Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro - Currentzis - Kleiber - Gardiner

Teodor Currentzis is the artistic director of the opera house in Perm, on the edge of Siberia. As reported in the January Gramophone, he is recording all three of the Mozart/da Ponte operas: Così fan tutte will appear next autumn, Don Giovanni a year later. The publicity material accompanying the new Figaro talks up the project in a big way, and Currentzis makes some astonishing claims. Modern performances don’t ‘approach the levels of precision and depth which are necessary to reveal the full richness of Mozart’s genius’. Really? In ‘Non più andrai’ the ‘crisp dotted rhythm…is usually “smeared” into triplets’? Not true, in my experience. The sparing use of vibrato, the inclusion of vocal embellishments, a prominent continuo: we are led to infer that Currentzis is first in the field. If it’s unreasonable to cite performances of this very opera in 1965 by Roger Norrington and the Chelsea Opera Group, or Charles Mackerras at Sadler’s Wells, let me at least point to the recording by René Jacobs.
That said, this is a lively performance, decently sung and conducted. Currentzis is much concerned with dynamic contrast, and there are many instances where the instruments are splendidly prominent: the horns in Figaro’s ‘Se vuol ballare’, for instance, and their pedal-point in the C major section of the Act 2 Finale. Elsewhere, as in the Count’s accompanied recitative after the fandango in Act 3, the effect can be noisily manic. Another of the conductor’s preoccupations is that ‘the vocal technique of the 20th century…lost all notion of the voices as a palette of tonal colours’. Here the Count is almost whispering as he makes his assignation with Susanna, and the Countess’s ‘Dove sono’ is a true soliloquy. Most effective of all is the Sextet, where all the characters – Marcellina especially – sound appropriately stunned at the revelation of Figaro’s parentage. The tempi are mostly well judged, ‘Porgi amor’ and ‘Deh vieni’ flowing nicely. But like most conductors, Jacobs excepted, Currentzis takes Susanna’s emergence from the closet much too slowly. Three cheers for the appoggiaturas, cadenzas and embellishments – the decorations in ‘Dove sono’ are charming – but Currentzis has missed the opportunity of adopting the variants to the Count’s aria that were probably composed for the Vienna revival in 1789.
The orchestra play on period instruments, the pitch – as on the Jacobs – nearly a semitone below the standard of today: this helps Maria Forsström, billed as a mezzo, to sing her aria without transposition. The multinational cast is led by the sturdy bass of Christian van Horn’s Figaro and Fanie Antonelou’s rounded, knowing characterisation of Susanna. What will, I fear, pall on repetition – and this is equally true of the Jacobs – is the hyperactive continuo. Flourishes before, during and at the end of secco recitatives (including a silly pun that glosses Susanna’s ‘Ecco!’ – ‘There you are’ – as an echo), and right-hand twiddly bits in the arias and ensembles; there’s no end to it. The recording is definitely worth hearing. But revelatory, groundbreaking, indispensable? Nah. (Grammophone Review)                                         

Alfred Poell - Il Conte di Almaviva
Lisa Della Casa - La Contessa
Hilde Güden - Susanna
Cesare Siepi - Figaro
Suzanne Danco - Cherubino
Hilde Rössl-Majdan - Marcellina
Fernando Corena - Bartolo
Murray Dickie - Don Basilio
Hugo Meyer-Welfing - Don Curzio
Anny Felbermayer - Barbarina
Harald Pröglhof - Antonio

