Pfitzner Palestrina
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Hans (Erich) Pfitzner
Genre:
Opera
Label: Classics
Magazine Review Date: 9/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 203
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 0310 001
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Palestrina |
Hans (Erich) Pfitzner, Composer
Berlin Deutsche Oper Chorus Berlin Staatskapelle Bernd Zettisch, Avosmediano Carola Nossek, Ighino, Soprano Ekkehard Wlaschiha, Severolus, Baritone Fritz Hübner, Christoph Madruscht, Bass Günther Kurth, Bishop of Budoja, Tenor Günther Leib, Count Luna, Alto Hans (Erich) Pfitzner, Composer Hans-Joachim Ketelsen, Morone, Baritone Henno Garduhn, Abdisu, Tenor Hermann Christian Polster, Pope Pius IV, Bass Horst Reeh, Anton Brus, Bass Joachim Arndt, Theophilus, Tenor Otmar Suitner, Conductor Peter Schreier, Palestrina, Tenor Peter-Jürgen Schmidt, Novagerio Reiner Süss, Cardinal of Lorraine, Bass Rosemarie Lang, Silla, Mezzo soprano Siegfried Lorenz, Borromeo, Tenor Uta Priew, Lukrezia, Soprano |
Author: Michael Oliver
Rafael Kubelik's magnificent, sumptuously cast DG recording of Palestrina is an almost impossible act to follow, indeed it's hard to imagine such an extravagance of vocal riches being encountered in a German opera recording nowadays: Brigitte Fassbaender ardently impulsive in the brief role of Palestrina's pupil Silla, Helen Donath pure-voiced and touching as his son Ighino (neither of these is matched in the new recording), and an absolute constellation of superb basses and baritones, often doubling quite small parts: Karl Ridderbusch, Bernd Weikl, Hermann Prey, Franz Mazura, with at their head Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as a surely unsurpassable Borromeo: dangerously powerful, intensely concerned and in magnificent voice. And those are just the 'secondary' roles!
The new recording simply cannot match that richness. Siegfried Lorenz, for example, an intelligent and refined singer, conveys much of Borromeo's earnestness but he is too light of voice to present him as formidably authoritative; at one or two points in his scenes with Palestrina it is momentarily hard to distinguish tenor from baritone. One or two other singers have worn or ill-focused voices, but there is a sharply etched Novagerio, that subtle ecclesiastical Loge, from Peter-Jurgen Schmidt, and Henno Garduhn is an appropriately weird Abdisu, his voice breaking into falsetto as the ancient Patriarch of Assyria tremulously greets his brethren at the Council of Trent. As a more substantial plus, this recording of a concert performance features singers nearly all of whom had sung their roles in a stage production not long before. The sense of genuine issues being hotly debated by real characters makes the whole of the difficult Second Act quite gripping.
Inevitable comparisons aside, the attempt at a new recording needed to be made, not least because Peter Schreier was obviously born to sing the title-role. He is as much the Palestrina of our day as Nicolai Gedda (for Kubelik) was of his, or as Julius Patzak was of an earlier one. Schreier sings with great intelligence, deep expression and care for words, and with the slightly piercing, fundamentally German tenor sound for which the role was surely conceived. Pfitzner's text is one of the finest librettos ever written, and Schreier's quiet singing in particular gives the impression that the beauty of the words and their portrayal of Palestrina's dignity and suffering are more important to him than concern for his own voice. The most moving passages in the role (Palestrina's reaction to seeing his friend Borromeo in penitent tears at his feet, his understanding of the reasons for Silla's 'apostasy' to the camp of the new-fangled monodists in Florence, his greeting of the ghosts of the old masters of polyphony as beloved friends) all need this Lieder singer's art more than they need vocal glamour, and at such moments I find Schreier's subtlety more affecting even than Gedda's beautiful but less detailed reading.
Otmar Suitner is obviously a Pfitzner conductor of experience and great sympathy. The orchestral and choral detail, the complex balances in many crucial scenes, are quite superbly handled, and if at times the result lacks a touch or two of Kubelik's urgency or his marvellous ear for the lucid radiance of this wonderful score, Suitner's is a most distinguished performance. And the new account has the edge in terms of recording. There is just a hint of rawness to the 20-year-old DG sound in the fuller passages, and it doesn't have the dynamic range of the new version. Suitner's performance was recorded in a concert-hall, with the chorus seated well above the orchestra, and this is splendidly effective in the 'angelic dictation' scene at the end of Act 1; the sense of space around the musicians is excellent throughout. For Kubelik's visionary quality, though, as well as for his casting, I would have to make his recording my first choice. But Suitner, Schreier and the new recording's powerful sense of a real stage performance make it a very close-run thing.'
The new recording simply cannot match that richness. Siegfried Lorenz, for example, an intelligent and refined singer, conveys much of Borromeo's earnestness but he is too light of voice to present him as formidably authoritative; at one or two points in his scenes with Palestrina it is momentarily hard to distinguish tenor from baritone. One or two other singers have worn or ill-focused voices, but there is a sharply etched Novagerio, that subtle ecclesiastical Loge, from Peter-Jurgen Schmidt, and Henno Garduhn is an appropriately weird Abdisu, his voice breaking into falsetto as the ancient Patriarch of Assyria tremulously greets his brethren at the Council of Trent. As a more substantial plus, this recording of a concert performance features singers nearly all of whom had sung their roles in a stage production not long before. The sense of genuine issues being hotly debated by real characters makes the whole of the difficult Second Act quite gripping.
Inevitable comparisons aside, the attempt at a new recording needed to be made, not least because Peter Schreier was obviously born to sing the title-role. He is as much the Palestrina of our day as Nicolai Gedda (for Kubelik) was of his, or as Julius Patzak was of an earlier one. Schreier sings with great intelligence, deep expression and care for words, and with the slightly piercing, fundamentally German tenor sound for which the role was surely conceived. Pfitzner's text is one of the finest librettos ever written, and Schreier's quiet singing in particular gives the impression that the beauty of the words and their portrayal of Palestrina's dignity and suffering are more important to him than concern for his own voice. The most moving passages in the role (Palestrina's reaction to seeing his friend Borromeo in penitent tears at his feet, his understanding of the reasons for Silla's 'apostasy' to the camp of the new-fangled monodists in Florence, his greeting of the ghosts of the old masters of polyphony as beloved friends) all need this Lieder singer's art more than they need vocal glamour, and at such moments I find Schreier's subtlety more affecting even than Gedda's beautiful but less detailed reading.
Otmar Suitner is obviously a Pfitzner conductor of experience and great sympathy. The orchestral and choral detail, the complex balances in many crucial scenes, are quite superbly handled, and if at times the result lacks a touch or two of Kubelik's urgency or his marvellous ear for the lucid radiance of this wonderful score, Suitner's is a most distinguished performance. And the new account has the edge in terms of recording. There is just a hint of rawness to the 20-year-old DG sound in the fuller passages, and it doesn't have the dynamic range of the new version. Suitner's performance was recorded in a concert-hall, with the chorus seated well above the orchestra, and this is splendidly effective in the 'angelic dictation' scene at the end of Act 1; the sense of space around the musicians is excellent throughout. For Kubelik's visionary quality, though, as well as for his casting, I would have to make his recording my first choice. But Suitner, Schreier and the new recording's powerful sense of a real stage performance make it a very close-run thing.'
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