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Disc 1:

1. Ouverture 'Fidelio'
2. 1. Duett 'Jetzt, Schatzchen, Jetzt Sind Wir Allein'
3. 2. Arie 'O War' Ich Schon Mit Dir Vereint'
4. 3. Quartett 'Mir Ist So Wunderbar'
5. 4. Arie 'Hat Man Nicht Auch Gold Beineben'
6. 5. Terzett 'Gut, Sohnchen, Gut, Hab' Immer Mut'
7. 6. Marsch
8. 7. Arie Mit Chor 'Ha! Welch' Ein Augenblick!'
9. 8. Duett 'Jetzt, Alter, Jetzt Hat Es Eile!'
10. 9. Rezitativ & Arie 'Abscheulicher! Wo Eilst Du Hin?'
11. 10. Finale 'O Welche Lust!'
12. 'Nun Sprecht, Wie Ging's?'
13. 'Ach! Vater, Eilt!'

Disc 2:

1. 11. Introduktion
2. & Arie 'Gott! Welch' Dunkel Hier!'
3. 12. Melodram 'Wie Kalt Ist Es In Diesem Unterirdischen Gewolbe!'
4. & Duett 'Nur Hurtig Fort, Nur Frisch Gegraben'
5. 13. Terzett 'Euch Werde Lohn In Bessern Welten'
6. 14. Quartett 'Er Sterbe! Doch Er Soll Erst Wissen'
7. 7. (Dialogue) 'Vater Rocco! Veter Rocco!'/'Es Schlagt Der Rache Stunde!'
8. 15. Duett 'O Namenlose Freude!'
9. Ouverture 'Leonore Nr. 3'
10. 16. Finale 'Heil Sei Dem Tag'
11. 'Des Besten Konigs Wink Und Wille'
12. 'Du Schlossest Auf Des Edlen Grab'
13. 'Wer Ein Holdes Weib Errungen'

Rating: - Furtwängler's 1953 studio recording with Mödl, Windgassen and the VPO
SOURCE:
Studio recording made by EMI at the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna on October 13-17, 1953. Producer, Walter Legge.

SOUND:
Wilhelm Furtwängler was the ultimate prestige figure for EMI to the day he died in 1954, and Walter Legge was the company's most demanding producer. This recording was an example of the leading edge of recording technology for its era. Unfortunately, though, it was at the leading edge of mono recording at a time when stereo had already improved upon it in recording quality, if not yet in market penetration. EMI could have recorded this "Fidelio" in stereo without excessive difficulty at the time, but Walter Legge's curious blind spot with regard to stereo led him to drag his feet, and finally removed EMI from the forefront of recording excellence to a mere also-ran.

By current studio recording standards the sound on this recording is dull and a bit compressed. Those who care about such things inform me that there is some occasional distortion. It is noticeable in some of the big ensembles, but I have no intention of looking for it elsewhere. On the whole, nevertheless, the sound should be satisfactory to anyone but hopelessly afflicted audiophiles.

CAST:
LEONORE/FIDELIO, the ultimate fairthful wife - Martha Mödl (soprano)
FLORESTAN, Leonore's husand and a man driven to the utmost extreme - Wolfgang Windgassen (tenor)
DON PIZARRO, Florestan's enemy and the warden of his prison - Otto Edelmann (baritone)
ROCCO, a senior prison guard, an ordinary fellow just trying to get by who is forced to make a momentous decision - Gottlob Frick (bass)
MARZELLINE, Rocco's daughter - Sena Jurinac (soprano)
JAQUINO, a junior prison guard who loves Marzelline and is jealous of her interest in Fidelio - Rudolf Schock (tenor)
DON FERNANDO, Florestan's old friend and a high government official - Alfred Poell (bass)
FIRST PRISONER - Alwin Hendriks (tenor)
SECOND PRISONER - Franz Bierbach (bass)

CONDUCTOR:
Wilhelm Furtwängler, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna State Opera Chorus.

TEXT:
Beethoven's only opera premiered in Vienna in 1805, just as the city was being occupied by Napoleon's troops. It met with little success, leading the composer to revise it in 1806 and again in 1814. This recording presents the music of the 1814 revision. None of the dialogue spoken in the absence of music-if it were recorded at all for this performance-has been published. Between the first and second scenes of Act II, the Leonore Overture No. 3 has been inserted (and we are lucky to have it!)

