Marek Janowski: Wagner Cyclus (Der fliegende Holländer)
Sonically Splendid Dutchman
Marek Janowski is conducting 10 Wagner operas with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchster Berlin. Photo: Felix Broedel/Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchster Berlin.
Der fliegende Holländer
Conductor: Marek Janowski
Daland: Matti Salminen
Senta: Ricarda Merbeth
Erik: Robert Dean Smith
Mary: Silvia Hablowetz
Steersman: Steve Davislim
Dutchman: Albert Dohmen
Rundfunk Choir Berlin, Eberhard Friedrich, Chorus Master
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonie on 13 November, 2010
PentaTone PTC 5186 400
Playing Time: 2.06.29
This sonically splendid live recording of Der fliegende Holländer inaugurates the Dutch-based PentaTone label’s release of Wagner’s 10 later operas on CD. As noted in Wagneropera.net concert versions of the operas are being performed by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB). The series culminates with Götterdämmerung in 2013, the bicentennial of Wagner’s birth.
The first three operas in the RSB repertory, including this Holländer, Parsifal, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, were recorded last season with various well-known Wagner singers.
The venue, the Berlin Philharmonie, is reportedly not among Europe’s more acoustically friendly halls and of course the internet stream of this performance lacked the clarity and brilliance of this Super-Audio CD release.
Savvy Engineers
Credit the CD recording team and editor with creating such a listenable final product, for ensuring that proper balances between orchestra, chorus and the principals, and for deleting extraneous noise, including the applause that followed the opera’s overture and the performance’s conclusion.
The recording also has considerable artistic merit, especially Marek Janowski’s accomplished conducting, the RSB’s vibrant playing, and lusty singing by Rundfunk Choir. In the early 1980s Janowski conducted the first digitally recorded Ring cycle and his Wagnerian expertise has deepened in the three decades since.
The total CD playing time is a fleet, but not hectic, 2 hours and 6 minutes, and is considerably shorter than say the EMI, Herbert von Karajan-led studio recording also produced in the early 1980s.
Robert Dean Smith (Erik) and Matti Salminen (Daland), garnering applause after the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchster Berlin's November 2011 concert performance of Der fliegende Höllander. Photo: Kai Bienert/Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchster Berlin.
Seasoned Leads
Finnish bass Matti Salminen first sang Daland in Bayreuth in 1978. (I heard him in this role in Bayreuth in 1979 and 1981.) Invariably, the decades have taken the edge off Salminen’s voice but long experience in the role compensates for his, at times, gruff, underpowered singing.
Bass-baritone, Albert Dohmen, the Dutchman, is about 10 years younger than the 66-year-old Salminen and Dohmen’s singing is certainly more powerful than his wan performance in the recently issued Bayreuth Die Walküre DVD. (In all fairness, Dohmen had been ailing when the Bayreuth performance was videotaped.) I do wish, however, that Dohmen’s Dutchman sounded more spectral, more menacing.
Ricarda Merbeth has sung Elsa and Elisabeth at the Wagner Festival and these characters seem better suited to her than the more rigorous role of Senta. Certainly, Merbeth lacks the passionate warmth, and the steady intonation that Catherine Naglestad demonstrates in The Netherlands Opera DVD version of the work.
Yet another Bayreuth principal, tenor Robert Dean Smith, is Erik. Given Smith’s current appearances as Tristan at the Wagner Festival, this is luxury casting for an excellent singer whose reputation is on the rise. Like other singers in this performance Smith is appearing in additional RSB Wagner concerts.
Two smaller roles, Mary and the Steersman, are sung by mezzo-soprano Silvia Hablowetz and tenor Steve Davislim. Both singers sound assured but given the brevity of their parts, it is difficult to gauge how dramatically effectively these artists would be in a stage performance.
Nicely Packaged
The attractive, hardbound Pentatone CD booklet contains Steffen Georgi’s, insightful, well-researched essay, “Ahasuerus and the Bartered Bride”. A complete libretto and cast biographies and photos are also included.
The RSB’s 2011-12 Wagner concert repertory, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, and Tannhäuser, features Nina Stemme, Klaus Florian Vogt, Torsten Kerl, and Kwangchul Youn in the various operas. Casting has not yet been announced for the RSB’s Ring concerts in 2012-2013.
The RSB, PentaTone, Deutschlandradio Kultur, and any unidentified sponsors are to be lauded for making this series possible. Based on this Holländer release, these recordings could be one of the most distinctive tributes during the Wagner bicentennial commemorations.
Other CD Reviews
- Joe Banno (The Classical Review)
- Stephen Eddins (All Music)
- Gilles Macassar (Telerama)