Search - Arnold Schoenberg, Herbert Kegel, Dresden Catholic Church Boys Choir :: Arnold Schönberg: Moses und Aron

The chosen one!

Andre Felipe A. Vital | 12/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Forget about Boulez, Scherchen and even about Gielen...this is a mediunic version of this masterpiece!

Kegel manages to marry impact with polyphonic clarity in an unmatched level;the chorus is nothing less than the once praised best choir of th whole world, the Leipzig Radio Ch. Moments such as The People watching Moses and Aaron's arrival, the voice of God coming from the Burning bush leave an uncanny feeling of actual contact with another reality.While other conductors strive to merely play in tune, seemingly walking on broken glass, Kegel conducts and masters it as Levine does with Wagner and Serafin with Norma. the cells derivation is clear from the very start: when we hear the violins alongside moses phrase "I can think, but not speak..." we clearly notice that it came from the instrumental lines that punctuate the 1st choral intervention;the sudden people changes from mockery, amazement, exultation, and finally praise are overwhelming.



The Golden Calf's Dance is properly brutal, but with a 100% precision, almost unbearable in its weight and sharpness;the last Moses/Aaron dialogue perfectly balanced, not sounding like a ""recitative"", but fully integrated in the work's structure.



At Schönberg's own performing instructions, he states:"...The Sprechgesang should NEVER BE ATTAINED AT THE COST OF BEAUTIFUL SINGING!", and also in this respect, this recording has no rival, because Haseleu has a huge bass voice, follows strictly the basic rules of Singing/speaking language (no boulezian revisionsm around) sounding, as the metropolitan Opera Guide once said, like the Patriarch himself, fully imposing his authority at his return with the Law's Tables.



Devos and Langridge were a fake try to impose Aaron as a sly, small-voiced seller; when one hears Goldberg, you know that this trend is a flawed one, because, again, the german Heroic tenor is the only possible Aaron.

With a stentorian and flexible timbre and an amazing easyness for the role's highest notes, he shows us why a Heldentenor voice is mandatory: he is not just "selling" the new God: at the end of the 1st act, he is (although just for a while...) the TRUE God' prophet: he is also sensible not to sound so convincing at the people's demand for a visible/touchable god, and his line "honour yourselves in this image..." has a proper ironic taste in it.



the recording is an original SQ quadraphonic one (late 70's), but made with the vacuum-tube technology from the late east german company VEB; the mixture of fullness, naturalness, high level and clarity is still unrivalled (a until nowadays non-existing combination with even the latest technology);

"Go Peter, kill and eat it!"



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