1 - The
Telegraph:
Beethoven:
Fidelio, CD review
2 - Prestoclassical:
Beethoven’s
Fidelio from Abbado and Kaufmann 3 - The Times:
Nina Stemme/
Jonas Kaufmann: Fidelio
4 - The Independent:
Claudio Abbado,
Jonas Kaufmann, Nina Stemme, Beethoven: Fidelio (Decca)
5 - BBC Radio 3:
Fidelio
(Audio) 6 - Opéra Magazine:
Un Fidelio hors
normes 7 - Classique News:
Fidelio éruptif
8 - BayAreaReporter:
Faith in marriage
act 9 - The Guardian:
Beethoven:
Fidelio – review 10 - Financial Times:
Fidelio
11 - The Classical Review:
BEETHOVEN Fidelio
12 - Sydsvenska Dagbladet:
En ”Fidelio” du
inte vill vara utan 13 - The Independent:
Beethoven,
Fidelio Abbado / Stemme / Kaufmann / LFO (Decca) 14 -
Le temps:
«Fidelio» à la
lueur du Siècle des Lumières 15 - Basler Zeitung:
Beethoven ohne Fett
16 - rbb kulturradio:
Beethoven:
Fidelio u.a. mit Jonas Kaufmann 17 - Classics Today/International
Record Review:
Fidelio
18 - Aachener Zeitung:
Jonas Kaufmann:
«Beethoven: Fidelio» 19 - Associated Press:
Abbado leads
stirring 'Fidelio' 20 - Associated Press:
Abbado dirige un
"Fidelio" conmovedor 21 - Gramophone:
Beethoven - Fidelio 22 - Forumopera:
Fidelio en
porcelaine 23 - La Scena Musicale:
CDs if the week -
Beethoven: Fidelio 24 - BBC Review:
Elements combine
effectively to highlight what a baffling composer Beethoven could be.
25 - La Libre:
Ludwig van
Beethoven, Fidelio, Claudio Abbado 26 - San Francisco
Classical Voice:
A Thrilling,
Impassioned, and Ultimately Transcendent Fidelio 27 -
Die Welt:
Fidelio: Eine
Enttäuschung auf höchstem Niveau 28 - Opernglas:
Fidelio
29 - Cleveland, Plain Dealer:
Beethoven:
Fidelio 30 - Musicweb International:
Recording of the
Month - Beethoven: Fidelio 31 - Diapason:
Fidelio
32 - Telerama:
Une célébration
de l’amour conjugal, portée à l’incandescence par Claudio Abbado
33 - Sound+Vision:
Beethoven’s
“Fidelio 34 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Beethoven
'Fidelio' Conducted by Claudio Abbado (Decca) 35 -
Houston public radio:
Music Library
Reviews: Beethoven 36 - Hallandsposten.se,
Nöje&kultur:
Odödlig musik
med skärpa och lätthet 37 - Operanews.ru:
Верность
мировой гармонии
38 - Classica:
Beethoven,
Fidelio 39 - BBC Music Magazine:
Fidelio
40 - Limelight Magazine:
Beethoven:
Fidelio 41 - New York Times:
Old and New, a
Tale of Heroes and Villains 42 - Altamusica:
L’étincelle
Abbado 43 - El Mercurio:
“FIDELIO”
(DECCA) según Jonas Kaufmann 44 - Falter:
Wo die Oper
spielt: im trauten Heim natürlich 45 - Opera News:
BEETHOVEN:
Fidelio 46 - Opera Britannia:
Beethoven:
Fidelio (Decca) 47 - Classic Voice:
Fidelio
48 - La Croix:
Un somptueux
"Fidelio" par Claudio Abbado 49 - FAZ:
Wahrheit,
Freiheit, nichts weniger 50- El Pais:
Un Claudio
Abbado memorable para la única ópera de Beethoven 51 -
Scherzo:
LA CASA POR LA
VENTANA 52 - Musica:
Fidelio *****
53 - Giornale della Musica:
Abbado e l'eleganza
leggera di Fidelio 54 - Opernwelt:
Aus dem Geist
der Musik 55 - L'opera, Italien:
Fidelio
56 - Musik & Theater:
Humane
Anteilnahme
|
1
- Abbado likes to work with artists he knows well, and in the
realms of singers, as with orchestral players, he chooses from the
higher echelons. Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan might not appear until Act
Two, but it is worth the wait for his anguished crescendo on “Gott!
