COMPOSERS: Pfitzner
LABELS: Marco Polo
WORKS: Das Herz
PERFORMER: André Wenhold, Volker Horn, Roberta Cunningham, Beth JohanningChorus of the Thüringian Landestheater Rudolstadt, Thüringian SO/Rolf Reuter
CATALOGUE NO: 8.223627/8 DDD
Pfitzner’s standing outside Germany has never been that high – overshadowed by Strauss in his lifetime, his reputation tainted by association with the Third Reich. Das Herz (1931), a version of the Faust myth, is nevertheless an interesting and often impressive opera with feverish supernaturalism ably expressed in the dark, late Romantic music. This live recording is dry, but the singers lend it dramatic coherence. William Humphreys-Jones
Pfitzner: Das Herz
Pfitzner’s standing outside Germany has never been that high – overshadowed by Strauss in his lifetime, his reputation tainted by association with the Third Reich. Das Herz (1931), a version of the Faust myth, is nevertheless an interesting and often impressive opera with feverish supernaturalism ably expressed in the dark, late Romantic music. This live recording is dry, but the singers lend it dramatic coherence. William Humphreys-Jones
Published: January 20, 2012 at 1:17 pm