The Swiss composer
Othmar Schoeck was born on 1 September
1886 in Brunnen, Kanton Schwyz and died
on 8 March 1957 in Zürich. Apart
from his many songs there are eight
operas of which this long-awaited example
is the first. The Schoeck operas are:
Erwin und Elmire (1916) Don
Ranudo (1919), La Vénus
d'Ille (1922), Penthesilea (1927),
Vom Fischer und syner Fru (1930,
Dresden), Massimilla Doni (1937),
Das Schloss Dürande (1943)
and Die Laune des Verliebten (1949,
Leipzig). Four of these have been recorded
in full. The 1919 and 1949 works await
their recording premieres. Substantial
extracts from Das Schloss Dürande
have been issued by Jecklin from
a 1940s German broadcast.
Schoeck was every inch
the German late-romantic with Straussian
inclinations. He had a luxuriantly stocked
orchestral technique rooted in Schumann
and Brahms and further back in Cosi
fan tutte. The wartime Erwin
und Elmire is intensely lyrical
- sounding for much of the time more
like an orchestral song-cycle than a
stage work. The impression it at first
creates is straight out of Strauss’s
Four Last Songs (a work that
in 1916 lay in the future) and even
Elgar’s Sea Pictures. Things
do however take on a more theatrical
air in the second half. The Hin ist
hin for Begemann’s Bernardo picks
up on the bustle of Brahms’ Hungarian
Dances. The Ich muss duet
between Elmire and Bernardo is very
good - full of ardent life. From tr.
16 onwards we recognise a potency in
the writing that is related to Schoeck’s
own ‘high tide’ works including Massimila
Doni (Koch 314 025 K3)
and Venus. The trio of
Erwin, Elmire and Bernardo is a celebration
of vocally rapturous consonance. As
with so much else in this little gem
of an opera high spirits rule the day
and the cast are its equal in elan and
technique.
The plot involves the
disdainful Elmire who has alienated
her lover Erwin and who finds only depression
in her separation from him. Bernardo
tries to reconcile the lovers and overcome
Elmire’s pride. His scheme involves
Erwin disguising himself with a long
beard and flowing robes. Elmire speaks
to the disguised Erwin telling him of
her loss and unhappiness. Eventually,
at just the right moment, Erwin reveals
his true identity. The couple are reunited
in love and, together with Bernardo,
now make for home to announce the good
news to Olympia.
The disc is laid out
ideally for pleasure and study with
nineteen tracks. As is typical of CPO
there are full and rather earnest notes
as well as a libretto and parallel translation
into English.
Roll on premiere recordings
of Don Ranudo (orchestral extracts
have been issued by CPO) and Die
Laune des Verliebten. We certainly
need a reissue of the old LP of Vom
Fischer un syner Fru.
This is an early work
steeped in Mozart, Schumann and some
of it is atypical of Schoeck’s full
maturity although the impressive orchestral
Zwischenspiel gives some notice
of what is to come. Interestingly Schoeck
leans more towards Korngold than to
the saturated expressionism of Weigl,
Zemlinsky and Schrecker. Strangely the
work becomes more characteristic as
it rises to its climax.
Confident but stylistically
uneven - there is much to enjoy here
if you have a taste for high romantic
stage music.
Rob Barnett
Jeanette Fischer (sop) - Elmire, the daughter
of Olympia; Mareike Schellenberger (mezzo) - Olympia,
the mother of Elmire; Hans Christoph Begemann
(bar) - Erwin, in love with Elmire; Tino Brütsch
(ten) - Bernardo, elderly philosopher. 
