Mozart: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) ~ Klemperer / Schwarzkopf / Ludwig [Original recording remastered]

Christa Ludwig (Artist), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Artist), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer), Otto Klemperer (Conductor), Philharmonia Orchestra of London (Orchestra), Agnes Giebel (Performer), Franz Crass (Performer), Gerhard Unger (Performer), Gottlob Frick (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Agnes Giebel, Franz Crass, Gerhard Unger, Gottlob Frick
• Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra of London
• Conductor: Otto Klemperer
• Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Audio CD (August 15, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B00004VVZN
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,500 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #33 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Operettas
  • #50 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Reeds & Winds
  • #58 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Languages > German

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the all time greatest recordings of Zauberflote!, August 28, 2000

By 

Rod Tierman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mozart: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) ~ Klemperer / Schwarzkopf / Ludwig (Audio CD)

This recording, like the DGG Bohm recording, has been around for quite a while and in many ways, like the Bohm, has so many things to recommend it. First off let's take the conducting of Otto Klemperer. Klemperer demonstrates a musical flow in this performance that is an absolute MUST in any performance of this Mozart opera, never allowing the singers to drag and keeping things moving on the ensemble pieces. Nicolai Gedda is the Tamino here and the role has never been sung better, equaling, as one reviewer here put it, the great German Mozart Tenor Fritz Wunderlich. Gedda's voice sounds so lyric and effortless here, prompting one into thinking that this could be one of the great Tenor's greatest recordings. The late Lucia Popp's Queen of the Night is definitely a big plus on this recording. Her singing here is so effortless, so utterly breathtaking here, one has to remind themselves that these sounds are being produced by a human voice. On her Queen of the Night aria, Popp sings her high notes like she is just plucking them out of thin air. This reviewer has never heard this role sung so effortlessly. The Papageno of Walter Berry is perfect, producing just the right amount of flow and lighheartedness to this greatest of Mozartean comedic roles. The Sarastro of Gottolob Frick is absolutely priceless here. Frick produces such rich melodious tones here, especially in the lower register, without ever getting carried away with the sound of his own beautiful voice (listen to "In diesen Heiligen Hallen" for example). This recording has so much going for it to recommend it. As mentioned by other reviewers, the dialoge is omitted here, but this performance is so purely top notch, one does not miss it. If you must have the dialoge, get the Bohm set with Wunderlich, Lear, and Peters on DGG, but if the dialoge is not important, this is an excellent set to own.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Presents Mozart's greatest opera in the best light possible, June 22, 2004

By 

Derek Lee (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mozart: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) ~ Klemperer / Schwarzkopf / Ludwig (Audio CD)

Much of the back-and-forth between the positive and negative reviews here seems to be over Klemperer's conception of "Die Zauberflote". Few criticize the exquisitely beautiful, sublime, noble music that he creates here, but some react negatively to the lack of theatricality, or the absence of spoken dialogue. These two complaints are not unrelated. Klemperer INSISTED on ommitting the dialogue, because he felt it was superfluous. After listening to this recording and to, for example, Bohm's DGG recording from around the same time, I could not agree more. For what makes "Die Zauberflote" really great is not the drama, but the music. As Richard Osborne very acutely observes in the liner notes, in the drama Tamino is a strangely unheroic hero, the Queen of the Night is the villain who is given exquisitely beautiful music, and Papageno is a buffoon who has strong heroic tendencies; in addition, Sarastro, the moral center of the opera and the music, plays little real role in the evolution of Act II, more like a shadowy presence. What we have here is, quite apparently, similar to what would come later with Fidelio. The characters as they stand in the drama are cardboard cut-outs, but that is not the point of the opera: in both works, the composers have something profound to express, and do so through these contradictory characters. Klemperer realises this, and the result is one of the truly great recordings. He reveals detail and structure usually ignored by others (just compare the way that Klemperer shapes the Overture to the rather unimaginative way Bohm treats it). In addition, the singing is beyond all praise, from Janowitz's achingly beautiful Pamina all the way to the Three Ladies (two of whom are Schwarzkopf and Ludwig; what a cast!). The Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus as usual are excellent. In short, if you are interested in Mozart at his most beautiful and profound, this is the recording for you; if you are interested in a more theatrical reading, less focused on the music per se, then I recommend the Bohm, or better yet, actually see a stage production.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a first choice, but still essential, April 19, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mozart: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) ~ Klemperer / Schwarzkopf / Ludwig (Audio CD)

This recording of Mozart's masterpiece is handicapped from the start by the fact that it omits the spoken dialogue, essential to the plot. I have never understood why, before the 1950's-1960's, no one recorded the dialogue: not Beecham, not Karajan, not Klemperer. It is a serious drawback. However, this recording scores in other departments. Klemperer's direction is firm, rock-solid, monumental in the dramatic moments, but surprisingly charming for Papageno and company. The Philharmonia forces, as always, play and sing like gods ("Sterbliche den Göttern gleich" indeed!), unsurpassed on disc. The cast, however, is slightly more problematic. Nicolai Gedda is not as lyrically effortless a Tamino as I hoped or expected from him; he pales when set beside Wunderlich for Böhm (DG). Gottlob Frick, generally a very reliable singer, is in shaky voice here as Sarastro, uncomfortable with Klemperer's slow tempos for his two glorious arias. The Three Ladies are enormously famous (Schwarzkopf, Ludwig, Höffgen), but sound middle-aged and do not blend well; Schwarzkopf in particular is atrocious (dry tone, unbearably coy, overdone, exaggerated). The Three Boys, as in so many recordings, are not boys but women, who cannot reproduce the unique, flutier sound of boy trebles that Mozart understandably wanted here. Franz Crass, Sarastro for Böhm, here sings the Speaker, the Second Armed Man, and the Second Priest with dark, firm tone but no expression. Karl Liebl is a third-rate First Armed Man, no match for James King for Böhm; Gerhard Unger is a boyish, unsinister Monastatos. HOWEVER!!! This recording MUST be heard for the singing of Walter Berry (Papageno), Lucia Popp (Queen of the Night), and Gundula Janowitz (Pamina). Berry sings with a resonant, dark baritone, a great, sparkling sense of humor and crystal clear diction. Lucia Popp is a singularly astounding Queen of the Night, with full, silvery, juicy tone throughout her enormous range. She tosses off the coloratura effortlessly and still manages to characterize! Unbelievable. But the crowning glory of this set is Janowitz as Pamina. Her large, silvery, radiant voice is ideal for her role, and while she is not as involved as she could be, she must be counted the greatest Pamina on disc. She, too, must be heard to be believed.

I recommend this recording, reissued as a Great Recording of the Century (a questionable claim in this case), only as a supplement to the magnificent Böhm recording in DG's Originals series, which features a radiantly otherworldly Tamino in Wunderlich, an excellent Pamina in Evelyn Lear, a finely sung Sarastro in Crass, and a sparkling Papageno in Fischer-Dieskau (not to mention Hotter as the Speaker or King and Talvela as the Armed Men). The Böhm recording includes dialogue. Karajan's 1950 mono EMI recording with Dermota, Seefried, Weber, Lipp, Kunz, London and Jurinac is another option. This Klemperer would not be my first choice, though.