Beethoven: Fidelio.(Sound Recording Review)

[] Denoke, Banse; Villars, Held, Polgar, Trost, Quasthoff, Ebenstein, Tibrea; Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle. Text and translation. EMI 7243 5 57555 (2)

What sort of an opera is Fidelio anyway? A staggering preview of coming Wagnerian attractions, or an intermittently progressive variation on the old-fashioned singspiel? It could be either, though most conductors in recent times have chosen to focus on Beethoven's premonitions of the Romantic music-drama. They opt for broad tempos, spacious accents, heavy orchestral devices and Bayreuth-scale voices, wherever possible.

Simon Rattle, never content to follow a crowd, prefers a simpler approach. In this performance, recorded in a Berlin concert hall but predicated on the Salzburg Easter Festival staging of 2003, he stresses transparent textures and flexible, generally propulsive speeds. Portentous Luftpausen punctuate gentle gestures and moderated climaxes. The British conductor also chooses singers essentially of the lyric rather than dramatic persuasion. Call his interpretation a regressive revelation, if you will. Call it Fidelio lite, if you must.

This set won't displace anyone's fond memories of Fidelio as conducted by Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwangler or Hans Knappertsbusch, never mind Karl Bohm or Herbert von Karajan. But Rattle's approach makes refreshing sense on its own thoughtful ...