COMMENTARY:
Beethoven, for all his genius, wasn't a man of theater in the way that he was a man of the concert hall, and his opera isn't much of an opera. Even by the generous standards applied to operatic libretti, the central conceit of "Fidelio," that a full-fledged, rip-roaring, dramatic soprano can casually pass for a callow boy whose voice has not yet changed, is ludicrous. Cherubino or Oscar or Siébel or even Octavian ... maybe, but Fidelio, never!

Moreover, "Fidelio" is not only undramatic in stage action, it's often downright static. This is attributable to the fact that the true drama of the piece is seldom to be found in the stage action but almost entirely in the music. And what music! Apart from two duds in the first act, the tedious boy-girl bickering of "Jetzt, Schätzen, jetzt sind wir allein" and Papa Rocco's dreary "Hat man nicht auch Gold beneimen"--a piece that lesser German stage composers such as Lortzing, Nicolai or Flotow would have rejected out of hand--the score is a necklace of beautiful, even sublime gems: the simple, yet wonderful quartet, "Mir is so wunderbar", Fidelio/Leonore's overwhelming "Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?", the quietly eloquent prisoners' chorus, "O welche Lust", Florestan's heart rending "Gott! Welch' Dunkel hier!", the ecstatic "O namenlose Freude!" and the magnificent closing tribute, "Wer ein holdes Weib errungen."

I have seen "Fidelio" in both staged and concert versions. Of the latter, I am content to assert that whatever failings Beethoven's work has as an opera, it might well be the greatest oratorio ever written.

It has become fashionable of late to cast off the trappings of Romanticism and treat "Fidelio" as a late example of Classicism. Producers have cast progressively lighter and lighter voices as Leonore/Fidelio and Florestan. Orchestras have been scaled down. Sonority has been cast off for supposed authenticity and crispness. If these things are to your taste, then walk away right now. This recording is not for you. This is the domain of Wilhelm Furtwängler, a giant among conductors whose sole peer was the very different Toscanini. Furtwängler was the most Romantic of conductors and his approach here was larger than life in every respect. The conductor was indifferent to the precision that Toscanini so valued and he regarded the written score as no more than a rough guideline for rhythm and dynamics. Under his hand, the score takes on a sinuous and idiosyncratic life that has a wholly different feel from more recent performances.

The cast of this "Fidelio" is a very strong one, although many fans would go on to say, not the very strongest. Even so, I doubt it could be equaled with today's singers. It certainly could not be bettered today. Of the great, heavy-weight, Germanic sopranos of the 1950s, Flagstad, Nilsson, Varnay and Mödl, Martha Mödl was perhaps the least on purely vocal terms. She was, however, often the most convincing in dramatic terms--and so she is here, or so it seems to me. The Good Grey Gramophone Magazine described her as "immersed in her role, somewhat effortful at times". This is true enough, but that very effortful quality gives enormous thrust and believability to her titanic "Abscheulicher." Wolfgang Windgassen was a Wagnerian tenor stalwart. He is fine but generic Florestan, not quite a match for the incisive Jon Vickers and a few others. The same is true of Edelmann as Don Pizarro, fine but not as good as, say, Neidlinger. Frick in those days was everybody's favorite Rocco. Jurinac and Schock presented an odd case, for they were too strong. If Florestan and Leonore are the apotheosis of almost more-than-human married love, Marzelline and Jaquino are equally representative of puppy love. Not long after this recording, Jurinac recorded a very satisfying, if comparatively light-voiced Leonora, and Schock might very well have filled in for Windgassen if called upon.

It hardly needs to be said that the Vienna Philharmonic is brilliantly at home in this piece of its core repertory.

I might be tempted to lop off a star for the omitted dialogue--but this is Furtwängler and Mödl, so forget that nonsense: five bright, shining, Romantic stars.

LEC/AM/1-08

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Rating: - A classic that no one should miss out on
First a word of caution: this is NOT the Oct 12, 1953 performance as advertised, but rather the studio recording that followed in its wake. That said, I disagree with John Ardoin's assesment that this is unsatisfactory. Furtwangler is incredibly inspired here, molding Fidelio into one coherent stream of music in a way that most conductors are unable to do. Klemperer was also able to do this, but (I know I'm in the minority here) I find his concept of Fidelio lacks spontaneity. There are just too many highlights to mention them all, suffice it to say that already in the overture, whipped up to an ecstatic frenzy like I've never heard before, you know you're in for something really special. Added to this, the Vienna Philharmonic play like gods (the winds descend from the heavens), the singers are either very good or truly extraordinary (some disagree, but I think Modl and Windgassen each give just the right balance of nobility and suffering, not to mention fine vocalism each), and the recording quality is excellent for the period, quite listenable even if you don't usually like historic recordings.