Richard Strauss - Capriccio / Schwarzkopf, Wächter, Gedda, Fischer-Dieskau, Hotter, Ludwig, Moffo, Philharmonia Orchestra, Sawallisch [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Richard Strauss (Artist), Wolfgang Sawallisch (Artist), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Artist), Nicolai Gedda (Artist), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Artist), Hans Hotter (Artist), Christa Ludwig (Artist), Rudolf Christ (Artist), Anna Moffo (Artist), Dermot Troy (Artist), Eberhard Wächter (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 15, 2000)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B00004VVZO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,673 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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• This item is part of The Great Recordings of the Century Series.

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Einleitung

2. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene One: Bezaubernd ist sie heute wieder!

3. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene One: Bel sanfter Musik schläft sich's am besten

4. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene One: Eine schöne Heroine hast auch du nicht verschmäht

5. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Two: De Strom der Töne trug mich fort

6. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Three: Die Bühne ist fertig, wir können beginnen

7. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Three: Da ist sie! Ich eile, sie zu begrüßen/Scene Four: Sie ist doch gekommen! Du hast e

8. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Four: Deklamation: Ihr geht, Entließ Euch schon die Macht

9. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Four: Sonett (gesprochen): Kein Andres, das mir so im Herzen Ioht/Bravo, bravo! Sie sind w

10. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Four: Ein Philosoph schreitet seiner Bekenrung entgegen/Sonett (gesprochen): Kein Andres, d

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Eure Kunst entzückt und begeistert mich

2. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Fuge (Diskussion über das Thema: Wort oder Ton): Tanz und Musik stehn im Bann des Rhy

3. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Das sagt Ihr jetzt, in dem Augenblick

4. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Addio, mia vita, addio

5. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Darf ich Sie nach Paris zurückbringen

6. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Werden Ihre Neapolitaner

7. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Ein possierlicher Einfall!

8. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Sie sehn uns überrascht von Ihrer Phantasie

9. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Aber so hört doch!

10. Capriccio, opera, Op. 85 (TrV 279): Scene Nine: Holä! Ihr Streiter in Apoll!

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Strauss's last opera is one of the wonders of lyric art: an intelligent conversation piece about aesthetic principles (which is more important, words or music?) wrapped in achingly beautiful music. Its humor and drama are subtler than we're used to, but the opera is no less pleasurable for it. Capriccio's reputation as a connoisseur's piece is well served by this 1957 recording that features a superb cast led by the distinguished Straussian Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. True, she could be mannered, but the role of the Countess who must decide between the poet and the musician fits her like a glove, and she's radiant in the final, soaring monologue. Everyone else in the cast is outstanding, and the monophonic sound is so clear that you almost won't miss stereo. Sawallisch has the Philharmonia playing with the utmost transparency. Karl Böhm's DG stereophonic version with Gundula Janowitz is almost as fine (although currently out of print), but this one, like vintage wine, just gets better and better. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect polemic on art, September 25, 2004

By	Mike Birman (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

There have been a handful of perfect Opera recordings over the years. Perfection, of course, is a subjective judgement that can, if ill-used, incite violence. Particularly among Opera fans. Naturally, an Opera review that doesn't initiate gunplay is a good thing.

I mention it because I offer this 1957 recording of Capriccio as an example, extremely rare in the history of recorded Opera, of a perfect recording - a Reference recording, one of perhaps two dozen. Its status as a Reference recording is not controversial among serious record collectors. It assumed that mantle almost immediately after its release in 1959. But perfect? Nothing in Life is perfect!

True. But Art is NOT Life. Thankfully, what we find so disappointing, even tragic, in Life can be transmuted into perfection when Art achieves its most exalted fruition in the hands of those with a burning desire for self-expression and the unique means to do so. A tad pretentious? Maybe. But it so happens that Art is what this 1941 Opera - the last Strauss would write - is about. Art as Alchemy. The transformation of what is base and mundane into something meaningful and gloriously eternal. Something perfect! And almost as if on cue, Wolfgang Sawallisch and his stunning, impossible to ever replicate cast along with perhaps the greatest house band of the era, recorded an Opera about Artistic perfection... perfectly!

Nominally, this polemic written by Clemens Krauss offers a debate between Words and Music; each claiming supremacy in the Operatic Art. The Opera begins with a lovely string sextet played by the Orchestra: the beauty of the unaccompanied music making a strong case for its primacy. The Opera ends with the words of a sonnet, and a questioning gaze into a mirror by a Countess one cannot help but compare to two others inhabiting Der Rosenkavalier and Le Nozze di Figaro. Everywhere there is the struggle between the temporal and the eternal. It is this final scene with its suggestion of verbal temporality that ignited my suspicion that Strauss comes down on the side of Music as the eternal face of Operatic Art, the winner in the debate. You may not agree. This rich suggestiveness is just one of the reasons why Capriccio, alone among Struass' late Operas, is winning wide-spread acceptance into the repertory.

