Strauss: Elektra

Hildegard Behrens (Artist), Christa Ludwig (Artist), Cynthia Haymon (Artist), Wendy Hillhouse (Artist), Diane Kesling (Artist), Joan Khara / Marita Napier (Artist), Dominique Labelle (Artist), Richard Strauss (Composer), Seiji Ozawa (Conductor), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
• Composer: Richard Strauss
• Audio CD (February 11, 2003)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B00006LENN
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,087 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, August 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Strauss: Elektra (Audio CD)

The problem with our generation is that we have been pampered with recordings from the greatest singers of the past. Every recording is compared not only with the best today but with the best in the past 50 years or so. So the better is the enemy of the good. The other problem is that that Great Dame Birgit Nilsson and the great Austrian Dramatic Soprano Leonie Rysanek (not to mention other greats like Astrid Varnay, Kirsten Flagstad [she didn't sing Elektra though], Inge Borkh, Christel Goltz - who unfortunately have few preserved recordings) set standards so impossibly high that everyone subsequent to them seem inadequate.

So the verdict is thus: Behrens is excellent. Anyone who can sing Elektra has to be one of the top singers of her generation. Elektra is a "voice-killer". However, she pales when compared with Birgit Nilsson or Leonie Rysanek or Astrid Varnay or Christa Ludwig in her classic 1964 Orest Recognition Scene under RCA or Inge Borkh or Christel Goltz. Hildegard Behrens sounds like a little kitten playing compared to the tigress of Nilsson, Rysanek or Varnay. Don't misunderstand, Behrens is good. She is no Birgit Nilsson - her voice is not as steady, her voice is not as large and she skims over the last few notes at the end of the Klytamnestra-Elektra Duet. Birgit Nilsson sang those notes magnificently, her voice ringing out gloriously and piercing through the dense orchestration, Behrens sings the notes quickly with less dramatic effect. But one thing Behrens has though are top B's and top C's which 'shine' radiantly, and they are at least solid notes. So that's the advantage that Behrens have. She is one of the few dramatic sopranos who can hit those notes 'fully' and not in strained tones.

Christa Ludwig was already 60 years old when she recorded Klytamnestra here. It's a pity that she didn't record it earlier because she started singing the role when she was 47 in 1975. Her timbre here is still intact but her voice is less opulent than before. However, she gives a predictably characterful and thriling reading. Right at the end of her scene with Elektra, she 'lets loose' - how thrilling that is!! Her characterization is as ever, superb, and it works in this reading!! This set is an excellent document of her artistry and, frankly, I bought this set firstly to hear Christa Ludwig's Klytamnestra and then secondly, to hear Behren's Elektra (Behren's is afterall, one of today's greatest Elektra and I don't want to miss out on that even if she can't match Birgit Nilsson vocally, but who can?).

So, I wouldn't recommend this as a first set or only set if you the best. If you want excellent quality at budget price, I think this set works pretty well esp when you can get it even cheaper by buying it second hand in Amazon. For a first recommendation at whatever price, Birgit Nilsson's Decca set is incomparable or alternatively Astrid Varnay's set with Koch Schwann in super-clear mono sound.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent recording, December 12, 2004

By 

Samuel Andreyev (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Strauss: Elektra (Audio CD)

It's true that the demented intensity of the Nilsson performance is hard to top, but this is an excellent modern recording and is recommended to all Strauss enthusiasts. It also has the benefit of very clear sound and a strong orchestral performance, both of which are essential if you want to hear every detail of the orchestration.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A million dollar baby today, October 1, 2005

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Strauss: Elektra (Audio CD)

The major record companies can't record opera in the U.S. becasue of exorbitant union rates, and if they attempted a studio Elektra, it could cost upward of a million dollars, like the recent Tristan recorded with Domingo on EMI. In this case, a live Boston Sym. performance from 1988 sneaked under the wire. This is the only Struass opera recorded in this country in memory, and worth buying just to hear the home team.

Ozawa is a careful Strauss conductor, which normally would be fatal. Here, his lyrical approach softens the shock value of a high-voltage opera, and if you want an alternative to Solti's all-out assault, this poerformance works. Behrens is not really an Elektra, just a gifted dramatic soprano stretching her voice a long way, and Ludwig is a bit old, but appropriately so for Klytemnestra. Everyone else is good to better than good, and the BSO plays wonderfully. For years it was my home orchestra, so I was happy to own this set.

Libretto is encoded on an enhanced CD, in case you read librettos on your computer while an opera is playing in the background.