Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
Die Zauberflöte, K620
Ernst Haefliger, tenor – Tamino
Maria Stader, soprano – Pamina
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone – Papageno
Rita Streich, soprano – Queen of the Night
RIAS Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Choir cond. Ferenc Fricsay
rec. June 1954, Jesus-Christus Kirche, Berlin
Pristine Audio PACO 226 [2 CDs, 143]

This reissued recording has a number of claims to fame. In the first instance, in the early days of the Stereo Record Guide when the distinguished editors of those long-running volumes of reviews were devoting their pages exclusively to the promotion of stereo for recordings, an abridged single disc extracted from this mono recording (in an artificial stereo remastering) was exceptionally included in their survey despite the authorial admission that it was “not real stereo.” In the second instance, this appears to have been the first commercial recording of Mozart’s Singspiel to include substantial sections of Schikaneder’s spoken dialogue in an era when this was frequently omitted altogether from discs (and indeed continued to be so excised in Klemperer’s EMI recording nearly a decade later). As such, even in the early days of its existence this set of DG LPs had not only substantial merits on the grounds of relative completeness but also in the sheer quality of its performance and sound – all of which continue to be evident on this newly remastered version for Pristine in the superb engineering hands of Andrew Rose, now employing ambient XR stereo.

The cast of this 1954 recording has tended to be overshadowed by two classic sets which followed during the following decade: not only Klemperer’s delivery of the musical numbers with a stellar cast that has never since been matched on record (including Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig and Marga Höffgen as the Three Ladies, frequently consigned in theatrical productions to comprimario or chorus singers), but also Karl Böhm’s stereo recording for DG which featured abridged dialogue and also the Tamino of Fritz Wunderlich, captured before his premature death robbed us of one of the greatest tenor voices of the twentieth century. That recording also included, as here, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the prince’s unwilling sidekick the bird-catcher Papageno, although the female singers were not quite so distinguished.

In fact, I find myself preferring Fischer-Dieskau’s earlier Papageno as delivered in this set, delicately pointed but without the sometimes intrusive points of interpretation in which he allowed himself to indulge in his later years. It is not clear whether he speaks his own dialogue here; some reviewers have lamented the fact that a group of anonymous actors were asked to supply the voices for the abridged spoken sections of the score (with inevitable mis-matches in sound between sung and spoken text), but Roland Grames in the Metropolitan Opera Guide suggests that the distinguished baritone did indeed supply his own spoken contributions. I must admit that the actual sound does not seem to me to justify such an assumption, but I may well be wrong. It is clear, however, that other singers are poorly matched to their acting counterparts, and it seems a pity that greater care could not have been taken in this regard especially since most of the singers would have been accustomed to delivering their own dialogue in stage productions.

But Fischer-Dieskau is not the only exceptional singer in this set, cast with some of the major European singers of the mid-1950s and all found here on top form. Ernst Haefliger may lack the honeyed tones of Fritz Wunderlich or Stuart Burrows in the immediately succeeding generation, but he never makes an ugly or a strained sound and he floats his quiet passages of lyricism with a reflective beauty. Maria Stader was always a reliable singer, and although her Pamina may lack the sheer beauty of sound achieved by Gundula Janowitz or Kiri Te Kanawa in later recordings, she again never makes an ugly sound and her delivery of her big lament Ach, ich fühls is a model of restraint. As her mother, Rita Streich is one of the very best of the exponents on disc of this crazily written role; she may not be able to convey much in the way of outraged ferocity (not many Queens of the Night can) but she is well on top of the notes and there are no technical shortcomings in her singing at either end of the range. Josef Greindl, often a major flaw in the ointment of operatic recordings during this era (his rough and ugly tones bringing many otherwise superlative sets close to disaster, and many of his live performances often lacking in steadiness of pitch to boot) is for once on his best behaviour; his benevolent father never sounds really sympathetic, but he sings with firmness and solidity, even though his bottom notes are surprisingly not as resonant as they might be. Kim Borg as the Speaker (luxuriously doubling the Second Armed Man) tends to show him up with his richer and warmer tones – a not uncommon feature in recordings of this work. Martin Vantin is a crisp and occasionally malevolent Monostatos, and Lisa Otto a pert Papagena who nearly makes us overlook the over-the-top performance of her acting counterpart. The smaller parts are not so luxuriously cast as with Klemperer, but one notes the presence among the Three Ladies of Marianne Schech (before her ill-advised forays into Wagnerian and Straussian repertoire a few years later) and the resolute Margarete Klose. Indeed, the casting in depth remains noteworthy by comparison with later eras, when casting producers seem to have placed more emphasis on the presentation of an ensemble rather than on highlighting individual performers – it may well be that they are right, and it is certainly more authentic in its reflection of theatrical practice in Mozart’s day.

Ferenc Fricsay gained something of a reputation during the 1950s for his brisk no-nonsense approach to Mozart, which was then regarded as somewhat iconoclastic in an operatic world dominated by monumental conductors such as Furtwängler and Klemperer. Nowadays his approach sounds very much within the European mainstream, dramatically propulsive without attempting the purist classical approach of the modern authenticist brigade. There are no attempts to provide ornamentation, and the orchestral sound is quite bulky with plenty of heft at the climaxes. The original LPs were criticised in some quarters at the time for the precedence they afforded to the voices, relegating the orchestra to the middle distance in a manner that was not uncommon with DG engineering at that time; however, this remastering has done much to redress the balance, and the clarity of the instrumental contributions is noteworthy and not at all unnatural.

The handsomely presented gatefold sleeve gives us fully timed track listings, although it is perhaps to be regretted that by and large the dialogue passages are not separately tracked; this would certainly have been possible at most points, since the dovetailing of spoken passages into the music is usually distinct with definite pauses between presumably different taped sessions.  The anonymous booklet note comments that “Fricsay ensures that dramatic momentum is never lost” but I would be hesitant to agree to such a bold statement, even were the credit to be given to the conductor rather than the engineers or editors. Nonetheless, I can wholeheartedly agree that “Fricsay’s Magic Flute remains fresh not because it is novel or eccentric, but because it draws so faithfully and vividly on the heart of Mozart’s intentions.” It is indeed good to hear the recording again after so many years, and to realise that the instincts of the editors of the Stereo Record Guide (and my own early memories of its Heliodor highlights reissue) were not deluded or misguided.

Paul Corfield Godfrey

Previous review: Göran Forsling (September 2025)

Additional cast
Josef Greindl, bass – Sarastro
Martin Vantin, tenor – Monostatos
Lisa Otto, soprano – Papagena
Kim Borg, bass – Speaker, 2^nd Armed Man
Howard Vandenburg, tenor – 1^st Armed Man
Marianne Schech, Liselotte Losch and Margarete Klose, sopranos and contraltos – 3 Ladies
Margot Giuillaume, Maria Reth and Diane Eustrati, sopranos and contraltos – 3 Boys

See also the review of this set in Ralph Moore’s survey.