Weber: Der Freischütz ~ C. Kleiber
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CD Details
Composer: Carl Maria von WeberConductor: Carlos Kleiber
Orchestra: Dresden Staatskapelle
Performer: Bernd Weikl
Performer: Brigitte Pfretzschner
Performer: Edith Mathis
Performer: Franz Crass
Performer: Gundula Janowitz
Performer: Gunther Leib
Performer: Ingeborg Springer
Performer: Peter Schreier
Performer: Renate Hoff
Performer: Renate Krahmer
Performer: Siegfried Vogel
Performer: Theo Adam
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-04-14
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Ouvertüre
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 1. Introduktion. Viktoria! Viktoria! der Meister soll leben. Peasant March. Scha
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 2. Was git's hier?
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 2. No. 2. Terzett mit Chor. Oh, diese Sonne, furchtbar steigt sie mir empor!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 3. Ein braver Mann
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 3. No. 3. Walzer
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 4. Rezitativ und Arie. Nein, länger trag' ich nicht die Qualen ... Durch die Wäl
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 5. Kamerad!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 5. No. 4. Lied. Hier im ird'schen Jammertal!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 5. Bruderherz!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 1. Scene 6. No. 5. Arie. Schwieg, schweig, damit dich niemand warnt!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 2. Scene 1. No. 6. Duett. Schelm, halt fest! Ich will dich's lehren!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 2. Scene 1. So! Da oben mag ich den Herrn Urältervater
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 2. Scene 1. No. 7. Aritte. Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 2. Scene 1. Und der Bursch nicht minder schön!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 2. Scene 2. No. 8. Szene und Arie. Wie nahte mir der Schlummer...Leise, leise, fromme Wei
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 2. Scene 3. Meine Agathe!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 2. Scene 3. No. 9. Terzett. Wie? Was? Entsetzen! Dort in der Schreckensschlucht?
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 2. Scene 4. Wolf's Glen Scene. No. 10. Finale. Milch des Mondes fiel aufs Kraut! Scene 5.
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. No. 11. Entr'acte
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 1. Herrliches Jagdwetter!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 2. No. 12. Kavatine. Und ob die Wolke sie verhülle
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 3. Du hast dich dazugehalten!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 3. No. 13. Romanze, Rezitativ und Arie. Einst träumte meiner sel'gen Base...Du z
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 3. Nun muß ich aber den Kranz holen!
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 4. No. 14. Volkslied. Wir winden dir den Jungfernkranz. Scene 5. Da bin ich wied
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 6. No. 15. Jägerchor: Was gleicht wohl auf Erden
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 6. Genug der Freuden des Mahles
- Der Freischütz, opera, J. 277 (Op. 77): Act 3. Scene 6. Wer legt auf ihn so strengen Bann?
Music reviews of Weber: Der Freischütz ~ C. Kleiber
Music Review: A safe choice for a recording of "Der Freischutz"
Rating: 3 Stars
SOURCE:
1973 studio recording made at VEB Deutsche Schallplaten, Berlin (in what was then very carefully designated as the DDR or German Democratic Republic.)
SOUND:
Good 1970s Deutsche Grammophon stereo.
SINGING CAST:
AGATHE - Gundula Janowitz
ANNCHEN - Edith Mathis
MAX - Peter Schreier
KASPAR - Theo Adam
OTTOKAR - Bernd Weikl
KUNO - Siegfried Vogel
HERMIT - Franz Crass
KILIAN - Gunther Leib
FIRST BRIDESMAID - Renate Hoff
SECOND BRIDESMAID - Brigitte Pfretzschner
THIRD BRIDESMAID - Renate Krahmer
FOURTH BRIDESMAID Bridesmaid - Ingeborg Springer.
DIALOGUE CAST:
Agathe - Regine Jeske
Annchen - Ingrid Hille
Max - Hans Jorn Weber
Kaspar / Samiel - Gerhard Paul
Ottokar - Otto Mellies
Kuno - Gerd Biewer
Hermit - Franz Crass
Kilian - Günther Leib
Royal Huntsman - Friedrich Wilhelm Junge
Royal Bodyguard - Achim Schmidtchen
Gamekeeper - August Hutten.
CONDUCTOR:
Carlos Kleiber with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Rundfunkchor Leipzig.
COMMENTARY:
Reading Amazon reviews can sometimes be quite revelatory. In this case, before one listens to a single bar of the performance it is clear that there is something odd about the conducting. There is an air of protesting too much about the praise accorded to it. On the other hand, the singers seem to have attracted relatively little comment--potentially an ominous portent for an opera.
Well, on listening to the opera, I find that the singers aren't worth much in the way of comment. Janowitz and Adam are the best of the bunch and, truth to tell, that isn't particularly high praise. Peter Schreier is one of those acquired tastes that I have no intention of acquiring. He's not bad, not really, but who would go out of their way to hear him? He makes the egregious Hans Hopf on the old recordings conducted by Furtwangler and Erich Kleiber sound positively ... musical by comparison. The rest of the singing cast is appropriately competent, neither more nor less.
