A new recording was badly needed, and I'm afraid it still is. This is one of the masterpieces of classical opera, quite arguably the supreme example of its kind. In the annals of Opera on Record (Hutchinson: 1979) it takes up little space, most of it by virtue of the 1952 Aix Festival recording under Giulini (EMI Electrola/Conifer). A recent reissue of this served as a reminder of the opera's greatness and the need for a version that would do it full justice. This new recording, despite its merits, serves principally to reinforce both points.
The pervasive merits, comparing the new with the old, are the greater refinement of the orchestral playing and the greater spaciousness and clarity of the recorded sound. The Aix orchestra responded well to Giulini's direction but would probably not match the Bavarian Radio Orchestra player for player. Such, at any rate, is the impression created by the 1952 recording, which certainly doesn't flatter with its boxy acoustic and old-fashioned bottom-heavy balance. To compensate, Giulini's conducting had more about it to inspire the players; good as Gardelli is, there are few moments where one feels the force of a new dramatic impulse or sees a particularly vivid picturing of the music's significance. For example, Giulini's storm at the opening of the opera is definitely not one to be out in, and when the jolly Scythians erupt on to the stage his more percussive attack gives their dance a more barbaric zest. Nearly always his accompaniments in the faster music have more urgency, though he sometimes exaggerates the slower tempos (as in the Priestesses' Chorus at the end of Act 2) where Gardelli's grace and moderation are admirable.
Of the singers, only one improves on the Aix cast. Fischer-Dieskau brings such subtlety and imagination to the relatively nasty, brutish and short role of Thoas that he seems the only character endowed with full, credible life. In the earlier set Robert Massard sings more evenly but gives an entirely routine account of the role. Setting Fischer-Dieskau's performance side by side with his and comparing phrase by phrase gives as good a lesson in the art of the interpreter as any (or as any since one last studied something in detail by this extraordinary man who illuminates whatever he touches). Otherwise, it is no gain to exchange Leopold Simoneau for Franco Bonisolli—who nevertheless sings conscientiously and has more heroic weight for ''Divinites de grandes ames''—and it is sheer loss to have the uneven Walton Groenroos instead of the remarkably vivid Pierre Mollet as Oreste. Most serious, though, is the inadequacy of Pilar Lorengar as Iphigenie. Her voice now records unpleasingly, with a tremulous quality and without warmth of tone. Patricia Neway was far from ideal, but I could listen to her; Lorengar becomes quickly very wearing, especially as she has not the resources of colour in the voice to give life to a role that really needs a Callas to do it justice dramatically. On the credit side, the new recording has a better chorus than the old, and it restores two short cuts, one in the Eumenides scene, the other some recitative before the duet of Pylade and Oreste in Act 3. But it would be a very high-principled purist whom this would reconcile to the prospect of buying three records instead of two.'