Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962)MUSIC OF RICHARD WAGNER AND RICHARD STRAUSS
Orchester der Städtischen Oper Berlin
Dir : Georges Sébastian
Label: Audite 23.416 (digital download, mono)
from master tapes of RIAS Berlin
Recorded at Titania-Palast, Berlin, May 1952, [P] 2010
FLAC files, booklet
From the booklet:
"The historical publications at audite are based, without exception, on the original tapes from broadcasting archives. In general, these are the original analogue tapes, which attain an astonishingly high quality, even measured by today's standards, with their tape speed up of up to 76 cm/sec. The remastering - professionally competent and sensitively applied - also uncovers previously hidden details of the interpretations. Thus, a sound of superior quality results. CD publications based on private recordings from broadcasts cannot be compared with these."
"Life consists of missed opportunities," according to a popular German saying, which could also apply to the association, or non-association, between Richard Strauss (1864–1949) and Kirsten Flagstad (1895–1962). Though she regularly performed his songs, the soprano never appeared in a Strauss opera during her international heyday, claiming distaste for the lurid subject matter of the tragic works. Late in her career she had her major Strauss opportunity in the Four Last Songs, which he composed with her in mind, and which she sang at the world-premiere performance, under Wilhelm Furtwängler, in London in 1950. Already there were some challenges for her in the writing, and she ducked a high B (substituting an F-sharp) in the first song, "Im Frühling." The Strauss–Flagstad saga is further marred by the disastrous technical quality of the recorded 1950 premiere of the Four Last Songs, which only a persistent and dedicated listener can enjoy.
It's therefore a great if belated pleasure to hear her in three of the four songs (this time the soprano skips "Im Frühling" altogether) in a version with more acceptable technical quality and a Flagstad in her fifty-seventh year and still formidable. Her mature strengths add force to the autumnal qualities, and her direct, focused treatment of words, musical discipline and astonishing uninterrupted phrasing make this a powerfully moving experience. In "September," she can't modulate the tone enough on the words "Sommer" and "Gartentraum," where lyric sopranos work their charm, but the final line is uniquely eloquent, thanks to her great presence in the middle and lower registers.
Georges Sébastien offers sympathetic, lively direction with a capable orchestra that includes solid soloists on violin and horn. If he lets the final song, "September," drag a little, it's well this side of the soporific treatment Kurt Masur gave it, accompanying Jessye Norman. The balance between voice and orchestra is not ideal, but the sound is adequate despite the live audience and some extraneous background thuds.
These excerpts come from a pair of concerts Flagstad gave in Berlin in May 1952, a month after her Met farewell appearance and shortly before the full-length Tristan recording under Furtwangler. Oddly, this is the second recording in recent years to be carved out of those Berlin appearances, and more oddly still, the earlier one, from Urania (URN 22.241), omitted the Strauss songs, although it duplicates several other items heard here. This is the set to have, even if the superfluous Tristan prelude seems to be included mainly to expand the content to two CDs.
Also justifying this set is the Flagstad–Sébastien Wesendonck Lieder, which fills another gap. Her version of the songs with Gerald Moore on piano is, to me, less satisfactory than an orchestral treatment, and her later orchestral set with Hans Knappertsbusch found her clearly past her prime. In this version from Berlin in 1952, fortunately, she is truly authoritative, equal to all demands, just occasionally a little less than poised on a muted high note, but grand and stirring in a range of emotional climates.
Another Strauss except, the "Orest" passage from Elektra, has some gorgeous lyrical moments. Though her Wagner selections offer nothing new, they are reminders of a lost art — typical Flagstad, especially impressive in view of their date, the voluminous programming and the live setting. ![spacer]( "spacer")
DAVID J. BAKER - Opera News