Customer Reviews

Mozart: Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) ~ Klemperer / Schwarzkopf / Ludwig

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

There may not be a "definitive" Magic Flute on record, but this version comes pretty close, even if the spoken dialogue is omitted (not something that bothers me greatly-besides, the dialogue sections are summarized in the booklet). This recording has always been famous for the contributions of the two women principals-both were young at the time, and both became internationally famous after the set was released. Lucia Popp's Queen of the Night could hardly be bettered; in addition to singing the role flawlessly, she is practically the only Queen on disc with a truly malevolent aura. With Klemperer's help, she makes the vengeance aria not just exciting, but also powerful. Even better than this, perhaps, is Gundula Janowitz's Pamina-the most accurately and beautifully sung on any complete recording. This performance is a perfect demonstration of just how powerful vocalism can be by itself-that is, removed from "dramatic commitment." Actually, I think Janowitz is more dramatic than many have given her credit for-her voice has a wonderfully desolate, empty sound in her great aria-but there's no question that this is a "prima la musica" interpretation. In addition to these two singers, the set's greatest asset is Klemperer, who gives a strikingly individual reading of the score: he gives the score a symphonic weight and majesty, but his slow tempi work just as beautifully for the lighter passages.

Among the other singers, Walter Berry makes a rich-toned, lively Papageno, but the other two men are less than ideal. Surprisingly, Nicolai Gedda's singing here lacks beauty-his Pamina sings him right off the stage. Gottlob Frick, as Sarastro, sounds tentative and, at times, lacks firmness. Smaller roles are reasonably well taken: Gerhard Unger sings Monostatos well (though he sounds as if he couldn't hurt a fly), Franz Crass is a firm-toned Speaker, Ruth-Margaret Putz a pleasant (if thin-toned) Papagena. Much has been made of the "deluxe" casting of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig, and Marga Hoffgen as the Three Ladies; I'm inclined to think that all three of them sound desperate to capture the spotlight.

How does this measure up to other Flutes? Well, Karl Bohm's 1964 version has at least two glorious performances-Fritz Wunderlich's Tamino and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's Papageno-but the women sound almost amateurish next to them. Karajan's 1950 version is indispensable for Irmgard Seefried's stunning Pamina, even if it doesn't have much else of spectacular interest. The famous Beecham recording from the 30s still has its admirers, thanks chiefly to Gerhard Husch's brilliant Papageno and Tiana Lemnitz's shimmering Pamina (though I wouldn't necessarily trade the latter for Seefried or Janowitz). All these performances have their merits, but this Klemperer version is the most consistent overall.

Quite a cast-list, wouldn't you say? The eminence of the performers is no guarantee that you will like their approach of course, but this is very much my own idea of how to perform the Magic Flute, at least of how to perform it in sound alone. Leaving the singing aside for a moment, I commend Klemperer wholeheartedly for missing out the spoken dialogue on record, although I would want it retained in the opera house or on DVD. The Magic Flute is a pantomime, for all the solemnity and significance of the masonic elements. The plot, such as it is, is the least important thing about the work. It is neither coherent nor consistent, and that fact is neither here nor there. Pantomimes, some lightweight plays and sketches are often not concerned with consistency or coherency but just let the situations develop more or less at random or simply as they come into the writer's head. The sense of freedom from tighter discipline is what gives them a lot of their special attractiveness. Add Mozart's music to this and the result is something very special. Mozart was a born dramatist, but he surely must have enjoyed the sense of release from normal dramatic constraints as much as normal human beings do. Taking the plot for what it is, a string of loosely connected situations, he set his imagination free on each of them in turn. In sound alone that's all I want to hear - Mozart's incredible music. Consistency and coherency are things of the intellect. Music is partly that too, but not mainly. It draws on something deeper than rationality, and it is the sense of irrational liberation that makes the Magic Flute, for me, the most astounding thing that even Mozart ever did.

Klemperer would not have been the first conductor to come to my mind in connexion with the Magic Flute. As you would expect, he is not the speediest, but he doesn't dawdle either. The Magic Flute for me is less a drama than a musical tableau, and it's the purely musical rather than the dramatic aspects that interest me in it. With a cast like this we would expect outstanding musicianship and accomplishment, and in general we would be right about that. A great deal is a matter of personal opinion and personal taste, more so than usually. The three Ladies are no less than Schwarzkopf, Ludwig and Hoeffgen, for instance. That's an astounding trio, but they don't quite astound me somehow, splendid though they are. Gedda's voice is one that I particularly like, so I don't fault his Tamino. Ruth-Margret Puetz is just fine as Papagena and Walter Berry strikes me as an outstanding Papageno. The divine Gundula Janowitz is divine as ever in the part of Pamina. However the `high spot', in a rather vulgar sense, of the Magic Flute is the successive arias for first the Queen of the Night and then for Sarastro in Act II. Here we have slightly mixed success. Lucia Popp is, for me, simply superlative. I have heard that extraordinary thing done faster and more `dramatically' but never with greater technical assurance, and as I've probably made clear by now it's not a more dramatic reading that I'm after. Klemperer's steady tempo here is as I like it, but it suits Frick less well. He has the right resonance in his low notes, but the slowish tempo does not do his steadiness or quality of tone any favours. Franz Crass was on hand for a couple of smaller roles, and I wonder whether he might not have been a little better as Sarastro. This aria was described by Shaw the only music that might have come from the mouth of God, and I've heard it attain more nearly to that status than it does here.

