Gustav Neidlinger (bass-baritone)
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
La Finta Giardiniera - forza di martelli. Sung in German as 'Der Hammer formt
das Eisen' K196 (1775) [3:08]
Tonstudio orchester Stuttgart/Rolf Reinhardt, rec 1950
La Finta Giardiniera - on un vezzo all'Italiana. Sung in German as 'In der
welschen Art und Weise' K196 (1775) [3:04]
Tonstudio orchester Stuttgart/Rolf Reinhardt, rec. 1950
Don Giovanni - Ho capito, signor sì! K527 (1787) [1:39]
Sinfonieorchester des Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks Hamburg/Leopold Ludwig,
rec.1951
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901):
La Forza del Destino (1862) - Holà, Holà, Holà! Sung
in German as 'Ho! Ho! Heissajuchheia!' [3:16]
Sinfonieorchester des Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks Hamburg/Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt,
rec. 1952
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868) - Was euch zum Leide Richt, und
Schnur [2:30]
With Rudolf Schock
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Rudolf Kempe, rec. 1956
Das Rheingold (1869) - Da, Vetter, sitze du fest! [14:38]
with Erich Witte (Loge), Hans Hotter (Wotan)
Orchestra of the Bayreuth Feestspiele/Clemens Krauss, rec. 1953
Siegfried (1876) - In Wald und Nacht [17:38]
with Hans Hotter (Wanderer), Josef Greindl (Fafner)
Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festspiele/Clemens Krauss, rec. 1953
Götterdämmerung (1876) - Schläfst du, Hagen, mein Sohn? [8:19]
with Josef Greindl (Hagen)
Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festspiele/Hans Knappertsbusch, rec. 1957
Die Walküre (1850) - Leb wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind! [13:50]
Orchestra of the German State Opera, Berlin/Wilhelm Schüchter, rec. 1958
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Der Rosenkavalier (1911) - Da lieg ich [10:37]
with Sieglinde Wagner (Oktavian)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Wilhelm Schüchter, rec. 1955
Gustav Neidlinger (bass-baritone) with accompanists as above
PREISER 93475 [79:34]
When I say that this is an uneven and unequal disc, I mean no disrespect to
its object, the eminent Gustav Neidlinger, who indeed sings with such authority,
command, and convincing assurance. Rather it relates to the selection of tracks,
which brings with it both novelty and a small problem. It’s neither
Mozart nor Neidlinger’s fault that Ho capito, Signor si! lasts
only 100 seconds or that the sum total of the composer’s music here,
in stopwatch timings, amounts to eight minutes. The sole example of his Verdi
lasts three minutes, which means that there are large extracts from Wagner
and from Strauss’s Rosenkavalier. I suppose the earlier tracks
should be seen in terms of the bass-baritone’s stylistic versatility
and his ability to lighten or soften his tone and weight of voice. The Wagner
chunks represent, in this context, the apotheosis of his art. But it is notable
how well and sensitively he does lighten the voice for the two arias from
La Finta Giardiniera. Though the recording is rather dead - it was
recorded for Period in 1950 - the voice is thankfully well captured, and one
can admire the sense of characterisation he distils in these two brief extracts.
There is a greater sense of ‘spread’ in the recording, live in
Hamburg in the Don Giovanni aria conducted by Leopold Ludwig. The Verdi
comes from similarly live circumstances a year later in Hamburg, though here
the conductor is the expert Schmidt-Isserstedt.
It was Max Lorenz who encouraged the already 39 year old year Neidlinger to
chance his arm with the baritone repertory, as he’d been singing small
bass roles up to that point. His fourteen years at the Hamburg Staatsoper
were followed by 27 years in Stuttgart and, perhaps his greatest impression,
twenty seasons at Bayreuth. His retirement in 1977 ended a 46 year career,
and he died in 1991 at the age of 81. The quality of his voice, the powerful
impression he made theatrically, can be best experienced in the Wagner extracts.
The Die Walküre extract is from an Electrola LP, whilst the Meistersinger,
with Rudolf Schock, was recorded by the same company in 1956. The other three
long extracts are from Bayreuth from 1953 and 1957. With elite colleagues
and conductors these extensive examples of his musicianship - the Siegfried
with Hotter and Greindl for example lasts nearly eighteen minutes - offer
plenty of richly musical reward but also lead one to wonder why he never became
as well known as he clearly deserved. Fortunately the live performances supplement
his uneven studio legacy. This particular disc’s perhaps necessarily
uneven pleasures provide a measure of justice.
Jonathan Woolf
This disc’s necessarily uneven pleasures provide a measure of justice.