Volume 2 of ‘Wolfgang Sawallisch: The Warner Classics Edition’ concentrates on the world of opera and includes a number of repertory rarities. In its day Schubert’s Singspiel Die Zwillingsbrüder (‘The Twin Brothers’) was criticised, rightly I feel, for the incongruity between the lightness of its subject matter and the more cultivated nature of Schubert’s music. Needless to say Wolfgang Sawallisch’s 1975 Bavarian State Opera recording, with the ideal cast of Kurt Moll, Helen Donath, Nicolai Gedda and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, although spirited, errs more on the side of refinement, Sawallisch being an exceptionally persuasive Schubertian (his masterly set of the symphonies is in ‘The Warner Classics Edition, Vol 1’ – 9/24). By way of a sampling, try Friedrich’s aria ‘Liebe teure Muttererde’, superbly sung by Fischer-Dieskau, that most Schubertian of baritones. Sawallisch was less associated with Mozart than with Schubert, yet in 1972 he turned in a first-rate Die Zauberflöte with spoken dialogue, among its highlight’s Edda Moser’s searing Queen of the Night (try ‘Der Hölle Rache’ on disc 2) and Anneliese Rothenberger’s Pamina (her divine ‘Ach, ich fühl’s’ is on the same disc).

Sawallisch’s pacing of the music allows his singers time to breathe and shape their lines, whether spoken or sung, a virtue that greets Weber’s ‘Singspiel in the then-popular Turkish style’ Abu Hassan, where Sawallisch calls on the vocal skills of such regulars as Moser, Gedda and – especially popular with him – Moll. One also recalls Sawallisch’s excellent disc of Weber overtures in Vol 1 of the Edition.

Two rhythmically driven one-act operas by Carl Orff, Die Kluge and Der Mond, are recorded in impressive stereo, the playing of the Philharmonia often spellbinding (especially from the woodwinds in Die Kluge, disc 30 track 4). Lovers of Carmina Burana will immediately latch on to the music’s listener-friendly primitivism. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Gottlob Frick and Marcel Cordes are among the singers in Die Kluge, Hans Hotter, Karl Schmitt-Walter and Rudolf Christ in Der Mond; but given that the year is 1956, how come Strauss’s Capriccio (recorded 1957‑58) was taped in mono only? Annotator Tully Potter offers an informed explanation but perhaps the mono-shy Walter Legge, who produced Der Mond and co-produced Die Kluge, thought ‘newfangled’ stereo was better suited to Orff’s energetic antics than to Strauss’s intimate and beautifully written ‘conversation piece’.

I recall years ago talking in an interview to André Previn about Strauss’s music and confessing to having difficulties with Capriccio. Previn smiled sagely and advised me that with this particular work my less-than-basic knowledge of German was perhaps a drawback. Listening now to Sawallisch and his starry vocal line-up (Schwarzkopf, Gedda, Fischer-Dieskau, Hotter, Christa Ludwig, Anna Moffo and Eberhard Waechter), and the way they make the score (typical autumn-tinted late Strauss) sound like vocal chamber music, I finally understand what Previn meant.

Capriccio was a wartime work, whereas the ‘bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes’ Intermezzo dates from 1924. I’m frequently reminded of Strauss’s suite Le bourgeois gentilhomme (on disc 23 track 8, for example), both scores suiting Sawallisch’s refined yet earthy musical persona to a T. Here Lucia Popp is the star act.

The 1987 Munich Die Frau ohne Schatten, a sombre-hued tour de force for both voices and orchestra, boasts Cheryl Studer on great form as the Empress and René Kollo, full of character, as the Emperor. Elektra is a more full-on music drama, with Eva Marton taking the title-role, Studer as Chrysothemis and Marjana Lipov≈ek as Klytemnestra. Sawallisch conducts powerful performances of both works, light years removed from Georg Solti’s more openly aggressive Decca recordings.

And there’s Sawallisch’s Wagner, a graphic and extremely well-sung live Ring cycle from the Bavarian State Opera in 1989 with Hildegard Behrens as Brünnhilde, Robert Hale as Wotan/the Wanderer, Kurt Moll as Fafner and Julia Varady as a memorably intense Sieglinde. Das Rheingold and Siegfried are especially compelling. A finely judged studio-recorded Die Meistersinger, also from Munich (1993), stars Bernd Weikl as Hans Sachs and Moll as Veit Pogner, with the roles of Beckmesser and Eva taken by Siegfried Lorenz and Studer respectively. The beauty of Sawallisch’s opera recordings is that their vocal and orchestral attributes are always balanced in perfect proportion with each other. His Strauss recalls the world of Clemens Krauss, his Wagner, Toscanini in his mid-life prime. It’s real artistry, durable in every detail.

So, having enjoyed the three marvellous Sawallisch commemorative boxes – two from Warner Classics and one from Decca (9/24), all of them superbly transferred – where does that leave us? Orfeo could oblige with a fourth box, including Bruckner and more Wagner. But for the moment, taking the wider view, I’d go along with Mike Ashman’s assessment of Sawallisch’s discographical achievement (6/13): ‘It is for his interpretations of the early Romantics – the way that he found a way of projecting the music (especially Wagner’s and Schumann’s) on modern instruments without unwanted bombast – that Sawallisch’s legacy should be most treasured.’ I couldn’t agree more.

The recordings

The Warner Classics Edition - Complete Opera Recordings

Wolfgang Sawallisch (Warner Classics)