Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Genoveva, Op.81 [136.03]
Edda Moser (soprano) - Genoveva; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) - Siegfried;
Peter Schreier (tenor) - Golo; Giesla Schröter (mezzo) - Margaretha; Siegfried
Vogel (bass) - Drago; Siegfried Lorenz (baritone) - Hidulfus; Karl-Heinz Stryczek
(bass) - Balthasar; Wolfgang Hellmich (baritone) - Caspar; Berlin Radio Choir
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Kurt Masur
rec. Studio Paul-Gerhard-Kirche, Leipzig, 1976
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 95117 [69.17 + 56.46]
The critics generally gave a warm welcome to Nicholas Harnoncourt’s
recording
of Schumann’s Genoveva when it was released in 1998, deriving from live
concert performances two years earlier. The opera belongs in the company of
works by major composers which have been effectively torpedoed by the dreadful
quality of their texts, such as Weber’s
Euryanthe and Schubert’s
Fierrabras in the field of earlier German operas. These texts,
based on mediaeval romances, often had fine poetic qualities but very little
else to recommend them. It is often overlooked that one of Wagner’s
main services to musical drama was his ability to concentrate on the psychological
import of the words at the expense of the often picturesque but essentially
decorative detail that surrounded them. Schumann would probably have known
Wagner’s Tannhäuser, premièred when he was already working on Genoveva,
but he seems to have been satisfied with the melodramatic mishmash which he
had been given, taking a hand himself in the construction of the libretto.
As such the failure of Genoveva to establish more than a very marginal stake
in the repertory, despite the reputation of the composer, can fairly be laid
at his door. Not that Genoveva was totally torpedoed; the overture has always
maintained a place in the concert hall, and the dramatic touches that Schumann
brought to his choral works such as
Faust and
Paradise and the Peri are also to be found here.
What the enthusiastic critics generally seem to have overlooked in their reception
of the Harnoncourt set was the existence of this earlier 1976 recording from
East Germany. It does not appear ever to have obtained general international
release (although a three-disc LP set had been available as an import) until
well after the Harnoncourt had established its reputation; but it has previously
been available on CD, and I own a copy of a 2003 release (at full price) on
Berlin Classics. One of the immediate attractions of this older set is the
sheer quality of the singing. Harnoncourt had a far from inconsiderable cast
at his disposal, but Masur twenty years earlier seemed to have managed to
obtain the very best of the German singers active at the time – and
not just from East Germany. Whereas Harnoncourt is concerned to bring out
the musical riches of the score, Masur seems even to believe in the dramatic
credibility of the piece. The Gramophone Opera Guide noted that those who
wished to be convinced of this would be best served by the Masur recording,
while noting regretfully that it had never been “widely available in
England”.
It is therefore a cause for rejoicing that Brilliant Classics have licensed
this recording and made it available at bargain price, even if this means
jettisoning from the booklet the German text that was provided with the Berlin
Classics issue (with no translation, alas); and Brilliant have made the text
available on their website.
The dramatic sections of the score, beginning with the duet for the two villains
which brings the First Act to an excoriating conclusion, fizz with life with
the normally suave-voiced Peter Schreier assuming the role of the evil schemer
as to the manner born. Like the similar duet in Weber’s Euryanthe, this
is music that looks forward to Act Two of Wagner’s Lohengrin, and Gisela
Schröter has all the attributes of an Ortrud without displaying any of the
unsteadiness that one so frequently encounters in other exponents of that
role. By comparison Schumann’s characterisation of the faithful couple
is much less interesting, but Edda Moser seizes every opportunity for dramatic
engagement that she is afforded and her voice certainly has sufficient body
and weight to rise to her scenes of outrage as her honour is impugned. Fischer-Dieskau
is Fischer-Dieskau, by which I mean that along with depth of understanding
and characterisation we have also to accept a certain degree of roughness
in delivery in the more blustery passages; but he does succeed in making us
believe in the role of the count who is all too willing to believe in his
wife’s infidelity on the basis of a shabby conjuring trick. George Bernard
Shaw described the ‘black magic’ scene [CD2, track 3] as “pure
bosh” and in purely dramatic terms he was right; but again this is music
that demonstrates Schumann’s ability to clothe the plot in writing that
almost succeeds in convincing us, let alone the credulous count. At least
it does in this fizzing performance, with Masur evoking a positive hell’s
kitchen from the orchestra in the closing section; by comparison Harnoncourt
sounds almost polite, accurate and polished but hardly villainous.
The smaller roles are all convincingly taken by soloists of the standard of
Siegfried Lorenz and Siegfried Vogel — this recording is positively
infested by Siegfrieds — and as Joan Chissell commented in International
Record Review when discussing the Berlin Classics release “the protagonists
are creatures of flesh and blood” – which means a lot in this
context. Siegfried Vogel indeed sounds very like Fischer-Dieskau in both manner
and delivery, which is a compliment indeed. The chorus, with their stand-and-deliver
numbers, are full-bodied and secure in their declamations of horror and assurance,
although Schumann’s writing for them is conventional rather than engaged
— except in the aforementioned scene with the magic mirror where they
are nicely distanced.
Prospective purchasers who already own the Harnoncourt set may well rest content
with a performance that certainly does justice to the musical elements of
the opera; those who wish to encounter Genoveva for the first time, and are
willing to be persuaded that the work almost has dramatic viability, should
gravitate to this reissue. The recording is excellent, warm and well balanced,
and sounds excellent in this transfer.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
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