Customer Reviews

Scenes From Salome & Elektra

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whenever I get recordings of operas, I strictly adhere to my personal rule of getting only the COMPLETE recording, not excerpts. In the case of the present recording, I broke my rule for three reasons: 1) The recording was made only as excerpts, not as a complete recording; 2) It was Reiner and the Chicago Symphony in authoritative Richard Strauss performances, and 3) I had heard that these recordings were excellent, but were elusive for many years on availability until their CD reincarnation.

Well, these are excerpts, but they are just as good as if they had been a complete recording! Reiner leads his Chicago Symphony in playing as if they are possessed, and they are the real stars in this recording! This is extremely difficult music to play, and all involved indeed arose to the occasion. Inge Borkh may not be Birgit Nilsson, but she gives her all in making the roles of Salome and Elektra completely credible in my book. Veteran Paul Schoeffler, admired by Reiner for years in his Strauss opera performances, contributes importantly as Elektra's brother, Orestes, in one of the last performances of his career.

If you are one who purposely avoids opera because you dislike it without exception and you do the same to this recording, you will shamefully be passing up what I feel is one of the top five recordings made by a legendary conductor with a legendary ensemble. To top it all off, the icing on this cake has been made all the more yummy for what I feel is about the best sound ever given to Reiner and his band by RCA Living Stereo producer Richard Mohr and recording engineer Lewis Layton.

I am sorry that I cannot give this recording TEN stars, because Amazon.com's rating system only allows FIVE stars!

What a magnificent CD this is ! With prime cuts from two of the greatest 20th century operas, which are also two of the strongest parts for women ever written...with savage drama, musical difficulty, and stamina, as Elektra and Salome remain on stage during the entire opera.
Inge Borkh is fabulous. She has power, precision, and not a single strident moment. Paul Schoeffler's Orest is also excellent. Though I've heard more emotional interpretations, his is a brave and ellegant Orest, and the extraordinary "Was willst du, fremder Mensch ?" Recognition Scene is terrific.

Fritz Reiner was a stern and uncompromising taskmaster (I had the opportunity to see him in rehearsal once...it was rigorous), but how he made the Chicago Symphony shine !
Reiner was a friend of Strauss' and a foremost interpreter of his sensual, complex and spectacular scores. If you want to remember Reiner in just one CD, this would be a good choice.

Elektra was recorded in '56, Salome in '54 and '55, and the total time is 67'01. The remastered sound is wonderful. The very good booklet insert has a page describing the process...unintelligible to me, but to quote them, "the result is a pure copy of the original performance, bringing Living Stereo to life for a new generation of music lovers".

This is a marvel of a recording, the engineers did an outstanding job of making it accessible for younger generation of opera fans.
After all these years, it seems that only Fritz Reiner was able to capture the essense of Strauss' troubled, intense, and thrilling genius. Inge Borkh's voice must be exactly what the composer had envisioned -- it's "larger than life" but can convey so many shades and colors. Simply dazzling.
There's a feeling of freshness and excitement to the entire CD, it's immediately clear that both the performer and the conductor shared love and great respect for Strauss's music, this feeling has reached us through the decades and we can stand back in awe for this incredible music making.

I concur with the sentiments of the previous reviewer. If you enjoy these operas, and not everyone does, these excerpts will absolutely knock your socks off. It's one of the very best Strauss records Fritz Reiner ever made, and most of them were great. Some critics have said this final scene of Elektra is the best that has ever been recorded, outshining even the complete recordings, and it is my favourite for sure. The orchestral playing is resplendent and the sound is remarkable for its age, the CSO sounds like a giant club when called upon to do so. The Salome music is equally successful and the singing is admirable. This recording deserves the widest circulation. It is also available on cassette, and when I first played it in that format I nearly blew my car speakers. A demonstration recording.

This recording is a true classic. Reiner is at least the equal of anyone else that I have heard in conveying dramatic thrust, power and cumulative intensity (in particular, he is truly masterful in the way he builds up to and shapes the big orchestral climaxes), but, at the same time, keeps the textures balanced and glowingly transparent, even in the loudest and/or most complex passages, and also conveys lyrical beauty and tenderness where the music calls for it, notably in Elektra's recognition scene. The singing by Borkh and Schoeffler is likewise superb (they were leading exponents of their roles). A must purchase for Strauss lovers.

Unbelievable orchestral virtuosity and phenomenal singing. The excerpts from Salome have been matched by Solti in his complete recording with Birgit Nilsson, but the Elektra excerpts have probably never been equaled, not by Solti, not by anyone! The famous Recognition Scene where Elektra recognizes her brother Orest is done with such power and volume that you will be blown away! The Chicago brass are on display in some of the loudest and most frenetic orchestral outburts ever recorded.

The Salome tracks are almost as good with the famous Dance of the Seven Veils sultry and as exotic as can be. Still, Solti is just as good here but not in Elektra, where Reiner reigns supreme! These recordings are the phenomenal sounding RCA "Living Stereo" release. RCA later released this in a hybrid SACD format. Trust me that the later hybrid CD is not as good as this one! If you have a SACD player, buy the later version, but if you have a normal CD player, like most people, please buy this earlier release, the sound is much better.

It is barely credible that these recordings were made in the mid 50's; apart from the merest suggestion of background hiss - more of a whisper - you would swear that these extraordinary performances were recent digital takes. The brilliance and depth of sound here is breath-taking - but not as stunning as the playing itself. Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra breathe as one; the verve and "slancio" with which they bring Salome's dance to life is more vivid than anything you could actually see at the opera house. Even a lissom, dance-trained soprano would be too out of breath to sing if she actually did justice to the erotic charge of the music - and the original Salome, ample Marie Wittich - or Tantchen (Auntie) Wittich, as Strauss called her - downright refused. So the mind's eye is Reiner's territory and you will never hear this music played with more elan and erotic thrust.

The extended excerpts from Strauss's two most controversial operas are also a treasure. I do not think they are utterly flawless: Borkh is stupendous in her intensity as both anti-heroines, but her Salome is not as steady, penetrating or varied in vocal colouring as that of Birgit Nilsson. Her Elektra is a tour de force of concentrated malice and twisted obsessiveness. I have read mild criticsm of Frances Yeend's Chrysothemis but to my ears she more than keeps up with Borkh in that terrifying last scene of "Elektra". Paul Schoeffler is wise, warm-voiced, expressive and clearly very experienced - but equally clearly and as a result of that experience, rather old for Orestes. But these are quibbles; this is a disc in a thousand both for the sound and the interpretations. The original art work, full texts, synopses and the original very informative notes by Francis Robinson, Assistant Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, are provided and the whole package is so beautifully presented as to make you no longer regret the passing of LP covers.

Some folks may say, "I don't want just excerpts of these operas." They will be missing some absolutely hair-raising music-making. The first time I heard these performances, on a Gold Seal LP reissue, I sat there with my mouth hanging open the whole time. This is just riveting stuff, intense, passionate, superbly controlled, and spectacularly recorded. Elektra was probably never done this well before and may never be done this well again. Not to be missed.