Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
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FIDELIO (1805)
Christa Ludwig, Jon Vickers
Gottlob Frick, Walter Berry, Franz Crass
Ingeborg Hallstein, Gerhard Unger
Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus
dir : Otto Klemperer
EMI CMS 769324-2 stereo (1962)
FLAC, logs, scans, booklet
Klemperer's studio Fidelio has been accorded classic status since it was issued in the early sixties... The pacing is inevitable and, to use an overused term for all things Klempererisch, monumental. Everything in the score, from the Overture (already in Klemperer's hands pregnant with the drama about to unfold, no mere opera buffa scene-setter) to Leonore's unveiling and the final uplifting chorus of triumph feels 'right'... The two main protagonists, Ludwig and Vickers, are the real stars: both are every inch the equal of Klemperer's interpretation and Beethoven's demands. Ludwig is inspirational in her Abschelicher! (the horn quartet playing as one here) and Vickers' aria which opens the second act finds him on top form. His initial cry of Gott! Welch' Dunkel hier! is heart-rending, his hallucination of Leonore as an angel completely convincing. The final scene is ideally paced by Klemperer so as to appear a truly fitting climax to the opera. The soloists pick up the elevated mood and deliver a quintet at O Gott! Welch' ein Augenblick! which is an oasis of peace and hope.
Colin Clark, for Music Web International.
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Martha Mödl, Wolfgang Windgassen,
Gottlob Frick, Otto Edelmann, Alfred Poell
Sena Jurinac, Rudolf Schock
Vienna Phiharmonic Orchestra
dir : Wilhelm Furtwängler
1953
Pristine Classical PACO095 [P] 2013
FLAC, artwork
Andrew Rose’s remastering of EMI’s 1953 studio recording is masterful. Although I labelled it “monaural” in the headnote, because the original recording is indeed monaural, I heard it in Pristine’s XR stereo format. I directly compared it to EMI’s CD remastering (CHS 7 64496 2), comparing individual segments and then hearing the entire opera in both versions. Pristine’s sound is fuller, the voices sound less cramped and less harsh, and the ambience that comes from the XR process is a welcome addition and never intrusive. EMI’s edition is not bad, but the difference is meaningful, particularly over the length of the opera. FANFARE, Issue 37:4 (Mar/Apr 2014)
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Rose Bampton, Jan Peerce
Sidor Belarsky, Herbert Janssen, Nicola Moscona
Eleanor Steber, Joseph Laderoute
NBC Orchestra and Chorus
dir : Arturo Toscanini
1944
Pristine Classical PACO077 [P] 2012
FLAC, artwork
This isn't music-making for the timid, used to the sanitized, faultless performances on your everyday CD. In its raw, unvarnished way, it is daring, fierce, mesmerizing, to be heard when you're feeling strong of spirit and mind. Toscanini views Fidelio and indeed Leonore No. 3 as stark drama, devoid of sentimentality. The winds leap from the speakers, the brass blare ferociously as the old wizard tells a story of the struggle for freedom in a year when, even in the United States, events far away in Europe must have felt very present. In achieving his end, he demands and mostly receives superhuman efforts from his charges: speeds are nervously fast, rhythms alert, as though the events were happening in the conductor's presence. The wind section is prominent in a way we have since heard from Norrington in Beethoven, indubitably influenced by his predecessor. An occasional untidiness is a price worth paying for such an edge-of-your-seat interpretation. Inevitably the epithet 'hard-driven' has been used about the performance: a visionary conductor, inclined to the dictatorial, demands much from his performers and listeners. No compromises can be made. We won't always want to hear the score done like this; once in a way, it is cleansing and salutary.
Alan Blythe, for Gramophone, 1992
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Kirsten Flagstad, René Maison
Alexander Kipnis, Julius Huehn, Herbert Janssen
Marita Farell, Karl Laufkötter
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
dir : Bruno Walter
1941
Pristine Classical PACO117 [P] 2015
FLAC, artwork
In Pristine Audio’s revivified sonics, a palpable sense of realism which gives the listener a “you are there” sense many thought we might never enjoy. Hear this, and be grateful... Here, one finally gets the weighty bass line Walter favored without any muddying of the sound by artificial boosting of lower frequencies. The midrange has a newfound fullness and bloom, and the treble frequencies are enriched without any tendency toward harshness. Woodwinds now have tang and pungency; the brass, more ripeness and bite; and the strings even evince a silken tone that Walter surely brought with him from Vienna. With the entire soundstage now more forwardly placed, one does at times hear more background noise from tape hiss or acetate surfaces, and a certain dryness of the original NBC broadcast sound becomes evident; but I’ve heard surviving opera broadcasts from Italian radio sources in the 1970s with sound inferior to this 1941 performance. Rose has done some remarkable work in the past, but here he has truly outdone himself, and made the greatness of Walter’s conception of the score even more evident than before. Somehow the 13 curtain calls for Walter in his Met debut in this work eight days before seem scarcely adequate. FANFARE, Issue 38:6 (July/Aug 2015)
FIDELIO (1805)Christa Ludwig, Jon Vickers
Gottlob Frick, Walter Berry, Franz Crass
Ingeborg Hallstein, Gerhard Unger
Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus
dir : Otto Klemperer
EMI CMS 769324-2 stereo (1962)
FLAC, logs, scans, booklet
Klemperer's studio Fidelio has been accorded classic status since it was issued in the early sixties... The pacing is inevitable and, to use an overused term for all things Klempererisch, monumental. Everything in the score, from the Overture (already in Klemperer's hands pregnant with the drama about to unfold, no mere opera buffa scene-setter) to Leonore's unveiling and the final uplifting chorus of triumph feels 'right'... The two main protagonists, Ludwig and Vickers, are the real stars: both are every inch the equal of Klemperer's interpretation and Beethoven's demands. Ludwig is inspirational in her Abschelicher! (the horn quartet playing as one here) and Vickers' aria which opens the second act finds him on top form. His initial cry of Gott! Welch' Dunkel hier! is heart-rending, his hallucination of Leonore as an angel completely convincing. The final scene is ideally paced by Klemperer so as to appear a truly fitting climax to the opera. The soloists pick up the elevated mood and deliver a quintet at O Gott! Welch' ein Augenblick! which is an oasis of peace and hope.
