BaL 26.05.18 - Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30
Building a Library: Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex with Kate Molleson.
Stravinsky's "Opera-oratorio after Sophocles" is scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. Jean Cocteau's French libretto was translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin but the narration is performed in the language of the audience. This dramatic and exciting work is from the beginning of Stravinsky's neoclassical period, and is one of the his finest works.


Available versions:-

Lajos Kozma, Tatiana Troyanos, Franz Crass, Luigi Ron, Franco Jacopucci, Giancarlo Sbragia, Orchestre symphonique de la radio italienne de Rome, Claudio Abbado *

Ivo Zidek, Vera Soukupova, Zdenek Kroupa, Karel Berman, Eduard Haken, Antonin Zlesak, Jean Desailly, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Choir (Czech Philharmonic Chorus), Karel Ancerl

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Paul Pasquier, Ernest Ansermet

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly

Martyn Hill, Andrew Greenan, Jennifer Lane, Joseph Cornwell, David Wilson-Johnson, Edward Fox, Simon Joly Male Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra, Robert Craft

Jessye Norman, Thomas Moser, Alexandru Ionita, Michel Piccoli, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Colin Davis

Harold Blackburn, Ronald Dowd, Sir Ralph Richardson, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sadler's Wells Opera Chorus, David Tod Boyd, Sir Colin Davis *

Ferenc Fricsay

Jennifer Johnston, Stuart Skelton, Gidon Saks, Fanny Ardant, Gentlemen of the Monteverdi Choir & London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner (SACD)

Gérard Depardieu, Sergei Semishkur, Evgeny Nikitin, Mikhail Petrenko, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Alexander Timchenko, Mariinsky (Kirov) Orchestra, Mariinsky Chorus, Valéry Gergiev (SACD)

Franz Grundheber, Gabrielle Schnaut, Günter von Kannen, Peter Svensson, Rudolf Rosen, Ruben Amoretti, Jean Piat, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Romande Chamber Choir, Lausanne Pro Arte Choir, Brassus Choral Society, Neeme Järvi

Aldo Bertocci, Arnoldo Foà, Nicolai Gedda, Mario Petri, Magda Laszlò, Nestore Catalani, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della RAI, Coro di Roma della Rai, Herbert von Karajan

Philip Langridge, Florence Quivar, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James Levine


Jessye Norman, Peter Schreier, Bryn Terfel, Harry Peeters, Robert Swensen, Michio Tatara, Saito Kinen Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa (DVD)

Simon Estes, Hans Sotin, Anne Sofie von Otter, Nicolai Gedda, Patrice Chereau, Hans Sotin, Esa-Swedish Radio SO, Pekka Salonen

Peter Pears, Kerstin Meyer, Donald McIntyre, Benjamin Luxon, Alec McCowen, Sir Georg Solti

Martha Modl, Helmut Krebs, Peter Pears, Heinz Rehfuss, Jean Cocteau, Otto von Rohr, WDR Symphony Orchestra, West German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cologne Radio Chorus, Igor Stravinsky

John Westbrook, George Shirley, Donald Gramm, Chester Watson, Shirley Verrett, John Reardon, Loren Driscoll, Washington Opera Society Orchestra, Washington Opera Society Chorus, Igor Stravinsky

Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Alastair Miles, John Mark Ainsley, Lambert Wilson, John Tomlinson, Marjana Lipovsek, Peter Coleman-Wright, London Philharmonic Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst, *



* Download only

[Bryn]

Phew! Looks like one of the finest, Bernstein, is out of the catalogue at the moment. It's on Youtube but seems not even to be available easily as a download.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many thanks, Alpie.

The Karajan recording with Gedda is available in CD format - in this box:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portrait-Stravinsky/dp/B003BF8V3O

... and separately:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oedipus-Rex-Gedda-Petri-Karajan/dp/B00005OKS6

I have that boxed set - mainly for those interested in Stravinsky performance history, and sound quality varying from the execrable to the tolerable. Karajan's performance is ... interesting: in the same mould as his Philharmonia recording of the Jeu de Cartes (also in this box - badly transferred). It would have been interesting if he'd returned to these works with an orchestra that wasn't so obviously unfamiliar with the Music. Not a serious contender (and it won't be mentioned, of course) but worth picking up if you see it in a Charity Shop, or suchlike.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Many thanks, Alpie.

