Customer Reviews

R. Strauss: Guntram

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

 

 

Richard Strauss' first foray into opera was a flop, but a century later this little apprentice work still holds up. Wagnerian, yes, but then what wasn't after Parsifal? Strauss was always fond of his poor little Guntram and even worked the main leitmotif into his tone poem, Heldenleben (and John Williams even worked it into the final scene of Close Encounters, whether he was aware of it or not).

This recording is really gorgeous and I am very glad it has resurfaced. Beautiful, lush sonics, tremendous stereo arc, the singers are all lovely, if a bit relaxed. Queler's conducting is a bit relaxed, too, but it never fails to involve emotionally. This is a sweet Medieval romance that is short enough to make your evening glow after a hard day's work. Rosenkavalier, Salome, Die Frau ohne schatten, are all evident in this gorgeous music. Not great, but very very good and a must own for Strauss fans.

I knew this recording from vinyl. It was the best recording of Guntram, Richard Strauss's first opera and it could be by Richard 1 (Wagner). I got the Sony CD in Munich last year but unfortunately it had an uncontrollable fault right at the crucial ending on side 1 so I was happy the copy bought through amazon was ok.
It is a very rich recording with voices forward.Reiner Goldberg is excellent in the very heavy heldentenor title role and all the other (Hungarian) singers are good too. The conducting is a little staid, but so is the work. The Hungarian State Orchestra and Hungarian Army Chorus are very sound.

Vocally fabulous performance of a very fine opera. If you never heard it, you might not recognize it as Strauss. That's how different it sounds from his other operas. The more I hear it, though, the better I appreciate it. The gigantic orchestration influenced by the tone poems is very strong here and would be cut back a bit for his more famous operas to follow. Unlike Ariadne or Rosenkavelier that merely spice up the score with tenor pyrotechnics and feature sopranos, Guntram gives the tenor more than enough to do. Not as demanding as the tenor roles in early Rossini, Guntram must, nevertheless, be exhausting to sing. Major companies should do it. Excuse me, if they can do Doctor Atomic, please.

You can immediately hear from the openning prelude, Wagner's influence in this opera. Melodies that could have been used in Lohengrin are heard throughout this opera. Contrast this work, interesting in its own way, to Salome or Elekra and one will hear how Strauss advanced as an opera composer. All in all a good performance of an intersting but insignificant opera.

Richard Strauss' opera was premiered in 1894 and revised in 1940. It has not been staged very often, and at least some of the reason is obvious. The storyline is rather dumb and the libretto itself not without its moments of embarrassments (in fact, it is overall rather painful stuff; mostly pretty laughable and self-parodying imitations of the Wagner of Lohengrin and Tannhäuser). The music is more obviously Wagnerian than his later works (down to parts that are almost plagiarizing ... Rienzi?) - indeed, it is a little surprising how derivative and dependent on his models it sounds, insofar as it was composed at the same time as many of his great tone poems (after Don Juan and Tod und Verklärung, for instance).

Yet there are many obviously Straussian touches (which become more obvious on repeated listening), and some may recognize music quoted in Ein Heldenleben, but it is unclear how much of this (the typically Straussian elements) was added during the revision. It is not a major work, but definitely worth hearing, especially if you like Strauss' early music in general (from the two symphonies to the violin concerto). In fact, some of the instrumental passages are really outstanding with some really good melodies - the 1940 revision was explained by the fact that there was too much good music here to loose it, and I have to agree, even if the opera isn't even close to making a satisfying whole.

There is less to recommend with respect to the vocal writing, but some of it is very fine, and Reiner Goldberg makes much of the title role. Apart from him the cast is more variable, but generally decent; Ilona Tokody as Freihild is prone to wobble and has some less than sterling high notes, but she does a lot of impressive stuff as well and is expressive and full of character. The worst is Attila Fülöp as the King's Fool, not because his singing is bad but because the character is so hopelessly irritating and the music Strauss gives him is so bad.

Eve Queler directs the Hungarian State Orchestra with sensitivity and sympathy, even though the orchestra (and chorus) is a little bit lacking in refinement and opulence. The sound is generally decent and well balanced, but might be charged with putting the voices too forwardly (although it might just be me liking the orchestral writing so much more than the vocal writing). There are some other recordings of this work out there which I have not heard, but despite some caveats this one seems to do the work well enough. I can defend awarding it four stars, even if I think it is closer to three than to five.