There are now competing
versions of this classic 1953 Karajan
Hänsel and Gretel. EMI’s has a
libretto and the transfer is slightly
warmer but against that this Naxos has
a sizeable bonus of pre-War material,
all of which is collectable and valuable.
What’s for sure is that the recording
captures some effervescent performances,
from the young Philharmonia Orchestra
to the stellar cast and the contemporary
recording team. The orchestra’s strings
layer the Act I introduction with exceptional
nuance for example and the legendary
wind principals are very much to the
fore in Act II’s first scene Ein
Männlein steht im Walde. Similarly
in the third scene of the same act we
can hear the acute placement of the
harp in the Dream Pantomime – altogether
an effective spatial balance is maintained.
Orchestral balance and standards are
properly maintained in the third act
where the playing behind Juchhei!
Nun ist die Hexe tot is splendid.
And one shouldn’t omit the exciting
and, more to the point, excitingly nuanced
Witch’s Ride that serves as the Introduction
to the second act. One can also note
the children’s choir shining in Scene
IV of the final act.
The weight of expectation
however will inevitably fall on the
principal singers. Famed for their impersonations
though they may be, Schwarzkopf and
Grümmer still make an alluring
pairing as Hänsel and Gretel. True
their voices are perhaps heavier than
we are used to – Grümmer can sound
just a mite heavy in Act I’s Brüderchen,
komm tanz’ mit mir – but against
that we should note that where we might
have expected a degree of over projection
(say the Evening Prayer) the two leads
display admirable restraint and simplicity
despite their necessarily more vibrant
vibratos. As the Witch Else Schürhoff
unburdens her contralto with its gruff
middle voice very much to the fore.
And as Peter we have something of an
unsung hero of this set, Josef Metternich.
His avuncular impersonation, heralded
by a typical "off stage" entry
is warm and coaxing and deeply attractive.
Maria von Ilosvay, as Peter’s wife Gertrud,
completes a powerful line up and is
the other contralto – warm and appealing
– though one should note also that Anny
Felbermayer takes the small roles of
The Sandman and The Dew Fairy.
The fill-ups are about
twenty minutes or so of extracts from
the 1920s and 30s. Enterprisingly we
have the Supervía-Ines Maria
Ferraris 1928 Fonotipia of Suse,
liebe Suse and the Dance
Duet (sung in Italian). The first
has real charm – capitulation is inevitable
I think – and the second is flightiness
personified. The Hüsch extract
derives from a Berlin session of 1937
and reveals the baritone to be an unexpectedly
fine Humperdinck singer. The Schumann
sides feature some early examples of
double tracking; she takes both roles
in the Evening Prayer; maybe as a result
she’s rather quicker than she might
have been with a real partner beside
her but the tonal purity is matchless
and contrasts with the level of sophistication
shown by Schwarzkopf and Grümmer
in their recording especially with regard
to dynamic variance. We also have a
rather negligible orchestral arrangement
but end on a high with a strong meat
duo of Seinemeyer and Helen Jung in
a 1929 Berlin Juchhei! Nun ist die
Hexe tot presided over by the ever
reliable house conductor Frieder Weissmann.
So one classic 1953
recording augmented by some pre-War
jewels; if I slightly prefer EMI’s recording
quality I wouldn’t happily forego the
pleasure of those fill-ups – it’s the
kind of thing that might tip the balance.
Jonathan Woolf
see
also review by Colin Clarke