At last this noble document has appeared on an 'official' label. Whatever your opinion concerning the interpretation of Fidelio, you should hear this version. It is, in a word, memorable; the veryepitome of the romantic view of this work, now out of fashion (so much the worse you may say, forfashion). Furtwangler takes very deliberate speeds, indulges in massive rubato and ritardandos, yet justifies them all by his trenchant, spiritual, deeply involving view of the music, one derived from a lifetime spent in the service of Beethoven. Wherever you touch down in this reading you will hear considered detail, subtle phrasing pregnant with meaning, eloquent playing and singing.
Everything has been carefully prepared with a sense of devotion and sincerity on all sides palpable throughout. If I pick out the phrases underpinning the melodram near the beginning of Act 2 or, just before, the falling phrases after Florestan comes out of his fevered ecstasy, it is because these show Furtwangler not simply conducting the music, as Dohnanyi does on the new Decca set (7/93), or Norrington did in London at the Royal Festival Hall in June, but making them emotionally significant. This is the subjective as against the objective view of the piece and here it overwhelmingly wins my vote. The inclusion of the Leonore Overture No. 3 is justified here as a summation of Furtwangler's reading, and—as throughout—the Vienna Philharmonic, which in these years owed so much to this conductor, play superbly for him. In every respect this surpasses his 1954 HMV studio recording (EMI, 5/93), where there is nothing like the tension evinced here.
Three peerless interpretations grace this account. Patzak's searing Florestan has never been equalled, let alone surpassed—except perhaps by Patzak himself, in fresher voice, in the 1948 Salzburg performance available 'unofficially'. Making a virtue of Furtwangler's stretching speeds for Florestan's scene, he ekes out each phrase, each word with aching intensity and then speaks his dialogue (the stifled, desperate ''Wie finde ich Ruhe?'') like a man genuinely in extremis. And who has begun the trio ''Euch werde Lohn'' with such pathetic accents or indeed with such refined legato? Greindl, in speech and singing, performs with the utmost conviction as Rocco in projecting the paradox of the kindly father and time-serving gaoler. At the beginning of her career Schwarzkopf is a firm, eager Marzelline, while Dermota as Jaquino is almost in her class.
Reservations about Flagstad concern only some wear on the voice, hardly surprising in a soprano just turned 55, but she compensates for some unwieldy moments with the firmness and radiance of her tone, and the sincerity of her reading. Certain things, such as the optimistic cry ''noch Heute'' and the passage in the Act 2 duet with Rocco, beginning ''Gewiss!'', convey all Leonore's conviction and determination. Schoeffler makes up for the occasional moment of out-of-tune singing and strain at the top with the authority and drive he brings to his interpretation of the evil, overbearing Pizarro. He is especially notable in his idiomatic and experienced use of the text. Braun is a noble Minister, the veteran Gallos a touching First Prisoner.
So immediate is the sound that you feel, in an uncanny way, that you are sitting there in the Salzburg house watching the eternal drama being unfolded. You and the performers are part of history. That said, in spite of the booklet's claims, I can't hear that it is in every respect an improvement on my already excellent 'unofficial' Hunt CDs. The balance is sometimes cleaner, some but not all distortion has been eliminated, but sometimes the new technology introduces a slight and unwanted edge to the strings, and there are moments of underlay that appear to trouble some EMI reissues using computer technology. Any doubts on this countare as nothing set against the inspiration of the occasion. The audience, generously applauding, is certainly aware of a great evening in the opera house.'