This set contains one
recording of Der Rosenkavalier (or,
at least, of extended excerpts from
it) that has been famous for many years
and one recording which deserves to
take a place of honour in the annals
of recordings of this work, even if
sonic limitations necessarily prevent
it from being a library choice.
George Szell’s extensive
recorded legacy contains very little
operatic work. However, like most other
great conductors of his generation his
early training and career involved a
significant amount of time in the opera
houses of Europe. From recordings of
several tone poems that he made with
the Cleveland Orchestra we know he was
a first rate Straussian and now this
live Rosenkavalier further proves
the point.
Recorded during a run
of performances at the 1949 Salzburg
Festival this performance boasts a superb
cast, drawn mainly from the Vienna State
Opera. Maria Reining and Hilde Güden
were already noted exponents of their
respective roles and in 1954 both sang
them again in the benchmark Decca studio
recording under Erich Kleiber. For Kleiber,
the role of Octavian was sung by the
great Sena Jurinac. Here the role is
sung with no less distinction by the
Czech soprano, Jarmila Novotná.
Baron Ochs is sung by the Austrian baritone
Jaro Prohaska
The very opening sets
the tone in several ways for the whole
performance and for the recording of
it. Szell launches into the orchestral
introduction with immense vigour and
one senses that this is to be an energetic,
vital reading. However, the lyrical
passages are not rushed at all but are
savoured, though without self-indulgence.
For what it is worth, as a rough guide,
Szell gets to the very first vocal entry
(Octavian) at 3’15" whereas in
their respective studio recordings Kleiber
reaches the same spot at 3’29"
and Herbert von Karajan (EMI, 1956)
at 3’30". Szell sets out his stall
immediately in these pages, I think.
His is going to be a taut, dramatic
reading where the score calls for it
but the romance, the rubato and the
sheer hedonism in the score will also
receive their due.
Unfortunately, the
other way in which this passage typifies
the recording is in the sound of the
orchestra. It is backwardly balanced
in the aural spectrum and if you are
looking for a performance in which the
opulence of Strauss’s orchestral writing
is fully revealed you should look elsewhere.
However, I honestly think that this
is a drawback with which one can live.
As I’ve said, this is not going to be
a library version, chiefly because of
the balance between voices and orchestra.
But all the singing registers beautifully
and I suspect that purchasers of this
set will already own at least one other
recording, probably a studio one in
which the orchestra is revealed in its
full glory.
This disadvantage of
orchestral balance is more than outweighed
by the positive points of the performance.
Maria Reining is a splendid Marschallin.
She conveys very touchingly the vulnerability
of an aristocratic beauty who knows
that sooner or later the years will
catch up with her. Throughout the set
her singing and her characterisation
are marvellous. Her dismissal of Octavian
towards the end of Act I, beginning
at "Er soll mich lassen" (CD
1, track 10, 6’32") is wonderfully
tender. Szell matches her languor perfectly
and it’s interesting to note that in
this performance the whole passage lasts
3’19" whereas it’s appreciably
faster in the Kleiber reading, where
it runs for 2’36". On both occasions
I prefer Reining to Schwarzkopf, who
sounds too knowing.
Opposite Reining, Jarmila
Novotná is an ardent Octavian.
Sample, for instance, the passage in
Act I, "Ja, ist sie da? (CD 1,
track 9) just after figure 296 in the
Boosey & Hawkes vocal score. Novotná
is mightily impressive in the key scene
of the Presentation of the Silver Rose
in Act Two (CD 2, track 2) and Hilde
Güden is no less fine as Sophie.
