Frank MARTIN (1890-1974)
Der Sturm - opera in three acts - Libretto by Schlegel, after Shakespeare (1952-55) [152:42]
Prospero - Robert Holl (bass-baritone)
Miranda - Christine Buffle (soprano)
Alonso - Ethan Herschenfeld (bass)
Sebastian - Josef Wagner (baritone)
Antonio - James Gilchrist (tenor)
Gonzalo, Ein Schiffspatron - Andreas Macco (bass)
Ferdinand - Simon O’Neill (tenor)
Adrian - Marcel Beekman (tenor)
Caliban - Dennis Wilgenhof (bass)
Trinculo - Roman Sadnik (tenor)
Stephano - André Morsch (baritone)
Bootsmann - Thomas Oliemans (baritone)
Ariel and Mariners - Netherlands Radio Choir
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/Thierry Fischer
rec. live, October 2008, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
HYPERION CDA67821/3 [3 CDs: 54:48 + 53:35 + 44:25]
Trust Hyperion when essaying their first full-on operatic recording
to choose something muscular in virtue and vibrant in interest.
This recording is a landmark in the company’s career. Not only
is Frank Martin’s three-acter Der Sturm their first
full-length live opera, it is also a rarely staged twentieth
century masterwork.
That things are done in style is a given. Hyperion are often
an exemplar to the industry and a delight to music-lovers and
collectors - overlapping constituencies but by no means identical.
Martin is one of those composers whose seriousness of purpose,
integrity and tonal glossary dictated a place out of the glow
of international acclaim. His music - or much of it – is reputed
to have a matte protestant quality which turns its back on glamour
or the high places of drama.
As for this opera we may well know of it because
of the extracts once on a DGG LP. Martin himself conducted the
Berlin Philharmonic in the overture and Prospero’s two monologues,
sung by the artist for whom the role was originally intended,
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. There it was harnessed to the music
of the even more obscure Werner Egk. You can now hear it on
Brilliant
Classics. Those extracts were also taken on board in luxurious
sound by Bamert and Chandos
for his 1990s Martin series.
Der Stürm was premiered by the VSO in 1955 with Anton
Dermota, Christa Ludwig and Eberhard Wächter. It was typical
of the idealistic BBC of the 1950s that they broadcast a concert
version conducted by Ansermet. He it was who in 1967 in Geneva
revived the piece with Ramon Vinay, Eric Tappy and Jose
Van Damm.
The opera’s prelude is a work of dreaminess though with the
pallor of slate - very attractive but not glimmering in Ravel- like diaphony. Ariel's conjured storm can be heard in act I
scene 1 with brisk flighty woodwind suggestive of the airborne
sprite and crashing thunder and flashing lightning in the timps.
That said the onomatopoeia of the Tempest Preludes by Sibelius
and Nystroem is not resorted to. The human or superhuman intervention
element is kept to the fore.
Entrusted to Christine Buffle, Miranda sounds rather matronly
though passionate indeed. There's a slight sense of Berg but little that is resolutely dissonant. There is
however some subtle threat in this extremely inventive music.
A silvery-sounding harpsichord invokes Ariel who is voiced by
a distanced offstage choir. The writing for choir recalls the
gentler stretches of Schmidt's choral writing in the Book
of The Seven Seals. Robert Holl, well known for his Wagner
and Schmidt assumptions, is oaken stern and well attuned to the
declamatory writing.
The start of act II has a jazzy Weill-like propulsion with barking
saxophones and insistent piano rhythms. There’s more of the roughhouse
Weimar republic in act 4, scene 2. The sax is again to the fore
at the start of act 2 sc 2. The Caliban here is at first lightly
characterised but things improve as Dennis Wilgenhof warms to
his task. The interaction with the howling Trinculo of Roman
Sadnik is a delight with plenty more sleaze and vapid ‘shtick’
in act 2 sc 2. Buffle, in her dealings with Ferdinand, now sounds
more callow and girlish. Its still pretty declamatory singing
but gentler emotions now float free with greater ease. It's
intriguing that a smoothly pulsed sympathy for the plight of
Gonzalo arises in Sc. 5 of act 2 even though Ariel is about
to put them to fear and panic for the injustices to Prospero
perpetrated long ago by Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian.
Act III on CD 3 (it’s one act per disc and one track per scene)
starts with a sincere and even-paced ostinato and simple and effective
lyric work from the middle strings. It sometimes sounds
baroque – like Rameau. This is surely evocative of Prospero's
courtly life before the island.
There are some fine gutsy fanfares and cries of ‘Freiheit!’
The music rises to mercurial fantasy with waspish zephyrs flying
and careering. By contrast we have a resolute and sternly soliloquising
Prospero who yet suggests the tender tendrils of emotion
mixed with a sense of being bereft of his long cherished magical
powers. We end with words to the audience: “As you from crimes
would pardon'd be, let your indulgence set me free.”
This is a live concert recording with the odd isolated cough
here and there. The Concertgebouw and the control desk deliver
plenty of detail though without the unnatural if flattering
close-up balance of a Decca team.
The booklet includes an excellent essay encompassing a summary
of the plot and a biographical and musical study by Martin biographer
Alain Perroux. The libretto is in the sung German with side-by-side
English translation.
This music is magically imagined by Martin and brought to harvest
by Hyperion, Fischer, his players and singers and engineers.
Now let Hyperion surprise us with some other seemingly doomed
grand operas of the last century: Nystroem’s Herr Arnes Penningar,
Atterberg’s Fanal, Ropartz’s Le Mas, Lazzari’s
La Lépreuse, Sessions’ Montezuma and Ginastera’s
Bomarzo.
Rob Barnett
Magically re-imagined and brought to harvest.