[.ca] Der Freischutz Comp

From Amazon.com:
Der Freischütz is one of the great milestones in the history of opera. The resounding success of its premiere in 1821 practically made it a manifesto for German Romantic opera, one that would become a significant formative influence on Wagner. Although it has its roots in the Singspiel tradition exemplified by Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Der Freischütz cut new ground with its potent mixture of supernatural elements, dreams, folk melodies, evocations of nature, and symphonic tone painting. Here, von Weber exploited his brilliant orchestral imagination--using, for example, carefully divided string tremolos and a gleaming choir of four horns--to maximum effect. This legendary recording from 1973 was Carlos Kleiber's first studio project, and the scrupulous attention he lavished on the score resulted in an interpretation that continues to sound bold, fresh, and authoritative. The Dresden Staatskapelle plays in top form, whether in tenderly sprung wind solos or in the truly spooky atmospherics of the famous Wolf's Glen scene. Peter Schreier's dark, pungent tenor is something of an acquired taste, but he gives fervent voice to the despair of hunter/protagonist Max. Gundula Janowitz sings with stirring beauty and enriches the two-dimensional character of Max's beloved Agathe with remarkable depth, revealing both her innocence and her agonized foreboding. And Theo Adam delivers a thoroughly spiteful, loathesome vocal portrait of the nefarious Kaspar, whose pact with the devil Samiel goes awry. For a work that is not performed nearly as often as it deserves to be, this recording is essential. --Thomas May

Un Essentiel amazon.fr:
Chaque nouvelle parution de Kleiber est un événement et ce Freischütz, gravé en 1974, fit grand bruit, ce qui est logique venant d'un chef inaccessible et, comme tel, le plus recherché de la planète ! La distribution tout d'abord est exceptionnelle (Janowitz, Weikl, Mathis, Adam, Schreier...), les choeurs sont d'une cohésion sans faille. Bien que gravé en studio, la distribution joue à merveille des effets sonores, comme s'il s'agissait d'un enregistrement public. Quant à la direction, elle est à ce point minérale, fouillée, qu'il s'agit tout simplement d'une perfection. Les timbres acérés (petite harmonie) de la Staatskapelle de Dresde, la densité des cordes sont extraordinaires de discipline : les pupitres semblent respirer en toute liberté alors que règnent la rigueur, l'intransigeance qui ordonne jusqu'aux climats. Kleiber songe probablement autant à Mozart qu'à Mendelssohn ou à Schumann. -- Pierre Massé

Viktoria! Der Meister soll leben!:
I have had this recording for 25 years...I have both LP and CD. It fully deserves all the awards it got, and is one of the great recordings of the 20th century. The music is direct and forceful; check out the introduction to Kaspar's Drinking Song for some terrifically driving downbeats. During the casting of the magic bullets in the Wolf's Glen at midnight, you really feel as if the the natural world has been turned askew. All this is helped by Weber's decision to have the intervening dialogue spoken rather than subject us to dreary recitative. Even people who don't like opera will get a charge out of this one, which opens and closes to the sound of gunfire. The Huntsmen's Chorus has to be one of the most vigorous numbers in all of classical opera, and it is brilliantly rendered here. It has been claimed that the peasants' dance is played too fast, but that brings out these people's frantic search for enjoyment. The peasants are not really happy, as you can tell from the way they heckle Max. Jealousy, rivalry, resentment...these are the prevailing feelings which pave the way for the strange events that follow. And it's wonderful the way the last notes of the dance fade into the soliloquy Länger traf ich nicht die Qualen. This recording is done by the orchestra Weber once directed, Staatskappelle Dresden. The events in the story take place in the strange sandstone hills and dense forests just south of the city (so beautifully portrayed by Weber's contemporary Caspar David Friedrich), so the musicians are able to imbibe the atmosphere. This was all part of East Germany at the time of performance, so the ambience of cruelty and hypocrisy would easily be accessible to the performers. I knew a young lady who visited Dresden just after reunification and exclaimed "the city was full of ghosts". Carlos Kleiber conducts with great passion. He grew up and studied music in Buenos Aires, where his father Erich was a conductor at the Teatro Colón (associated with such great names as Manuel de Falla), and Carlos seems to have picked up a certain amount of Latino panache. No musical collection is complete without this work.

Fine but Overrated:
There are no serious flaws in this recording of "Der Freischutz;" in fact, it is a well above-average performance. I just don't understand all the gushing adulation. There are better renditions than this one: my own favorite is the Jochum, again on Deutsche Grammaphon, but I would also place those by Keilberth and Furtwangler comfortably above the achievement under discussion here. Kleiber's conducting exudes excitement but also a certain hardness because it is so hard-driven. The cast is good but surpassed by the competition elsewhere (only Franz Crass' Hermit seems definitive to me), and the actors brought in to speak the dialogue have voices that bear little resemblence to the singers' voices, a distracting device for those with discerning ears. If a record collector were to purchase only one "Freischutz" for his library, this would be a safe enough choice; I would just caution him not to be engulfed by the hype. This recording is not so indisputably pre-eminent as the commentary suggests.

Classic Entertainment.:
This is a good recording of a great little opera that is not nearly as popular as it should be. The only drawback to this recording is that the dialogue is spoken by actors instead of the actual singers, which can give the recording an over-produced feeling. The music is what counts though, and in that department this recording succeeds. And it has the libretto!

A little fast, but thrilling:
I love this opera and this recording is truly first rate when it comes to the acting and the expressiveness of the singers. It is a litle too fast for me, though. The speedy tempo makes the Wolf's Glen scene truly spooky and the it tends to move the rest of the score along in some of the slower parts. The problem is that notes are lost in the process. Weber wrote into this opera some beautiful orchestral nuances that disappear as everyone seems to hop on the expressway and rushes to finish out the score. The EMI recording with Birgit Nilsson and Nicholai Gedda under Heger is much slower, filling out the richness of Weber's Bel Canto sound, but losing some of the punch that this recording has. I have yet to find a recording that is slow when it needs to be slow and fast when it needs to be fast. Everyone seems to take the entire opera at the initial tempo with little variability. In the end, DG's recording comes up first because it makes your heart pound. Janowitz and Schreier are second to none in their expression and vocal acting and the Wolf's Glen is a rushing mass of terror. All in all, a good recording with everyone in top form.

5 stars depite the jerks at DG:
This is, quite simply, the best recording of this incredibly important opera that you can find. It does Weber credit that after 200 years the Wolf's Glen scene can still make a person shudder. Cast and orchestra are in spectacular form, and the interscene dialogue in nicely truncated to keep things moving forward. My big gripe about this album is that DG's rerelease does away with all the liner notes that were a great addition to the initial release. Even the excellent (menacing!) cover art is placed askew. I realize that you can't beat th new price, but even Naxos provides a full libretto with their operas (for even cheaper). So, buy it, but narrow your eyes a little in protest at this new habit of stripped-down re-releases.

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