The other contributions are just fine, and the recording, from 1964, is just fine too. There is an interesting and knowledgeable liner-note by Richard Osborne, a useful synopsis of the story, and translations of the text into English and French. To my delight, there are some summaries of the scenes embedded in the text itself, a very acceptable replacement for the spoken dialogue. This is likely to be as good a Magic Flute as I shall be privileged to hear.

The recent appearance of an excellent Magic Flute from Abbado (DG) prompted me to go back to two great favorites, this Klemperer set from 1964 and one from Karl Bohm made the same year for DG. Between them they included probably the greatest Mozart singers of the time in Europe. As listeners could hear immediately, the strengths of one cast were offset by the strengths of the other. Klemperer had the best women (Janowitz, Popp, Schwarzkopf, Ludwig) while Bohm had the two best men (Wunderlich and Fischer-Dieskau). For foty years fans of the opera have had to own both. Is that sitll the case?

The new Abbado recording could represent a way out of this Solomon's choice, since it is filled with eager, accomplished singing in every part except for the well-sung but prosaic Papageno of Hanno Müller-Brachmann. Otherwise, I think I'd favor Klemperer if I had to choose only one classic set. The pluses and minuses are as follows:

Klemperer: Always a good recording, the new remastering in EMI's Great Recordings of the CEntury is nearly perfect. The Three Ladies are enchanting as led by Schwarzkopf and Ludwig. The young Lucia Popp is a scintillating Queen of the Night, and Gundula Janowitz a pure, if rather cool Pamina. Also, one cannot discount Gedda's Tamino and Berry's Papageno, which are very well sung if not the best on CD. For many listeners what tilts the balance is Klemperer's magnificent conducting--he may well have been the greatest Mozart conductor of the century. What may tilt the balance the ohter way is the absence of spoken dialogue, a regrettable older practice in Mozart opera recordings. Note that because of its many reissues, this Flute can be had in its older version for around $10 on the used market, and even the new remaastering is under $20.

Bohm: Where Bohm's set is strongest it can't be beat: the once-in-a-lifetime Tamino of Fritz Wunderlich and the masterful, humorous Papageno of Fischer-Dieskau. They, combined with Bohm's expert, if rather measured conducting, have won many listeners over. Unfortunately, Bohm's weaknesses are very weak indeed: a too-mature Pamina from Evelyn Lear that sounds unpleasantly insecure in tone and pitch, and a thin, shrieky Queen of the Night from Roberta Peters, well past her prime. If you can't overlook these two, there's no need even to consider Bohm. Lots of dialogue is included, and for once the echt Deutsch acting is funny.

I wound up owning Abbado, Klemperer, and Bohm, but if you aren't so inclined, I'd say that Klemperer is indispensable and Abbado a gratifying, balanced compromise.

Certainly the best SUNG version around, if not the best CONDUCTED version - Klemperer has his moments of brillance, but some of the music drags when it should dance (parts of the overture, Papageno & Papagena's duet), and is manic when it should be lyrical or slow. Still, there are truly lovely magical muscial moments to be found, despite this. Janowitz's Pamina is a delight, as is Berry's Papageno, and Popp is probably the best Queen of the Night on CD out there, with an almost unearthly pure voice befitting the character - so if you love her two highlight arias then this is a definite for your collection.

This Zauberflote has become my favorite for several reasons. First of all, Klemperer conducted like no one else ever has in this opera. I can not find any real problems. Gedda's Tamino, though not ideal because the opera's in German, and his is a French voice, sings gorgeously. His voice is perfect in, "Dies Bildnis." Janowitz is a beautifully voiced Pamina, and she works well with the fantastic Papageno of Walter Berry. Gottlob Frick sings richly and strongly as Sarastro, though his voice may have been better in the Don Giovanni recording where he was the Commendatore (Wachter, Sutherland, Giulini). Lucia Popp is beyond praise as the Queen, and her, "Holle Rache" is fabulous. It's amazing how effortlessly she hits her high F's. The three ladies are astounding - I totally disagree with those who say that they sound coarse or middle-aged. Though the Three Boys are too girlish sounding, I can't criticize a recording that has Franz Crass, Elisabeth Swarzkopf, Christa Ludwig, and Gerhard Unger in SMALL roles!! Buy it! Bravo!

For many years I have played this recording over and over and can simply say this is one of the best sung and performed Flute's about...the pacing and flow are natural and in spite of the dialogue being cut(none of it makes any sense anyway) we have a miracle unfolding before our very ears. Klemperer has always been a conductor to arouse controversy...he was a champion of Stravinsky and Hindemith to name a few and really could perform music in such a way that it became clear.

As to the ensemble work the Philharmonia has a perfect quality of lightness of tone which I daresay adds a special quality to this work. There is no American performance of this work that comes near to the exceptional work of Cast and Orchestra. I doubt today you could come close to finding a performance even near this one, excepting the Solti Vienna version from the mid 80s.

What is so wonderful is the delicacy and phrasing and the way Klemperer lets it happen...only Karajan and Bohm could do justice to this musical work. Lately I have been very dissapointed with recent releases...among the worst James Levine from the Met...

So, if you want to hear some great singing and ensemble, this is the Magic Flute for you.

It seems that everyone with Mozart inspired wisdom has said almost everything that can be said. But I suppose I will add that this CD holds very close to the air that the composition was originally intended. Crisp and clear, this is a must for any Mozart lover, the pinnacle for an opera lover. Klemperer has done his absolute best to portray this piece authentically (and in my sincere opinion, successfully) Happy listening!