Search - Schumann, Fischer-Dieskau, Britten :: Faust Scenes

A superb performance of less well-known but very satisfying

G.D. | Norway | 07/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Schumann's large-scale choral works have garnered surprisingly little interest from record companies and concert planners - generally, they might be second-rate Schumann, but second-rate Schumann is still first-rate music. Schumann himself turned down the opportunity to write a full-scale opera on the Faust subject, but he used the last scene for an independent cantata, composed in 1844 and premiered in 1849. The success of this performance lead him to compose three new scenes specifically dealing with Gretchen, and in the following year another three on Faust part II - but in the final work the scenes were reversed so as to fit Goethe's work. Thus, the work was more or less written back to front, with the ouverture written last, in 1853 - and it was never performed complete in his lifetime. It is for the most part an inspired work, however, although it has a sometimes tendency to lapse into foursquare, four-part harmony, underlined by at times somewhat clumsy orchestration (the topic of Schumann's orchestrational abilities is a much discussed one, but while most of the work at hand is effectively scored, one cannot really avoid noticing a certain sameness of textures).



The performance is superb, however, with respect to singing, playing and conducting. Britten whips up white-hot intensity and forward momentum as required, and manages impressively to convey the impression of an extremely cogent, well-planned work, and the performances are flexible and alive (although purists might balk at the freedom he takes with tempi, there's no doubt that he makes the work much more effective than it could have been). He's got a starry cast of vocalists at his hands, and they perform uniformly as good as one might have hoped. Fischer-Dieskau is at his very best, providing some radiant singing, powerful and sumptuous. Harwood is affective and sings with a great range of color, and Pears characterizes Ariel and Seraphicus with wisdom and feeling. Shirley-Quirk might be a tad light and amiable as Mephistopheles, but the quality of his singing is not in doubt. Equal praise is due to the rest of the cast, and there are no qualms about sound quality either. This set can, in short, be very strongly recommended."