Sawallisch Flute (EMI)?

I've never heard the EMI Flute with Sawallisch conducting, and I don't believe I've ever heard Sawallisch conduct late 18th century repertoire, but the cast looks pretty good on paper: Anneliese Rothenberger, Edda Moser, Peter Schreier, Walter Berry, and Kurt Moll, with the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera, Munich. Any opinions on this performance?

-david gable

I have this recording on LP and haven't played it in a while.

My recollections are good to great singing and rather dull conducting

The recording seemed to have the highs stripped away. Hopefully they cured the latter on remastering.

Dave

There you go confirming my worst fears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-david gable

It had 2 factual distinctions when new: it was the first quadriphonic recording of the piece (maybe still the only one?), and it included the extra duet 'Pamina, wo bist du?' which was added to a revival and said to be by Mozart. (My recollection is that it's just thrown in at the end of the recording without explanation.)

Sawallisch's conducting is musicianly, respect-worthy, but not invigorating or (to my ears) dramatically lively. But then I've never been able to enjoy the much-praised Klemperer approach to the piece, so weigh accordingly. The cast is a good Munich lineup of the period, but not stellar for a permanent recording. The classic performances are Moser as the Queen and Moll as Sarastro, about as good as it gets. Walter Berry is not as fresh of voice as on his previous 2 recordings (which hurts 'Bei Maennern', but he finally gets to do the dialogue and complete his role, and it's an endearing portrayal. Rothenberger's Pamina is one of her less successful post-soubrette recordings; the line not even or subtle enough. Schreier's musicianship is an asset for Tamino, though I can't love the tone (at least not after hearing Simoneau, Wunderlich, and Burrows).

A mixed bag. Not a recording I've felt the need to keep (and I don't cull that many, ever).

Jon Alan Conrad Department of Music University of Delaware

says...

The main attractions of this set are Moser and the young Moll (though he's just as good later); it's also, I think, the first recording of the piece to include a Tamino/Papageno duet that's almost always omitted (I forget the details and don't have the set at hand; presumably someone can explain the significance of this, including the authenticity or otherwise of the music). Schreier is, as always, an intelligent artist, but I find his nasal tone off-putting. Rothenberger is competent, as usual, but not very imaginative and doesn't sound to me much like a young woman in tone or manner - there are plenty of better Paminas around. Sawallisch sounds to me, as he so often does, competent and efficient, livelier than many but somewhat generic - which isn't to say he's not better than many who have recorded the piece. (This may be a minority view - more than a few critics have high praise for his late Mozart symphonies.) For what it's worth, when I put mine on ebay a couple of weeks ago at a low price, no-one bit....

Š (much cut)

I agree, and I think this is a pretty big deal: having this sort of quality in the 'superhuman' pair makes a big difference to my experience of the whole, placing the human drama of Tamino and Pamina squarely in the context of a battle of cosmic forces whose cosmicness is audible in the voices of its protagonists. Moll is (as Simon goes on to say) just as good in later recordings, but as far as I know, he was never again paired with a Queen in Moser's class.

For the rest, I think it mostly works pretty well. I like Schreier's voice, and have no problem with Rothenberger or Berry (though some of his mannerisms in the dialogue are annoying). Sawallisch is nothing special but doesn't undermine anything. The sound isn't much good, though if I remember the LPs correctly the CDs are a considerable improvement. The added duet detracts rather than adding. But Moser and Moll make this overall one of the more satisfying recorings I know of the piece.

Yours, Aron

There is also a Philips 1982 Sawallisch/Magic Flute video production on VHS that is out out of print, however, currently on Amazon there are at least 3 used copies available. I haven't seen it and don't know how good it is.

I have a CD set of this performance re-issued in 1987, and it sounds great. I heard many other performances of the Flute (incl. Klemperer, Bohem, C. Davis, Levine, Haitink, etc.), but this is the one I want to listen to repeatedly. Nothing groundbreaking, but so what? I disagree that the conducting is dull, and cannot understand why the recording companies have not given Sawallisch opportunities to record other Mozaert operas.