Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Le nozze di Figaro
Susanna – Hilde Gueden (soprano)
Figaro – Cesare Siepi (bass)
Conte Almaviva – Alfred Poell (baritone)
Contessa Almaviva – Lisa Della Casa (soprano)
Cherubino – Suzanne Danco (mezzo-soprano)
Vienna State Opera Chorus
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Erich Kleiber
rec. 21-27 June 1955, Redoutensaal, Vienna, Austria
No libretto
Stereo, XR Remastering
Pristine Audio PACO229 [3 CDs: 172]

I chose this as one of my two preferred vintage recordings in my survey of this opera back in 2018. It was then available only in a (good) transfer onto CD by the original issuing label, Decca and another Alto issue, presumably made once it had come out of copyright, which I have not heard. The very early stereo sound was just a little boomy in the bass and the strings are a bit thin; my own copy happens to be one in a triple-Mozart-opera box-set from the Membran Documents label, which actually sounds pretty good. Here, however, Pristine has further cleaned up the stereo studio recording using its XR Remastering technology.

I quote here from that survey:

“This is the second stereo recording ever made and still sounds fine. Kleiber was a true Mozartian and is yet another of those old-time conductors who attacks the music with what almost sounds like period zeal; nothing soupy or cloying here – it’s sharp-edged satire. This is the same chorus and orchestra that gave Karajan such a lively and beautifully played recording five years earlier but now we have stereo sound, the recitatives, an almost complete score – and a terrific cast headed by the great Cesare Siepi who has the perfect voice for Figaro: a beautiful basso cantante with an upper extension. Gueden is marvellously neat and pointed as Susanna with both the agility and the firm lower register so often missing in sopranos who undertake this role. Hilde Rössl-Majdan makes a perfect Marcellina. Then we have the divine Lisa Della Casa as the Countess who in her first aria sounds a little tremulous but that delicacy adds to her vulnerability; “Dove sono” is firmer of line and wonderfully pure of tone but I think she is even better for Leinsdorf in their studio recording three years later. It is true that some other individual performances are less than ideal; Suzanne Danco sings charmingly but her light trilling soprano does not in the least suggest a lovestruck teenage boy; Corena is satisfactory as Bartolo, comic and characterful without having the ideal basso resonance; Poell’s Count Almaviva is blustery and dry of voice, his Italian intermittently Teutonic – a flaw occasionally apparent in other singers, too.”

The only minor textual oddities here are that there are two cuts in “Aprite presto” in an otherwise complete score, and Marcellina’s aria “Il capro e la capretta” is sung – charmingly – by Gueden as too high for the true contralto Hilde Rössl-Majdan, but presumably Kleiber wanted to include it without having it transposed down. Its immediate competition back in 1956, Mozart’s birth bicentenary, was EMI’s recording under Vittorio Gui, made under a month after Decca’s at Abbey Road Studios, which remains very fine but has a few more cuts.

Revisiting it in this new remastering, I wanted both to reconsider my opinion of its artistic merits as detailed above and assess to what degree Andrew Rose’s treatment has enhanced its qualities. Of course, none of the artists involved in this classic recording is still with us and it has long since retained in its status as a favourite account, especially as few concessions had to be made for its sound quality, despite it being so old.

I was immediately struck afresh by the sheer vivacity, elan and attack of the overture. Kleiber adopts a ferocious speed and his orchestra keep up; listening to my older issue before Pristine’s I instantly conceded that I could quite happily keep it as one of my favourite versions, regardless of its age. It’s four minutes of pure joy; things like the crescendo Kleiber engineers beginning at 3:16 for the last hoorah are a delight. Nonetheless, playing this new issue I can equally hear its improved depth and spaciousness; it is certainly fuller but the remastering has also lifted the recording out of what I can only describe as a slight muddiness in the bass. Not everyone will like the extra reverberation Pristine has imparted to the sound, however, and I repeat a suggestion I have several times made regarding these XR Remasterings: I cannot in all honesty insist that anyone with older issues should rush to acquire this new one, good as it is. Listen to the sample on the website and decide for yourself.

My response to the singing stands as per above, although perhaps I was a little harsh about both Corena, whose verbal fluency in the patter sections is admirable, and Poell, whose Count is not the most menacing, dangerous or psychologically penetrative but is nonetheless neatly, cleanly and accurately sung with “classical restraint”, well integrated into the ensembles and in line with Kleiber’s attachment to line and shape over overt emotivity. He makes a nice job of the long line in “”Contessa perdono!”, Lisa Della Casa’s Countess is decidedly a thing of ethereal, otherworldly beauty, poised and touching, and this must be one of Hilde Gueden’s best performances on disc. Key moments of ensemble like the miraculous “Sua madre, suo padre” sextet in Act III all go swimmingly.

In short, this may be a venerable account of Figaro but it remains one of the most satisfying available to the collector and Pristine’s refurbishment offers another option to acquire it.

Ralph Moore

Other review: Simon Thompson

Other cast
Marcellina – Hilde Rössl-Majdan (contralto)
Bartolo – Fernando Corena (bass)
Basilio – Murray Dickie (tenor)
Curzio – Hugo Meyer-Welfing (tenor)
Antonio – Harald Pröglhoff (bass-baritone)
Barbarina – Anny Felbermayer (soprano)