The Karajan recording with Gedda is available in CD format - in this box:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portrait-Stravinsky/dp/B003BF8V3O

... and separately:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oedipus-Rex-Gedda-Petri-Karajan/dp/B00005OKS6

I have that boxed set - mainly for those interested in Stravinsky performance history, and sound quality varying from the execrable to the tolerable. Karajan's performance is ... interesting: in the same mould as his Philharmonia recording of the Jeu de Cartes (also in this box - badly transferred). It would have been interesting if he'd returned to these works with an orchestra that wasn't so obviously unfamiliar with the Music. Not a serious contender (and it won't be mentioned, of course) but worth picking up if you see it in a Charity Shop, or suchlike.

Oh good! We've only had one asterisk-free BaL in recent times.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Any details on the Fricsay would be appreciated. It's listed on the Presto website, without mentioning the other performers (unless I've missed it).

[Bryn]

Any details on the Fricsay would be appreciated. It's listed on the Presto website, without mentioning the other performers (unless I've missed it).

and https://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...y-1594704.html

[Mal]

Simon Estes, Hans Sotin, Anne Sofie von Otter, Nicolai Gedda, Patrice Chereau, Hans Sotin, Esa-Swedish Radio SO, Pekka Salonen

This "displaces all rivals, even the composers own" for Penguin 1999. Is it in that big Salonen box set that has just come out?

[Bryn]

Missing the chorus: it's "Eric Ericson Chamber Ch."

This "displaces all rivals, even the composers own" for Penguin 1999. Is it in that big Salonen box set that has just come out?

It is certainly in the 7 disc Salonen Stravinsky box:



It's disc 58 in the big box.

[rauschwerk]

Pears, sadly, is all over the place in both his recordings. Koĺlo (for Bernstein) is far superior, though the close miked narration on that version sounds a bit too much like a fireside chat. Ancerl is pretty good but the narration is in French. Davis gets a dated recording in his earlier version. I would be interested to hear Salonen (Vinson Cole? Who he?).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(Vinson Cole? Who he?).

One of Karajan's last "discoveries" - he's on the Digital Beethoven #9, and the "Italian Tenor" in the DG Rosenkavalier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinson_Cole

[Serial_Apologist]

Pears, sadly, is all over the place in both his recordings. Koĺlo (for Bernstein) is far superior, though the close miked narration on that version sounds a bit too much like a fireside chat. Ancerl is pretty good but the narration is in French. Davis gets a dated recording in his earlier version. I would be interested to hear Salonen (Vinson Cole? Who he?).

I wonder what Stravinsky thought about having the work performed in French. There's a separate discussion waiting to be had concerning translations from Latin into modern languages, I feel. Citing "Oedipus Rex", the left-wing composer Hanns Eisler designated this work to be the one in which Stravinsky abandoned modernism and became a reactionary composer. One assumes Eisler's objections to have been along lines that use of Latin was a decision that distanced the work from having any relevance to the working class - an interesting deduction to make, and one at variance with Peter Maxwell Davis's opera "Taverner", whose main theme the composer intended as a protest against the modern Roman Catholic Church's abandonment of Latin as the international lingua franca to be used for its religious services, which PMD saw as a betrayal of the unificatory significance of a common language binding all adherents or observants. I never did understand PMD's position on this, actually - to be frank, it seemed an odd position on a purely religious issue for an atheist to take!

[silvestrione]

Pears, sadly, is all over the place in both his recordings. Koĺlo (for Bernstein) is far superior, though the close miked narration on that version sounds a bit too much like a fireside chat. Ancerl is pretty good but the narration is in French. Davis gets a dated recording in his earlier version. I would be interested to hear Salonen (Vinson Cole? Who he?).

Ancerl has a tremendous chorus, tremendous presence. The narration was originally in French, surely?

[BBMmk2]

I have this on that composer box set, so it be good to hear about others.

[Bryn]

The narration should be in the language of the intended audience. The singing should always be in Latin.

[Serial_Apologist]

The narration should be in the language of the intended audience. The singing should always be in Latin.

Ah, didn't know that. thanks for that explanation Bryn.