If the name Franz Schreker
has you reaching for the reference books,
then searching for references to Christophorus
will leave you delving deep into their
pages. Schreker receives scant coverage
in my references of choice (Grove dictionary
and the New Penguin Opera Guide), so
it is just as well that the supporting
booklet to this recording is as fully
informed as it is.
There are a great number
of personal associations that Schreker
drew upon to influence his own compositional
output. These include teacher, Robert
Fuchs, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg,
Zemlinsky, Mahler and Pfitzner. Despite
this he decidedly remains his own man.
In describing Schreker
to someone recently I found their assumption
was that he has a mix of neo-Hindemith
and Pfitzner – earnest, dry and perhaps
at times dull. But this for the most
part is not the case: across his work,
one might also draw parallels with Wagner’s
opulence, Wolf’s chromaticism, a Brahmsian
folk-style, or even Fauré’s tonal
palette. Indeed, considering his lieder
for a moment, it will come as no surprise
that he shared the concerns of his era
that prompted many of his contemporaries
to set the same texts as he did. An
excellent cross-section of his song
output can be found on Arte Nova (74321
72126 2).
Operatically however,
few of his works have reached wide-spread
attention outside Germany, where for
many years his reputation suffered as
a result of the Nazi’s branding him
a ‘degenerate’. Clearly this recording,
typical of the CPO label, is aimed at
redressing the balance. It completes
a trio of Schreker opera releases drawn
from live performances in 2002/2003
at the Kiel Opera under Ulrich Windfuhr.
Marco Polo have also released operas
by Schreker: Der Ferne Klang
(8.223270-271) and Flammen (8.223422)
– not to be confused with Schulhoff’s
work of the same name.
Christophorus, or
"the vision of an opera"
– the sub-title is significant, and
gives perhaps the easiest ‘way in’ to
the work, whose subject is a composer
writing an opera. At a deeper level
is the concern of artist as man (or
vice versa), hypersensitivity about
his condition, the degeneration of artists
and artistry and ‘Germanity’ in modern
music: all familiar concerns of the
period. There is a temptation to see
the work as autobiographical, which
to a certain extent it might be, but
the composer Anselm’s world view is
more strongly formed by Nietzsche and
Thomas Mann than by things that can
be directly taken from Schreker.
As to the performance,
firstly you should realize this is no
ordinary opera – a point the composer
himself reinforced in his foreword.
With bells prefacing the foreword and
interspersing the two acts, a quasi-liturgical
feel is achieved. Windfuhr keeps things
moving generally speaking, and indeed
shows remarkable affinity with the idiom
of the work. After repeated listening,
I came to wish for greater presence
in a few of the lead roles, though all
– particularly Sabrowski and Chafin
– are well taken. It sounds like an
involving evening at the opera was had
by all.
Would I return to Schreker’s
work quickly? The lieder, yes; the operas
less so. As Beecham once remarked after
conducting Elektra – the superb performance
with Erna Schluter and Ljuba Welitsch
in London 1947 (Myto 981.H004),"All
I want to hear is Mozart for a month!"
Although from weightier times, the Schreker
idiom eventually becomes oppressive,
and not a little tedious – facts this
performance cannot quite hide. I must
have listened to the whole thing ten
times to fully get my ears round it
– this is resolutely a work for those
wishing to sign up to Schreker’s cause,
or plumb the already well explored depths
of German composition in the early 1930s.
Evan Dickerson
Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Chorus/Ulrich
Windfuhr 
