Thursday, May 27, 2010

RECORDING OF THE MONTH- May 2010: CAPRICCIO by STRAUSS (R)

This month I have been relatively obsessed with one specific recording. I have listened to lots of others, but I always come back to this one.

This particular gem is a studio recording of Richard Strauss's "Capriccio, ein 'Konversationenstück für Musik' in einem Akt" or, a 'conversation piece for music' in one act.

The interesting thing about this "opera" that premiered in 1942, is that it really is a "conversation piece". There is a very limited plot and almost no action in the 2+ hours of this piece and it is still absolutely captivating.

It is, in simplified terms, a debate during a salon party between the characters about which is more important... words? or music?

The idea for the libretto was conceived by the famous Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig (librettist for Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau), who stumbled across a short comedy by Giovanni Battista Casti (a rival to Da Ponte). This comedy had actually been set by Mozart's rival Salieri and premiered with Der Schauspieldirektor at Schönbrunn. The concept of the tension between words and music appealed to Strauss, although not the trivial plot that accompanied the original. Zweig, who was Jewish, knew his days in Nazi Germany were numbered so he dropped out of the libretto project and skipped town. The writer and musicologist Joseph Gregor took his place, and his 1935 draft of the neo-Casti piece was not well received by Strauss. What he wanted was nothing like the story, but a "theatrical discussion'. A self-illustrating debate about the nature of Opera. Eventually an acceptable libretto was written by the conductor, Clemens Krauss, and the composer himself. It was originally to be a short opener for Strauss's opera, Daphne, but it quickly outgrew it's modest scale. It became a subtle, intimate, even-handed masterpiece.

The specific recording is the one from EMI in 1957.
Conductor: Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philharmonia Orchestra
Countess: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Count: Eberhard Wächter
Flamand: Nicolai Gedda
Olivier: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
La Roche: Hans Hotter
Clairon: Christa Ludwig
Monsieur Taupe: Rudolf Christ
Italian Soprano: Anna Moffo
Italian Tenor: Dermot Troy
Major-domo: Karl Schmitt-Walter

It doesn't take an expert to notice that for Strauss... this is an absolutely star studded cast. It was put together by classical record producer Walter Legge, and the casting is nigh unto perfect. Each singer embodies their role with great honesty and elegance. If I were given the opportunity to change casting of a role... I would change NOTHING.

With all of the roles that Schwarzkopf sang on the stage, it is possible that no role truly fit her personally as well as the Countess Madeleine and her ability to mould words into music is heard here as clearly as ever. She personifies sophistication, elegance, charm and a little bit of the artificiality that only a Prima Donna can have, that works so well for this role.

The young Nicolai Gedda delivers a gentle, yet ardent composer in his Flamand and the equally young Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau portrays the more fiery poet Olivier, with all the intellect and passion required and then some. He brings to this role all the subtlety and nuance he brings to his Lieder of Schubert and Brahms, with the textual emphasis only he truly mastered that is quite frankly, ideal for the poet Olivier. The even younger Eberhard Wächter plays the countess's light-hearted and lascivious younger brother with a graceful buffo quality that foreshadows his future success as Gabriel von Eisenstein in the other Strauß's Die Fledermaus.

One needs not explain the talents of Christa Ludwig who portrays the cynical actress Clairon with intimacy and a nostalgic poise that unfortunately does not exist amongst the stars of today.

But the one who shines the brightest here perhaps is Hans Hotter, who 15 years prior had orginated the role of Olivier in the premier of this work. Why Strauss cast him as Olivier I will never know, but here, as the theatre director, La Roche (possibly a loving caricature of the great Max Reinhardt), he defends the conventions of the theatre and the old Italian operatic mould with fervor and dismisses new and untried methods just as quickly as many of the elders do in every generation. (And how subtle he is when he is introducing his cute, new, little, dancer 'protege')

A treat unto itself is the cameo appearances by the great artists of past generations (Karl Schmitt-Walter) and future generations (Anna Moffo).

The icing on the cake of this wonderful cast is the brilliance of Wolfgang Sawallisch. A conductor that harkens back to a time when true artistry came off of the podium. While never missing the wit or sensuousness of the score, he keeps the story moving officiously.


The vintage Philharmonia Orchestra plays magnificently the refined scoring of Richard, whose orchestrations here perhaps top any of his previous operas.


Dr. Alex Mai claims that this recording is "too pretentious." He has a point. It is a bit snooty in the way it is presented. A bit straight laced. The elegant artifice that he is referring to, I think, works well in this opera. It gives a realistic portrayal of these French aristocrats and elitist artists. For a more friendly and approachable cast I DO love the live 1964 Georges Prêtre recording from the Wiener Staatsoper with Lisa Della Casa, Walter Berry, Waldemar Kmentt, Otto Wiener, and again Christa Ludwig. This recording is a little warmer. The Vienese mentality gives it a bit more of that Austrian Gemütlichkeit. And on the up side, the two young singers playing the Italian opera singers are none other than Fritz Wunderlich and Lucia Popp.

But if the sophisticated Sawallisch recording isn't too pretentious for you, it is a recording that every musician and Strauss lover should own. A true benchmark.

-Christopher Michael Kelley