Janacek: The Makropulos Case

March 2007

****

“Mackerras's reading, recorded in live performance, is slightly more expansive than his benchmark Vienna version… but the passionately lyrical urgency and sense of mystery drive it along just as compellingly. Cheryl Barker has the right kind of imperious soprano for Emilia Marty... This doesn't outclass Mackerras's Viennese set... But this is more vivid and dramatic, and its immediacy also offers English-speaking listeners easier access to this strange but rewarding masterpiece.”

2010

“This is Mackerras's second recording. The first, in 1979, in his series of groundbreaking Janácek recordings for Decca (above), had the Vienna Philharmonic in radiant form accompanied a fine cast singing in Czech. It says much for the quality of the ENO Orchestra that for this new version in English the playing is equally polished, and often outshines that of the Viennese in its extra dramatic bite.
The recording brings an advantage, too – not as plushy as the Viennese version and with extra separation and clarity in a clearly focused acoustic.
Those qualities suit the work better, which, as Sir Charles points out, is 'a different kind of music': Janácek emphatically did not want to sound like Strauss or Puccini. That extra clarity and separation means the words are astonishingly clear.
Cheryl Barker rivals Elisabeth Söderström on Decca in dramatic bite and when in Act 3 Emilia is at last given a sustained solo, Barker is even more powerful, aptly abrasive and less moulded.
Though the American Robert Brubaker cannot quite match Peter Dvorsky on Decca, it is a focused, compelling performance. In some of the smaller roles the Czech singers had an advantage but their counterparts here run them close. On any count both versions have one marvelling at the score's emotional thrust and dramatic compulsion, original in every way and one of Janácek's supreme masterpieces.”

Andrew McGregor

16th March 2007

“Mackerras’s insight and grip are as powerful as ever, and the ENO Orchestra’s playing is remarkable...Cheryl Barker captures Emilia’s essential coldness, and the way she handles the final scenes is superb – you feel her desperation, and her imperious disdain...this performance certainly doesn’t suffer for being in English, and that in itself is quite an achievement.”