Weber: Der Freischütz ~ C. Kleiber
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Free Music Notes for Weber: Der Freischütz ~ C. Kleiber
Free Music Review: Viktoria! Der Meister soll leben!
Hit: 5 Stars
I have had this recording for 25 years...I have both LP and CD. It fully deserves all the awards it got, and is one of the great recordings of the 20th century. The music is direct and forceful; check out the introduction to Kaspar's Drinking Song for some terrifically driving downbeats. During the casting of the magic bullets in the Wolf's Glen at midnight, you really feel as if the the natural world has been turned askew. All this is helped by Weber's decision to have the intervening dialogue spoken rather than subject us to dreary recitative. Even people who don't like opera will get a charge out of this one, which opens and closes to the sound of gunfire. The Huntsmen's Chorus has to be one of the most vigorous numbers in all of classical opera, and it is brilliantly rendered here.It has been claimed that the peasants' dance is played too fast, but that brings out these people's frantic search for enjoyment. The peasants are not really happy, as you can tell from the way they heckle Max. Jealousy, rivalry, resentment...these are the prevailing feelings which pave the way for the strange events that follow. And it's wonderful the way the last notes of the dance fade into the soliloquy Länger traf ich nicht die Qualen.
This recording is done by the orchestra Weber once directed, Staatskappelle Dresden. The events in the story take place in the strange sandstone hills and dense forests just south of the city (so beautifully portrayed by Weber's contemporary Caspar David Friedrich), so the musicians are able to imbibe the atmosphere. This was all part of East Germany at the time of performance, so the ambience of cruelty and hypocrisy would easily be accessible to the performers. I knew a young lady who visited Dresden just after reunification and exclaimed "the city was full of ghosts".
Carlos Kleiber conducts with great passion. He grew up and studied music in Buenos Aires, where his father Erich was a conductor at the Teatro Colón (associated with such great names as Manuel de Falla), and Carlos seems to have picked up a certain amount of Latino panache. No musical collection is complete without this work.
Free Music Review: A thoroughly engrossing experience!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is definitely one of the landmarks of modern opera recordings. "Der Freischutz" is not performed very often outside of German-speaking countries, but this opera transfers very well to CD and demands to be heard. This recording in particular captures the atmosphere of the piece perfectly - you feel like you're in a dark German forest. Kleiber's pacing of the "Wolf's Glen" scene is particularly convincing. The whole cast is excellent - I have never heard better singing from Peter Schreier and Theo Adam - but Gundula Janowitz really steals the show with her Act II aria and Act III "prayer" song. I have rarely, if ever, heard more ravishing singing on record. Of course, most of the credit for holding this performance together goes to Carlos Kleiber, whose international reputation largely came into being with this recording.It is good to finally have this opera at mid-price, very well remastered (much better than the original CD). I have two very minor reservations. First, this reissue has been shorn of the lengthy essay that accompanied the first CD issue, although the relatively brief essay included in the booklet is helpful (there is also a translated libretto and detailed summary). Second, Kleiber uses actors, rather than the soloists, to speak the dialogue in this opera; this is generally not distracting, but I noticed that the actresses who speak the dialogue for the roles of Agathe and Annechen have more strongly contrasted voices than Gundula Janowitz and Edith Mathis, who sing those roles. These points are very minor.
Overall, this is one of the most melodic, exciting, and atmospheric of all operas -- it may be my favorite -- and it's a great introduction to the art of Carlos Kleiber, who has made only a select few recordings, and his excellent Germanic cast. At mid-price, it's more mandatory than ever.
Free Music Review: A really great achievement
Hit: 5 Stars
This set has never really been seriously challenged, and for good reasons (although Kubelik, at least, is a worthy alternative). One of them is Carlos Kleiber's attentive and loving exploration of the orchestral colors and details of the score - and his ability, and the orchestra's ability, to realize them to perfection. In short, the color and atmosphere on this recording is second to none, from the fairy-tale buoyancy of the folk scenes to eeriness and ill-foreboding and not the least the darkly urgent and powerful Wolf's glen - unrivalled in execution and alone guaranteed to make this set a must-buy for any opera lover. I have heard critics and reviewers take issue with Kleiber's tempi, and he does indeed take more liberties than most (both slower and faster). I can only conclude that Carlos Kleiber knew exactly what he was doing; any passage that comes across as slightly startling in terms of tempo choices ends up sounding utterly convincing and as if it could not have been played in another way.
The set secures its success by the absolutely superb cast. Peter Schreier is absolutely astounding as Max, somewhat more reflective - wary, even - than usual, but superbly sung and so convincingly full of character I cannot imagine anyone breathing more life into him than Schreier achieves here. Gundula Janowitz scores more for here fabulous singing than for her characterization (although there is certainly nothing wrong with it). Theo Adam is a convincing Caspar and the rest of the cast acquit themselves more than well (Edith Mathis's Aennchen in particular). The sound quality is for the most part excellent, although the strings are prone to ugly distortion in tutti parts. Overall, however, this is still and outstanding achievement and a must for any music lover.
Free Music Review: Weber at his best
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a wonderful work in a wonderful recording -- and at such a reasonable price! Weber was a delightful man, a prodigiously talented pianist who studied with the Abbe Vogler (whom Mozart, incidentally, despised) along with the young Giacomo Meyerbeer. He died quite young, in London, not far from where I live. Years later, Weber's remains were exhumed and reinterred in Dresden at a service presided over by Richard Wagner coming from Wagner, a most jealous partisan, this was praise indeed). While not the earliest of his operas, Der Freischütz is easily the best known, and it had a formative influence through its musical vocabulary and dramatic approach on the whole of nineteenth century music, from the French (through Berlioz, Gounod amd Massenet), the Italians (through Verdi and Boito), the Germans (through Meyerbeer, Marschner, Spohr and, of course, Wagner), to the Russians (through Glinka and Mussorgsky). Listeners will note Weber's characteristics: highly tuneful and affecting arias, a most unusual and inventive approach to orchestral sound -- unlike anyone else, really -- and an uncanny ability to infuse his music with dramatic tension. If you ever have the pleasure of seeing Der Freischütz on stage, this recording will serve as a wonderful preparation for the event and a memory long after.
Next stop on the introductory tour: all the piano sonatas, then the Konzertstücke, then the symphonies, before returning to the operas, Euryanthe and Oberon. All delightful and affecting music by a great master!
Free Music Review: brava, Janowitz, brava, Mathis
Hit: 5 Stars
I can't add anything that will give you more insight that the wonderful reviews already written about this recording. I simply would like to state that I am grateful that Gundula Janowita and Edith Mathis were chosen to sing the roles of Agathe and Annchen.
The critics will say that Janowitz is not an ideal Agathe. Who, then, is an ideal Agathe? This is a role that is seemingly contradictory in itself, in terms of singing. It sometimes requires pure, limpid note-spinning; at other times, Wagnerian steel. The quandary is: Whom best to choose? Do you opt for a more lyrical voice, or a dramatic one? I vote for the lyrical one. Birgit Nilsson also sang this role on record. But, evidently, she was too rough for the role. Janowitz, of course, doesn't have Nilsson's steel, but she acquits herself in the more dramatic moments. There is no ugly spread on top, as you would expect out of lyrical soprano who is "pushing." To my ears, she remains in tune. For someone who is celebrated as an interpreter of Mozart, it is incredible that she could excel, at least on record, as Agathe.
Edith Mathis is also a joy to hear. She is ideally paired with Janowitz. Too bad, though, that the woman whom they chose for the speaking voice of Annchen sounds like a wenchy barmaid.