What a power it has, after all, this old piece with its contrived poignancies of merriment and tragedy, its facile reminiscences, its domesticated heroine and self-absorbed poet-hero. The proof of the power lies quite simply in the experience: you think you are by now impervious to its effects, and then suddenly out comes a melody or a phrase or a forgotten detail of orchestration, and your whole immune system is invaded. With a gulp, as likely as not. This time it attacked not in the early scenes which quite commonly take the emotions as by a charm, but in the scene in Act 3 where the sisters are together—the melody which enters almost casually as Sophie perceives Charlotte's unhappiness, and then of course the ''larmes'', always moving but here doubly so as it is meltingly sung by Victoria de los Angeles.
She is very nearly the ideal Charlotte, just a trifle overtaxed by the strenuous lines at the end of that act but otherwise adorable, both in character and in the sheer beauty of sound. Gedda's Werther is often finely sung, and I prefer it to Alfredo Kraus's famous portrayal (Plasson/EMI): there's more sweetness, less self-pity, and something closer than all the other post-war Werthers to a natural French elegance. The secondary roles are all well taken, though Mady Mesple's Sophie is perhaps excessively French in its brightness. About Pretre's conducting some hard things have been said, and it does sometimes run to extremes; even so, there is life and feeling in it, and I find more conviction, attention to detail too, than in Plasson, and more straightforward passion than in Chailly (DG).
In fact the principal weaknesses in the set have to do with recorded sound, which first strikes the ear as somewhat harsh and gritty (though either it or the ear settles down after a while). Balance is not always satisfactory or consistent, and there are some noticeable tape-joins. If you don't let these little things worry you, you will probably enjoy it as I did: a reminder, though, that the Gramophone Award-winning reissue of the 1931 version with Vallin and Thill is still available on EMI.'