Beethoven Leonore
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Ludwig van Beethoven
Genre:
Opera
Label: Dabringhaus und Grimm
Magazine Review Date: 2/1999
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 146
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: MDG337 0826-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Leonore |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Benedikt Kobel, Jaquino, Tenor Bonn Beethovenhalle Orchestra Christine Neithardt-Barbaux, Marzelline, Soprano Cologne Radio Chorus Eric Martin-Bonnet, Don Fernando, Bass Jean-Philippe Lafont, Pizarro, Tenor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer Marc Soustrot, Conductor Mark Baker, Florestan, Tenor Pamela Coburn, Leonore, Soprano Victor von Halem, Rocco, Bass |
Author:
There may be a small but possibly keen constituency for this, which is a recording of Leonore in its second version, of 1806. On the Gramophone Database under Leonore are already two entries, one conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, the other by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, but the first presents the original version, of 1805, while the second centres itself on that but incorporates or prefers a number of passages from 1806 and 1814. Perhaps before complicating the issue further we should go back to basics. The bemused reader who thought that Beethoven wrote only one opera, namely Fidelio, is of course quite right, except that its singularity is, so to speak, multiple, Leonore being the name under which the opera was given at its premiere in 1805 and in its revised form of 1806. Thus, a compulsively comprehensive collection should have Blomstedt (1805), this present issue under Soustrot (1806) and the Fidelio (1814) of its owner’s choice. And such a collector would be well advised to include Gardiner as well, if only because the booklet accompanying his set has the most conveniently laid-out table showing the differences between the three versions.
Reasons in favour of the Gardiner, of course, amount to more than that. Though textually confusing (rather like a ‘bad Quarto’ in Shakespearian studies) it may offer the best solution for performance: that is, 1805 with modifications. Moreover, as both performance and recording, it is superior to the others: it has a conductor who habitually looks for the sense of what he is reading. For a present comparison, the first bars after curtain-up will show the difference. As Soustrot reads it, the introduction to Marzelline’s song is an amiable first subject for a Haydnesque symphony or sonata; with Gardiner, it is specifically Marzelline’s, wishful, pleasurably disturbed, a little internal argument in itself. Then, in the song, where Soustrot sees the descending semiquavers in the orchestra as simply introducing the second half of the verse, Gardiner sees them specifically as a rush of confidence and hope (‘Die Hoffnung schon erfullt die Brust’). That is typical throughout: the difference between seeing and realizing.
Extending comparisons now to Blomstedt, I find the early recording better than this new one in most respects if not quite all. His Leonore, Eda Moser, is a far more imaginative artist than Pamela Coburn shows herself to be here, though Mark Baker as Florestan may be a slight improvement on Richard Cassilly. Karl Ridderbusch is a first-rate Rocco with Blomstedt, and indeed Victor von Halem is very acceptable with Soustrot. Quite unacceptable is his Pizarro, the crude and wobbly Jean-Philippe Lafont, Blomstedt’s Theo Adam being a far from ideal alternative. The new recording has a vocal asset in Christine Niethardt-Barbaux, a firm and fresh-voiced Marzelline compared with the rather arch, somewhat tremulous Helen Donath. But it then has the touch of death upon it whenever there is a break for dialogue. This is spoken by actors talking to themselves as in a drawing-room reading of Chekhov, with gaps left between speech and music, fatal to pace and dramatic conviction, even supposing any had been generated.
So I’m afraid we are back to that somewhat specialized appeal, the 1806 revision, the interest of which lies in close comparison with 1805 so as to see Beethoven in the workshop, as self-critic, cutting away at his own work, and in one instance (the March before Pizarro’s entry) supplying an inspired replacement.
Reasons in favour of the Gardiner, of course, amount to more than that. Though textually confusing (rather like a ‘bad Quarto’ in Shakespearian studies) it may offer the best solution for performance: that is, 1805 with modifications. Moreover, as both performance and recording, it is superior to the others: it has a conductor who habitually looks for the sense of what he is reading. For a present comparison, the first bars after curtain-up will show the difference. As Soustrot reads it, the introduction to Marzelline’s song is an amiable first subject for a Haydnesque symphony or sonata; with Gardiner, it is specifically Marzelline’s, wishful, pleasurably disturbed, a little internal argument in itself. Then, in the song, where Soustrot sees the descending semiquavers in the orchestra as simply introducing the second half of the verse, Gardiner sees them specifically as a rush of confidence and hope (‘Die Hoffnung schon erfullt die Brust’). That is typical throughout: the difference between seeing and realizing.
Extending comparisons now to Blomstedt, I find the early recording better than this new one in most respects if not quite all. His Leonore, Eda Moser, is a far more imaginative artist than Pamela Coburn shows herself to be here, though Mark Baker as Florestan may be a slight improvement on Richard Cassilly. Karl Ridderbusch is a first-rate Rocco with Blomstedt, and indeed Victor von Halem is very acceptable with Soustrot. Quite unacceptable is his Pizarro, the crude and wobbly Jean-Philippe Lafont, Blomstedt’s Theo Adam being a far from ideal alternative. The new recording has a vocal asset in Christine Niethardt-Barbaux, a firm and fresh-voiced Marzelline compared with the rather arch, somewhat tremulous Helen Donath. But it then has the touch of death upon it whenever there is a break for dialogue. This is spoken by actors talking to themselves as in a drawing-room reading of Chekhov, with gaps left between speech and music, fatal to pace and dramatic conviction, even supposing any had been generated.
So I’m afraid we are back to that somewhat specialized appeal, the 1806 revision, the interest of which lies in close comparison with 1805 so as to see Beethoven in the workshop, as self-critic, cutting away at his own work, and in one instance (the March before Pizarro’s entry) supplying an inspired replacement.
Beethoven Leonore
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