This four-CD set features Der
Rosenkavalier recorded live at the 1949 Salzburg Festival, conducted by
George Szell — who never made a complete opera recording in his great career. Among the starry cast is
Maria Reining as the Marschallin, Jarmila Novotná as Octavian and Hilde Güden
as Sophie. An extra disc's worth of historic excerpts includes numbers from the famous 1933 recording
of the opera with Lotte Lehmann.
In the last decades of the 20th century, it became fashionable among certain
directors to transplant the action of familiar operas into decidedly unfamiliar
settings. Some of these stagings have become famous: Rigoletto played out
as a Mafia drama, Tannhäuser placed in an international airport and Le
Nozze di Figaro perched atop a Manhattan high-rise.
Whatever the merits of an occasional heresy, it is probably wise to leave aside such a makeover when it comes to Der Rosenkavalier, which belongs, now and forever, to Vienna — musically, dramatically and spiritually. Or, to adapt a famous truism: it may be possible to take Der Rosenkavalier out of Vienna, but it is triumphantly impossible to take Vienna out of Der Rosenkavalier.
The present collection features the Vienna Philharmonic in two historic productions of Richard Strauss' "waltz opera." The first is a complete performance from the 1949 Salzburg Festival, under the direction of George Szell; the latter is the legendary collection of excerpts, led by Robert Heger, through which generations of listeners first came to know and love this magnificent score.
Szell was renowned as a strict disciplinarian, exacting and sometimes excoriating in his pursuit of perfection. Not surprisingly, this is an unusually lithe Rosenkavalier, with a decided spring to its step; some will find it rather fast. Still, Szell's emphasis on the oft-neglected neo-Classical elements in the score is welcome; for once, the careful listener can discern prefigurations of Ariadne auf Naxos, Daphne and Capriccio amid the profusion of orchestral opulence.
Two of Szell's soloists — Maria Reining as the Marschallin and Hilde Güden as Sophie — would later participate in Erich Kleiber's complete studio version of Der Rosenkavalier, issued by Decca in 1954, which has become one of the most celebrated opera recordings of all time. But both women were five years younger in this Salzburg performance, and it makes a difference, particularly in the case of Reining, whose voice takes on a resplendent luster well-suited to her character (who is, after all, only supposed to be in her early 30s).
Jarmila Novotná, who never recorded the role commercially, is an ardent, delightfully impetuous Octavian, and Jaro Prohaska brings an appropriate gruffness to the part of Baron Ochs. Special note should be made of Helge Rosvaenge's marvelously hammy portrayal of the Italian Singer. The beauty of this music has inspired many latter-day interpreters to sing it straight, thereby neglecting the parodic qualities that Strauss surely intended; Rosvaenge bawls it out with lachrymose effusion.
The Heger interpretation has now been available for almost 70 years without pause, as befits a classic. The performance's only failing is its recorded sound, which was constricted and substandard even for 1933. Much effort has been expended for the new transfer of the excerpts presented here, correcting a number of the acoustic shortfalls. Lotte Lehmann brings unmatched warmth, intelligence and authority to the role of the Marschallin; Elisabeth Schumann's silvery, ecstatic Sophie remains the standard by which all others are judged, and Richard Mayr continues to strike me as the perfect Baron Ochs — lust without leering, frank hedonism without debasement and silliness without buffoonery. In short, here is Der Rosenkavalier in all of its sumptuous glory.
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