Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Salome
Salome – Ljuba Welitsch (soprano)
Jochanaan – Hans Hotter (bass-baritone)
Herodes – Set Svanholm (tenor)
Herodias – Elisabeth Höngen (mezzo-soprano)
Elektra
Elektra – Astrid Varnay (soprano)
Chrysothemis – Walburga Wegner (soprano)
Clytemnestra – Elisabeth Höngen (mezzo-soprano)
Aegisth – Set Svanholm (tenor)
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra/Fritz Reiner
rec. live, broadcast 19 January (Salome) & 23 February (Elektra) 1952, Metropolitan Opera, New York City, USA
No librettos
XR Remastered Ambient stereo
Pristine Audio PACO231 [3 CDs: 193]

The improvement Pristine have made over my own issues of this Salome and Elektra, both from the Met in 1952, is really striking; they have so much more presence and clarity, with everything brought forward and made immediate – and given a sense of depth and space via the Ambient Stereo XR Remastering. I quote from my survey of Salome, plus a few extra comments, as I have little reason to change my verdict:

“One is immediately struck by the attack and immediacy of Reiner’s direction in this 1952 live performance from the Met; Reiner was a master Strauss conductor and galvanises the orchestra into delivering a remarkably vibrant and supple account of this classic shocker. The brass are especially virtuosic and the performance surges ahead in an uninterrupted torrent of sound, sweeping the listener along with it. The recorded sound is really good for live mono: clean and undistorted, permitting a fair amount of instrumental detail to emerge; Jochanaan’s noble theme on the brass is electric.

The next pleasant surprise is the quality of the singing. I had never heard of either singer taking the roles of Narraboth and the Page respectively when I first heard this recording, but Brian Sullivan in particular has a big, pliant tenor and Hans Hotter is in finest voice as the prophet, his declamatory outbursts noble and powerful with very little of the “woofiness” which soon afflicted his voice. He is able to suggest the other-worldly fanatic and has the vocal resources of a celebrated Wotan to sustain his characterisation – although obviously that militates against his sounding like the young man he is supposed to be. Set Svanholm creates a grippingly credible, neurotic and, degenerate Herod without adopting the whine which too many exponents of this role resort to as a default-position in order to characterise the demented Tetrarch. Elisabeth Höngen is a convincing Herodias and the rest of the cast is packed with first-rate singers.

Of course, the raison d’être of this set is Ljuba Welitsch’s famous Salome, of which surprisingly few records remain. She is fine voice even if not quite as secure as she was with the same conductor in 1949 and a few hints of vocal difficulties are beginning to manifest themselves, particularly with regards to erratic pitch. Nonetheless, hers remains one of the most convincing Salomes by far; of the many assumptions of this role, very few divas have the right vocal qualities to create convincing portrayal of a hysterical, over-sexed 16-year-old – but Welitsch can do it. The combination of her piping, white sound and the sheer power of her vocalisation is almost ideal and of course on stage this lissom red-head looked the part, too. She even has a steady, chilling lower register.”

I would add that I am newly impressed by the quality of the supporting cast and should mention the excellence of Hertha Glaz’s Page in particular. I confirm that Welitsch is perhaps the best Salome on record, even if Behrens runs her close.

The issue I referred to in my survey of Elektra is one well remastered by Guild Immortal Performances. As I say in that survey, the sound was already very good for its vintage but Pristine have once more breathed new life and space into it here – and again, I quote from that conspectus:

“This is recorded in amazingly clear mono sound, much cleaner and more vivid, for example, than Carlos Kleiber’s live performance at Covent Garden a generation later – and who better to animate Strauss’ dynamic score than the equally dynamic conductor, Fritz Reiner? He proves to be ideal, infusing the two superb off-stage murder scenes, for example, with a demonic intensity. Varnay, too, was the hochdramatischer Sopran par excellence du jour (excuse the linguistic admixture) before Nilsson and gave us several treasurable recordings, including the one made a year before this under Mitropoulos and another the following year in Cologne. The warmth, power and colouring of her soprano are ideal, especially for those who find Nilsson too steely, and she is immense in the final scene, the odd swoop and sour note notwithstanding. Schöffler’s sonorous Orestes is a known quantity from his recording for Beecham and Svanholm makes a strong-voiced but querulous Aegisthus. However, Walburga Wegner’s Chrysothemis is tremulous and not especially ingratiating, while Höngen as Clytemnestra is only generically good, as she was for Beecham, without being anywhere near as striking or memorable as the best; for this reason and despite the excellence of the contributions of Varnay and Reiner, I would steer you towards either of Varnay’s other recordings if you want to hear her Elektra.”

As you see, for all its many virtues, I was slightly less insistent that this is as good an Elektra as you can find, not least because you may hear Varnay somewhat better partnered in the German production from the following year conducted by Richard Kraus. However, the balance of favour tips further towards this Met performance now that you may hear Varnay’s tour de force in such good sound and handily paired with Welitsch’s similarly iconic Salome. Pristine’s prices might not be bargain basement but a coupling like this of three CDs in a neat, slimline, cardboard package certainly represents something of a steal.

Ralph Moore

Other cast
Salome
Narraboth – Brian Sullivan (tenor)
Ein Page – Hertha Glaz (mezzo-soprano)
Erster Nazarener – Alois Pernerstorfer (bass-baritone)
Zweiter Nazarener – Emery Darcy (tenor)
Erster Soldat – Norman Scott (bass)
Zweiter Soldat – Luben Vichey (bass)
Ein Cappadocier – Osie Hawkins (baritone)
Ein Sklave – Paula Lenchner(-Schmidt) (soprano)
Erster Jude – Gabor Carelli (tenor)
Zweiter Jude – Thomas Hayward (tenor)
Dritter Jude – Alessio De Paolis (tenor)
Vierter Jude – Paul Franke (tenor)
Fünfter Jude – Gerhard Pechner (baritone)

Elektra
Orest – Paul Schöffler (baritone)
Ein alter Diener – Lubomir Vichegonov (bass)
Ein junger Diener – Paul Franke (tenor)
Die Schleppträgerin – Paula Lenchner(-Schmidt) (soprano)
Die Vertraute – Jean Madeira (contralto)
Der Pfleger des Orest – Alois Pernerstorfer (bass-baritone)
Die Aufseherin – Thelma Votipka (soprano)
1. Magd – Martha Lipton (mezzo-soprano)
2. Magd – Hertha Glaz (mezzo-soprano)
3. Magd – Lucine Amara (soprano)
4. Magd – Mildred Miller (mezzo-soprano)
5. Magd – Genevieve Warner (soprano)