Wiener Philharmoniker
Erich Kleiber

Since this legendary recording of Le nozze di Figaro was first issued as part of the Mozart year 1956 celebrations it has more or less continually been available in one shape or another. Its latest incarnation appeared ten years ago in the Legends series, and that version is still in the catalogue. Where they differ is in the presentation. The issues in this new Heritage Masters series have a cast-list, a track-list and recording dates, nothing else: no notes, no libretto. Collectors who know their Figaro only need the discs; librettos can be found on the net. This is a great opportunity to get hold of classics at modest costs whether you are a newcomer to recorded opera or have worn out the old LPs.
 I belong to that latter category. It was through excerpts from this recording that I got to know Le nozze di Figaro. Every time I listen to this marvellous opera I have the voices of Siepi, Güden, Della Casa and Danco ringing in my head. When I bought my next Figaro – Karl Böhm’s DG version from the late 1960s – I couldn’t avoid comparing Prey, Mathis, Janowitz and Troyanos with their somewhat older colleagues, and for some reason they always tended to come second best. And this has continued through the decades. It is still the old Kleiber that stands supreme.
This doesn’t mean that I am uncritical. When the present set arrived I decided to start from scratch with no preconceptions. It wasn’t easy but here is my evaluation, warts and all:
Sound: Recorded almost 55 years ago it can’t compete with Böhm or some even younger rivals. The string tone is somewhat undernourished and it is a bit bass heavy but it is atmospheric and warm, the stereo spread is OK, balance impeccable and taken on its own it is more than acceptable. Victor Olof and Peter Andry were producers and James Brown and Cyril Windebank engineered.
Completeness: I haven’t checked if there are cuts in the recitatives but the music numbers are all here, including Don Basilio’s and Marcellina’s arias in the last act. The curious thing is that Hilde Güden, Susanna on this recording, sings Marcellina’s aria. It is not a drawback musically, since Güden sings just as wonderfully as she does her own role, but dramatically it feels wrong to hear the bright and charming Susanna voice when one expects Hilde Rössl-Majdan’s fruity contralto.
Orchestra: The Vienna Philharmonic were in wonderful shape in June 1955. They knew their Mozart and were also recording Don Giovanni under Josef Krips and Così fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte under Karl Böhm at about the same time.
Conductor: Erich Kleiber, the father of Carlos Kleiber, was born in Vienna and had Viennese music in his veins – not only the classics; he conducted the world premiere of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck – and he was an experienced opera conductor. Like Böhm and Colin Davis he had the ability to let the music unfold and breathe naturally. There isn’t a single tempo on this set that doesn’t sound right.
Soloists: Siepi’s, Güden’s and Della Casa’s assumptions of their respective roles have never been surpassed - possibly equalled a couple of times. No Figaro has more humour and more black wrath than Siepi’s, no Countess has a creamier voice or a more noble bearing than Della Casa, no Susanna is more lovely and warmer than Güden. Suzanne Danco is a very good Cherubino but she hasn’t quite the nervous boyishness of Frederica von Stade. Fernando Corena, often accused of being too coarse and too parodical, is on his best behaviour and sings with an elegance that few other Bartolos have achieved. The weakest link is Alfred Poell’s Count Almaviva. There is nothing particularly wrong with his voice, though he was no youngster when the recording was made, and he characterises well – but it is the wrong character. Almaviva may be a boor, but he is a nobleman and knows how to behave. Here he seems to come from the lower ranks of society. Harald Pröglhof, who makes a good portrait of Antonio, might even have been a better choice. Hilde Rössl-Majdan is a splendid Marcellina and Murray Dickie is a more heroic Don Basilio than most. This Scottish-born tenor is probably best known for singing the tenor part in Das Lied von der Erde under Paul Kletzki with Fischer-Dieskau taking the baritone part. Hugues Cuénod on Vittorio Gui’s almost contemporaneous recording is even more oily but Dickie’s is a refreshing reading. Hugo Meyer-Welfing, who used to sing Don Ottavio and Hoffmann, is luxury casting for Don Curzio and Anny Felbermayer is a pretty Barbarina.
Alfred Poell’s Almaviva apart – and others may well like him better than I do – this old warhorse still holds its own against the keen competition. Readers who want to botanise among other vintage recordings of Figaro should try Böhm, who has Fischer-Dieskau as an inimitable Almaviva (DG), Colin Davis with Ingvar Wixell a superb Almaviva and sterling contributions from Jessye Norman and Mirella Freni (Philips). Both these sets win hands down when it comes to sound quality. Vittorio Gui’s EMI version has surprisingly good sound and also sports one of the outstanding Figaros, Sesto Bruscantini, together with Sena Jurinac and Graziella Sciutti. There are also Fricsay (DG, Fischer-Dieskau again Almaviva and Irmgard Seefried a charming Susanna) and Giulini (EMI) with Giuseppe Taddei’s idiomatic Figaro, Eberhard Wächter’s hot-tempered Almaviva and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s noble and dignified Countess. There are riches aplenty and for those who love this opera as much as I do it can never be enough with only one recording. From the last decades there are good recordings under Karajan (quirky conducting but great soloists), Solti, Östman, Barenboim, Mackerras, Marriner … Need I say more? My final verdict is: Don’t you have a Figaro at all? Buy this Kleiber set. Do you have one and want an alternative? Buy Kleiber! Are your shelves sagging with Figaros? Buy new shelves and add Kleiber to the collection.

Göran Forsling



Mozart’s operas are so all-embracing in their concerns that no single conductor is able, it seems, to do equal justice to each. I found John Eliot Gardiner’s recent Così rather bland and uninspired. This new Figaro – a more ambivalent, indeed more cynical work in so many ways – is on a higher level altogether, an enlightening (one hesitates to apply the over-used epiphet ‘revelatory’) period performance galvanised by a palpably sure sense of dramatic wherewithal.
In common with others these days (though not Arnold Östman on the only other currently available period-instrument account), and with good musicological reasons, Gardiner re-jigs the ordering of Act III, positioning ‘Dove sono’ somewhat earlier than usual. He departs more radically from tradition by offering, in addition, a reordered version of Act IV. This is convincing as scholarship as well as drama – two qualities which inform the whole of this sparkling yet searching performance, a team effort which nonetheless permits plenty of sharply etched characterisation as well as some exceptionally fine singing.
Indeed the casting can hardly be faulted: a dark, even menacing Figaro (Bryn Terfel), a vixenish, knowing Susanna (Alison Hagley), a suave yet incisive Count (Rodney Gilfry), a radiant but far from droopy Countess (Hillevi Martinpelto) and an ardent, hyper-sexed Cherubino (Pamela Helen Stephen). Excellent cameo support too. Perhaps this is the near-perfect Figaro we’ve all been waiting for...

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)
-- Antony Bye, BBC Music Magazine