Buy it now from Amazon
Ariadne Auf Naxos
R. Strauss, Schwarzkopf, Seefried, Karajan
Angel Records
- List price: $32.98
- Lowest new price: $49.99
- Lowest used price: $19.95
Ov - Philharmonia Orch Herbert Von Karajan- Mein Herr Haushofmeister! - Karl Donch Alfred Neugebauer Otakar Kraus Gerhard Unger
- Lieber Freund! Verschaffen Sie Mir Die Geigen - Irmgard Seefried Otakar Kraus
- O, Ich Mocht' Vieles Andern Noch In Zwolfter Stund' - Irmgard Seefried
- Des! Fur Einen Bacchus! - Rudolf Schock Irmgard SeefriedErich Strauss
- Erst Nach Der Oper Kommen Wir Daran - Rita Streich Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Karl Donch Irmgard Seefried Hufues Cuenod
- Nach Meiner Oper? - Irmgard Seefried Karl Donch
- Meine Partner! Meine Erprobten Freunde! - Otakar Kraus Karl Donch Alfred Neugebauer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Hugues Cuenod
- Die Herrschaften Stehen Vom Tisch Auf! - Otakar Kraus Karl Donch Alfred Neugebauer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Hugues Cuenod...
- Ariadne Auf Naxos, Herr - Irmgard Seefried Hugues Cuenod Alfred Neugebauer Karl Donch
- Nein, Herr, So Kommt Es Nicht! - Irmgard Seefried Rita Streich Karl Donch
- Kindskopf! Merkt Auf, Wir Spielen Mit In Dem Stuck 'Ariadne Auf Naxos'... - Rita Streich Irmgard Seefried
- An Ihre Platze, Meine Damen Und Herren! - Karl Donch Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Irmgard Seefried
- Ov - Philharmonia Orch Herbert Von Karajan
- Schlaft Sie? - Lisa Otto Grace Hoffman Anny Felbermayer
- Ach! Wo War Ich? - Elisabeth Schwarzkoph Anny Felbermayer Hermann Prey Rita Streich Fritz Ollendorf
- Ein Schones War, Hies Theseus-Ariadne... - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Lisa Otto Grace Hoffman Irmgard Seefried Hugues Cuenod
- Ach, So Versuchet Doch Ein Kleines Lied! - Rita Streich Hermann Prey
- Es Gibt Ein Reich, Wo Alles Rein Ist - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
- Die Dame Gibt Mit Trubem Sinn - Helmut Krebs Gerhard unger Hermann Prey Fritz Ollendorf Rita Streich
- Grobmachtige Prinzessin, Wer Vestunde Nicht - Rita Streich
- Hubsch Gepredigt! Aber Tauben Ohren! - Hermann Prey Rita Streich Helmut Krebs Gerhard Unger Fritz Ollendorf
- Ein Schones Wunder! - Grace Hoffman Lisa Otto Anny Felbermayer
- Circe, Circe, Kannst Du Mich Horen? - Rudolf Schock Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Lisa Otto Grace Hoffman Anny Felbermayer
- Du Schones Wesen! - Rudolf Schock Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
- Ein Ich Ein Gott, Schuf Mich Ein Gott - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Rudolf Schock Lisa Otto Grace Hoffman Anny Felbermayer Rita Streich
- Gibt Es Kein Hinuber? - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Rudolf Schock Lisa Otto Grace Hoffman Anny Felbermayer Rita Streich
Average customer rating:
Where is the drama?
I have heard this recording several times and I still cannot find any drama here. No uplifting introspective singing in "Es gibt ein Reich", no fun when the troupe comes in right after Ariadne sings it.
I find this recording the usual boring undramatic Strauss conducted by Karajan. I have also written a review about Karajan's Rosenkavalier recording and the same undramatic approach is here.
All the singers sing well, especially Irmgard Seefried and Rita Streich. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf does too much cooing, too much oo'ing and ah'ing that it also becomes funny. I also, strangely, find her tone a little sour here and there. Rudolf Schock is a bit strained and gets to be a little uncomfortable.
The sound favors the singers greatly, which I find a pity since Strauss' orchestrations are so rich.
If you are looking for a great Ariadne auf Naxos recording with drama and great singing go for Bohm's 1944 recording with Maria Reining as a magnificent Primadonna/Ariadne, Irmgard Seefried as the composer (even better than she is here). Only Max Lorenz can be a little tiresome if you aren't used to his voice and his style. I find him really great but it is an acquired taste.
But best of all is Karl Bohm's conducting, so full of drama, insight and fun that this recording become boring by comparison.
