Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Genre:
Opera
Label: Archiv Produktion
Magazine Review Date: 12/1992
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 133
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 435 857-2AH2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Die) Entführung aus dem Serail, '(The) Abduction from the Seraglio' |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Cornelius Hauptmann, Osmin, Bass Cyndia Sieden, Blonde, Soprano English Baroque Soloists Hans-Peter Minetti, Pasha Selim, Speaker John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor Luba Orgonasova, Konstanze, Soprano Monteverdi Choir Stanford Olsen, Belmonte, Tenor Uwe Peper, Pedrillo, Tenor Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
Author: Alan Blyth
There is much to admire in this typically well-prepared and positive reading from Gardiner and his team, but as a whole the performance, this time recorded in the studio, not at live performances as was the case in the first two contributions to Gardiner's Archiv Produktion cycle of Mozart operas (La clemenza di Tito, 12/91; and the Gramophone Award-winning Idomeneo, 6/91), is something of a disappointment. My notes on movement after movement read ''too drilled'', ''too hard-driven'', ''too relentless''. Where the discipline and drive Gardiner very properly employed for Idomeneo and Tito have won plaudits all round, here his insistence on strict rhythm, strong accents and clipped delivery make this a very serious Entfuhrung indeed, one that leaves little room for the senses to be caressed or for true lyricism to flower. Time and again—against expectations—I found the more relaxed, more yielding approach of the recent Hogwood version (L'Oiseau-Lyre) the more appealing (SS pointed to the advantages of period-instrument practice in his review of the Hogwood set with with Gardiner, nor is the playing always quite so taut or disciplined, but which I wholly concur). The phrasing there is not as pointed or subtle as the interpretation, in its unassuming way, is surely more akin to the mood and melos of this piece, traditional speeds seeming better suited to the work.
Take thead lib. wind interjections in the accompaniment to ''Martern aller Arten''. Hogwood makes the marking part of the texture; Gardiner underlines the idea so markedly that it calls to itself. At the start of Pedrillo's martial aria ''Frisch zum Kampfe'', a small but indicative point, Gardiner lets the timpani strokes sound in peremptory fashion; Hogwood, again, makes them part of the whole. An even clearer example of the contrasts between the two versions comes in the final Vaudeville: Gardiner plays it strictly and at high speed without affection. At Hogwood's more 'normal' pace the delightfully natural feeling of this final reconciliation emerges as life enhancing.
As it happens, side by side comparisons of the respective casts also go almost entirely Hogwood's way. Now it may well be that others will enjoy Orgonasova as Constanze more than I did. In the concert performance at London's Royal Festival Hall that took place at the time of this 1991 (studio) recording, her full, exciting tone and splendid technique were rightly admired. On disc the same attributes are similarly commendable—indeed, her ''Martern aller Arten'' is the most commanding and heroic since that of Margaret Price—but subjected to the closer scrutiny of recording, one begins to notice faulty German and lack of feeling for the text. Put on Lynne Dawson (Hogwood) and you hear a soprano who sings off the words, understands their meaning, has idiomatic German: the difference is arresting, as can be confirmed on listening to the recitative before ''Traurigkeit'' (Hogwood's slower tempo helps Dawson to make her points). Dawson hasn't Orgonasova's generous resources, so if you want ''Martern aller Arten'' sung in big, dramatic tone, it is Orgonasova who provides it, but even here it's Dawson who conveys the impression of a woman in extremis and surely that's what the aria, beyond its technical challenge, is about.
