Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72

Jonas Kaufmann (Florestan), Nina Stemme (Leonore), Falk Struckmann (Pizarro), Christof Fischesser (Rocco), Rachel Harnisch (Marzelline), Christoph Strehl (Jaquino), Peter Mattei (Don Fernando)

Lucerne Festival Orchestra & Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Claudio Abbado

The real star of this performance...is the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, in whose hands the music seems to glow from within. The playing is thrilling throughout, with Claudio Abbado caressing every... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2011, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 20th Jun 2011
Catalogue No: 4782551
Label: Decca
Length: 1 hour 54 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

20th June 2011
Gramophone Magazine

September 2011

Disc of the Month
Presto Favourites

Recommended Recording
Gramophone Awards

2012

Winner - Opera

Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72

Work length1:54:43

$33.00

$45.00

Juan Sebastian Acosta (tenor), Rachel Harnisch (soprano), Nina Stemme (soprano), Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Christoph Strehl (tenor), Christof Fischesser (bass), Falk Struckmann (bass-baritone), Levente Pall (bass), Peter Mattei (bass)
Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Arnold Schoenberg Chor
Claudio Abbado
Recorded: 2010-08-12
Recording Venue: KKL, Lucerne

Overture

Track length6:20

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Jetzt, Schätchen, jetz sind wir allein

Track length4:52

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Seit Fidelio bei uns ist

Track length0:11

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O wär' ich schon mit dir vereint

Track length3:41

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Ich täusche die Menschen

Track length0:54

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Mir ist so wunderbar

Track length4:31

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Marzelline und Fidelio haben sich offensichtlich recht lieb

Track length0:17

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Hat man nicht aud Gold beineben

Track length2:34

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In den finstersten Gewolben sitzt ein Gefangener

Track length0:30

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Gut, Sohnchen, gut

Track length6:38

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Marsch

Track length2:08

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Etwas Neues vorgefallen?

Track length0:48

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Ha! Welch ein Augenblick!

Track length3:30

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Und nun zu dir mein lieber Rocco

Track length0:05

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Jetzt, Alter, hat es Eile!

Track length5:13

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Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?

Track length7:22

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Wie Fidelio das wieder geschafft hatte war mir ein Rätsel

Track length0:21

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O welche Lust

Track length6:56

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Nun sprecht, wie ging's?

Track length5:19

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Ach, Vater, eilt!

Track length0:41

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Verwegener Alter

Track length1:49

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Leb wohl, du warmes Sonnenlicht

Track length3:44

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Gott! - Welch Dunkel hier!

Track length11:23

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Wie kalt es ist diesem unterirdischen...Nur hurtig fort, nur Frisch gebraben

Track length5:53

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Ihr habt wieder geruht

Track length0:33

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Euch werde Lohn in bessern Welten

Track length6:31

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Ist alles bereit?

Track length0:07

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Er sterbe!

Track length5:02

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O namenlose Freude!

Track length3:04

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Heil se idem Tag, Heil sei der Stunde

Track length13:46

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Favourites, Ludwig van Beethoven - Orchestral & Choral Works

James attempts the Herculean task of choosing his favourite recordings of orchestral and choral works by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Recording of the Week, Beethoven’s Fidelio from Abbado and Kaufmann

20th June 2011

The German tenor is mesmerising from his very first note, whilst Nina Stemme is scarcely less compelling as his heroic wife Leonore in this exhilarating live concert recording from last year’s Lucerne Festival.

Recorded live at the Lucerne Festival 2010 with the Festival Orchestra, this Fidelio is led by the legendary conductor Claudio Abbado − making this release a major operatic event.

The central tenor role of Florestan is known as one of the most demanding and difficult in all opera. For his first complete opera recording for Decca, Jonas Kaufmann, “the world’s greatest currently performing tenor” (London’s Daily and Sunday Express), delivers everything the role demands: fearless tone, peerless style, and heart-stopping dramatic intensity.

Reviews

September 2011

The real star of this performance...is the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, in whose hands the music seems to glow from within. The playing is thrilling throughout, with Claudio Abbado caressing every detail of Beethoven's score...The Arnold Schoenberg Choir rises to the occasion, too, producing hushed singing of great beauty in the Act 1 prisoners' chorus...Kaufmann is a commanding Florestan. His opening phrase as he lies in the depths of the dungeons is spine-tingling.

