Customer Reviews

Beethoven - Fidelio (LSO Live)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

By current standards, this is quite a successful Fidelio. British critics tend to assume that the latter-day Sir Colin Davis has steadily ascended to greatness, forgetting that he had a period of considerable dullness in Germany before returning to London. His earlier studio recording of Fidelio for RCA fell into that category, despite a magnificent Florestan from Ben Heppner. In this live performance from the Barbican with the London Sym., he's lucky to have two fine leads, beginning with Christine Brewer, a rising American dramatic soprano whose ample, gleaming voice seems more suited to Leonore than Deborah Voigt's in the earlier set (Voigt's voice lacks body in the lower range, where Leonore's music often lies). Brewer is full and expressive in her big "Absheulicher...Komm Hoffnung" aria, which is handled with solid voice and confident scale passages.

Almost as impressive is the Florestan of John Mac Master, big-voiced and dramatically fervent. He isn't the world-class singer that Heppner is, not to mention Jon Vickers, but Mac Master's tone suits the role far better than, say, Reiner Goldberg for Haitink. His tone wobbles under pressure but not seriously. When husband and wife are reunited for the duet, "O namenlose Freude," sparks fly, and one is convinced that a better coupling probably can't be found today. The minor roles are well filled, if not up to the standards of the two leads.

My reluctance to give five stars is owed to Davis, who falls into some mannered phrasing, and whose tempos can be slack here and there. He's foursquare and ordinary in the big choral passage when the prisoners are let out and later in the glorious finale, here rather underwhelming. Others may enjoy his non-heroic view of the opera more than I did. The LSO plays very well, if not with the utmost conviction, and the sonics are fine. What's most impressive is the musical accuracy of all concerned in a concert setting, and considering the rash of poor recordings we've gotten of Fidelio lately (Haitink, Rattle, Dohnanyi) this new Davis reading is welcome.

Let me disclose up front that Fidelio is my favorite Opera. I have heard uncountable live performances and most of the recorded ones. Colin Davis is usually a great conductor. I have heard him live many times. The performance simply is not up to his usually outstanding standard. In all of the roles I have heard live and on recording more exciting singers. Too the sound should be better. This is a worthwhile recording but it could have been definitive for modern sound and is not. I have never heard a studio recording that can be unreservedly recommended. Although the sound is not too good the 1944 Boehm recording and 1950 Furtwangler, both live, have real excitement.

Artistically, the Vickers/klemperer recording is my favorite of the "old" issues (I own both LP and CD), but the current one is my next favorite, and I only echo the opinion of the other reviewer. The sound is excellent for a live recording, making me wonder if it was recorded in concert version with the singers standing close to microphones. I have listened to it about 5 times since I received it, but just now for the first time am listening in partial multichannel (in addition to the two fronts, I have rear right and left, but no center or sub). I must say that this is the way to enjoy SACD. Some people find it flat on a regular stereo, but in multichannel it really comes alive. The clarity of SACD is evident in the loud passages, which all too often get distorted in regular CD.

So why only 4 stars? The Rudolph Serkin/Glenn Gould effect! True, neither had anything to do with this recording, but someone, probably either Colin Davis or a patron sitting near a microphone(another orchestra member wouldn't dare), is pulling a Serkin/Gould by humming along with the whole opera. It's distracting and disturbing, and really interferes with enjoyment of the opera, although it could be said to add to the realism, particularly in my town where only opera lovers go to the opera, and many like to hum along.

Beethoven - Fidelio (LSO Live) is a 2007 LSO recording starring Andrew Kennedy who leads the London Symphony Orchestra. The booklet contains music notes written by Stephen Johnson and synopsis. Andrew Stewart has also included a short profile. The lyrics are in German and English. Compared to say the 1953 Furtwängler the tempo is much quicker. This is a problem. It seems as if Kennedy wants to rush through the program. Also talent such as that of Rudolf Shock is sorely missing. Still not a bad recording. Good enough to get a solid 4. 4/5.