This is a raw, hair-raising performance of an opera that doesn’t have to try very hard to be either raw or hair-raising. Taped live at the Vienna State Opera in 1955, the recording is a real problem–there are no pops and clicks, but the stage/orchestra balance is off enough so that occasional singing is inaudible (or close to it). The huge crescendo that introduces the third scene of the last act is overwhelmingly, magnificently loud–but the piano tune that immediately follows it is far too dim; it seems not to be there for a moment unless you’re glued to the speakers, which of course you can’t be, because the chord would have deafened you if you were. And the inter-orchestra balance doesn’t always seem right either, with some instruments being crisply front-and-center and others just not there at all. These problems come and go, and oddly enough they do not detract from the overall potency of the performance.
Unlike Böhm’s studio recording from a decade later, in which he seems to have been going for great orchestral clarity and all of the lyric qualities in the score, here the drama is paramount. The singers use more “Sprech” than “gesang”, while the opposite was true on the DG release. I won’t make a statement about accuracy or even declare a preference for one particular approach, but I must admit that this performance is immediate and sad in a way I’ve never experienced before. Walter Berry’s Wozzeck is amazing; he’s a complete blank in the opera’s early scenes, a meek, humble, “nowhere man”–in short, a born victim. We see his transformation at the hands of the doctor and captain until he’s finally more wild beast than human–he’s even raving by the middle of Act 2. It’s the tragedy of a small man, and it’s a towering performance.
Christel Goltz’s Marie also is overwhelmed by sadness; she’s very much in the role and is particularly effective in the introspective scenes. The very top of her voice is grotesquely shrill and ugly, however. Be prepared. Peter Klein’s Captain is a bit weak–he lacks the high notes and the weird falsetto required of the role (Gerhard Stolze, on DG, sounds like a train whistle)–but he articulates with clear cruelty. The Doctor of Karl Dönch is perfectly demented and equally well-enunciated, and when he and Klein sing in the same scene, they make you feel like you’re listening to the inmates of an asylum. Max Lorenz, near the end of his career (he was a Siegfried and Tristan of note), sings the Drum Major with absolutely no regard for either Sprech or Gesang–he just does what he wants, and he portrays this bully well. Murray Dickie’s Andres sounds properly confused, although his straining for his high-Cs in the Inn Scene in Act 2 is monstrous.
But back to the orchestra and reading in general. The winds shriek, the strings either cut or cajole, and the full force is crushing. The sparsely orchestrated parts are chamber-like; each pluck of a string, each tinkle of the celesta has meaning. The beautiful interlude before the final scene (“Ringel, Ringel Rosenkrantz”) is played with great mellowness and melancholy; it rightly sums up the story of poor Wozzeck. In short, Böhm is a wizard with this opera. I was brought up with (and learned it from) the DG recording, and I find it startling that he can see the opera in two such different but valid ways. The DG will give you more of the notes in the opera (and is a superb, if very “operatic” performance in its own right), but this set will upset you.