1st July 2011

Under Claudio Abbado’s assured direction, the Mahler Chamber and Lucerne Festival orchestras derive a fantastic amount of energy...[Stemme] manages to imbue her Fidelio/Leonore role with the requisite disguised anguish...High praise also must go to the spellbinding ensemble work...Jonas Kaufmann also impresses, most of all in his lachrymose opening to the second act...Due in part to the relative infrequency of recordings of Fidelio, this is one in particular to be cherished.

October 2011

Abbado brings elegance to everything he touches. In the event, Kaufmann is superb, Stemme sings with technical control and warmth of tone, and Abbado conducts with exemplary clarity.

9th July 2011

this is a “modern” Fidelio in so far as it espouses lightly pointed rhythms, transparent textures and attention to detail – but it also captures the hallowed glow of Beethoven tradition...Interest for opera fans lies primarily in Jonas Kaufmann’s Florestan: his aria, beginning on a thread of sound, is as much a meditation as a cry from the depths.

September 2011

Abbado leads a viscerally charged performance that flies to the very heart of the matter...One of the many glories of this thrillingly articulated Fidelio is the playing of the basses and lower strings sharp-featured and black as the pit of Acheron...This is the best-conducted Fidelio since Furtwängler's; a joy to experience and a privilege to possess.

September 2011

I could be in the minority when I state that I find this performance almost clinical...[Kaufmann] can do no wrong and, in fact, he does no wrong here, articulating his despair as well as his hope and desperation with great sincerity...Abbado is obviously going for a lean performance, and he succeeds; one hears things in both orchestra and vocal lines that are frequently smudged elsewhere.

My colleague Katherine would never forgive me if I didn't choose this live recording from the 2010 Lucerne Festival of Beethoven's only opera, conducted by Claudio Abbado and featuring the incomparable pairing of Nina Stemme as Leonore and Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan. His agonised cry of "Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!" after the slow orchestral build-up is astonishingly moving, and there's memorable support from Falk Struckmann as Pizarro and Christof Fischesser as Rocco.

20th June 2011

From the opening flourishes of the overture, Abbado and his hand-picked festival orchestra arrest the attention...The ensemble-singing has the balance and synthesis which characterise the very best performances of Beethoven’s chamber-music...[Kaufmann's] first note alone is worth the price of the set...this is truly glorious, exhilarating music-making, and a superb document of one of the most thrilling live performances of 2010.

26th June 2011

Abbado and his hand-picked Lucerne orchestra certainly do not disappoint here, as Beethoven’s epic score is delivered with drama and incandescence...Kaufmann’s thrilling Florestan emerges with a gut-wrenching cry from his dungeon. The set is worth sampling for him alone.

7th July 2011

Abbado's contribution is without doubt extraordinary – a loving if slow interpretation, noble in its anguish and elation...An exceptional Florestan – arguably the finest since Jon Vickers's – from Jonas Kaufmann wonderfully conveys his moral greatness as well as the extremity of his suffering.

23rd June 2011

Abbado’s command of the score and its structure is consummate, the atmosphere palpable through his perceptive application of orchestral colour. The detail he elicits from his hand-picked Lucerne Festival Orchestra is phenomenal, the blend of sonorities aglow, the clarity of texture refined with a masterly touch.

1st July 2011

Jonas Kaufmann’s first note alone is a good reason to buy this new recording of Beethoven’s stirring opera...The effect makes your jaw drop, your pulse pause, your hairs stand on end...Abbado conducts with magisterial but selfless understanding. In the overture alone (Beethoven’s punchy fourth version is used) you feel electricity and humanity in every jabbing rhythm and lyrically sculptured phrase.

The Independent on Sunday 24th July 2011

the instrumental performance is faultlessly sensitive to the drama it is illustrating. The singing is heroic, both from Nina Stemme as Leonore/Fidelio and Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan. Rachel Harnisch is a touching Marzelline, Falk Struckman a terrifying Don Pizarro.

Opera Britannia 6th October 2011

this is a lean, chamber-sized account, every note precisely placed, but with enough punch for the drama to hit home...for superb technical playing, transparency of sound and with Stemme and Kaufmann in glorious voice, this is a Fidelio to treasure.

Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72

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Favourites, Ludwig van Beethoven - Orchestral & Choral Works

Recording of the Week, Beethoven’s Fidelio from Abbado and Kaufmann