My Favorite Ariadne
This 1954 recording has been surpassed in sound but never in performance quality. This is an outstanding ensemble effort led by the relatively young Karajan's elegant and witty conducting. The Philharmonia is in vintage form and responds beautifully to his baton.
In the title role, Schwarzkopf turns in a wonderful performance of a role she never sang onstage. Walter Legge, her husband and producer of the recording, wrote years later that she "hankered" after the role but circumstances always prevented it from going into her stage repertory. Her "lieder" style of operatic singing is well suited to the nuances of the part and her singing of Ariadne's first lament is very moving. In contrast, she turns makes an appropriate comic impression with her limited appearance as the haughty prima donna of the prologue. If you are allergic to her style, you won't care much for it, because it is a textbook example of how she brought a character to life through verbal nuance and vocal color. She was also still in her 30s at the time and in fresh voice. Other sopranos, Janowitz and Norman for instance, have brought a fuller timbre to Ariadne's demanding music but Schwarzkopf's artistry and finespun tone are treasurable in their own right.
Irmgard Seefried's Composer is probably her finest achievement on disc and my favorite traversal of the part. It is a wonderful memento of a great singer.
Rita Streich is an expert and comic Zerbinetta who sails easily through the fiendish coloratura of her big aria. She is also seductive in the prologue and the mainspring of the ensembles. No matter the difficulties of the part, she never loses the sweetness of her youthful tone.
Rudolf Shock does as well as the recorded competition as Bacchus, Frey and King possibly excepted. The part isn't very gratefully written in the first place and seems difficult to characterize.
The smaller parts are all nicely sung and include some wonderful singers -Hugues Cuenod, Gerhard Unger, Lisa Otto, and the young Hermann Prey, for example.
EMI has done very well by the sound of this half century old recording in this latest re-issue. It is a definite improvement over the harshness and occasional break up of the EMI Studio release(CMS 7 69296 2). You won't mistake it for state of the art, but it doesn't compromise a great performance. This is still my favorite. The runner up (Rysanek/Jurinac/Peters/Peerce under Leinsdorf on Decca) is no longer available. If you must have stereo, Janowitz/Kempe, Norman/Masur, and Voigt/Sinopoli are all good choices.
Which 'Ariadne auf Naxos' to buy?
Strauss's chamber opera, preceded by a theatrical spoof as a first act, has had devoted -- even besotted -- admirers since it first appeared. There have been half a dozen notable recordings in the modern era, but I think only four are serious rivals for top place. Let me give the pluses and minuses of each as fairly as I can.
1954 Karajan (EMI) - The Karajan set hasn't been out of print for over fifty years, and its two biggest pluses are unarguable: a dream cast of hand-picked singers and the young Karajan's superb conducting. Schwarzkopf gives one of her greatest performances in the title role, a miracle of technique and characterization. All the other roles match hers in theatricalaity and freshness. Rita Streich amazes with her accuracy and briliance in the coloratura role of Zerbinetta. The weak link (this will become a familiar theme) is the tenor who must engage the voice-killing role of Bacchus. Rudolf Schock sounds tight and strained, but overall he's doing as good a job as all but the very best.
The minues are few, consisting mainly of the boxy, dry mono sound that remastering can't disguise. At least EMI has managed to remove some shirlliness from the high frequencies, and one can say that the final product is quite listenable.
1987 Levine (DG) - I am skipping ovver a Sixties recording under Kempe (EMI) that some critics rate very high. I much prefer James Levine, who made the first recording of Ariadne on CD. He leads members of the Vienna Phil. in a sweet-toned, deliberately paced reading that is quite sumptuous. His cast mirrors a very good night at either the Met or the Vienna State Opera. Tomova-Sintov gives her all dramatically as Ariadne, and despite some vocal strain, she triumphs in the role of the vulnerable stranded heroine. Even better is Kathleen Battle as the most coquettish and sweet-voiced of Zerbinettas. Levine had picked Gary Lakes as his Siegmund in Walkure, but the Texas heldentenor was never a star. Here he's quite good, however, as Bacchus, despite some tightness in the upper range.
There are no serious minuses. The unremastered digital sound tends to be a bit metallic and shrill in the upper ranges, but not seriously so.