Welch Dunkel hier!”. Kaufmann sings gloriously, and with lyrical
lustre as gleams of hope lighten his crepuscular world in “Euch werde
Lohn”.
2 - The ensemble-singing
has the balance and synthesis which characterise the very best
performances of Beethoven’s chamber-music, yet this Fidelio is
dominated by the last character we meet, sung here by the
mesmerising Jonas Kaufmann. His first note alone is worth the
price of the set: his entry is virtually imperceptible, but the
prisoner’s soft moan of ‘Gott!’ builds to a searing cry of
anguish which had my hair standing on end (and, no doubt, my
neighbours poised to bang on the wall!). Despite the innate
virility and power of the voice, he conveys the starving
prisoner’s physical weakness as well as his nobility and
strength of mind – and at the end of a gruelling evening still
fields clarion tone in the brief solos praising his ‘holdes
Weib’ in the final scene. The comparatively dark voices
of the two protagonists won’t perhaps be to all tastes but, for me, are
one of the selling-points of this recording – it goes without saying
that both are in almost total technical command of these fiercely
demanding roles, but there’s a palpable sense of effort which only
reinforces the heroism of the characters.
3 - Jonas Kaufmann’s first note alone is a good
reason to buy this new recording of Beethoven’s stirring opera. The note
arrives early in Act II, when the hero Florestan, a political prisoner,
is introduced chained in his underground dungeon. “Gott!” the wonder
German tenor sings, unaccompanied, in a remarkably piercing and forceful
crescendo, the musical equivalent of a widening chink of light suddenly
thrown into the prisoner’s dank gloom. The effect makes your jaw drop,
your pulse pause, your hairs stand on end.
4 - Claudio Abbado's presentation is expertly played and
well-sung by the principals, though Jonas Kaufmann's imperious entry as
the imprisoned Florestan at the start of Act Two does rather render the
preceding act an extended hour-plus preamble.
6 -
On peut évidemment s'extasier, par exemple, sur le cri
liminaire « Gott !» de l'air de Florestan, émis par Jonas Kaufmann selon
un crescendo prodigieux. Mais autant cet effet précis nous avait paru un
peu artificiel sur scène, reproduit récemment par le même chanteur avec
un autre chef, autant il acquiert ici une dimension bouleversante, après
une introduction où chaque timbre de l'orchestre semble creusé de la
même façon, de l'intérieur, jusqu'à ce qu'il n'en reste qu'une
enveloppe, simple vibration d'une sensibilité exacerbée.
7 - En outre, Jonas Kaufmann marque naturellement le
rôle et place d'emblée le disque au sein des meilleurs enregistrements
discographiques. La tenue du souffle, la musicalité souveraine, battant
le fer, volcanique et aussi murmurée, - ce début au II sur "Gott", en
pur mezzavoce, venu d'outre tombe à la façon d'un Chateaubriand...- que
tout cela est magnifiquement incarné: investi jusqu'au mot près, racé,
précis... Kaufmann a l'âpreté et la félinité, ce sang nourri au
désespoir et à la détermination des grands révoltés révolutionnaires...
Le ténor allemand atteint une même évidence vocale et stylistique depuis
son Siegmund anthologique, accompagné par le même Abbado (air enregistré
chez Deutsche Grammophon)
8 - The pitch of
ecstasy tenor Jonas Kaufmann achieves in that music – after opening his
big aria with a swell on the word "Gott" that goes from the inaudible to
full howl – is in an instant (or an eternity, if you prefer) balanced by
the extraordinary breadth and slowness of the orchestral chords at the
end of the passage. It's dizzying, elemental and so deft you almost miss
it. So don't.
