Excellent - but its age and few flaws intend it to the Frics
Discophage | France | 09/25/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"It was 1954 and there was not much then by way of competition: Beecham dated from 1937-8 and the 78rmp era (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte). Karajan came in 1950 (Great Recordings Of The Century - Mozart: Die Zauberflote / Karajan, Dermota, Seefried, Lipp, et al) and Böhm in 1955 (Die Zauberflöte on Decca; the more famous DG stereo remake is from 1964: Mozart: Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute]). But these three had no spoken dialogues - and for the true believer, this is not the real experience: Zauberflöte is not just a collection of concert arias.
But Fricsay's recording was something else altogether, and not only because it was the first to include the (trimmed) dialogues. Fricsay's conception of the score was far removed from the teutonically ponderous philosophical longueurs then prevalent. He didn't turn the Flute into some big Religious Pronouncement on Mankind and Brotherhood, like those of Furtwangler (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte), Böhm or Klemperer (Mozart: Die Zauberflote) - his Flute sparkles with life, energy and theatrical verve. From Tamino's anguished running away from the serpent to Papageno's breathless search for Papagena, you can feel the urgency and the emotional restlessness - a nice change from the customary placid approach of Furtwängler to Haitink (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte). At such a brisk speed the Act II Quintet is of confounding virtuosity, sounding Rossinian almost. One had to wait another 15 years and another Hungarian to meet such dynamism and snap, and that was Solti's first in 1969 (Mozart: Magic Flute). But Fricsay is not just about speed, mind you: His Two Armored Men scene is almost as imposingly grandiose as with Böhm in 1964 - no small feat. Only in one number is Fricsay wide off the mark: the Papageno-Pamina Act I duet (bei Männern) is so brisk and with its bass chords so accented as to sounds like a military march.
Fricsay also had a more than acceptable cast. Rita Streich is an excellent Queen, precise in her vocalises, fiery in her characterization and with the vocal amplitude of a real-life character (more so in the first aria than in the second, where the voice thins out in the stratospheric vocalises). Ernst Haefliger is not the kind of heroic tenor that used to be cast in those days, but a more lyrical one, very elegant, with a piano nuance above the stave sounding more effortless than his forte, which makes him excellent in the more tender passages (his two Act I arias) but, despite the occasional strain, still quite convincing in the more angry and heroic ones (as his recitative with the Speaker and the Trials scene).
Maria Stader has a beautiful, angelic soprano voice, effortless above the stave, and with a nice juvenile quality. She is great in the Act II ensembles (trio, final duet with Tamino) but I find her more technically perfect than moving in "Ach ich fühl's", and she doesn't have much chance to express anything with the quickish tempos adopted by Fricsay in her Act I duets with Papageno. Kim Borg is a deep- and ample-voiced, very solemn sounding Sprecher, but with nuanced characterization - one of the best I've heard. Martin Vantin as Monostatos almost whispers his aria, giving it a surprising and convincing sweetness.
The conventional wisdom is that Fischer-Dieskau's 1964 remake of Papageno with Böhm is the best. I don't agree. To my ears the later version has all those traits I abhor in this singer: a light baritone instrument of very limited amplitude that FD tried to compensate by constant bellows-like huffing and puffing and fussy over-acting. Here, with all his fussiness and his even lighter baritone timbre, FD portrays in Act I a Papageno sounding slightly retarded (a little boy in an adult's body), which is certainly unconventional but quite funny, so why not? Also, his light baritone blends with Monostatos' rather throaty tenor to the point that both voices are hard to distinguish in their "Hu" duet; thanks also to the hilarious cowardliness with which they characterize it, it is simply irresistible. The way FD whispers about wanting to be a mouse upon Sarastro's Act I arrival is also a nice and funny touch. In Act II FD is acceptably free of his later mannerisms, and his final aria and duet with Papagena is perfect.
Among the minor or major flaws, Greindl-Sarastro is so wobbly and unfocused in his Act I recit as to give the impression that they've just dragged him out of the old people's home. His Act II arias are conventionally noble and kind, but his delivery lacks support and sounds somewhat nasal and too plangent throughout. The Three Ladies aren't particularly remarkable (and the Third is particularly matronly, sounding like the two other's duegna), the Three Kids are sung by women and they sound that way.
The spoken dialogue is another big problem of this set. As nice as it was to have it, it is here delivered not by the singers but, as was the custom until Solti, mostly by actors (the digipack's information is deceptive here), Streich-Queen and Otto-Papagena being the exceptions. They are mostly fine (Papageno and Papagena quite funny, Pamina touchingly juvenile, but the opening Tamino-Papageno dialogue grotesquely campy) and in most cases the timbres match - except, annoyingly, in the case of Sarastro and, worst of all, Papageno (the actor's timbre is that of a tenor, almost undistinguishable from Tamino's). Additionaly, the remastering process has yielded great results, with practically no trace of tape hiss whatsoever, which is fine in principle, but the downside is that the spoken dialogues seem to happen in a sensorial-deprived environment, an unsettling void.
Obviously, this is aimed at the Fricsay aficionado or the Flute collector rather than at the "lay" music lover just looking for a budget version, because of its age and also because the dialogues aren't spoken by the singers themselves. The cheapest modern recording these days on Amazon marketplace seems to be Levine's (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte) - not top drawer but not bad either. But everything can be found "budget" on the Marketplace. My favorites are Solti's 1990 remake and Christie on period instruments - but I've run out of authorized links.
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Track Listings (22) - Disc #1