Search - Johann Strauss II, Franz Welser-Most, Michael Volle :: Johann Strauss - Simplicius / Volle, Zysset, Magnuson, Widmer, Beczala, Nikiteanu, Welser-Möst

Welcome to a World Premiere Recording.

10/17/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"World premiere recordings of Johann Strauss's stage works don't come along too often. EMI has put a winner on the market here, lavishly presented. Live recordings were made during performances of "Simplicius"at Zurich in 1999. Don't expect that your listening will therefore be disturbed by stage noises, audience coughs, and bursts of applause. None of these distractions are evident. Instead there is the advantage of the right sound levels being preserved between dialogue and singing. If EMI have got all this right, they also earn ten out of ten for providing a 218 page booklet. Here you will find in French, German and English a full libretto and a full account of the work's genesis, its various revisions, its survival in various manuscripts and its preparation by the recording's conductor Franz Welser-Möst. The booklet also provides full tracking details, an autograph copy of part of the score, and a series of photos from the 1999 stage production. You'll hear some splendid voices here. Clearly Strauss's music demands first class voices. I especially enjoyed the "secondary lovers" who first appear in Act Two, sung by Elizabeth Magnuson and Poitr Beczala. Beczala, whose voice recalls that of Nicolai Gedda, gets a little song that was later lifted out of this work and dropped into "Eine Nacht in Venedig" when the latter work was revised by Korngold. The baritone Michael Volle gets a long prologue and the hit number that opens Act Three, once recorded by the tenor Josef Schmidt. There is a fifteen minutes finale to Act Two containing some delightful things. A lost orchestral sequence in Act Three has been replaced by a performance of "Donauweibchen", a waltz which Strauss put together from material used in this operetta.Strauss himself loved this work, the last of his stage works at which he conducted the premiere. He described it as "generally speaking a much more cheerful work than 'Der Zigeunerbaron'". His felicitous orchestration, languorous melodies, and endless inventiveness ensure hours of cheerful listening to all those who add this 2 CD set to the shopping cart."