Carlos Kleiber – J. Strauss II: Die Fledermaus (Remastered) (1976/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Carlos Kleiber – J. Strauss II: Die Fledermaus (Remastered) (1976/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:46:24 minutes | 1,77 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Vintage symphony “Die Fledermaus” (The Bat), conducted by the charismatic conductor Carlos Kleiber, who continues to fascinate audiences even today.

The popularity of conductor Carlos Kleiber (July 3, 1930–July 13, 2004) shows no signs of slowing down six years after his death. Kleiber was a charismatic conductor who held his many audiences spellbound with overwhelming and inspired performances–regardless of whether it was an opera or symphony–as well as his graceful and dazzling approach to conducting, despite the extremely small number of concert appearances and repertoire and frequent cancellations of his performances. Kleiber’s studio recordings started with “Der Freischütz” in 1973 and ended with “Tristan und Isolde” in 1982. Only eight recordings by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) and one recording by EMI have been released. Other than those, all recordings were made from live performances, both official and unofficial. Following his first complete opera album “Der Freischutz” from DG, Kleiber recorded the complete “Die Fledermaus” between 1975 and 1976. “Die Fledermaus” was the first recording Kleiber made with the Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera with whom he had a close relationship during the later 30 years of his career. “Die Fledermaus” directed by Otto Schenk was performed for the very first time at the Bavarian State Opera on New Year’s Eve, 1974. After its premiere night, this operetta became the specialty of this opera house along with “Der Rosenkavalier” (The Knight of the Rose). Kleiber conducted almost all the performances of “Die Fledermaus” at this opera house until 1988 (the live performance in 1984 is recorded on DVD). “Die Fledermaus” album is an endeavor by DG to preserve these performances in recording sessions at the Herkulessaal concert hall.

The cast of “Die Fledermaus” was put together with some of the best operatic vocalists at the time of the recording, including Julia Varady, Lucia Popp, Hermann Prey, René Kollo, and Bernd Weikl, in order to delight the audience with an assemblage of brilliant singing voices. Ivan Rebroff, who was famous for singing Russian folk songs, was appointed to the role of Prince Orlofsky, and Rebroff’s original approach to playing this character with his falsetto singing stands out in the recording. One of the biggest appeals of this album that you cannot perceive in other performances is the masculine sound of the orchestra that quickly responds to Kleiber’s flexible style of conducting. This quality can be heard throughout the tracks on this album, most notably in the overture, which was often conducted by Kleiber for the encore at concerts, as well as the awe-inspiring “Unter Donner und Blitz” (Thunder and Lightning), which is played in Act 2 and considered to be the climax among all the tracks. For this recording, the dialog of the performers was supervised by Otto Schenk, who was director for the opera performance. You can capture the feel of a lively stage from this recording session that is almost like a live opera performance, in the same way as Karajan’s recording session album “Die Lustige Witwe” (The Merry Widow).

“Twenty-five years after its original release there’s still no recording of Die Fledermaus that, for many collectors, matches this one for the compelling freshness of its conductor’s interpretation – the attention to every nuance of the score and the ability to bring out some new detail, all allied to extreme precision of vocal and instrumental ensemble. The ladies, too, as so often seems to be the case in recordings of DieFledermaus, are quite superlatively good, with ideally characterised and projected singing. If the men are generally less outstandingly good, one can have no more than minor quibbles with the Eisenstein of Hermann Prey or the Alfred of René Kollo. But it’s less easy to accept Ivan Rebroff singing the role of Orlofsky falsetto. Some collectors find that his contribution quite ruins the whole set, but most will find it tolerable enough for the glories to be found elsewhere on the recording. DG remastered the set to make it sound as though it were recorded only yesterday; but it continues to provoke puzzlement by the break between discs, which occurs during the Act 2 finale. If a split into such uneven lengths is to be made, why not have it between Acts 1 and 2? Enough of minor quibbles – this set is a ‘must buy’.” (Gramophone)

Tracklist:

1-01. Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Overture (07:39)
1-02. Lucia Popp, René Kollo, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 1 – Nr. 1 Introduktion- ‘Taubchen, das entflattert ist’ (03:14)
1-03. René Kollo, Lucia Popp, Julia Varady – Act 1 – Dialog- Taubchen, das entflattert ist (01:42)
1-04. Lucia Popp, Julia Varady, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 1 – Nr.1a (Duettino)- ‘Ach, ich darf nicht hin zu dir!’ (00:55)
1-05. Julia Varady, René Kollo – Act 1 – Dialog- Die arme Tante (01:08)
1-06. Julia Varady, Ferry Gruber, Hermann Prey, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 1 – Nr.2 Terzett- ‘Nein, mit solchen Advokaten’ (03:46)
1-07. Julia Varady, Hermann Prey, Lucia Popp, Bernd Weikl – Act 1 – Dialog- Sag mal, also statt funf musst du acht Tage (01:50)
1-08. Bernd Weikl, Hermann Prey, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 1 – Nr.3 Duett- ‘Komm mit mir zum Souper’ (03:13)
1-09. Julia Varady, Hermann Prey, Bernd Weikl, Lucia Popp – Act 1 – Dialog- Seid ihr verruckt geworden? (01:18)
1-10. Julia Varady, Lucia Popp, Hermann Prey, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 1 – Nr.4 Terzett- ‘So muss allein ich bleiben’ (03:45)
1-11. Julia Varady, René Kollo – Act 1 – Dialog- Ach…diese Manner (01:00)
1-12. Julia Varady, René Kollo, Benno Kusche, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 1 – Nr.5 Finale- ‘Trinke, Liebchen, trinke schnell’ (10:40)
1-13. Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München, Wolfgang Baumgart – Act 2 – Nr.6 Introduktion- ‘Ein Souper heut uns winkt’ (01:21)
1-14. Evi List, Lucia Popp, Bernd Weikl, Ivan Rebroff, Nicolai Lugowoi – Act 2 – Dialog- Adele, wer hat denn dich hierher eingeladen? (01:52)
1-15. Hermann Prey, Ivan Rebroff, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – Nr.7 Couplet- ‘Ich lade gern mir Gaste ein’ (02:58)
1-16. Lucia Popp, Ivan Rebroff, Hermann Prey, Bernd Weikl – Act 2 – Dialog- Durchlaucht, hier ist Ihre Brieftasche wieder (00:45)
1-17. Lucia Popp, Bernd Weikl, Hermann Prey, Ivan Rebroff, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – Nr.8 Ensemble und Couplet- ‘Ach, meine Herr’n und Damen’ (01:02)
1-18. Lucia Popp, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – ‘Mein Herr Marquis’ (03:24)
1-19. Nicolai Lugowoi, Ivan Rebroff, Bernd Weikl, Hermann Prey, Benno Kusche, Evi List, Julia Varady – Act 2 – Dialog- Hoheit, ein Chevalier Chagrin ist da (03:02)
1-20. Julia Varady, Hermann Prey, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – Nr.9 Duett- ‘Dieser Anstand, so manierlich’ (04:43)
1-21. Benno Kusche, Lucia Popp, Ivan Rebroff, Evi List, Julia Varady – Act 2 – Dialog- Ah, da ist ja die schone Unbekannte (00:35)
1-22. Julia Varady, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – Nr.10 Csardas- ‘Klange der Heimat’ (04:00)
1-23. Evi List, Julia Varady, Ivan Rebroff, Bernd Weikl, Hermann Prey, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München – Act 2 – Dialog- Bravo! Bravissimo! (02:12)
1-24. Julia Varady, Lucia Popp, Evi List, Hermann Prey, Benno Kusche, Bernd Weikl, Ivan Rebroff, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – Nr.11 Finale- ‘Im Feuerstrom der Reben’ (02:12)
1-25. Julia Varady, Lucia Popp, Evi List, Benno Kusche, Bernd Weikl, Hermann Prey, Ivan Rebroff, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – ‘Herr, Chevalier, ich grusse Sie!’ (05:20)
1-26. Ivan Rebroff – Act 2 – Dialog- Wir werden jetzt sehen das Ballett (00:10)
1-27. Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – Polka ‘Unter Donner und Blitz’, op.324 (02:55)
1-28. Julia Varady, Lucia Popp, Evi List, Hermann Prey, Benno Kusche, Bernd Weikl, Ivan Rebroff, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 2 – ‘Genug damit, genug’ (04:09)
1-29. Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 3 – Nr.12 Entr’acte (00:54)
1-30. René Kollo, Franz Muxeneder – Act 3 – Dialog- Taubchen, das entflattert ist (01:07)
1-31. Benno Kusche, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 3 – Nr.13 Melodram (03:46)
1-32. Franz Muxeneder, Benno Kusche, Lucia Popp, Evi List – Act 3 – Dialog- Ah, der Herr Direktor ist entschlafen (01:33)
1-33. Lucia Popp, Evi List, Benno Kusche, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 3 – Nr.14 Couplets- ‘Spiel’ ich die Unschuld vom Lande’ (04:12)
1-34. Franz Muxeneder, Lucia Popp, Benno Kusche, Hermann Prey, Ferry Gruber, Julia Varady – Act 3 – Dialog- Herr Direktor! (03:25)
1-35. Julia Varady, René Kollo, Hermann Prey, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 3 – Nr.15 Terzett- ‘Ich stehe voll Zagen’ (06:59)
1-36. Julia Varady, Hermann Prey, Benno Kusche, René Kollo, Franz Muxeneder – Act 3 – Dialog- Also, du willst mir Vorwurfe machen? (00:40)
1-37. Julia Varady, Lucia Popp, Evi List, René Kollo, Hermann Prey, Benno Kusche, Bernd Weikl, Ivan Rebroff, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper München, Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber – Act 3 – Nr.16 Finale- ‘O Fledermaus, o Fledermaus’ (02:41)

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