[Previously released
on this label as 90266 8539 2
on 1 December 1996]
Comparison Recordings, Four
Last Songs and additional songs
as noted:
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Szell (+Opp43#2;49#1;41#1)
[AAD] EMI CDC 7 47276 2
Teresa Stich-Randall, Laszlo Simogny
Westminster LP WST 17081
Jessye Norman, Kurt Masur (+Opp27#2;41#1)
Philips 411 052-2
Kirsten Flagstad [ADD] various
Many years ago I was
a member of an Alpinist club in California
and we would spend weekends high in
the Sierra Nevada mountains camped beside
a glacial lake somewhere. The other
backpackers used to kid me about bringing
my cassette player with me on jaunts.
One evening after our tin dinner plates
were scrubbed with snow and my sleeping
bag was set up I wandered secretly off
by myself, set my player on a rock,
turned the volume very low and listened
to the Schwartzkopf/Szell recording
of Abendrot as I watched the
last bit of colour drain from the sunset
sky. When the song was finished, I picked
up my player, turned around, and there,
sitting about on rocks, were all the
other members of the club, their faces
wet with tears. They never kidded me
again.
These quite beautiful
8-year-old recordings by Renée
Fleming have been discussed extensively
and widely praised, however of all the
versions listed above in this review,
they are my least favourite. Fleming’s
approach is operatic, as though they
were interludes in Salome or
Elektra, but her voice is not
so large, varied, or controlled as Norman’s
(or Flagstad’s), if the operatic approach
is desired. My preferred versions are
the second Schwarzkopf and the Stich-Randall,
both of which have a quality of intimacy,
also exquisite dramatic control, a variety
of vocal timbres with which to respond
to the quickly changing moods of the
poems, with superb collaboration from
the orchestral backup. Most especially,
Schwarzkopf, Stich-Randall, and Norman
are able to find moments of intimate
sensuous delirium in these works which
others do not. Norman also gains from
outstanding collaboration with Masur
and his orchestra. Eschenbach and the
Houstoners play the notes of the accompaniment
without any particular conviction.
Tragically, no satisfactory
recording by Kirsten Flagstad is available
of these works of which she gave the
world premiere in London, with Furtwängler
conducting, in 1950. Tapes made of the
broadcast of that performance have not
survived in listenable condition, and
some other recordings she made, one
with piano(!) accompaniment, are incomplete
or do not find her in good voice. A
Decca recording from 1953 is curiously
unavailable and inaccessible; I’ve never
been able to hear it. However, by all
the evidence, those in the audience
in 1950 heard these songs the best they’ve
ever been done.
In the conclusion of
Abendrot Strauss quotes the opening
bars of the Kyrie from Schubert’s
Mass in Eb, under the
larks, just after the more frequently
alluded to quotation from his own Death
and Transfiguration. Strauss inserted
quotations from Schubert and Mendelssohn
in several of his later works. Is Metamorphosen
really based on the Beethoven Eroica
Funeral March, or on the Mendelssohn
String Symphony in d minor? Or
both?
While we are talking
about musical quotations, the orchestral
accompaniment to Cäcilie
begins with the same chord as that for
Abendrot, and there is at least
one other phrase which is similar to
the later song, not surprising since
in the later song the composer is writing
about walking with his life companion,
to whom the earlier song was dedicated.
Norman achieves lightness and sensuality
whereas Fleming has a darker mezzo-quality
to her voice at times, and seems to
be more concerned with sonority than
expression. Eschenbach’s orchestral
accompaniment comes and goes, with little
apparent attempt by the soloist or orchestra
to work together, whereas Norman and
Masur collaborate convincingly.
We should not be surprised
if several phrases from Wiegenlied
are reminiscent of Schubert’s Ave
Maria, and this lovely song inspires
outstanding work from all three performers.
Schwartzkopf is intimate, Fleming consoling,
Norman slightly more consoling — but
this one is too close to draw a preference.
Likewise with Muttertändelei
— Schwarzkopf and Fleming both give
us terrific performances of this delightful
comic opera mini-scene. It is in Waldseligkeit
that Fleming and Eschenbach show best
what they can do, and I prefer their
version over Schwarzkopf and Szell.
Schwarzkopf by comparison is just a
bit too extroverted, and Fleming best
captures the sense of devotional mystery
with good orchestral support.
The RCA disk includes
texts and translations — good ones,
I’m happy to say. This appears to be
a continuing problem, possibly due to
copyright wrangles. Some disks of Strauss
songs have no texts at all, others German
texts plus bad translations or no translations
at all. One major label’s disk of these
songs has a misprint in the German text
which is then accurately mistranslated!
The Der Rosenkavalier
Suite, a work I generally avoid,
here receives the best performance and
recording I’ve ever heard, and I enjoyed
it immensely.
Paul Shoemaker
Houston Symphony Orchestra/Christoph Eschenbach
