Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826)
Der Beherrscher der Geister (Rübezahl) Op.27, J222: Overture (1804) [6:32]
Konzertstück in F minor for piano and orchestra Op.79 (1821) [16:54]
Der Freischütz Op.79:Overture (1821) [9:48]
Der Freischütz Op.79: “Einst träumte meiner sel’gen Base” (1821) [7:00]
Der Freischütz Op.79: “Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen” (1821) [4:07]
Oberon: Overture (1826) [9:10]
Martin Helmchen (piano) Anna Prohaska (soprano) Konzerthausorchester,
Berlin/Christoph Eschenbach
rec. 21-23 November 2019, 15-16 February 2020 Konzerthaus, Berlin
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
ALPHA 744
[53:33]
This new recording represents a Weber sampler though it was taped to mark
the 200th anniversary of the Berlin Konzerthaus. In a sense, it
resembles an old-fashioned gala, though one devoted to a single composer.
Weber has rather fallen out of favour of late after enjoying the exalted
status as one of the fathers of German romantic music well into the second
half of the 20th century. Certainly his most important overtures
and Der Freischütz were in the repertoire of every major European conductor
up to the Second World War.
The programme opens with the Ruler of the Spirits overture written for an
unfinished opera and then heavily revised for concert performance. I can’t
resist quoting Tovey on the subject of this overture: “It remains one of
his finest compositions; and it is incomparably greater in conception than
any possible musical illustration of the story of the poor wizard whose
captive princess cheated him into counting the turnips in his garden while
she escaped with the aid of a friendly griffin.” Quite! And they don’t
write programme notes like that much any more.
As a performance, it sets the tone for the rest of the CD: immaculately
played but a little tame. The WDR Sinfonieorchester under Howard Griffiths
on CPO really go hell for leather (Complete Overtures 7778312), whereas with Colin Davis and the Dresden
Staatskappelle, from 1985 on Capriccio, you can almost smell the
greasepaint. If this more patrician view is your thing then you will find
lots to enjoy in these performances but I felt that an essential dimension
of the music is missing. In particular, I found it hard to hear that
crucial link to Wagner so important in capturing the Janus-like quality of
Weber’s best music.
Martin Helmchen has long been a favourite of mine amongst the glut of
exceptional pianists we currently enjoy. I rate his Diabelli Variations as
highly as anyone’s and his recent Emperor with Andrew Manze was one of my
discs of 2020. He doesn’t disappoint in the less well known Konzerstück.
The frequent passage work, that can sometimes sound like an extended
technical exercise, really glitters under his fingers. Anyone who has heard
his recording of the Schubert second trio will know that he can do poetry
and atmosphere as easily as glitter. Eschenbach provides able and sensitive
accompaniment. By way of comparison, I found Ronald Brautigam’s recent
recording using a fortepiano a trifle noisy and overexcited (and I have no
issue with the use of the fortepiano in this music) without really welding
the disparate elements of the work together convincingly.
The middle of the disc is devoted to extracts from Weber’s most famous
opera, Der Freischütz. Written in 1821, this work, without exaggeration,
can be said to have ushered in a new world of Romanticism in music. Perhaps
most significantly, it is a key link to the work of Richard Wagner.
Given that link, I won’t hide my relative disappointment with the lack of
supernatural menace in Eschenbach’s lean and tidy rendering of the
overture. Listening to Furtwängler with the Vienna Philharmonic, live at
the 1954 Salzburg Festival (Furtwängler in Vienna: Warner 5667702,
3 CDs, now download only, no booklet, or Wilhelm Furtwängler: The Legend: Warner 9081192, 3 CDs, budget
price), the rhetorical gestures in the Freischütz make much more sense.
Undoubtedly, some listeners will find Furtwängler’s brooding menace a
little overdone, but in music that relies so heavily on rhetorical gestures
an approach that seeks to avoid them seems to me a little misguided. More
importantly, as a listening experience, I found the new recording a bit lukewarm, however
beautifully it is played and recorded.
The same virtues and issues are apparent with the two scenes from the same
opera. The orchestral soloists, in particular, acquit themselves especially
well. Prohaska also sings very well but the whole thing lacks a sense of
theatre. Everything is neat and tidy but I wanted something to make me sit
up and listen in the way the Konzertstück did.
I reviewed this as a download which came with the CD booklet in pdf format.
Whilst it includes the sung texts and a full listing of the orchestra
members, I would have liked a little more about the music in the notes.
Things improve with a fine account of the overture to Weber’s last opera,
Oberon, another victim of a potboiler libretto. Of Weber’s English opera,
Tovey is again at his tartest and most amusing: “At present it is only
relevant to say that this libretto has murdered the third and last mature
opera of Weber”. Mercifully, the libretto is not an issue when it comes to
enjoying the overture. There is Mendelssohnian fairy dust about the string
and woodwind playing which is beautifully caught by the engineers. But even
here I find the same magic on Colin Davis’ recording, but with extra oomph.
Unfortunately, as soon as it gets going again, the CD is over. Surely
another overture or preferably something else from Helmchen could have been
added to fill out a somewhat uneven programme?
David McDade
