Schreker Der ferne Klang: new recording

[brendangcarroll]

I hope this hasn't been posted here before (I  have done a search and there seems to be no mention of it)

The 2019 Frankfurt Opera production of Schreker's 'Der ferne Klang', an important yet unjustly neglected 20th century opera first performed in 1912, is to be released on disc, in April, by Oehms Classics:-


https://naxosdirect.com/items/schreker-der-ferne-klang-557494

[Alan Howe]

Interesting. Usual question: are the singers any good? Will this be an improvement on existing recordings? Weigle in Frankfurt's a really good start (orchestrally), but...

[der79sebas]

I have attended this performance and the tenor was absolutely horrible - one cannot say that he sang any correct notes (or sang at all). It comes as a big suprise for me to see this out on cd - I have all commercially Schreker recordings existing, but I will definitely not buy this one.

[Alan Howe]

Sunk without trace before it's released, then?

[Gareth Vaughan]

I don't believe any of the currently available recordings of this fascinating work is entirely satisfactory. Alan, which one, in your opinion is the most acceptable vocally?

[Alan Howe]

I'm no expert, I'm afraid. I have the recordings conducted by Gerd Albrecht on Capriccio which features much better-known singers, e.g. Gabriele Schnaut (a piercingly powerful dramatic sporano), Thomas Moser (a rather unlovely tenor), etc., and by Michael Halász on Naxos, with less well-known soloists. Both are reasonably good overall, I'd say. At a guess, the new recording will be excellent orchestrally, but less good vocally - which is typical these days of recordings in the broad Wagner-Strauss-Schreker-Korngold area of the operatic repertoire.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thanks, Alan. I have only the Halasz (in its original Marco Polo packaging) which is so-so. I must try the Capriccio, but the piece really needs a good tenor.

[Alan Howe]

I musy try the Capriccio, but the piece really needs a good tenor.

Try this - Moser was in his mid-forties at the time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt2-Ze2I6kA

[Alan Howe]

That's a very good summary, John - thanks.

[Alan Howe]

Just to expand on the issue of problematic casting, this paragraph from Ralph Moore's review of a new recording of Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle over at MusicWeb could well apply to many, if not most of the recent recordings of the corner of the repertoire we're discussing here:

So what could go wrong? Nothing, it seems, until Vörös' first, held top G on "Kékszákállú" (Bluebeard) which wobbles distressingly. Every subsequent top note then exhibits the same, egregious, technical flaw. The famous "Fifth Door" top C is predictably unsteady, sharp and curtailed, so the grandest moment in opera falls short. I don't care if, as the notes tell us, Vörös has been the winner of numerous prizes and is now an international artist, no great or even good singer exhibits this fault – except for Callas during the less secure stages of her career, but even she heeded Legge's warnings and mostly addressed the issue. I'm sorry but this brings out the ranter in me and I start to resemble the disturbing photograph of the composer on page 49 of the booklet in which he glares at some unseen object with wild, staring eyes: how is it possible to get everything so right then fatally counter all that first-rate preparation by engaging a singer whose voice is so compromised by this failing? It might be argued that I am complaining about only a few top notes above F but they all come as part of grand climaxes and need to be clean, steely and properly pulsed in the manner we hear from the great exponents of Judit such as Ludwig, Norman and Troyanos if their full dramatic effect is to be realised.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Mar/Bartok-Bluebeard-BIS2388.htm

[adriano]

Who would ever believe that one day Schreker's "Der ferne Kang" would be performed so many times and - even be recorded!

Quite interesting - and excellently and very sensitively conducted - I find the (live) recording from Augsburg under the baton of Dirk Kaftan... The conductor has understood this opera perfectly; he knows exactly how and where the verismo and Jugendstil aspects should be emphasized - and enjoyed.

This CD was issued by Ars Produktion in 2010. It has a sensational aspect: the sound engineering is simply stunning. You hear every instrument of the orchestra, every little effect - and therefore you realise that Schreker has many chamber-like moments in this large orchestra score! I also like the singers, but I don't want to discuss on this in here anymore. Finally, it's also a matter of personal taste...

Looking back: A pity that the excellent ORF concert performance of 1976 (conducted by Ernst Märzendorfer) was never issued commercially. I still cherish my old bootleg LP - which I have digitised in the meantime... Tenor Eberhard Büchner is, in my opinion, great and perfectly fitting - as is soprano Maria de Francesca. Rudolf Mazzola and Claudio Nicolai should also be mentioned. That's the recording I have listened to most frequently, together, of course, with the two earlier Ferne Klang broadcasts 1948 and 1955, both conducted by Winfried Zillig (and available on CD). They sound so authentic! It's the same feeling like watching an old silent film and being immediately reprojected into the atmosphere of past times...

[Alan Howe]

Well, judging by these excerpts, the tenor (the American, Ian Koziara) is actually very listenable. This might be worth a punt after all...

[der79sebas]

And judging by these excerpts, the tenor is actually not at all listenable. A small, quavering voice quite off-pitch and with horrible German (or the like) pronunciation:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8893603--schreker-der-ferne-klang

[Alan Howe]

Sorry, that's the link I intended to post - and promptly forgot!

We must be listening to two different tenors, though! Here is Ian Koziara in, inter alia, Wagner where we can hear him at greater length:
https://www.iankoziara.com/media
The Frank Bridge song ('Love went a-riding') is a truly awe-inspiring piece of singing!

Mr Koziara actually has rather an old-fashioned voice with a fast vibrato, but I rather like it - so different from the slow, wide vibrato wobblers we usually hear in this reperoire these days. All a matter of taste, of course, but I predict a big career for this powerful singer. Not a small voice at all, incidentally! As for his German, well, I'm a German-speaker and I'll forgive him for not being a native of that country...

In short, I'll definitely be buying this set.