9 - An exceptional Florestan –
arguably the finest since Jon Vickers's – from Jonas Kaufmann
wonderfully conveys his moral greatness as well as the extremity of his
suffering.
10 - Interest for opera fans lies
primarily in Jonas Kaufmann’s Florestan: his aria, beginning on a thread
of sound, is as much a meditation as a cry from the depths.
11 - There are no significant weaknesses among the
soloists. Nina Stemme is an ardently committed Leonore, rising to the
challenges of her horn-led scene in Act 1 (‘Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du
hin?’) with palpable resolve, while a hint of strain in Jonas Kaufmann’s
Florestan is put to productive use in the fraught emotions which define
his comparable aria at the beginning of Act 2 with its no less
spellbinding oboe obbligato, though neither singer sounds wholly at ease
during their ecstatic duet ‘O namenlose Freude!’.
12 - Jonas Kaufmann är en Florestan i Jon Vickers anda.
En tenor som brinner och inte gnetar med resurserna. Ur andra aktens
ödesmättade förspel växer hans röst – långsamt, obevekligt – från ett
knappt hörbart kvidande till ett förtvivlat skri.
13 -
The singing is heroic, both from Nina Stemme as Leonore/Fidelio
and Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan.
14 - Jonas
Kaufmann, le Florestan de ces dernières années, y apporte sa couleur
très personnelle. Il y a ce timbre ténébreux, une sensualité fébrile et
magnifique, face à la Léonore de Nina Stemme.
15 -
...fällt auf die Sänger ein helles Licht - allen voran auf Rachel
Harnisch als Marzelline, auf Nina Stemmes Leonore und den packenden
Florestan von Jonas Kaufmann.
16 - Und Jonas
Kaufmann? Er klingt fast so metallisch, auch etwas verschattet, als
wär’s Jon Vickers (ein berühmter Wagner-Recke). Leicht versteift, merkt
man indes doch eine Virilität, eine Jugend und ein Ungestüm heraus, die
in dieser Rolle nur selten anzutreffen ist. Insofern ein bedeutendes,
geglücktes Rollenportrait innerhalb einer durchaus gelungenen
Gesamtaufnahme. In den dramatischen Höhepunkten lässt sie die Mühe
erkennen, welche die Freiheit macht. Irgendwie packt einen der Geist der
Sache aber doch.
17 - Jonas Kaufmann, everyone's
tenor-love of the moment, can do no wrong, and in fact he does no wrong
here, articulating his despair as well as his hope and desperation with
great sincerity, solid tone, and intelligence. And it's a pleasure to
hear the last couple of minutes of his aria so flawlessly, almost
effortlessly sung--but I suspect that Beethoven wrote it that way in
order for it not to sound easy: use Jon Vickers as your guide. It's hard
to fault a singer for sounding too secure, but that's just about what we
get here. Kaufmann does not take a wrong step throughout the entire act,
delivering his part of "O namenlöse Freude" with urgency and round tone.
Both he and Stemme sound properly relieved, but anyone recalling the
near-hysterical outburst of Ludwig and Vickers under Klemperer will
realize that something is missing here.
18 -
Fürs Gänsehaut-Gefühl – für das man allerdings den gesamten ersten Akt
tenorlos absitzen muss – reicht eigentlich der erste Ton der
gefürchteten Tenor-Partie, jenes aus dem Nichts ins herzzerreißende
Forte crescendierte hohe G auf «Gott», mit dem Florestan sein Schicksal
als Eingekerkerter beklagt. Kaufmann strahlt und dräut, erdig gegründet
und metallen durchflammt, dass es einen schaudert. Später darf man
wunderbare Legatokultur, stimmliche Brillanz und ins Extrem getriebenen
Ausdruck bewundern und beruhigt bemerken, dass man auch Kaufmann anhört,
dass dieser Florestan schwer zu singen ist.
