In Search of a Master 'Meistersinger'

...From the first bars of the rousing overture to the final chorus, the brilliance of then playing becomes almost visual, lochum guides them through Wagner's thematic transformations with a sureness of dramatic and emotional shading that is at once unforced and convincing, enlightening and profound Given the current state of the art of singing in general and the dearth of great Wagnenans in particular, it is not altogether surprising that none of these conductors can marshal a wholly satisfying ensemble Von Karajan confronts the problem by systematic miscasting, filling heroic parts with lightweights Like the orchestra, his singers give bloodless performances, unlike the instrumentalists, they are flawed technicians They mouth their roles with hothouse affectation, and their languid, cautious delivery illuminates neither the text nor the music Helen Donath goes fluting primly through Eva's soaring lines, Rene Kollo sings Walther in an un-pliant, colorless voice, exhibiting a personality of drab candor, like a moping choirboy, Theo Adam's Sachs is not memorable for insight or vocal authority The pleasures of the recording are minor, or, at best, tainted Geraint Evans, a sharp comedian, understands the obtuseness at the root of Beckmesser's quirky, sly pedantry, and he etches the figure with wit, yet the sounds he emits so crisply are not invariably those of the German language And because von Karajan rules out large vocal gestures, Karl Ridderbusch, the Pogner, has to scale down his opulent bass almost to speech Kurt Moll makes a cameo appearance, prodigally cast, as the Night Watchman, unfortunately, the lovely sonority of his singing can only be heard for somewhat less than 60 seconds Varviso allows his performers to sing out, but their full-throated participation does not ennoble them Brawny Jean Cox sings Walther without so much as a blush of lyricism, and when Hannelore Bode, as Eva, refers to herself as a child we marvel at the apparent self-delusions of the gargling matron Ridderbusch, here graduated to the tremendous role of Sachs, deploys his magnificent instrument to handsome effect without actually showing much polish, hurried along by Varviso, he has little chance to demonstrate his dramatic sensitivity Hans Sotin, whose vocal equipment could hardly be more aristocratic, mars his Pogner by hooting his high notes and presenting a peremptory, frosty character Klaus Hirte does a little better as Beck-messer He bites and spits his syllables, yet since the character's music is deliberately arid this habit is not distressing Solti's Eva and Walter are the unpromising team of Bode and Kollo, whose contributions do not greatly differ from their earlier efforts This recording does boast some outstanding work, though Bernd Weikl sings the formula-spouting poetaster Beck-messer with unusual musicality and compassion, and his humane characterization serves the opera better than the more conventional savage lampoon Norman Bailey rightly enjoys great admiration on the stages of the world for his warm, authoritative portrayal of Sachs Admittedly a gruff vocalist at times, he seems (especially in the monologues) to hear the beauty of the phrases as he sings them, and by some unfathomable mystery, to communicate that magnificence through his imperfect sounds As Pogner, the goldsmith who offers his child as prize in the singing contest, Kurt Moll is best of all Pog-ner's love for Eva prompts him to set up an escape clause, while she may choose no other husband than the victor, she does have the option of rejecting him Nonetheless, the father comes to rue the way he has foolishly risked her happiness, and rejoices in Sachs' timely intervention Moll brings to this role a rich voice, a superb cantabile line and a generous, understanding mind His moving portrayal presages a peerless Sachs to come In Jochum's cast, there is much to savor, particularly in the minor parts Christa Ludwig gives Magdalene, Eva's amorous nurse, lusty charm and vivacity, and Gerd Feldhoff, as Fritz Kothner, chairman of the guild of the master singers, delivers his pompous lines with an hauteur at once comic and intimidating In the case of the principals Jochum's gambles have produced mixed results The dramatic soprano Catanna Li-gendza brings to Eva delicacy and sweetness, and her lambent voice is a delight Placido Domingo has the right ringing fluency and ardor for Walther, but his preposterous German undoes a good deal Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's timbre is both too light and too young for Sachs The figure seems foreign to him, and no intuitive grasp holds together the countless subtleties of his performance For all Fischer-Dies-kau's finesse, neither the grand monologues (Sachs reflecting on Walther's untutored talent in Act 2, and, in Act 3, on the vanity of all human endeavor) nor the great colloquies (sounding Eva's affections, or teaching Walther the rules of poetic composition) bear the stamp of authenticity Comparison with the major excerpts from the opera recorded around 1930 (Seraphim 60189) by the great Fnedrich Schorra no less subtle but much more grandiloquent artist reveals how far Fischer-Dies-kau is from the heart of the music Still, among the currently available recordings, Jochum's deserves the highest rating Incidentally, Dover has started issuing facsimiles of the important Peters editions of Wagner's full orchestral scores, initially published in the first decades of this century Spaciously laid out for easy readability, they are immeasurable aids to one's appreciation of the operas Die Meistersinger and Tristan und Isolde are now in print, and no better scores of the works exist What is more, at $12 50 and $11 95, respectively, they are probably the biggest bargains in printed music today...

