Joseph Haydn – Die Schopfung (The Creation) – Karajan (1998)

Haydn: Die Schöpfung Hob. XXI:2 / Erster Teil
1. 1a. Einleitung. Die Vorstellung des Chaos (Largo)	Berliner Philharmoniker	7:05
2. 1b. Rezitativ mit Chor: Im Anfange schuf Gott Himmel und Erde	Walter Berry	2:58
3. 2. Arie mit Chor: Nun schwanden vor dem heiligen Strahle	Fritz Wunderlich	4:01
4. 3. Rezitativ: Und Gott machte das Firmament	Walter Berry	1:50	
5. 4. Chor mit Sopransolo: Mit Staunen sieht das Wunderwerk	Gundula Janowitz	2:00
6. 5. Rezitativ: Und Gott sprach: Es sammle sich das Wasser	Walter Berry	0:44	
7. 6. Arie: Rollend in schäumenden Wellen	Walter Berry	4:12	
8. 7. Rezitativ: Und Gott sprach: Es bringe die Erde Gras hervor	Gundula Janowitz	0:37	
9. 8. Arie: Nun beut die Flur das frische Grün	Gundula Janowitz	5:34
10. 9. Rezitativ: Und die Himmlischen Heerscharen	Werner Krenn	0:14	
11. 10. Chor: Stimmt an die Saiten	Berliner Philharmoniker	1:58	
12. 11. Rezitativ: Und Gott sprach: Es sei'n Lichter an der Feste des Himmels	Werner Krenn	0:41
13. 12. Rezitativ: Im vollen Glanze steiget jetzt	Fritz Wunderlich	2:55
14. 13. Chor mit Soli: Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes	Gundula Janowitz	4:02 

Haydn: Die Schöpfung Hob. XXI:2 / Zweiter
15. 14. Rezitativ: Und Gott sprach: Es bringe das Wasser	Gundula Janowitz	0:22
16. 15. Arie: Auf starkem Fittiche schwinget sich der Adler stolz	Gundula Janowitz	7:38	
17. 16. Rezitativ: Und Gott schuf große Walfische	Walter Berry	2:39
18. 17. Rezitativ: Und die Engel rührten ihr' unsterblichen Harfen	Walter Berry	0:27	
19. 18. Terzett: In holder Anmut stehn	Gundula Janowitz	4:53	
20. 19. Chor mit Soli: Der Herr ist groß in seiner Macht	Gundula Janowitz	2:46
21. 20. Rezitativ: Und Gott sprach: Es bringe die Erde hervor lebende Geschöpfe	Walter Berry	0:30	
22. 21. Rezitativ: "Gleich öffnet sich der Erde Schoß" (Raphael)	Walter Berry	3:01
23. 22. Arie: "Nun scheint in vollem Glanze der Himmel" (Raphael)	Walter Berry	3:45	
24. 23. Rezitativ: "Und Gott schuf den Menschen" (Uriel)	Werner Krenn	0:48
25. 24. Arie: Mit Würd' und Hoheit angetan	Fritz Wunderlich	3:58	
26. 25. Rezitativ: Und Gott sah jedes Ding	Walter Berry	0:27	
27. 26. Chor: Vollendet ist das große Werk - 27. Terzett: Zu dir, o Herr - 28. Chor: Vollendet ist das große Werk	Gundula Janowitz	9:06	
28. 29. Orchestereinleitung und Rezitativ: Aus Rosenwolken bricht	Werner Krenn	4:51
29. 30. Duett mit Chor: Von deiner Güt', o Herr und Gott - Der Sterne hellster, o wie schön	Gundula Janowitz	10:00
30. 31. Rezitativ: Nun ist die erste Pflicht erfüllt	Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau	2:50
31. 32. Duett: Holde Gattin, dir zur Seite - Der tauende Morgen	Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau	7:04
32. 33. Rezitativ: O glücklich Paar	Werner Krenn	0:27
33. 34. Schlußchor mit Soli: Singt dem Herren alle Stimmen	Gundula Janowitz	4:03

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone)
Gundula Janowitz (Soprano)
Fritz Wunderlich (Tenor),
Christa Ludwig (Mezzo Soprano)
Walter Berry (Bass Baritone)
Werner Krenn (Tenor) 

Wiener Singverein
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan - conductor

This classic performance of Haydn's greatest choral masterpiece was beloved tenor Fritz Wunderlich's last recording. He sings all of the arias, but he died before finishing the recitatives, which are here taken by Werner Krenn. The recording is, in addition, one of Herbert von Karajan's finest, vastly better than his later digital remake. His interpretation is straightforward and impressively large in scale, but never pompous or sanctimonious (which was Karajan's big problem in music of a religious character). The truth is, Haydn's consistently fresh and unpretentious invention acts as a positive anesthetic against bombast, and the composer himself once said that thinking of the Creator always made him irresistibly cheerful. With The Creation, Haydn returned the favor. --David Hurwitz, amazon.com

This, at last, is Karajan's great 1966-9 Schopfung, robustly remastered, and differing obviously from the live 1982 DG Salzburg recording in the presence of the Berlin rather than the Vienna Philharmonic. The change is all-important. The revelatory later version, consistently praised in these columns, here meets its real match. While the glory of the 1982 paradise garden was primarily the obvious beauty of its strings, the BPO brings its entire forces palpably to bear, horns far from diffident, woodwind soloists radiating bright and unexpected shafts of light.

In the Eden of 1982, its seems, all manner of things will be well: in 1969 there is still a sense of threat lurking in the Chaos, a sharper, harder edge to its chords, real teeth in its leonine attack. This is Karajan at his most inspired: I challenge anyone to find a more literally breathtaking No. 27 Trio, where the particular character of the woodwind, the dry, skeletal strings and the blend of voices convey so elequently the withdrawal and subsequent replenishing of the Divine Spirit.

As for the voices themselves: well, this is the Creation of Fritz Wunderlich, of Gundula Janowitz and of Fischer-Dieskau. Wunderlich's unique sensitivity to the dramatic energy of each vowel and consonant within an effortlessly lyrical line creates unforgettable moments like the shift from sun to moonlight, and the first image of created Man. Wunderlich's death, in mid-recording, means that, here and there, Walter Krenn is a substitute Uriel, cunningly matched in weight and timbre, though expressively distant. Here, the more overtly heroic Francisco Araiza (1982) has the edge.

Where Edith Mathis (1982) is both corporeal woman and archangel, Janowitz, younger and with her characteristic bloom untarnished, brings a truly other-worldly aura to Gabriel. Indeed, she scarcely touches down in the somewhat blurred fioritura passages. The sense of wonder, though, in her steady, eloquent recitatives, the truly healing properties of her rhapsodic ''Heil'', to say nothing of her deliquescent ode to the nightingale, are incomparable contributions to this performance.

Walter Berry's true bass Raphael (he descends to the lowest earth for his ''Gewurm'', as does Kurt Moll for Levine—also DG) is a sober presence in contrast to Jose van Dam's later (1982) and livelier verbal responses and his unique Cousteau-eye view of the deeps. Berry's earthly counterpart is Fischer-Dieskau's Adam. Whereas van Dam focuses on the humility of the Creature, Fischer-Dieskau glories in Adam as Hero, triumphant in his leading forth of Eve, rhetorical in the solemnity of his vow-taking.-- Hilary Finch, Gramophone [12/1991]

download: uploaded anonfiles yandex 4shared solidfiles mediafire mega filecloudio nornar

back