19 -
With more than a dozen commercial recordings of Beethoven's
only opera already available, why buy this new one? The reasons begin
with Jonas Kaufmann. The German tenor brings to the role of the
unjustly imprisoned Florestan the same qualities that have made him an
international superstar — a keen understanding of the text joined to a
powerful, exceptionally beautiful voice that is capable of the subtlest
dynamic shadings. His is a carefully thought-out interpretation that
still sounds fresh and spontaneous. It's a thrilling performance, worthy
of comparison with such great Florestans of the recent past as Jon
Vickers and James King. CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: The beginning of Act 2
introduces Florestan with an aria that begins, "Gott! Welch dunkel
hier!" ("God, what darkness here!") Many tenors attack the opening word,
sung on the note G natural, full-out like a stab of pain. But Kaufmann
begins it in a whisper so low your first impulse may be to check your
volume control. Then, in one sustained breath lasting 11 seconds, he
gradually increases the volume until the word becomes a fortissimo cry
of anguish. It's a daring and stunning effect.
21 -
I could have done without Jonas Kaufmann’s 12-second crescendo on Florestan’s annunciatory “Gott!” – René Kollo did something similar for Bernstein (DG, 10/78R) – more vocal stunt than human utterance and offering a foretaste of vocal discolorations to come.
But that, in the end, is a trifle.
22 - Tous nos espoirs reposent dès lors sur Jonas
Kaufmann. Son « Gott, welch ein Dunkel hier », avec ce sforzando
admirablement négocié sur « Gott » (alla Rosvaenge) est magnétique et
nous fait dresser les cheveux sur la tête. Où Stemme vocifère son duo,
lui y met une chair sanguine, un élan, incomparables dans la
discographie tout entière.... au moins aurons-nous désormais le
Florestan intégral de Kaufmann dans nos discothèques.
23
- Jonas Kaufmann, Nina Stemme, with Claudio Abbado conducting –
it reads like a throwback to the glory days of opera recording, and in
many ways it is, taken from live Lucerne Festival performances with
thrilling sound....Kaufmann, though, means buy it now.
24
- Jonas Kaufmann also impresses, most of all in his lachrymose
opening to the second act. His swelling crescendo that begins Gott! Welt
Dunkel hier is impeccably delivered and surprisingly hammy, but it works
perfectly.
25 - En 2010, il reprenait l’ouvrage
au festival de Lucerne avec l’orchestre du festival et des solistes
prestigieux : Jonas Kaufmann en Florestan, Nina Stemme en Léonore mais
aussi Rachel Harnisch, Falk Struckmann ou Peter Mattei.
26 - Kaufmann uses every tone at his disposal to express
passion, pain, and ultimate liberation. His “Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!
... In des Lebens Frühlingstagen” (God! What darkness here! ... In the
springtime of my life) begins with a flawless swell from pianissimo to
double forte. As impressive as that may be, what elevates it from superb
technique to high art is the way Kaufmann transitions from the husky,
covered tones of an enslaved, starving prisoner to the gleaming sound of
someone crying for his love, conveying the emotion of the moment. His
spoken dialogue is equally convincing.
27 - Aber
Kaufmann verliert bei der Pflege seiner stetig auffälligeren Manierismen
ein schlüssiges Porträt aus dem Blick.
28 -
Glücklicherweise verfügte Abbado bei dieser in den Dialogen stark
verknappten, halbszenischen Aufführung nicht nur über ein exzellentes
Orchester, sondern auch über ein Sängerensemble, das bis auf eine
Ausnahme auf einem ebenso hohen Niveau agierte....In Jonas Kaufmann
steht ihr der wohl derzeit weltbeste Florestan zur Seite. Mit fast schon
unheimlicher Mühelosigkeit erklimmt er den Aufstieg ins „himmlische
Reich", begeistert aber mehr noch durch die schier unbegrenzte Palette
an Farben und Schattierungen, mit der er das Leid des Gefangenen
auszudrücken versteht.
29 - This account of
Beethoven's paean to loyalty and freedom from the 2010 Lucerne Festival
comes blazingly to life when Jonas Kaufmann is pouring searing intensity
into the role of Florestan...
