Customer Reviews

Busoni - Doktor Faust

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I made the unforgiveable mistake of lending my DGG 1969 CD box set of this work to someone in 1992 who due to a complicated set of circumstances could never give it back. Since then I have fretted over the loss of this magnificent work from my collection and today I am the proud owner of this wonderful recording, which is both technically and professionally superior to the older recording. I am delighted at Henschel who does the near impossible for DFF was in top golden voice in the older recording. The orchestra relishes the strange score which comes more to the fore than on the previous recording. I cannot recommend this work enough to anybody who is unfamiliar with it. In its way it is as audacious as Wagner's Ring, it is as musically inventive of an unfamiliar world as Debussy's 'Pelleas et Melisande' and as deep a rumination on the philosophy of determinism as Berg's 'Wozzeck'. The ever changing orchestral moods and Busoni's unique vocal lines evoke an uncanny atmosphere. Busoni's major source of inspiration for the work was the puppet theatre version of the legend rather than Goethe's magnum opus. Due to this fact, an air of mediaevalism underpins the work with occult forces and unfamiliar codes if behaviour. The drama performed by the actors (puppets) is like a superstructure overlaying the subliminal musical argument beneath (the actual forces of good and evil in the macrocosm). The tolling bells and the unearthly harmonies invoke a time that predates Goethe and the Age of Reason, or is as if we have lost those certainties of Transcendental Idealism and are cast adrift in a strange world where metaphysical causation and its Kantian solution have been abandoned. As a consequence, the teleological ethical certainty which derives from this loss makes Faust the actor condemned the moment he summons Mephistopheles who is 'quicker than the thought of man'. He is not to be redeemed and yet the young man who rises from his corpse in the last scene hints at the possibility of some salvage if not salvation from this human (yet cosmic) catastrophe. The Hegelian notion of negation is set out throughout the drama in the fact that every action is opposed by another force. This is exemplified in the final act when Faust is determined to pray yet is prevented from so doing by the ghost of a murdered soldier. This CD set is wonderful and more than makes up for the loss that I have been trying to make good for eight years. I will now relax and stop looking for a version of this work and enjoy this one for years to come.

Busoni is back. In the last 12 months we have had a new recording of his early opera Die Brautwahl from TELDEC, a sensational new recording of his awesome Piano Concerto from Hyperion, and now the first complete recording of Doktor Faust. If you already own the 1969 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recording (DG), this new production is still worth having. The extra material is interesting and in general this is the more fluent reading. The cast is good (Henschel sounds like DFD's younger brother) and the conducting very competent. I liked it so much, that I have already heard it twice!

Doktor Faust, like Busoni's Piano Concerto, breaks the mold of how an opera is organized. The ideas of this opera germinated for some time with Busoni, and he composed the purely orchestra portion, like the Sarabande and Cortege (1912), prior to the opera itself. The opera is cast in two preludes, an intermezzo and three scenes (collectively gather under the title "Principle Action") with an epilogue. The opera begins with a short symphonic movement that sets the mood and is followed by a speaker; the poet of the drama who addresses the audience elaborating of the story that is to follow.

The story is a mixture of different sources that include Goethe and other mystical figures, such a Zarathusra and Caliostro and Busoni's own interest in the occult. This is not the typical Faust story. One unusual feature is making Faust a baritone and Mephistopheles a tenor. We are usually expecting the Devil to be a rich, sonorous bass as in Gounoud's Faust but Busoni turns such notions on their heads. The parts of Doktor Faust and Mephistopheles dominate this opera, so their casting is highly important. Kim Begley is outstanding as Mephistopheles and brings a sinister presence to the role. Dietrich Henschel as Fautus is equally up to his challenging role and although his voice shows signs of strain during the long monologues, he is very good. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is the speaker, and an earlier Faust. Kent Nagano does a wonderful job conducting this multi-faceted work.

The music has been described as linear in the booklet but one should not think it atonal and is more akin to the late Romantic works of Strauss and Mahler. Unfortunately, Busoni died before work on Doktor Faust was completed, the conclusion of the work was composed by Philip Jarnach, a pupil of Busoni's who did not have all of the composer's sketches. In 1984, Anthony Beaumont, using all of Busoni's material, composed a new ending for the opera. This recording uses the Jarnach version but also includes the Beaumont ending (which I think is closer to Busoni). Perhaps more important is the fact that this is an uncut performance of this opera. I first heard Doktor Faust over the radio not knowing who wrote it let alone what the story was about. I found it fascinating and so bought the recording. I think that anyone interested in 20th century opera will find this an indispensable recording.

