F.Schmidt Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Franz Schmidt
Label: Calig
Magazine Review Date: 9/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 113
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CAL50978/9
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Das) Buch mit sieben Siegeln |
Franz Schmidt, Composer
Eberhard Büchner, Tenor Franz Schmidt, Composer Gabriele Fontana, Soprano Horst Stein, Conductor Kurt Azesberger, Tenor Margareta Hintermeier, Contralto (Female alto) Robert Holl, Bass Robert Holzer, Bass Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Singverein Vienna Symphony Orchestra |
Author: Robert Layton
Given the acclaim that has greeted the Franz Schmidt symphonies, it is only natural that attention should turn to what many admirers consider his chef d’oeuvre, the oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (“The Book with Seven Seals”), a setting of the Revelation of St John the Divine, on which he embarked after finishing the Fourth Symphony. There is a rival version on the market: the 1959 Salzburg Festival version with Anton Dermota as Johannes, and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Dmitri Mitropoulos on Sony – a great improvement, incidentally, on the 1981 Melodram LP transfer. Nobility shines through almost every bar of the score – and indeed almost everything Schmidt wrote. I don’t think MEO was far off the mark when he wrote of the Mitropoulos recording. “Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln still has the reputation of a piece that the Austrians regard as a classic but which doesn’t travel. This recording refutes that view with inspiriting eloquence.” And, for those who are worried by the prospect of a mono recording some 38 years old, here is further affirmation of its stature in a brand-new stereo version with fine soloists and players under Horst Stein.
The earlier Zagrosek recording on Orfeo (2/88 – nla) obviously did not fully convince DJF, who wrote appreciatively of Peter Schreier (as Johannes) but was less enamoured of some of the other singers and of the work as a whole. “Ultimately,” he wrote, “I suppose, this strikes me as a rather desk-bound view of the Apocalypse in which the composer’s imagination only sporadically takes wing.” Certainly the somewhat unflattering acoustic of the ORF studios does not enhance its claims and, stereo or no stereo, I would much prefer the Mitropoulos. This newcomer has the benefit of better sound, though it is by no means state-of-the-art. The texture could be fresher and more transparent, the front-to-back perspective could be deeper, and one feels the climaxes need more space in which to expand. The public performances at which this was recorded must have been packed!
The performance itself is generally strong and Horst Stein conducts with great dedication and sympathy. The Johannes is Eberhard Buchner, a pupil of Schreier whom you may remember from the latter’s St Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio (Philips, 8/85 and 12/87), and who commands considerable eloquence even though the voice has lost some of its former bloom. Mitropoulos’s performance had the inestimable advantage of Dermota who had taken part in the 1938 premiere under Oswald Kabasta. No grumbles about Robert Holl as The Voice of the Lord or the other distinguished soloists and the important and demanding organ interludes are marvellously played by Martin Haselbock.
Summing up, Das Buch mit sieben Siegein is a rewarding score and its elevation of feeling is never in doubt here. While recommending the newcomer, I have to say that I would not do so in preference to the Mitropoulos which seems to sing with a special fervour.'
The earlier Zagrosek recording on Orfeo (2/88 – nla) obviously did not fully convince DJF, who wrote appreciatively of Peter Schreier (as Johannes) but was less enamoured of some of the other singers and of the work as a whole. “Ultimately,” he wrote, “I suppose, this strikes me as a rather desk-bound view of the Apocalypse in which the composer’s imagination only sporadically takes wing.” Certainly the somewhat unflattering acoustic of the ORF studios does not enhance its claims and, stereo or no stereo, I would much prefer the Mitropoulos. This newcomer has the benefit of better sound, though it is by no means state-of-the-art. The texture could be fresher and more transparent, the front-to-back perspective could be deeper, and one feels the climaxes need more space in which to expand. The public performances at which this was recorded must have been packed!
The performance itself is generally strong and Horst Stein conducts with great dedication and sympathy. The Johannes is Eberhard Buchner, a pupil of Schreier whom you may remember from the latter’s St Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio (Philips, 8/85 and 12/87), and who commands considerable eloquence even though the voice has lost some of its former bloom. Mitropoulos’s performance had the inestimable advantage of Dermota who had taken part in the 1938 premiere under Oswald Kabasta. No grumbles about Robert Holl as The Voice of the Lord or the other distinguished soloists and the important and demanding organ interludes are marvellously played by Martin Haselbock.
Summing up, Das Buch mit sieben Siegein is a rewarding score and its elevation of feeling is never in doubt here. While recommending the newcomer, I have to say that I would not do so in preference to the Mitropoulos which seems to sing with a special fervour.'
F.Schmidt Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln
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