30 - The cast,
which hasn’t a weak link, is dominated by two exciting singers. The
Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, whose recording credits include Isolde in
EMI’s Tristan (review) is a wonderful Leonore while the German tenor,
Jonas Kaufmann, who impresses me hugely every time I hear him, excels as
Florestan We have to wait until Act II to hear Kaufmann but when we do
hear him, what an impact he makes! At the very start of ‘Gott! Welch
Dunkel hier!’ he starts the word ‘Gott!’ almost inaudibly and expands
the sound to forte through a long and meticulously controlled crescendo.
Without access to a score I can’t say if this is authentic; it’s a very
different approach to the loud cry with which Jon Vickers (for
Klemperer) utters the word but Kaufmann’s approach is just as effective
– arguably more so – as an anguished cry of despair. It’s an arresting
moment. He goes on to give a formidable account of the aria ‘In des
Lebens Frühlingstagen’, deploying a flawless technique and delivering an
emotionally charged reading. Just before ‘Und spür’ ich nicht linde,
sanft säuseinde Luft?’ the stage direction translates in the booklet as
“with a calm rapture, which nevertheless verges on madness”. To my ears,
Kaufmann follows this dictum splendidly in the passage that follows.
31 - Face à cette déesse vivante, Jonas Kaufmann
fait son entrée avec un « Gott » venu du tréfonds de l'âme, saisissant
gémissement enflé jusqu'à l'imploration ; le reste n'est que muscles et
pleurs rentrés, maîtrise absolue, justesse de chaque instant. N'ayons
pas peur des comparaisons : le plus grand Florestan depuis James King et
Jon Vickers.
32 - Véritable figure christique,
le Florestan de Jonas Kaufmann – voix à la fois épuisée et glorieuse,
enténébrée et solaire – supplante tous ses devanciers discographiques,
même les plus célèbres – le Canadien Jon Vickers sous la direction
d’Otto Klemperer ou d’Herbert von Karajan, l’Allemand Wolfgang
Windgassen, dirigé par Wilhelm Furtwängler. Plutôt qu’une couronne de
martyr, ce Fidelio salvateur mérite une auréole de saint. De saint laïc
et démocrate.
33 - In Jonas Kaufmann, we have
found Vickers’s modern-day counterpart in the fiendishly demanding tenor
role of Florestan. Kaufmann has nearly as thrilling intensity and even
more beautiful tone, such that this Fidelio reaches true greatness only
upon his arrival in Act II. Abbado’s conducting, effective and exciting
until this point, gains gravitas in the introduction and aria “Gott!
Welch Dunkel hier!”
34 - She is matched by the
handsome-sounding Florestan of supertenor Jonas Kaufmann, whose
spectacular crescendo from a wisp of sound to a fortissimo on his
opening word of invocation (Gott!") makes it hard to believe ones ears.
His aria that follows is heartbreaking, and in the grueling
hallucinatory "freedom" section, right on the mark with stamina and
ring.
35 - Tenor Jonas Kaufmann's almost
instrumental-sounding crescendo on the word "Gott!" is at first
unsettling, but it's highly effective. Kaufmann admirably succeeds in
bringing out both the pathetic and the heroic characteristics of the
political prisoner Florestan.
36 - Som
huvudparet, Leonora och Florestan, räcker Nina Stemme och Jonas Kaufmann
långt, även om konkurrensen rent historiskt är mördande.
38 - et Jonas Kaufmann s'impose comme une étoile
absolue, dont le Gott initial, prodigieux crescendo, est pure magie, et
dont la présence sombre, mâle et vaillante est ce qu'on a entendu de
plus beau en Florestan depuis James King pour mener l'ensemble final à
une beauté sidérante
39 - Tenor Jonas Kaufmann
is a commanding Florestan. His opening phrase as he lies in the depths
of the dungeons is spine-tingling.
40 - Few
tenors are able to convey the conflicting suffering, near-dementia and
inextinguishable hope in Florestan’s character, but Jonas Kaufmann
produces a sound that is both heroic and nuanced.
