Fritz Lehmann’s Schubert is distinguished by his emphasis on the music’s darker colors and tersely dramatic disposition. While not qualities that jump readily to mind when you think of Rosamunde, it’s precisely these that make this performance (and that of the Zauberharfe Overture) uniquely compelling. Lehmann seems to view the work from the perspective of the contemporaneous Unfinished Symphony, nowhere more so than in the B minor Entr’acte, which, thanks to Lehmann’s emphatic, doom-laden reading, finally sounds like it really could be the Symphony’s conjectured missing finale. However, the score’s lighter sections take less well to Lehmann’s serious-minded approach, most certainly the Overture, which sounds stiff compared to the more free-spirited Münchinger with the Vienna Philharmonic. Still, there’s something charming about Lehmann’s relaxed, old-world take on the bucolic Ballet Music No. 2. The Berlin Philharmonic plays handsomely throughout, joined by the fine singing of Diana Eustrati and the Berlin Motet Choir, who also feature in Schubert’s Ständchen. The mono recording sounds full and clear in this remastering. A must for Schubertophiles.