Colin Clark, for Music Web International.
Gottlob Frick, Otto Edelmann, Alfred Poell
Sena Jurinac, Rudolf Schock
Vienna Phiharmonic Orchestra
dir : Wilhelm Furtwängler
1953
Pristine Classical PACO095 [P] 2013
FLAC, artwork
Andrew Rose’s remastering of EMI’s 1953 studio recording is masterful. Although I labelled it “monaural” in the headnote, because the original recording is indeed monaural, I heard it in Pristine’s XR stereo format. I directly compared it to EMI’s CD remastering (CHS 7 64496 2), comparing individual segments and then hearing the entire opera in both versions. Pristine’s sound is fuller, the voices sound less cramped and less harsh, and the ambience that comes from the XR process is a welcome addition and never intrusive. EMI’s edition is not bad, but the difference is meaningful, particularly over the length of the opera. FANFARE, Issue 37:4 (Mar/Apr 2014)
Rose Bampton, Jan Peerce
Sidor Belarsky, Herbert Janssen, Nicola Moscona
Eleanor Steber, Joseph Laderoute
NBC Orchestra and Chorus
dir : Arturo Toscanini
1944
Pristine Classical PACO077 [P] 2012
FLAC, artwork
This isn't music-making for the timid, used to the sanitized, faultless performances on your everyday CD. In its raw, unvarnished way, it is daring, fierce, mesmerizing, to be heard when you're feeling strong of spirit and mind. Toscanini views Fidelio and indeed Leonore No. 3 as stark drama, devoid of sentimentality. The winds leap from the speakers, the brass blare ferociously as the old wizard tells a story of the struggle for freedom in a year when, even in the United States, events far away in Europe must have felt very present. In achieving his end, he demands and mostly receives superhuman efforts from his charges: speeds are nervously fast, rhythms alert, as though the events were happening in the conductor's presence. The wind section is prominent in a way we have since heard from Norrington in Beethoven, indubitably influenced by his predecessor. An occasional untidiness is a price worth paying for such an edge-of-your-seat interpretation. Inevitably the epithet 'hard-driven' has been used about the performance: a visionary conductor, inclined to the dictatorial, demands much from his performers and listeners. No compromises can be made. We won't always want to hear the score done like this; once in a way, it is cleansing and salutary.
Alan Blythe, for Gramophone, 1992
Kirsten Flagstad, René Maison
Alexander Kipnis, Julius Huehn, Herbert Janssen
Marita Farell, Karl Laufkötter
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
dir : Bruno Walter
1941
Pristine Classical PACO117 [P] 2015
FLAC, artwork
In Pristine Audio’s revivified sonics, a palpable sense of realism which gives the listener a “you are there” sense many thought we might never enjoy. Hear this, and be grateful... Here, one finally gets the weighty bass line Walter favored without any muddying of the sound by artificial boosting of lower frequencies. The midrange has a newfound fullness and bloom, and the treble frequencies are enriched without any tendency toward harshness. Woodwinds now have tang and pungency; the brass, more ripeness and bite; and the strings even evince a silken tone that Walter surely brought with him from Vienna. With the entire soundstage now more forwardly placed, one does at times hear more background noise from tape hiss or acetate surfaces, and a certain dryness of the original NBC broadcast sound becomes evident; but I’ve heard surviving opera broadcasts from Italian radio sources in the 1970s with sound inferior to this 1941 performance. Rose has done some remarkable work in the past, but here he has truly outdone himself, and made the greatness of Walter’s conception of the score even more evident than before. Somehow the 13 curtain calls for Walter in his Met debut in this work eight days before seem scarcely adequate. FANFARE, Issue 38:6 (July/Aug 2015)