Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Der Rosenkavalier (1911) [191:57]
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano) – Feldmarschallin; Otto Edelmann (bass) – Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau; Christa Ludwig (mezzo) – Octavian; Eberhard Wächter (baritone) – Herr von Faninal; Teresa Stich-Randall (soprano) – Sophie; Ljuba Welitsch (soprano) – Marianne; Paul Kuen (tenor) – Valzacchi; Kerstin Meyer (mezzo) – Annina; Nicolai Gedda (tenor) – A Singer; Franz Bierbach (bass) – A Police Officer; Erich Majkut (tenor) – Major-Domo to the Marschallin; Gerhard Unger (tenor) – Major-Domo to Faninal; An Animal Seller; Harald Pröglhof (bass) – An Attorney; Karl Friedrich (tenor) – A Landlord; Anny Felbermayer (soprano) – A Milliner; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig, Kerstin Meyer – Three Noble Orphans; Gerhard Unger, Erich Majkut, Eberhard Wächter, Harald Pröglhof – Four Footmen; Gerhard Unger, Erich Majkut, Eberhard Wächter, Franz Bierbach – Four Waiters
Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan
rec. 10-15, 17-22 December 1956, Kingsway Hall, London
Technical and historical notes on the recording by sound engineer Andrew Rose; no libretto
Originally mono: Pristine XR remastering into Ambient Stereo
PRISTINE AUDIO PACO167 [3CDs: 190:58]
The original recording of this classic account was made by EMI in both mono and stereo while Walter Legge was still refusing to compete with Decca’s more go-ahead commitment to the “new-fangled” stereo sound and hedging his bets by recording in both modes. EMI’s A-team were assigned the mono version and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf expressed a preference for it when EMI came first to remaster it in the mid-90’s, so Pristine have used that as the basis for its remastering here into their trademark Ambient Stereo.
In my survey of ten studio and sixteen live recordings of Der Rosenkavalier, I adjudged this to come a close second to Solti’s 1969 recording in the studio, stereo category; response to it will depend heavily upon reactions to Schwarzkopf’s Marschallin, as some find her adorable and others mannered. That she is a great vocal actress seem indisputable but her vocal tics can grate; the main question regarding this specific issue from Pristine is whether it is superior in technical quality to the EMI remastering of the stereo version made around the turn of the century. Comparison reveals it to be marginally less hissy and prone to any fuzziness and distortion on climaxes but it is inevitably narrower in spread. I like the clarity of the Pristine engineering of the original mono version but miss the extra warmth of the EMI stereo remastering. Pristine provides more track cues than EMI, which is preferable but a hardly crucial factor. Both afford the listener great pleasure and I am reluctant to endorse one to the detriment of the other; I shall keep both.
Regarding the intrinsic artistic merits of the performance, on listening again to it I was struck not only by the oft-rehearsed virtues of the three main women singers but also by some of the lesser but important pleasures it offers, such as the beauty of Wächter’s Faninal – a part too often allocated to a worn or clapped-out baritone of a certain age – the ring of Edelmann’s top notes – even if his lowest ones are less resonant than more sonorous Ochses such as Moll – and the advantage of having a great singer such as Ljuba Welitsch take on the role of the duenna in the latter years of her career. Then of course we have the bliss of Karajan’s unerring conducting of a great orchestra; that combination makes the music swoon and sing like almost no other. Minor disappointments remain; at times, I wish Schwarzkopf wouldn’t mew and primp phrases and I cannot much enjoy Nicolai Gedda’s comparatively constricted delivery of the Italian tenor’s aria when I have Pavarotti’s luscious outpouring of golden tone ever ringing in my ears, but for the most part this is one of the glories of the catalogue, even if I would still give Solti in 1969 the edge.
Ralph Moore
