May 23, 2018

  • 75 Years in the Waiting: Resurrecting Weinberger's Wallenstein

     

    Weinberger: Wallenstein
    Roman Trekel, Ralf Lukas, Daniel Kirch, Dagmar Schellenberger, Roman Sadnik,
    Edwing Tenias, Georg Lehner, Benno Schollum, Dietmar Kerschbaum, Oliver Ringelhahn,
    Nina Berten, Claudia Goebl, Johannes Schwedinger
    Wiener Singakademie, ORF Vienna Symphony Orchestra/Cornelius Meister
    CPO 777 963-2
    Disc One: Total Time:  65:32
    Disc Two: Total Time:  65:01
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Jaromir Weinberger (1896-1967) tends to be relegated to the footnotes of music history, but his life story alone could make for a dramatic tale.  Listener’s familiarity seems to rest upon a single excerpt from his opera Schwanda the Bagpiper (1926), the “Polka and Fugue”.  That opera was the composer’s greatest success internationally once it was translated into German especially, though it would be translated further into 17 languages.  Over 2000 performances of the work should have secured the composer a very comfortable existence, but the next opera was all but ignored and as Austria entered the 1930s, his chances would continue to decline.  Weinberger, being of Jewish descent, faced the reality of the growing fascist fervor and was able to first escape to France and eventually the United States.  Having been a noted, and popular composer, his movements were covered by the press but the musical establishment basically lost interest.  Very likely he left Europe too late being overshadowed by the first wave of composer emigrants that preceded him to America.  (One must imagine the what if of a Weinberger Concerto for Orchestra, or even a resulting Hollywood career.)  He would discover later that his mother and sister had been murdered by the Nazis.  After WWII, he was able to regain some of the royalties from his work which allowed him to buy a “prefabricated” home in St. Petersburg, Florida.  Here he seems to have dabbled in composing, but a dispute over a commission essentially made him abandon composition towards the end of his life.  Instead, he took up photography eventually beginning to withdraw from public.  Health issues and growing depression led him to commit suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills.  Another, late victim, of WWII perhaps, but astonishing in the way his life ended up when compared to many of the others who came to America to escape the Nazis.

    With this in the back of our minds, we now turn to this new important release from CPO of a political opera, Wallenstein.  Important for being the last of his operatic works, the 1937 piece explores the life of the great Baroque general Albrecht Eusebius Wenzel von Wallenstein (1583-1634) who served Emperor Ferdinand II during the Thirty Year’s War.  Wallenstein was a fairly benevolent noblemen and well respected but his diplomatic work would be undermined at the Diet of Regensburg and soon found himself in a more untenable situation.  Weinberger’s choice of subject matter for this work was perhaps to draw potential parallels with developments of the time.  He chose Schiller’s three volume work on Wallenstein as a source for the opera.  Schiller, along with Goethe, representing the ideals of a Europe that was being trampled underneath.  Furthermore, the construction of the Buchenwald concentration camp on a site where the two often would walk through the Weimar forest is a possible clue for an additional underlying metaphor inherent in the resulting work.  The culture of the past was indeed about to be trampled underneath.  Wallenstein premiered four months before the Anschluss and managed to receive only four performances with little or no notice.  The fate of Weinberger, a Czech Jew, was perhaps already foretold even as his art predicted such tragedy masked in historical drama soon to lead to his own oblivion.  Regardless, there is much more to be told here that gets at the historical and political allegory that may be arching over the work.  To help us place the work more in historical context, it is worth noting that this is the year after Richard Strauss’ Daphne, and the period of Copland’s The Second Hurricane.  In short, a period of radically different musical styles and aesthetics disappearing or bursting onto the musical scene.

    The opera is told through six scenes (essentially each scene is a reduction of one of Schiller’s plays) and in addition to the use of a large orchestra and chorus also has moments of additional performance groups on stage divided into different groups (a harpsichord, a military band, trumpets).  One is also struck and the shifting musical styles Weinberger employs in the music that seem to be a melting pot of all that exists for a composer to draw from.  This blend of lyricism against moments of atonality, landler and dances with crushing marches, and lush writing that might recall even Korngold, Waxman, or Zemlinsky, all comes together in this intriguing work.  There is a lot to explore here in a work that essentially moves forward in a music drama style.  Everything is interwoven to create a fascinating work.  Be warned that plot points are part of the following discussion.

    Scene 1 opens with a big chorus and an almost light operetta folk dance that begins at Wallenstein’s camp.  As the tale of Lutzen is told, the music become slighty darker and more dissonant.  It is all bookended by this joyful drinking song with its folkish feel.  The joy is interrupted by Capuchin’s call for more religion and a hymn-like start that grows more macabre as he stirs up his own overt insinuations essentially foreshadowing what is to come.  This moves into a patriotic march (“Pappenheim”) that becomes more funereal as it continues in a very nationalistic style.  A testament to the reality of war from spoils to loss but ending with hopefulness.

    Scene 2 introduces us to the title character as the scene shifts to an interior one.  The music is a fascinating blend of Korngoldian post-romanticism with a somewhat mysterious musical texture.  What follows is a duet of sorts that introduces plot points and moves us forward. The orchestra swirls about hinting at the turmoil Wallenstein is experiencing as he tries to decide what to do which he does in a dramatic monologue that has the sort of descending motif that one might hear in a Herrmann score.  The schemes and plans Wallenstein makes with the Swedish representative, Colonel Wrangel, lay out the issues which will be the undoing of the general should he agree.  The scene culminates in an emotional moment as Wallenstein waxes about fate and fortunetelling that might give him some direction amidst his superstitions.  It is an interesting balance to his earlier monologue.

