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Date: | Wed, 5 Nov 2008 15:13:28 -0800 |
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Franz Schmidt's 1934 Fourth Symphony has its *first* performance
here by the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Fabio Luisi
(http://sfsymphony.com/season/Event.aspx?eventid=26902). Looking into
the background of this "unknown Hungarian" composer, I found not only
his "Notre Dame" (which may be known to some folks, not me), but also
"Fredigundis," real terra incognita. Wiki says:
A CD recording of Notre Dame has been available for many
years, starring Dame Gwyneth Jones and James King. However
no really adequate recording has been made of the far more
interesting "Fredigundis," for which there was but one
"unauthorized" release in the early 1980s on the Voce Label
of an Austrian Radio broadcast of a 1979 Vienna performance
under the direction of Ernst Marzendorfer. In it, among
numerous "royal fanfares," (Fredigundis held the French
throne in the 8th Century) are some of Schmidt's most
wonderful and glorious pages.
The New Grove states flatly that "Fredigundis" was a failure
as Opera, but that is more likely attributable to the fact
that Queen Fredigundis herself was anything but a "lovely
lady," making the title character of _Berg's "Lulu" seem
like a princess in comparison_. By the time Act III rolls
around, things are pretty dismal and dark, and Schmidt is
by this time harmonically on the threshold of Das Buch mit
sieben Siegeln. Despite some possible faults with the
libretto, this is musically a wonderful opera which deserves
a modern and fair hearing. It is unfortunate that Marzendorfer's
1979 performance wasn't better recorded, because the
performance - offstage choruses and brass fanfares and all
- was veritably stupendous.
Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
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