...On Music IN SEARCH OF A MASTER 'MEISTERSINGER' BY M ANATOLE GUREWITSCH From the canon of Wagner's brooding, transcendental mysteries, Die Merstersinger von Nurnberg stands apart as a sunny holiday But Wagner's art was never simple, and even when he laid aside the machinery of myth, he still lent his subject weight and pomp The tale of the rich goldsmith Veit Pogner s lovely daughter Eva, who under certain conditions can be had for a song, is comfy urban comedy Wagner's opera is that and more At its close, after the young knight Walther von Stolzing has won membership tn the guild of master singersand with it, Eva's hand the bride passes the victor s wreath to cobbler and poet Hans Sachs, a widower she has adored since she was a child Although the old man could well have won her for himself, he loves her too much to have tried He has instead presided, Prospero-like, over the midsummer madness surrounding the courtship and singing contest, foiled Walter's mean, petty rival Sixtus Beckmesser, reconciled the knight and the masters, and brought about the apt and happy end Die Merstersinger von Nurnberg celebrates the concord of convention and inspiration, the harmony in art and life The opera is conceived on a vast scale It calls for enormous orchestral and choral forces, plus a large ensemble of accomplished principals, its length, not counting intermissions, is over four and a half hours Yet it has been recorded frequently The current Schwann catalogue lists four complete performances, all of them products of this decade Herbert von Karajan's (Angel SEL 3776), Silvio Varviso's, live from the 1974 Bayreuth Festival (Philips 6747 167), Sir Georg Sola's (London OSA 1512), and Eugen Jochum's (Deutsche Grammophon 2713 Oil) Solti's and Jochum's entries appeared late last year, in obvious competition Neither offers the definitive reading that would sweep away all memory of the past, or set the standard for all future ettorts Thus they invite comparison with more than each other One ought to judge them against the full range of recorded material Life is short and Die Merstersinger very long, however, and it is bad manners to tease leaders with what they cannot share So I will simply mention the outstanding out-of-print recordings by Knapperts-busch, Furtwangler, Kempe, and von Karajan (in earlier performance), limiting the discussion to what the marketplace today affords Above all, Die Meistersmger requires a splendid conductor who?through accuracy of detail, command of the entire score and warmth of spiritcan set the grand design aglow Varviso's workaday time-beating merely keeps the scruffy Bayreuth Festival Orchestra movmg While Von Karajan operates on an incomparably higher plane, there is little joy in what he does on the Angel disk The glare of his cerebral perfections blanches the music, and under his baton the Dresden State Orchestra is flawless but spectralrefined almost out of corporeal existence Solti, usually noted for the muscularity of his readings, seems for long stretches mechanical and foursquare Elsewhere, he indulges in fussy, tiny-minded detail, building little bursts of energy through exaggerated sforzandos and then dissipating them at once in exaggerated rallentandos The whole never gains momentum, although the Vienna Philharmonic responds gustily Jochum's account is genial and inspired Combining rhythmic vigor and a grandly expressive sweep, he displays the multilayered textures of the score with luminous clarity Even at its most boisterous (the brawl that ends Act 2, set as a monumental double fugue), the Orchestra of the German Opera, Berlin, sounds bright, alive and civilized Individual instrumental voices rise with astonishing eloquence the brass blooms goldenly through the clatter ot Sachs' cobbling song, and the bass' statement of the opening of the third-act prelude has a lofty melancholy but in full force the players are no less virtuosic and musicianly...