    Scene 3 provides a bit of respite setting up a potential love conflict.  The intrigue aside, we move to an intimate scene with Wallenstein’s daughter Thekla.  The scene opens with a rather strange, and beautiful, combination of harp and strings with a wavering motif.  This gives way to a nice, simple little song of hopeful love and anguished expectation.  (Martina Welshenbach’s performance here is achingly beautiful.)  The scene gives us a glimpse into the hopeful love with Max, the son of Octavio, but all is not going to go her way as her hand must be promised in marriage to another.  Such is love in the 17th Century.  Before her aunt arrives, “chamber music” is heard which is a stunning Baroque style, complete with harpsichord.  As the reality of what needs to happen is laid out, the music shifts back to more post-romanticism.  The scene returns to a perfect arc with Thekla returning to her hope for the best.

    Scene 4 gives us the other side of the conflict as those who plan to turn against Wallenstein meet to undermine his plans by informing the Emperor of his perceived treason.  This is set up with the return of the regimental military music in the background.  Octavio is made General on the Emperor’s order and begins to seal who will be with him or Wallenstein, by any means.  This of course gets in the way of Max’s plans to marry Thekla, calling his father out in the process.  It is a scene that thus gives us two sides to Octavio both as a political and military schemer, but also as a father.  The reconciliation he hopes for will be elusive though and the scene ends with first a little landler-like chorus with military trumpet providing martial undertones.

    Scene 5 brings together the issues of loyalty that run through thematically in the story:  Wallenstein to the Emperor, Thekla to Max, the army to Wallenstein, Buttler to Wallenstein, and more as events swirl out of their control.  Weinberger brings back some of the musical backdrops, motifs, and orchestral colors for each of these situations as the various threads of betrayal come crashing down on Wallenstein.  The earlier march, in its more somber mood returns as well, eventually being heard in its more exhilarating expectation as Wallenstein’s own fate darkens.  They eventually enter with a burst on stage as Max sings in the final bars and swords are drawn.  Fanfares can also be heard off stage as the scene closes.

    Scene 6 brings us to the final conclusion of the intrigue to assassinate Wallenstein.  The scene opens with brooding and dark music which seems to shift between stark atonal lines and more traditional harmony.  There is something almost chilling in Buttler’s statement, “From Bohemia’s soil meteor, shot across the skies, and here at Bohemia’s border falls for good!”  (Essentially the composer’s own fate is foretold here.)  Buttler’s music becomes more agitated and intense with denser harmony and twisted phrasings, a really masterful compositional application that supports the characters own twisted view of reality.  Thekla is given news of the war’s progress and the orchestra begins to swirl again under the plot development and the discovery that Max has been killed.  She determines to leave to see where he is laid and returns to her earlier love song as she heads off to be “reunited” with him.  This is a momentary lighter moment to the scene that provides a glimmer of beauty even as all else falls apart.  For contrast, we shift to Wallenstein musing on the winds of war and intrigue that have brought him to this point.  Both sections of the scene balance each other quite well.  The banqueting music returns in the background while Wallenstein checks in to see what is happening which recalls the earlier chamber music.  When it disappears we are firmly in the post-romanticism orchestrally.  The deed itself is displayed orchestrally as the murder takes place off stage.  Octavio returns too late and learns that things are even worse than he had planned.  No one really escapes the insanity it would seem.  The somber strains of the march bring the opera to a close.

    The present recording was made at the Vienna Konzerthaus and is taken from a live performance on June 15, 2012.  It was the first time Wallenstein had been performed in Vienna since 1937!  One gets a sense of the excitement in these sorts of productions with musicians more “on edge” as it were with the demands of the stage and live performance bringing this out.  Sometimes the chorus diction does get lost.  Some stage sounds are also omitted—the door knock in scene two is oddly absent which makes the line that follows it seem weird.  Adding these would have helped dramatically, but is not a major distraction.  Soloists for the most part acquit themselves well.  Trekel’s rich baritone serves the characterization of Wallenstein well.  The proliferation of male characters, especially when they are massed together, can be harder to follow especially in scene one.  But this will be overcome with familiarity of the piece.  Balance is overall very good with more a center imaging for the singers, though later they seem to be moved to either side of the stereo image.  That helps with clarity.  The chorus is equally fine.  There is a lot going on here in the orchestra which rarely gets a break to recoup before moving on to the next sequence.  The clarity here is equally good with articulation and phrasing helping to underscore the story well.  Indeed, that is a most apt way of thinking about this as many times Weinberger’s music does feel cinematic in its support of the singing and action.

    The booklet includes a brief essay that helps provide some historical background for Wallenstein, a bit on Weinberger, scene synopses, and the libretto.  The libretto editing sometimes tends to lump things together when they actually overlap which can be rough getting used to at first.  There are some minor editing issues as well that are easily overcome.

    Wallenstein is perhaps not a “masterpiece” in the sense we might come to appreciate it.  But, it is a masterfully-orchestrated work that seems to pull together many threads both musically and historically.  As one becomes familiar with it, it perhaps also needs more back story to get a clear sense as to why Weinberger chose this subject and proceeded with this opera.  There are so many lines in the libretto that seem to parallel the realities of the 1930s as much as those of the story’s time.  They also seem to speak to Weinberger’s own fate as well as many others whose lives would be forever changed by the Nazi regime.  The opera is certainly a fascinating work that may very well make some listeners consider exploring this neglected 20th Century composer who seemed to be at the right place at the wrong time.