1988 Masur (Philips) -- Coming so soon after Levine's set, Masur's is equally impressive overall, even if it's not the last word in theatricality. The conducting is solid Kapellmeister work without being brilliant, yet Masur has an ace in the hole with the recorded sound, which is airy, detailed, and delicious -- no rival comes close. His Leipzig Gewandhaus musicians play with refinement and delicacy, making up for Masur's occasional lack of dramatic thrust. The cast is dominated by the stellar Ariadne of Jesseye Norman, the only modern soprano to give Schwarzkopf a run for her money. As always, Norman doesn't bother to offer much in the way of character -- she lets her sumptous, effortless singing carry the day, and it does. Her Bacchus is the effective but hardly great Canadian heldentenor Paul Frey, who otherwise never had much of a recorded career. Edita Gruberova was an authoritative Zerbinetta on stage; I find her a bit edgy and too mature, however. Special mention should be made of the famous husband-and-wife team, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Julia Varady, who are outstanding as the Music Master and Composer (Varady is surprisingly successful at bringing a sosprano voice to a role usual taken by mezzos).
The minuses are negligible. For me the pacing is a bit staid, and I wish Norman were more than a glorious voice.
2001 Sinopoli (DG) - This set was released just after Sinopoli's premature death while conducting Aida in Berlin, and it's a fitting tribute to his vivid, imaginative way with Strauss. Acclaimed for his Salome with Cheryl Studer (DG), Sinopoli is jsut as good with Ariadne. His singers are the second 'dream cast' that this fortunate opera has received over the years. As a pair, the Ariadne and Bacchus have never been bettered. Deborah Voigt has a perfect Strauss voice, and Ben Heppner delivers a thrilling Bacchus that is far ahead of the competition for ease, sweetness, and musicality. Voigt can't match Schwarzkopf in dramatic authority, but the sheer sound that these two singers make is ravishing. The supporting cast is nearly flawless, and althoiugh I don't respond especially to Natalie Dessay's Zerbinetta, finding it more a technical feat than a lovable coquette, she is exemplary in the role.
In my view there are no minuses to this set. One can nitpick that certain singers aren't the very best in their roles, yet they all come close.
The final result, then, is that any lover of this unique opera should try to own two versions, the classic 1954 Karajan, particularly for Schwarzkopf's matchless contribution, and the 2001 Sinopoli, the closest modern equivalent to the Karajan. I can't narrow the competition down to just one winner, because some listeners won't be able to tolerate the boxy mono sound of the Karajan, while others may be set against Sinopoli on principle because he is too individual and willful. In any case, Ariadne has been amazingly well srved on CD. Few if any other Strauss operas have received four recordings of such high quality.
Una gran interpretación discográfica
Esta grabación de Ariadne auf Naxos, es uno de los máximos logros del exitosísimo productor Walter Legge para el sello discográfico EMI en los cincuenta. Este experimentado y muy hábil productor tenía la gran capacidad de reunir cast absolutamente ideales, con lo mejor que ofrecía el panorama lírico de los años cincuenta (época gloriosa por lo demas, plena de grandes artistas). Lograr un trío femenino conformado por Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Irmgard Seefried y Rita Streich es un mérito que deberá agradecérsele por mucho tiempo. Es difícil conseguir hoy en día un trío de artistas tan espectacular y completo como este. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf puede considerarse la mejor Ariadne discográfica, su estilo depurado pero a la vez expresivo, su conocimiento profundo del idioma alemán y su voz tan especial le hacen interpretar, por ejemplo, una versión ideal del aria "Es gibt ein reicht". Por su lado, Irmgard Seefried es un compositor magnífico. La de la Seefried era otra voz prodigiosa, ligeramente aterciopelada, de gran elegancia, buen gusto y sobre todo muy idiomática. La Zerbinetta de Rita Streich es absolutamente proverbial. Su difícil aria "Grossmachtige Prinzessin" está interpretada no solo con una habilidad técnica digna del mejor elogio, sino también con un fraseo muy apropiado para el personaje, valiéndose de una voz cuya naturalidad de emisión y timbre penetrante eran realmente fascinantes. Rudolf Schock fue un excelente tenor, con voz heroica y fraseo amplio y contundente, ideales por lo demás para el personaje de Bacchus. Hasta las ninfas están interpretadas por cantantes de primera categoría (Grace Hoffman, Anny Felbermayer y Lisa Otto). No debemos olvidar al Arlecchino de ese gran barítono alemán llamado Herman Prey, en una de sus primeras grabaciones.
La dirección de Karajan es fantástica, sutil y delicada. El gran maestro austriaco era un gran amante de los sonidos orquestales tersos y hedonistas, y de la elegancia en el discurso musical. En una obra como esta, estos criterios encajan a la perfección. Sobre todo en el segundo acto, da una imagen de magia y vaporoso lirismo de verdadera antología. Versión imprescindible por lo tanto, que debe formar parte de la colección discográfica de cualquier amante de la música en general y de las obras de Richard Strauss en particular.
Stunning Strauss
This cast is perfection. "Ariadne" is absolutely musically gorgeous in spite of the silly story.