Here again, we find Szell a touch more
expansive than Kleiber. The Presentation
scene takes 6’56" against Kleiber’s
6’14" but it’s not a second too
long. In his introductory essay Tim
Page makes the very valid point that
both Güden and Reining were, perhaps
inevitably, in fresher, more youthful
voice in 1949 than they would be five
years later for Kleiber. I wouldn’t
disagree but, on the other hand, five
years later both singers were even more
experienced with the music and words
and to my ears they both bring more
in the way of nuances to their parts
when working under studio conditions
for Decca. This, I feel, is especially
true of Güden, whose contribution
to the Presentation scene here is top
class but even better in 1954. Mind
you, as Sophie Teresa Stich-Randall,
on the Karajan set, is in a class of
her own. In this very scene, especially,
she offers singing of lustrous beauty
and at cue 30 in the score, her silvery
tone for the phrase "Wie himmlische,
nicht irdische, wie Rosen von hochheiligen
Paradies" is just to die for.
The one principal I’ve
not yet discussed is the Ochs of Jaro
Prohaska. He offers what I suppose I’d
call a very traditional, echt-Viennese
interpretation of the role. This baron
is pompous, vain, vulgar and lecherous.
Some may feel that Prohaska hams the
role up a bit too much although in his
defence I’d point out that he was singing
in a live production, never intended
for repeated listening, and vocal histrionics
would have been the natural accompaniment
to stage "business". Personally,
I don’t find Prohaska over the top and
indeed Otto Edelmann (Karajan) does
just as much vocal acting without the
"excuse" of a live occasion.
My personal preference would be Ludwig
Weber (Kleiber) who sings more
of the role than do his peers but when
we come to Richard Mayr later on we
shall experience a different way with
the role. Prohaska’s is a vivid, comic
assumption of the role that is highly
entertaining. Incidentally, this is
perhaps the time to mention that the
performance does have a number of small
cuts in it but as most of these involve
Ochs’s more garrulous passages I don’t
really feel they are a major loss.
The scene where Ochs
gets his comeuppance in Act III is tumultuous,
with vivid and dramatic work both onstage
and in the pit and the opera’s concluding
pages are all that one could wish. The
celebrated trio (CD 3, track 9) is radiant
and is made more effective, I feel,
because the three protagonists, caught
up in the drama on stage, feel themselves
to be in a real situation. The trio
rises to a wondrous climax at the end
of which the Marschallin’s concluding
phrase, "In Gottes Namen"
is delivered with great dignity and
pathos by Reining.
This, then, is a well
paced, expertly sung and acted performance
caught on the wing. There isn’t a weak
link in the cast and the principals
are first class. Presiding over all
is George Szell. He acquired a reputation
as a martinet and this might lead us
to expect a hard-driven, unyielding
or cold performance. Not a bit of it.
There is a really authentic Viennese
feel to the waltz rhythms and, following
in the score, I found that Szell was
faithful to all Strauss’s copious markings
of tempo. Indeed, he goes beyond these
and, without disrupting the flow, works
with his singers, allowing them to phrase
naturally, expressively and expansively.
This performance is the work of a real
man of the theatre.
This wouldn’t be a
first choice recording of Rosenkavalier.
Kleiber still reigns supreme, I think
though if you want opulence Karajan
has much to offer, not least the Sophie
of Stich-Randall. However, all lovers
of this marvellous score will want to
hear this Szell recording too. You won’t
hear the full glory of Strauss’s orchestral
score but you will hear some tremendous,
idiomatic singing with all the voices
reported well by the recording and you’ll
hear the evidence of a very fine conductor
at work.
And if you invest in
this set you’ll also get a tremendous
bonus in the shape of the abridged version
of the score recorded by HMV under studio
conditions in 1933. The conductor, Robert
Heger is nowhere near as celebrated
a figure as George Szell but on the
evidence of this recording he was a
far from inconsiderable opera conductor.
He displays a very fine feeling for
the score, supports his singers every
bit as well as does Szell and gets splendidly
responsive playing from the VPO.
It must be said straight
away that the sound on this transfer
is nothing short of miraculous. Of course
there is a bit of surface hiss but it
is never obtrusive and, listening through
speakers, I first became aware of surface
noise as far into the CD as track 12!
There are some sonic limitations, of
course, not least in terms of the range
of the recording but one’s pleasure
in the music is never compromised and,
in fact, far more orchestral detail
can be heard than is the case in the
accompanying recording of the whole
opera.