I turned on the radio one Saturday afternoon and this recording was on. Although I had no idea whose work this was, my ears perked up immediately as I speculated: Strauss? Hindemith? Who? By the end of ActI, I knew I wanted it, and as soon as the announcer identified the work and the recording, I was on line ordering. Since then I have had no occasion to regret this impulse buy. The performance and recording job are both first-rate, and despite the necessity of doing a little programming to choose between two endings, I've listened to this more than I have to any other opera.

"Doktor Faust" could be considered both as modern music for people who aren't crazy about modern music, and opera for people who aren't crazy about opera. The music itself is basically harmonious, and melodies and colorful, memorable, orchestral effects permeate the work, being, at the same time unequivocally "modern". As opera, it is consistently inventive and exciting, eschewing such operatic conventions as recitative, intoned dialogue, and discrete arias and choruses. The dramatic, choral and musical techniques are thoroughly integrated, to great effect.

Nagano's premiere recording from Lyon of the complete Doktor Faust made quite a splash six years ago and prompted a Met production starrring Thomas Hampson. Busoni employs a traditional musical language that looked the wrong way in the 20th century--his blend of counterpoint, Lisztian bombast, and chroaticism is largely forgotten compared to the idiom of Stravinsky and the Second Viennese School. Thus he joins Pfitzner, Zemlinsky, Korngold, and other lush post-Romantics whose ambitious, overstuffed lushness became a historical footnote. But Doktor Faust, like Pfitzner's Palestrina, another mystico-philosophical spectacle, is fascinating to encounter.

It's a shame that the music isn't more medlocially inspired or so full of long monologues rather than true dramatic encounters. That might have made a difference with audiences and opera directors. What we do get is exhaustive, hair-raisingly high passages for the hero (amazingly executed by Dietrich Henschel, a Fischer-Dieskau sound-alike who studied with the master) and startling work from the tenor Mephistopheles, Kim Bagley. They occupy center stage much of the time. The orchestral preludes and interlueds are extensive and enjoyable if somewhat abtract, again in the vein of Pfitzner. Other reviewers, including the one from Amazon, have assessed this recording very well, so I can only add another voice in saying that Busoni's magnum opus is a bizarre, riveting one-off.

What a recording. A complete in print Busoni: Doktor Faust. Here we have the uncut score; the spoken dialogue at the begining and end; lifelike digital sound; an appendix featuring a completion of the work with additional Busoni material; the Faust was trained by Fischer-Dieskau himself (who does the spoken dialogue). I guess it's perfect. No. It's good and welcome, not perfect. The first recording with no spoken dialogue and slight cuts is (though out of print) in a class by itself. Quite simply, Ferdinand Leitner is MUCH better than Kent Nagano, who is merely good. Leitner's pacing, balance, drama and understanding matches Fischer-Dieskau's performance in that (sadly, out of print) recording. The Busoni enthusiast should have both recordings. If I could have only one, I'd probably choose the Leitner.

I bought this CD in order to prepare for the opera which played at the Met in Jan. 2001 with Thomas Hampson in the title role. Yes, I travelled 3000 miles just to spend one evening being about 100 feet away from the man. I'm smitten.

Well, I have to admit I liked the live opera better. It is a very visually engaging story and it needs to be seen live. Anyway despite all that this recording is quite good, and Kent Nagano did a tremendous job with such a difficult score. The chorus was chilling on Easter morning, singing praise to God amidst such evil. I liked the tenor in this opera, I think he plays the part of Mephistofeles? His voice is perfect, very shrill and evil sounding, in this opera that is made of mainly baritone voices. I appreciated the native German of Dietrich, the baritone that sang Dr. Faust. While lyric baritone is my favorite fach in general, Dietrich's tone was a bit too lyrical for this role, according to my taste, but he has no control over that. Otherwise he did very well.

I cannot wait to see Blubeard's Castle next spring at the LA opera with Sam Ramey as Keksakallu, Denise Graves as Judith, and Kent Nagano conducting. I know the conducting alone will make that 500 mile drive worth every minute.