
performance is livelier during and after the Wolf’s Glen scene
I’ve heard Davis produce much more dramatic results on other
occasions.
Der Freischütz is an astonishingly original and inventive score
but this particular performance, though it contains much to admire,
doesn’t quite hit the bull’s-eye for me.
John Quinn
A concert performance of Der Freischütz that doesn’t
quite hit the bull’s-eye.
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See also reviews by Göran
Forsling and Simon
Thompson