Why does a recording reappear on a super-budget label? Sometimes
the original company is sold or liquidated, so Stuart Bedford’s
Britten operas for Collins Classics reappeared on Naxos. One the
other hand quality or sales can be an issue. Does this explain
why Decca’s Dohnanyi/Vienna Philharmonic Fidelio was licensed
to Brilliant Classics? Moreover licensing may no longer be an
issue at all. When Callas’s 1953 Tosca fell out of European copyright
it popped up on Naxos, Brilliant Classics, Regis and others. But
Deutsche
Grammophon’s 2000 Ariadne auf Naxos from Dresden?
I shake my head in bafflement, envious of collectors who can snaffle
this set on Brilliant Classics for £7. The price somehow feels
inappropriate in light of the talent and artistry involved.
The star-studded
cast is headed by Ben Heppner, Deborah Voigt, Anne Sofie von
Otter and Natalie Dessay. Yes, you read that right: a super-budget
re-release with Heppner, Voigt, von Otter and Dessay. Voigt’s
Ariadne is all beautifully poised clean steel with utterly
clear and natural diction. Her rich lower register at the
start of ‘Es gibt ein Reich’ builds towards a seemingly effortless
top B flat. Only a slight tremulous quality mars a classic
portrayal. Heppner complements his on-disc lover with a similarly
ringing world-class heldentenor of rich mahogany. However,
as with Voigt, Heppner is also not ideally steady and a slow
vibrato intermittently creeps in. Von Otter is a forthright
and impassioned Composer. The wide-eyed singing that does
not always convince in her recital CDs is perfect for the
young headstrong idealist. Dessay not only performs stunning
vocal acrobatics but injects womanly, even sexy, warmth. No
suggestion of pinched, white-voiced coloratura here. Dessay
almost convinces that the booklet essay is right in the astonishing
assertion that “[e]ven now, when it is to be heard frequently
in all the world’s major houses, it is clear that [Ariadne
auf Naxos’s] popularity is due almost entirely to the jaw-dropping
virtuoso display piece Grossmächtige Prinzessin …”.
And the Staatskapelle
Dresden are hardly cause for super-budget relegation. Their
tonal palette is characterised by transparency, clear delineation
and warm mellow colours. DG’s engineering is full and spacious,
seemingly more natural than EMI’s multi-miked and closer-balanced
Kempe recording with the same orchestra. As Sinopoli’s singers
are better integrated within the orchestral texture all Strauss’
voices, both instrumental and vocal, blend and flow beautifully.
So is Giuseppe
Sinopoli the reason why this Ariadne was re-licensed? This
was Sinopoli’s last opera recording before his fatal heart-attack
during an Act III Aida in Berlin. The original DG issue
was dedicated to his memory. Sinopoli’s career was controversial,
particularly before he decamped from London’s Philharmonia
Orchestra, following scathing reviews, to Dresden. Yet Staatskapelle
Dresden players wept when they heard of Sinopoli’s death and
there are numerous diamonds in the rough of Sinopoli’s recorded
legacy. Yes, a BBC Radio 3 Building a Library review
of Ariadne may raise questions. Why does Sinopoli change the
pulse here? Why slow there? The Prelude overture, for instance,
keeps to a more unified pulse under Böhm and Kempe. Yet I
enjoyed Sinopoli's vision of the work. It is colouristic with
attention being paid to details; yet there is drama and sweep
here too. The famous Composer’s aria has the necessary escalation
of tension and Ariadne’s Lament is beautifully elliptical,
the opening lines being movingly sustained. A theme in Strauss’s
charming opera is the relationship between opera and operetta.
Which is superior? Strauss’s music leaves no doubt about his
conclusions and Sinopoli shows the courage of these convictions
with a deep and sustained upsweep in the transcendent final
duet.
If Sinopoli’s
Ariadne has a weakness it is one shared with studio sets conducted
by Masur (Philips), Levine
(DG), Kempe
and Karajan (both EMI). They all lack the theatrical urgency,
magic and smell of grease paint so joyously evident in the
live 1944 Böhm Vienna broadcast (Preiser), recorded in the
presence of the composer for his 80th birthday celebrations.
Listen to Seefried's highly-strung Composer as the curtain
threatens to rise at the end of the Prelude. Max Lorenz is
more ardent and abandoned than Heppner. Heppner certainly
sings out the cruelly high-lying final lines with power and
style but Lorenz injects sheer bravado. The terrific Maria
Reining is creamy, with thrilling attack, sometimes slightly
ahead of the notes in the passion of the duet and Lament.
Voigt’s Primadonna/Ariadne is comparably more sung out than
lived. Luckily the 1944 broadcast sound is surprisingly firm
and full with excellent bass.
Sinopoli and Böhm
shine light on Ariadne auf Naxos in their different
ways. Buy both but there is no doubt which I’d take to my
desert, or rather Greek, island. Reining and Lorenz soar into
Strauss heaven singing the most ecstatic final duet I've heard
as Böhm propels and anchors the climax with thrilling power.
No wonder Strauss was moved to tears.
David Harbin
Deborah Voigt (soprano) - Ariadne/Primadonna; Anne Sofie von Otter
(mezzo) - Composer; Natalie Dessay (soprano) - Zerbinetta; Ben Heppner
(tenor) - Tenor, Bacchus; Albert Dohmen (bass-baritone) - 
