I used to have the Solti on LP but when I started replacing LPs with CDs all those years ago, I was never tempted to buy it again and still don't have a recording of it. I realised I just don't like the opera very much. I find it too overwrought. I keep thinking I should have a recording of the opera in my collection. If I were to get one, what would people suggest?

 

I have the Solti on cd but don't like it a lot either. (I keep it in storage in my attic)

Part of the problem with this disc lies with Culshaws production of it. The music is so loud it overpowers the singers throughout the opera.

I prefer to listen to the Karl Böhm set on dg and the Mitopoulos and Karajan sets on Orfeo.

 

The perennial favourite, and my only recording:

 

Any thoughts on the Sawallisch?

I have his Arabella and Capriccio.

 

I think it's superb (but then I'm a Studer and Lipovsek fan). I waited quite a long time before buying it as I had Studer in the Vienna DVD with Abbado (a great DVD choice for the opera). I ended up getting it a couple of years ago when I was going through a Studer phase and decided I had to have almost every recording of hers available on CD and I was surprised at what a first rate recording it is. The only other recording of the opera that I like is the Solti (as Nilsson is perfect for the title role - her laser beam of a voice was certainly wrought, whether overly so is down to each person's individual taste).

Sawallisch doesn't go for the jugular a la Solti, but that doesn't mean that this isn't an exciting and dramatically engaging reading of the score. The three women are wonderful and bring a white hot intensity to the drama. I certainly recommend it for anyone interested in the opera and not just the female members of the cast.

N.

 

Granate, I found this om the D.G Instagram page .

 

Granate, I found this om the D.G Instagram page .

I'm now really listening to it. Very decent, I prefer other modern recordings. But you know I'm a fan of Thielemann. Thanks.

 

I admire Solti's set very much, but I'll admit that, like most of the above posters, I don't tend to take it down from the shelves very often. In practice I gravitate more often to Böhm (not only his Dresden DG recording with Borkh, but also his live 1967 Montreal and 1971 Met recordings with Nilsson, and his final 1981 film with Rysanek as Elektra) and Mitropoulos (1957 with Borkh).

One question: all those conductors, and most others, seem to stress the forward-looking aspects of the score (drama, tension, dissonance, anticipations of the Rite of Spring). That's very understandable. But I can also imagine an Elektra that emphasized the music's 19th-century roots: its grandeur, its sumptuousness, its descent from (even) Bruckner's Eighth. I don't say I'd want it that way every time, but I'd like to hear it like that sometimes as a counterbalance. Is there a recorded Elektra like that?

 

One question: all those conductors, and most others, seem to stress the forward-looking aspects of the score (drama, tension, dissonance, anticipations of the Rite of Spring). That's very understandable. But I can also imagine an Elektra that emphasized the music's 19th-century roots: its grandeur, its sumptuousness, its descent from (even) Bruckner's Eighth. I don't say I'd want it that way every time, but I'd like to hear it like that sometimes as a counterbalance. Is there a recorded Elektra like that?

I can say from the stereo recordings, that that is the Thielemann Dresden performance you see above.

 

The only recording I have so far is the Solti recording, but I really like it. The Böhm video recording which has been mentioned is also very good. I'm new to R. Strauss's operas, but I do like Elektra.

 

My first Elektra recording and it's even more potent in its latest incarnation on Blu-ray Audio

My second Elektra, Borkh being less of a super-being than Nilsson, but a more girlish powerhouse
The Staatskapelle Dresden is gorgeous in a different way than the Wiener Philharmoniker

My last Elektra, with the fabulous Wiener Philharmoniker, and gorgeous and powerful voices! Great recording!

Leonie sings ALL the major female roles at various points in her career, from Chrysothemis in 1953, to Klytämnestra in 1996, stunningly in all.

I wouldn't want to be without any of these recordings.

 

I have this recording but I must confess listening is an endurance test.

