Gustav Albert LORTZING (1801-1851)
Der Waffenschmied Overture (1846)
Die Opernprobe Overture (1851)
Undine Overture (1845)
Der Wildschütz Overture (1842)
Hans Sachs Overture (1840)
Der Weihnachtsabend Overture (1832)
Zar und Zimmermann Overture (1837)
Andreas Hofer Overture (1832)
Regina Overture (1848)
Malmö Opera Orchestra/Jun Märkl
rec. 2017, Malmö Opera House, Sweden
NAXOS 8.573824 [66:53]
Berlin-born Lortzing followed Mozart and Weber both chronologically and in terms of musical style. From the 1830s he became well known for popular and melodious light operas because the audiences found they radiated from simple and believably-coherent plots. Zar and Zimmermann (Tsar and Carpenter), Der Wildschütz (The Poacher), and Der Waffenschmied (The Armourer) stand out as being amongst Lortzing’s best. Such favourites continued to appear on the stage throughout the 20th Century and occasional performances of these ‘Spielopern’ can still be heard today. This popularity suggests that the Germans have always been far more respectful of their homegrown talent than the British, who at that time believed that they needed to look to the Continent for good repertoire to fill their theatres.
Lortzing’s parents were enthusiastic amateur thespians when they ran a leather shop, but they later turned professional and formed their own touring theatre company, Uranis in Germany. Consequently, a youthful Albert who travelled with them would have become proficient in all aspects of staging and theatre presentation. With this direct exposure to the world of theatre and appearances on stage he developed his skills both as a musician and singer. Importantly, he also wrote the books for his stageworks, thus wedding words to music more successfully than many of his contemporaries who would be setting lyrics written by others.
For this compilation disc the Overtures selected cover a period of 19 years, so it is interesting to find the emergence of a maturing style in the later compositions. To my ears, Der Weihnachtsabend with its dreamy, rhythmic opening theme is reminiscent of Auber, and contrasts with the other overtures. Of the titles, the short Die Opernprobe, written in 1849, has a style that seems to stem from an earlier period and is perhaps the least engaging for the listener. One wonders why at least one of the more substantial operas was not represented if the music is extant. Titles like Die Teiden Schützen (The Two Riflemen) (1849) or Rolands Knappen oder Das ersehnte Glück (Roland's Squire, or The Longed-for Happiness) (1837) come to mind since there is room on the disc to have included them.
In Andrew Lamb’s excellent notes (provided only in English) we find that Lortzing’s spielopern Hans Sachs, premièred in 1840, anticipates Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nüremberg by 28 years. Sachs was a 16th Century cobbler-poet who became a singer and playwright. The two composers take different aspects of Sach’s life for their plots, though Wagner probably knew the Lortzing opera.
Jun Märkl and the Malmö Opera House Orchestra give good readings of the pieces, all lovingly played. To compare them with Heger’s benchmark recordings on EMI and Eichhorn’s Undine on Capriccio, the performance here is first class; but the tempo adopted by Märkl is generally more measured. Heger’s reading, with the München Opera Orchestra of Der Wildschütz is a brisk 6:44, compared with 7:14 by Märkl. Der Waffenschmied is given a more spritely reading by Heger and as a result promotes considerable energy, while Märkl adopts a much more leisurely pace, especially in the opening, which adds over a minute to the timing. Its opening Larghetto, however, is taken slowly to evoke a dreamy quality and here Märkl shows sensitivity where he introduces variation in dynamics to a greater extent than Heger.
Märkl, born in Munich, has grown up within German culture and its national school of music. During his career he acted as an adviser to the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra until 2012. Drawing from this background he is truly at home with the music and shows characteristic sensitivity in revealing orchestral detail. The orchestra’s playing is delightfully responsive to these lively scores. The recording has a wide acoustic on the brass and woodwind, yet this does not in any way mask clarity of the interesting and busy string lines.
Raymond J Walker
