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Klemperer or Bohm in the Magic Flute?

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 07/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The recent appearance of an excellent Magic Flute from Abbado (DG) prompted me to go back to two great favorites, this Klemperer set from 1964 and one from Karl Bohm made the same year for DG. Between them they included probably the greatest Mozart singers of the time in Europe. As listeners could hear immediately, the strengths of one cast were offset by the strengths of the other. Klemperer had the best women (Janowitz, Popp, Schwarzkopf, Ludwig) while Bohm had the two best men (Wunderlich and Fischer-Dieskau). For foty years fans of the opera have had to own both. Is that sitll the case?



The new Abbado recording could represent a way out of this Solomon's choice, since it is filled with eager, accomplished singing in every part except for the well-sung but prosaic Papageno of Hanno Müller-Brachmann. Otherwise, I think I'd favor Klemperer if I had to choose only one classic set. The pluses and minuses are as follows:



Klemperer: Always a good recording, the new remastering in EMI's Great Recordings of the CEntury is nearly perfect. This earlier version sounds almost as good, except for a bit of shrilliness in the upper registers. The Three Ladies are enchanting as led by Schwarzkopf and Ludwig. The young Lucia Popp is a scintillating Queen of the Night, and Gundula Janowitz a pure, if rather cool Pamina. Also, one cannot discount Gedda's Tamino and Berry's Papageno, which are very well sung if not the best on CD. For many listeners what tilts the balance is Klemperer's magnificent conducting--he may well have been the greatest Mozart conductor of the century. What may tilt the balance the ohter way is the absence of spoken dialog, a regrettable older practice in Mozart opera recordings. On the used market these older issues of Klemperer's set can be had for around $10.



Bohm: Where Bohm's set is strongest it can't be beat: the once-in-a-lifetime Tamino of Fritz Wunderlich and the masterful, humorous Papageno of Fishcer-Dieskau. This, combined with Bohm's expert, if rather measured conducting, has won many listeners over. Unfortunately, Bohm's weaknesses are very weak: a too-old Pamina from Evelyn Lear that sounds unpleasantly insecure in tone and pitch, and a thin, shrieky Queen of the Night from Roberta Peters, well past her prime. If you can't overlook these two, then there's no need even to consider Bohm. Lots of dialog is included, and for once the echt Deutsch acting is funny.



I wound up owning Abbado, KLemperer, and Bohm, but if you aren't so inclined, I'd say that Klemperer is indispensable and Abbado a gratifying, balanced compromise."