Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex: and works by Strauss and Kodály

the dark sobriety and essentially lyric qualities of Stravinsky’s “opera-oratorio” are freshly and memorably conveyed in this recording — Gramophone Magazine, February 1978

Release Date: 4th Nov 2016
Catalogue No: ELQ4806579
Label: Eloquence
Length: 1 hour 59 minutes

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Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex - English narration

Work length1:04

Alec McCowen (narrator)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Georg Solti
Recorded: 1976-03
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to hear...

Track length1:04

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex - English narration - Actus primus

Work length23:07

Peter Pears (tenor), Alec McCowen (narrator), Stafford Dean (bass (vocal))
John Alldis Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Georg Solti
Recorded: 1976-03
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

Caedit nos pestis

Track length3:37

Liberi, vos liberabo

Track length3:19

Creon, the brother-in-law of Oedipus

Track length0:26

Respondit deus

Track length3:09

Non reperias vetus scelus

Track length3:32

Oedipus questions Tiresias

Track length0:32

Delie, expectamus Minerva filia Iovis

Track length1:56

Dicere non possum, dicere non licet

Track length2:42

Invidia fortunam odit

Track length2:37

Gloria, gloria, gloria!

Track length1:17

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex - English narration - Actus secundus

Work length27:15

Peter Pears (tenor), Benjamin Luxon (baritone), Alec McCowen (narrator), Kirstin Meyer (contralto), Ryland Davies (tenor)
John Alldis Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Georg Solti
Recorded: 1976-03
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

The dispute of the princes summons Jocasta

Track length1:06

Gloria, gloria, gloria!

Track length1:04

Nonne erubiscite, reges

Track length6:19

Trivium, trivium, trivium!...Pavesco subito, Jocasta

Track length3:01

A messenger announces that King Polybus of Corinth

Track length0:41

Adest omniscius pastor

Track length5:35

In monte reppertus est

Track length2:03

And now you will hear the messenger

Track length1:15

Divum Jocastae caput mortuum!

Track length3:20

Ecce! Regem Oedipoda, foedissimum monstrum monstrat

Track length2:51

Kodály: Háry János Suite

Work length22:24

Philipp Haas (viola)
Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Sir Georg Solti
Recorded: 1949-05
Recording Venue: Prinzregententheater, Munich

Prelude; the fairy tale begins

Track length3:57

Viennese musical clock

Track length2:17

Song

Track length4:20

The battle and defeat of Napoleon

Track length4:03

Intermezzo

Track length4:35

Entrance of the emperor and his court

Track length3:12

Excerpt, Strauss, R: Elektra

Work length45:14

Ferdinand Frantz (bass-baritone), Christel Goltz (soprano), Elisabeth Höngen (mezzo-soprano)
Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Sir Georg Solti
Recorded: 1952-08
Recording Venue: Amerikahaus, Theatersaal, Munich

"Allein! Weh, ganz allein."

Track length8:40

"Ich will nichts hören!"

Track length16:24

"Was willst du, fremder Mensch?"

Track length20:10

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About

Both Strauss’s Elektra and Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex trace their lineages back to Sophocles, the Greek dramatist who lived in the fourth century BC. Both are stories of the avenging of a royal father’s murder, either by surviving family members (Elektra), or by Fate or the gods themselves (Oedipus Rex).

Even from an early age, Georg Solti knew that his greatest ambitions lay in the opera house. ‘From a purely musical point of view, working closely with singers teaches you to make music in a way that breathes – even in purely instrumental music,’ Solti once remarked. In his youth, Solti assisted Bruno Walter, Issay Dobrowen, Fritz Busch and Erich Kleiber. In Salzburg, in 1937, he was rehearsal pianist for Arturo Toscanini. So, by the time he came to conducting his first opera (Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro) at age 26, he knew the ropes, so to speak. According to him, to ‘play rhythmically but softly, so that the singers always feel the pulse but need not tire their voices’ was a crucial factor in being a repetiteur. He continued, ‘don’t play all the notes, but play all the essential notes; when you are coaching an individual singer in a role, take the lead, but when you are playing for a staging or ensemble rehearsal, follow – follow for dear life! I was able to follow the worst singer to hell and back. I could have followed a bird’s chirping.’

Exclusively a Decca recording artist (apart from a few recordings made for Deutsche Grammophon, RCA and CBS by arrangement with Decca), he made more than 250 recordings for the company over a 50-year period: 1947–1997, taking in music from Bach to Tippett. The three excerpts from Elektra (amounting to nearly half the complete opera) are particularly fascinating as this was an opera Solti conducted throughout his career and which he later recorded in its entirety in Vienna in the 1960s with the incomparable Birgit Nilsson in the title-role. Even in this group of three scenes all the essential Solti characteristics are in evidence: tremendous rhythmic drive and an acute ear for orchestral colour and detail.

Reviews

February 1978

the dark sobriety and essentially lyric qualities of Stravinsky’s “opera-oratorio” are freshly and memorably conveyed in this recording

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex

2 CDs

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