Steve Schwartz reviewed:

> Franz Schmidt
>Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln
>
>Bavarian Radio Chorus and Orchestra/Franz Welser-Moest
>EMI ZDCB 7243 5 56660 2 Total time: 61:01 + 45:47

I share Steve's enthusiasm for this magnificent work, and I agree
completely with his positive review of the recent Welser-Most recording
on EMI--get it while you can.

Contrary to Steve's suspicion, there have been a number of CD recordings of
Das Buch.  The historic Mitropolous/Vienna Philharmonic has been remastered
on Sony, but it (and the work, alas) suffer from constricted mono sound.
This is a major disadvantage in this work, which uses such huge choral and
orchestral forces.  And the performance, while exciting, is pretty scrappy.

Other digital CDs include the fairly recent Horst Stein/Vienna Symphony
recording released on Calig.  A live performance, it is in some ways--
chorus execution, orchestral playing and recording quality--an improvement
on the excellent Welser-Most.  Most unfortunately, the performance is
rendered totally unacceptable by the St. John of tenor Eberhart Wachter.
Herr Wachter compensates for his natural pinched, nasal quality by using
what can only be described as a quasi Sprechstimme--yelping and barking
the demanding parts he cannot sing.  Painful.  Avoid, in my opinion.

The Orfeo CD features the St. John of Peter Schreier and the Vienna State
Opera Chorus and Vienna Radio Orchestra, with Lothar Zagrosek conducting.
Schreier is an interesting choice for St. John--he's no Heldentenor, but
is musician enough to almost convince you.  Unfortunately, the digital
recording is super reverberant, blurring much of the massed
choral/orchestral sound into a featureless mush.

The Preiser CD (stereo, analog) features the St. John of Anton Dermota,
who sang the "other" tenor solos in the 1938 premiere!  The Graz Concert
Choir and the Lower Austrian Tonkunstler Orchestra acquit themselves with
no great distinction.

Hardest to find, but in someways the most compelling, is the
Philips/Amadeo CD (stereo, analog) which is a very hard to find import.
Some Austrian shops can provide it, with luck.  Worth hunting for, it
showcases the incredible St. John--far and away the most compelling St.
John committed to records--of the great Julius Patzak.  He was in his early
60s at the time of the recording (1961), but shows only occasional strain
in the herculean tenor part.  And what an interpretation!  Every word from
the Book of Revelation [no "s", please, Steve] is caressed and declaimed,
while sung beautifully and with utter sincerity and conviction by Herr
Patzak.  One of the great recorded performances of the 20th century, IMO.
The choir is once again the Graz Concert Choir, this time with the Munich
Philharmonic under Anton Lippe.  This is the same recording in acceptable,
if unspectacular analog stereo, once released on vinyl disc by the good
folks at MHS.  If they could only be persuaded to resurrect this for a
domestic CD release!

Still on the topic of Schmidt, I would like to put in a plug for the
other late masterpiece from this composer, his Symphony No. 4.  There
are a number of good recordings of this, including the Mehta/VPO on
Decca/London and the Welser-Most on EMI.  But the finest recording--and
interpretation--is the Martin Sieghart/Bruckner Orchestra of Linz on
Chesky.  That magnificent disc should be in the library of anyone who has
an affinity for the late Romantic/post Romantic Austrian symphony
repertory.

Regards,

John M. Proffitt
General Manager & C.E.O.
Radio Station KUHF-FM