41 -
Mr. Kaufmann is a terrific Florestan, singing with burnished
sound, virile power and anguished emotional intensity, as well as
poignant pianissimo phrases, a Kaufmann trademark. It is noteworthy that
Mr. Kaufmann’s account of Florestan has come out around the same time as
the live Met version with Mr. Vickers. Mr. Kaufmann has often been
compared to Mr. Vickers, and the similarity comes through strongly in
these recordings. As anyone who has heard Mr. Kaufmann in person knows,
and as his recent Siegmund in Wagner’s “Walküre” at the Met especially
showed, he has a big, healthy voice with robust top notes. He does not
have the heroic-size voice of Mr. Vickers. What tenor today does? But
the dark colorings and expressive inflections of their sounds are
strikingly close. Both artists also put a premium on enunciating the
German words with vivid declamation. I doubt that Mr. Kaufmann is trying
to emulate Mr. Vickers, which would be foolish. But there it is.
42 - Jonas Kaufmann est un Florestan incomparable
d’élan, de passion, de force dramatique, de qualité vocale.
43 - Kaufmann es un artista fuera de lo común, capaz de
transitar por una partitura imposible, cambiante, con un fraseo que no
decae jamás, luciendo un sentido casi religioso del legato y desplegando
una autoridad masculina apabullante. Simplemente soberbio, como si él
mismo fuera el “Gott” al que clama.
44 -
Unter Claudio Abbado klingt das Werk noch eindringlicher,
exzellent ist auch die Rollenbesetzung: Nina Stemme als Leonore steht
mit Jonas Kaufmann der zurzeit wohl beste Florestan zur Seite.
45 - Likewise, Jonas Kaufmann's Florestan is
beautifully sung, and when the two finally join forces for "O namenlose
Freude!" the result is suitably Mozartean, not a prototype for Wagner's
Siegfried. Kaufmann has enough mastery of his difficult aria to allow us
to think about the glorious music and the beauty of the words, and he
makes a splendid contribution to the finale, revived rather than
exhausted.
46 - The cast is exceptionally fine,
especially the Florestan of Jonas Kaufmann, who makes the most stunning
vocal appearance with his utterance of ‘Gott!’, which grows from a
whisper to a spine-tingling fortissimo. His following aria is superbly
sung, Kaufmann’s heroic tenor reminding one of Jon Vickers’ portrayal,
although Kaufmann could almost be accused of singing it too perfectly
for a prisoner who’s been incarcerated for two years. As the leading
Cavaradossi and Don José of today, Kaufmann must be fairly used to
singing in chains by now!
49 - Jonas Kaufmann
gelingt, was René Kollo unter Bernstein misslang. Statt des gewohnten
Aufschreis auf dem "G" über dem System entwickelt Kaufmann den Ton aus
einem Flüstern, fast ist es ein Winseln. Wie imponierend dies auch sein
mag, so wirkt es (auf mich) nicht wie jener Schrei, in dem einst Jon
Vickers Angst und Schmerz und Verzweiflung bündelte, sondern wie ein
Effekt - auch durch die Länge von zwölf Sekunden. Der Phrase "doch
gerecht ist Gottes Wille" verleiht Kaufmann größten Nachdruck durch eine
Appoggiatur auf der ersten Silbe von "Wille". Anrührend das inwendige
Singen zu Beginn der Arie, imponierend deren Schlussteil, in dem die
durchaus spürbare Anstrengung die Überwindung eines expressiven
Widerstandes ist. Was die Ausdrucksintensität angeht, kommt Kaufmann dem
Kanadier Vickers näher als jeder andere Tenor, auch, was die
Klangkontraste von Brust- und Kopfstimme angeht.
55 -
Kaufmann è uno dei migliori Florestan dell'intera discografia
del Fidelio, come prova l'Aria del Il atto, ma anche i preziosi
interventi del Finale.
56 - Jonas Kaufmann
vermag es, diese subtil gezeichneten, voller innerer Spannung
vibrierenden Linien mitzugehen. Er ist kein Florestan der brachialen
revolutionären Auflehnung, vielmehr ein Gebrochener, der noch einmal
seine letzten inneren Kräfte zu sammeln sucht. |