I specifically mention the singing cast because this is one of those lame productions in which some fool of a producer has decided that singers are incapable of speaking. Voice actors do the dialogue passages, a practice that virtually guarantees disaster, for the voices of the actors never match those of the singers and because such actors invariably overdo it by performing in what they fondly imagine to be an operatic style. Such casting costs this recording one star, all by itself. And the casting of a single voice actor to hold conversations with himself as Kaspar AND Samiel is simply perverse!
This, we are informed, is Kleiber Minor's first big-time recording, and it shows it. There are passages which are indisputably very good. There are passages which are just plain strange. What there unquestionably is not is a self-consistent and convincing vision of what "Der Freischutz" is all about, the sort of thing that is so clear in the ultra-Romantic version of Wilhelm Furtwängler and in the more restrained but equally brilliant version conducted by Carlos Kleiber's father, Erich. The elder Kleiber's "Freischutz" had been broadcast in 1955. It must have been one of the older man's last major projects before his sudden death in January 1956. Carlos Kleiber must have been familiar with his father's version of the opera, leading me to speculate that at least some of the peculiarities of this recording owe their existence to generational rivalry between father and son.
"Der Freischutz" is a far better opera than its current spotty performance frequency in North America might suggest. It has a fine overture that is followed by a slightly ponderous, scenario-establishing first scene. The opera truly takes off in the vocally spectacular second scene of Act I. If two really first class sopranos from the German school of singing are present, the sequence of solos and duets make it is as good as anything written anywhere by anybody. Janowitz and Mathis are good but not great, making this scene less than it might be.
The heart of the opera is the ensuing Wolf's Glen scene. Here, Weber pulled out all the stops to create the first Romantic opera. A very young Richard Wagner was bowled over by this opera. It set him on his chosen career. And we all know where that led....
The Wolf's Glen scene is jolly good fun, brilliantly constructed and it certainly had enormous impact on audiences for decades after its premiere in 1821. Its lineal descendants include Fafner's den in "Siegfried," both "Salome" and Elektra," "Wozzeck" and the musical scores of every other horror movie made in Hollywood or anywhere else. That being the case, it strikes me that the Amazon reviewers who inform us "that after 200 years the Wolf's Glen scene can still make a person shudder" and of "the really terrific sense of eerie menace" are being a bit hyperbolic.
For the opera as a whole, I find myself more in agreement with this comment from the discerning Amazon reviewer, Sean Coxen: "If a record collector were to purchase only one 'Freischutz' for his library, this would be a safe enough choice". A safe choice, for the sound is (more or less) modern and the singers are (more or less) acceptable. Yes, quite safe. If, however, someone out there is looking for a GREAT performance, not just a safe one, I suggest grabbing a copy of either the Furtwängler version or the Erich Kleiber. They're both cheap and they're both excellent, so buy both!
A COMMENT ON CASTING:
An earlier reviewer rhetorically asked where a perfect Agathe is to be found. There is a simple answer to that: Elizabeth Grummer. She was a gloriously shining star of the post-WWII era, equally brilliant as Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni" and Eva in "Die Meistersinger." As Agathe for both Furtwangler and Kleiber, she was wonderful--there is no other word for it.
A COMMENT ON IMAGERY:
A complaint from an Amazon reviewer about the most recent published state of this recording, "Even the excellent (menacing!) cover art is placed askew", leads me to ask this: Can't anybody see that the cover shows a side-by-side shotgun? This is an opera about riflemen, for Pete's sake. The most famous scene in the opera involves casting seven magic rifle bullets! So, why the shotgun?
Description of Weber: Der Freischütz ~ C. Kleiber
Der Freischütz is one of the great milestones in the history of opera. The resounding success of its premiere in 1821 practically made it a manifesto for German Romantic opera, one that would become a significant formative influence on Wagner. Although it has its roots in the Singspiel tradition exemplified by Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Der Freischütz cut new ground with its potent mixture of supernatural elements, dreams, folk melodies, evocations of nature, and symphonic tone painting. Here, von Weber exploited his brilliant orchestral imagination--using, for example, carefully divided string tremolos and a gleaming choir of four horns--to maximum effect. This legendary recording from 1973 was Carlos Kleiber's first studio project, and the scrupulous attention he lavished on the score resulted in an interpretation that continues to sound bold, fresh, and authoritative. The Dresden Staatskapelle plays in top form, whether in tenderly sprung wind solos or in the truly spooky atmospherics of the famous Wolf's Glen scene. Peter Schreier's dark, pungent tenor is something of an acquired taste, but he gives fervent voice to the despair of hunter/protagonist Max. Gundula Janowitz sings with stirring beauty and enriches the two-dimensional character of Max's beloved Agathe with remarkable depth, revealing both her innocence and her agonized foreboding. And Theo Adam delivers a thoroughly spiteful, loathesome vocal portrait of the nefarious Kaspar, whose pact with the devil Samiel goes awry. For a work that is not performed nearly as often as it deserves to be, this recording is essential. --Thomas MayClassical CDs
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