If the principals in
the Szell performance were first class
then those singing for Heger are truly
outstanding. In particular I was struck
by the Ochs of Richard Mayr (1877-1935).
His is a completely different way with
the role than that offered by any of
the singers on the complete versions
I’ve been listening to. First of all,
he sings every note (though I grant
that he might have approached more histrionically
some of the scenes that we don’t hear
in these extracts.) Secondly, his is
a lighter, more suave baritone than
we are used to hearing in the role.
Nothing in his reading is exaggerated
and as a result we experience Ochs as
a nobler figure than is usually the
case. It’s interesting to read in one
of the booklet essays, by Gottfried
Kraus, that Strauss said he wrote the
role with Mayr in mind. The set also
includes an excellent essay by the late-lamented
Michael Oliver on the collaboration
between Strauss and Hofmannstahl in
which he reminds us that at an early
stage they thought of calling the opera
Ochs. Could it be, then, that
Mayr’s way with the role comes closest
to Strauss’s own conception? Mayr makes
Ochs into a richly comic creation, suggesting
a mix of decadence and faded (but still
very present) nobility. However, with
Mayr, Ochs is never just a lecher, still
less a pantomime figure. The scene between
Ochs and Annina that closes Act Two
(CD 4, track 10) is very well done.
As well as the excellent Mayr, the role
of Annina is taken by a first rate singer,
Bella Paalen, and with Heger and the
VPO investing the waltz rhythms with
poise and élan the result
is a delight.
However, despite the
importance of the role of Ochs, Rosenkavalier
is, understandably, I suppose, a
soprano-fest and Heger’s recording
is graced by three great ones. It might
be objected that Maria Olszewska’s voice
is a bit heavy for the role of Octavian
but I think she sings beautifully and
hers is an ardent Octavian, whether
she’s lavishing affection on the Marschallin
or, later, on Sophie.
As Sophie, Elisabeth
Schumann is as radiant as you would
expect even if, to my ears at least,
she doesn’t sound quite young enough
for the character she is portraying.
Her contribution to the Presentation
of the Silver Rose is a thing of wonder,
sung with glorious tone and embellished
with portamenti.
But the glory
of the recording is Lotte Lehmann, incomparable
as the Marschallin. She is a true Grande
Dame, investing every syllable she
sings with meaning and singing long,
glorious lines. In particular her contribution
to the opera’s conclusion is superb.
(Tracks 11 to 14, commencing at "Weiss
bereits nicht…" just after cue
235, runs the opera through from that
point to its conclusion.) She is every
inch the lady as Ochs gets his comeuppance
and admits defeat. She crowns her performance
in the Trio which she launches (Track
13) full of dignity. She has realised
that what must be will be (" Hab’
mir’s gelobt, ihn lieb zu haben..")
and "In Gottes Namen" is unforgettable.
In this reading of the Trio the voices
are well matched and well balanced.
Schumann soars effortlessly and magically
and Lehmann is regal. When visitors
to the BBC’s Desert Island choose this
piece as one of their discs it’s almost
inevitably the Karajan version that
is broadcast but right now I’d want
this Heger-led recording to move my
spirits on a desert island.
I do congratulate Andante
on including this Heger recording in
the set and in such a fine transfer.
It’s a marvellous appendix to a very
involving and enjoyable account of the
complete opera. Having had the opportunity
to immerse myself in these two recordings
(and to use them as the excuse to experience
again the copious delights of the Kleiber
and Karajan recordings, both in their
different ways classics of the gramophone)
I’m more conscious than ever of what
a marvellous, human and glorious score
this is.
Andante’s documentation
is usually excellent but here they surpass
themselves with a 416-page book that
includes the full libretto with English
and French translations (separate, not
side by side!). There’s also a selection
of good, informative articles and some
evocative photographs. I recommend this
set wholeheartedly to all those who
love the music of Richard Strauss and
this wonderful opera in particular.
John Quinn
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/George Szell 