Olsen, the Belmonte, sounds as neat, compact, technically fluent as at the Royal Festival Hall, but similarly bland and wanting in variety of tone. Heilmann (Hogwood), perhaps the most accomplished Mozart tenor to come out of Germany since Schreier, is a more characterful more ardent, more virile hero than Olsen, though marginally less fluent in his runs. Both essay the recently discovered additions to Belmonte's third aria (as both sopranos offer the embellishments to ''Martern aller Arten''). There's little or nothing to choose between the two Pedrillos, both of whom are exemplary in aria and Serenade, and lively and pointful in their dialogue. Sieden is neither such a charming nor engaging a Blonde as Hirsti (Hogwood), who has a true smile in her tone, whereas her rival is a shade sharp-edged—compare their respective accounts of ''Welche Wonne''; nor is Sieden's German a match for Hirsti's.
No amount of bluster and verbal acrobatics can hide the fact that Hauptmann doesn't have the vocal wherewithal for Osmin; his low notes, an essential here, are virtually non-existent. Kannen (Hogwood), as SS indicated, has spruce articulation, full, rounded bottom notes. Both Selims make their mark in anger and magnanimity. I slightly prefer Hogwood's Hinze to Gardiner's Minetti because the former's voice is less rasping, but perhaps Minetti is more pointed in his declamation, thus fitting in with Gardiner's generally more strongly characterized performance.
In most cases, more of the dialogue is included on the Oiseau-Lyre set, helping to clarify some points of motivation left dangling in the new version. There's not much to choose between the recordings; both are excellent, but Archiv offers some stage noises not deemed necessary by their rival.'
Take the
As it happens, side by side comparisons of the respective casts also go almost entirely Hogwood's way. Now it may well be that others will enjoy Orgonasova as Constanze more than I did. In the concert performance at London's Royal Festival Hall that took place at the time of this 1991 (studio) recording, her full, exciting tone and splendid technique were rightly admired. On disc the same attributes are similarly commendable—indeed, her ''Martern aller Arten'' is the most commanding and heroic since that of Margaret Price—but subjected to the closer scrutiny of recording, one begins to notice faulty German and lack of feeling for the text. Put on Lynne Dawson (Hogwood) and you hear a soprano who sings off the words, understands their meaning, has idiomatic German: the difference is arresting, as can be confirmed on listening to the recitative before ''Traurigkeit'' (Hogwood's slower tempo helps Dawson to make her points). Dawson hasn't Orgonasova's generous resources, so if you want ''Martern aller Arten'' sung in big, dramatic tone, it is Orgonasova who provides it, but even here it's Dawson who conveys the impression of a woman in extremis and surely that's what the aria, beyond its technical challenge, is about.
Olsen, the Belmonte, sounds as neat, compact, technically fluent as at the Royal Festival Hall, but similarly bland and wanting in variety of tone. Heilmann (Hogwood), perhaps the most accomplished Mozart tenor to come out of Germany since Schreier, is a more characterful more ardent, more virile hero than Olsen, though marginally less fluent in his runs. Both essay the recently discovered additions to Belmonte's third aria (as both sopranos offer the embellishments to ''Martern aller Arten''). There's little or nothing to choose between the two Pedrillos, both of whom are exemplary in aria and Serenade, and lively and pointful in their dialogue. Sieden is neither such a charming nor engaging a Blonde as Hirsti (Hogwood), who has a true smile in her tone, whereas her rival is a shade sharp-edged—compare their respective accounts of ''Welche Wonne''; nor is Sieden's German a match for Hirsti's.
No amount of bluster and verbal acrobatics can hide the fact that Hauptmann doesn't have the vocal wherewithal for Osmin; his low notes, an essential here, are virtually non-existent. Kannen (Hogwood), as SS indicated, has spruce articulation, full, rounded bottom notes. Both Selims make their mark in anger and magnanimity. I slightly prefer Hogwood's Hinze to Gardiner's Minetti because the former's voice is less rasping, but perhaps Minetti is more pointed in his declamation, thus fitting in with Gardiner's generally more strongly characterized performance.
In most cases, more of the dialogue is included on the Oiseau-Lyre set, helping to clarify some points of motivation left dangling in the new version. There's not much to choose between the recordings; both are excellent, but Archiv offers some stage noises not deemed necessary by their rival.'
Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.