With Janowski’s new recording of this opera (Pentatone, 2/20) and the Vienna Euryanthe on both CD and DVD (Capriccio, 11/19; Naxos, 6/20), there appears to be something of a (welcome) Weber revival on disc. Essen’s previous recordings have been of rarer repertoire (Hans Heiling, Le prophète, Asrael) but the especial focus of this live Freischütz must have seemed worth preserving.

Arguably the stars here are Netopil and the orchestra. The players may be outranked by status in recorded competition but their conductor’s always dancelike pointing of the score and careful delivery of Weber’s ever-precise dynamics (especially when things get loud or spooky) make this a treasurable performance to return to. It also sounds well gauged to the capabilities of the cast, which includes a lighter than once usual Caspar and a heavier than usual Aennchen. Both romantic leads, Muirhead and Schmitt, are intense but refreshingly not over-weighty.

The spoken text follows Kind’s dramaturgy and his atmosphere while being trimmed a little by the production’s stage director, Tatjana Gürbaca. There are a couple of modish adjustments to get used to but even without the advantage of a video these seem to work quite well, and even rather to amplify the opéra comique aspect of the work. Samiel’s part is spoken by the chorus unisono and is effective and still ghostly (apart from becoming a little inaudible at the start of the Wolf’s Glen scene). Also, head ranger Cuno’s narration of the magic bullet legend is divided up between chorus voices – again, no harm done. The live recording (from three performances) has a couple of jumpy edits where it’s hard to know if they’re duplicating what happened onstage – most extremely, Act 2 begins very attacca indeed on the end of Caspar’s black aria ‘Schweig …’. And some of the pauses in the dialogue might have been trimmed without the advantage of a picture to watch. The booklet’s libretto has no English translation – a shame with this sometimes tricky text – and makes a mess of the Act 2 scene 1 Trio when Max departs for the Wolf’s Glen.

As I have hinted, the rich Freischütz catalogue (especially the Kleibers, Keilberth and Harnoncourt) provides starry competition on carefully edited recordings. Here the natural joy of a live occasion and the work of the conductor have something valuable to offer and should not be overlooked.