Sawallisch, merely 34 at the time of recording, exhibits exquisite taste in his textural delicacy. Tempos are broad yet firm. His time-beating clear, uncomplicated and comparable to the great Knappertsbusch. Instrumental and Vocal balances are exceptionally clear. His Orchestra, the Philharmonia, was possibly the best recording band of the 1950's and early 1960's. Incidentally, the superb Horn solos are NOT played by Dennis Brain, cruelly killed in an auto accident the day before recording commenced, but Alan Civil (Horn Soloist on the Beatles' "For No One" found on their 1966 album Revolver).

Elizabeth Schwarzkopf is superb as the Countess Madeleine, emotionally reserved without hauteur. Her voice had a clarion richness at the time. Lyrical, round yet soft, without the hint of shrillness one detects in later recordings. Eberhard Wachter is a terrific Count, a rough, unmusical womanizer. Nicolai Gedda is the Composer Flamand. A youngish Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is Olivier the Poet, Flamand's verbal nemesis. Hans Hotter is suitably officious as La Roche, the Theatre Director, a parody of the famous Director Max Reinhardt with whom Clemens Krauss had worked in Vienna and Salzburg. Christa Ludwig is wonderful, as always, as Clairon, an Actress. Anna Moffo has a cameo as "an Italian Singer". This is a cast of which dreams are made! It cannot, will not ever be duplicated! The recording itself is subtext to the Opera. Perfection comes only rarely, if at all.

The 1957-58 recording, produced by the great Walter Legge, is in a warm, full and rich Mono. Yet Stereo recordings were available since 1953. Many (including me) have bemoaned the lack of a Stereo version of this once-in-a-lifetime production. Why was this recording not released in the newer and (allegedly) superior Stereophonic format? In previous reviews I have alluded to Legge's dislike for Stereo. Much (if not all - rumors abound) of this Opera was indeed recorded in Stereo. When "balance" issues (read that EGO) arose between several of the male leads, a Draconian "compromise" was reached, much to Legge's not-so-secret pleasure, in which it was decided to proceed in Mono and the existing Stereo tapes were destroyed. That must have been some squabble!

So this magnificent version of Capriccio is only available in a Mono format. Lately, however, I have stopped my whining about this and come to feel that Mono heightens the Chamber Music feel of the Opera. That it narrows the soundfield whilst simultaneously increasing its intimacy. In other words, it improves the overall experience. The sound is so good, the recording so well produced that the issue is moot. This is a recording you MUST have in your collection. It is one of those benchmark recordings by which all others are judged. You will hear what Humans can do when at their very best. You will sample perfection and the vision of the eternal that is the gift of all true Art.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior Strauss, November 6, 2000

By	Clinton D. Davis (Norman, OK United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I first considered buying Capriccio to further my collection of Strauss, I was scared to buy this recording because it was done in mono and not in stereo. My fears were totally unjustified; the recording is great, and the sound is definitely vintage, but charming, sort of like an old movie. Everything is clear and mastered beautifully. The performance of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is outstanding in every way, and the justly celebrated last scene is electrifying. The supporting cast is fine as well, and Sawallisch's conducting brought out things that I totally missed (and would now miss) in other accounts of this work. If you love Strauss, you can't afford not to spend the $25 dollars to get this recording. There's no reason not to: this is really one of the great recordings of the century--something that critics and musicians have agreed upon for years; it's now at mid-price instead of full-price (with full libretto, translations, and critical essays); and the mono sound is not an issue at all, but rather enhances the experience. Get it!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars for Schwarzkopf!, December 30, 2000

By	Richard Hayden (England) - See all my reviews

Schwarzkopf's performance is what I first noticed in this recording. She sings with such immense conviction, lyricism, beauty, power and grace that it is unbelievable. The twenty miunte scena at the conclusion is worth the price of the whole set. Strauss must have been totally inspired when he sat and penned this miraculous ending - a conclusion which in it's tremendous force seems to transcend the 18th century setting of the opera. It has a ring of truth about it which is surely the hall-mark for all great art. And after the Countess' departure you have that long orchestra coda full of that peculiarly Straussian tranquillity - immensely serene, almost omniscient -music that could only have been written by a composer in his twilight years. After noticing Schwarzkopf's brilliance it is only now that you take in the wonderful ensemble of performers. Ludwig, Hotter, Fischer-Dieskau etc. and above all Swallisch and the Philarmonia. Just listen to that sublime tutti passage which concludes the opera and which begins at 1.00 on Track 28 CD 2. The sound is perfectly acceptable - the orchestra is a little distant but the string tone is sweet and the voices are all brought out vividly. All in all something of a classic and no Straussian should be without it - as a performance it will never be equalled.