so glad you included the Frau from the mid 1950s. It was my introduction to the piece and it still blows me away. Kind of remarkable that more than 60 years later it is still the finest recording of this incredible opera.
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of Karl Böhm and his recorded legacy. That legacy is not very large when compared, say, with Karajan, but it is almost uniformly excellent. For Böhm the music came first. He was serious about his art and it showed. If I were to offfer my own "ten best" list of this conductor's work it would certainly include: Wagner's Ring (counts as 1), Tristan und Isolde, Mozart's Cosi (the old Decca set, my personal choice among his three versions) and Figaro, Bruckner 4 and 8 (the virtues of the latter for some reason elude critics), Haydn's "Seasons," Beethoven 6 amd 9. plus "Fidelio." Of course, the list should also include Schubert, butI think that adds up to 10. What, no Strauss? . Main reason: except for "Rosenkavalier" i am not a great admirer of Strauss opera, and I prefer other conductors (Karajan, Solti) in "Rosenkavalier." And his recordings of the tone poerms are, strangely, not particularly exciting, and definitely not well enough recorded. Not a patch on Reiner, Szell, Kempe, or Karajan in that repertoire. But to end on a positive note: overall, I think Böhm was the greatest Mozart conductor of his generation.
Interestingly, I revere Bohm for 'that' 👔 Beethoven ninth, his last, which I picked up on tape in 1993, and listened to on the train. It lasts about as long as Wagner, and has the feel of a personal statement rather than a musical drama, but, what a statement! There may be no tension, but there is reverence in every note. It was also my introduction to the👔ninth! Since when I've acquired his first Ninth, the 'Nazi' one, which is Mahlerian in its complexity and emotional depth (nothing smug or glib about it whatsoever, unlike Furtwangler) and the Fidelio with which they re-opened the Vienna Musikverein, which is simply sizzling. A genius, in my view!
Mulling over who could be a modern-day Karl Böhm, I wonder if Antonio Pappano fits the bill? A former repetiteur himself, Pappano is essentially a man of the theatre/opera-house. It's no wonder, then, that - like Böhm - Pappano has made some fine operatic recordings.
I was very fortunate to hear Bohm at the Met in many of the opera performances: Elekta, Die Frau, Nozze, even Otello...very exciting performances. In you your best recordings you missed taking about his Elektra (Video)...as always great talks.
I always thought that thing was just slow and sad, mostly because he was so old. There’s a rehearsal video from that where he just kind of waves around the stick, his web-like face somewhere also in the picture. The trumpets miss an awkward entrance, and he yells at them, saying “I can’t beat any clearer!” Well, if you can’t beat any clearer, then you shouldn’t do this piece! I don’t know. Not my pick for Elektra, but that’s just me.
@@claytonfarmer437 It is a great performance ... not slow ...exciting. I heard him multiple times in the performances with Rysanek and Nilsson..some of the greatest nights at the Met opera.
A really enjoyable talk and summary of Bohm's career. I agree with the opinion of most of his symphonic recordings being perceived as dull, stodgy etc. However one major surprise was his Tchai 4. I know you know it Dave, but for the other readers of these comments, listen to it. The end of the first movement is thrilling! So very "un-Bohm" like!
In his autobiography, Böhm mentions Strauss's plans for a post-WWII opera museum complex, with three houses, one for Mozart, one (I believe) for Italian repertoire and one for Wagner (and, no doubt, his own stuff). Apparently, Strauss believed that classical music and opera was done with by 1945. Perhaps a possible subject for a music chat? I agree in that Böhm was quite an exciting conductor. When European independent labels started exploiting the radio archives I got involved in some Böhm productions (with the RIAS, West-German and Bavarian radio). I hadn't paid attention to Böhm for decades, and then discovered his orchestral work in Beethoven and Bruckner and Strauss. To me, it was a revelation. I think you could call him, in your terminology, a line guy, because every voice in the structure was so perfectly sculpted. Not in a way one might call transparency, because the overall sound was healthy and muscular. But wherever in the music you listened, whether in mono or stereo recordings, the playing was excellent to the last note. Böhm seems to have radiated, as well quite vocally required, highest demands from every single player in the ensemble. At times, one could hear him get really excited -- in a Don Juan climax, you could hear him stomp his foot and groan audibly.
His generally quick tempos & unfussy unsentimental approach reflects the influence of his great mentor, Richard Strauss, & is also a characteristic of Clemens Krauss, whose Ring is close in approach to Bohm's. I also like, evident in many of the orchestral recordings, that he achieved a certain sheen in the sound, no matter the orchestra he conducted.
He certainly was a man of the theater. A throwback to the giants of the past. I saw many of his remarkable performances at The Met. The Strauss, Beethoven were, of course, exceptional. I was also greatly moved by his Otello. A driving, compelling performance. Later, I heard his wonderful German language Otello with Torsten Ralf from the 40s. Wow.