 

Elektra recordings I own and love

Ok, yesterday, the Reiner 1952 Metropolitan recording arrived home, in the Guild CD set that costed me 14.50€. Oddly enough, not the other Orfeo CDs I had ordered. That adds to the Solti Decca and the Mitropoulos Salzburg recording that I own already, so I have my favourite recordings finally.

Solti Decca: The playing, sound and conducting that I love the most. I would have preferred Gwyneth Jones instead of Collier but I really like her tremolous voice. Nilsson nailing the role.

Mitropoulos Salzburg: conducting in the slower side, more sentimental, with a very affected Borkh, very far in interpretation from Varnay or Nilsson. Della Casa and Madeira are a treat. I own the FLAC files from Qobuz.

And the latest purchase, worth every cent, is a historical recording but brings information about the composition, the performers, the performance and the recording itself. It's made by passionate editors for people like them. Also includes a synopsis and some pictures of the performers.

This is the information that Immortal Performances Recorded Music Society, brings in the last page:

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The recording of the 1952 Elektra derives from ABC airchecks. These, like the NBC transcriptions, differed from line-checks, which were relayed by land-lines to RCA Victor's recording studio on East 24th street. Airchecks, on the other hand, were made of all broadcasts and were recorded on banks of lacquer cutters at the RCA buildin, Rockefeller Center. They were usually unmonitored, controled by limiters, which lowered the levels as the volume increased. Thus loud became low and low became loud. The preservation of this Elektra does not, however, sound unmonitored as there are scant moments of slight overload on certain loud passages, a sign that the limiter was not used but that the recordist or sound engineer was not watching the level indicators, These, however, occur so few times as to be practically unnoticeable.

It is the opinion of some who have heard the recording that it derives from a private collector who had excellent equipment. We are unable to determine which is the correct source. Although Elektra was offered by the Met as complete, it was subject to performance-cuts that have become quite common (even the commercial sets possess these performance-cuts, with the exception of Solti performance in Decca). The cuts in the Met production of Elektra are as follows:

The bars between numbers 225 and 228; 94 bars between 240 and 255; 73.5 bars between 68a plus 3, 119.5 bars between 89a and 102a and 38 bars 104a plus 3.

Richard Caniell

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I'm not going to write about the Rosenkavalier excerpts, though they warn that they don't have a very pleasant acoustic, kind of a tinny upper range.

I'm going to try to listen to the entire performance between today and tomorrow, depends on how much time my Kna Siegfried lets me. I've compared the first two tracks of the opening CD to the broadcast uploaded on Youtube and the Youtube may sound more colourful, but I've heard some glitches in the Youtube video that IPRMS and Guild have apparently fixed.

 

Has anyone heard any of the recordings with Ursula Schröder-Feinen as Elektra? They are on Opera Depot. From what I've heard of her on YouTube, she would probably be excellent in the role. Three of these recordings have Astrid Varnay as Klytämnestra!

 

https://parterre.com/2015/10/15/dancing-in-the-dark/

This is presumably Schroeder-Feinen as Elektra

There's a sound byte embedded in the article.

 

That's definitely her!

Unfortunately, the sound clip is all out of order for some reason though.

 

I have both Solti/VPO/Nilsson, and the Reiner/MetOpera pictured above....I have to give this one another listen, it's been awhile....Reiner, for me, was unmatched in R. Strauss, and the operas were real specialties...I very much enjoy his 1956 Salome/Elektra excerpts with Chicago, Inge Borkh in the title roles..She's not my favourite, but she makes for a good psychotic screamer - lol!! The orchestra playing is amazing, the Chicago guys going after it with blood curdling ferocity I've never heard equalled...the music just seethes with the "bloodlust" and "blood-vengeance" of the deranged heroines...thrilling stuff...

 

Is anyone else obsessed with listening to elektra. I truly have to have it for catharsis.... I feel like i'm purged at the end.

 

Nothing like a good obsession in these strange days!