Richard Strauss’ 1897 melodrama Enoch Arden embroiders Tennyson’s once fashionable dramatic poem with piano underscorings and interludes that mirror and comment upon the text. Some passages contain catchy themes and inventive counterpoint; others consist of facile tremolos that foreshadow silent-movie clichés. Still, in the right hands the work makes for a compelling experience. The subtlety with which Patrick Stewart modulates his voice enlivens the narrative and shades the characters’ moods and needs without a hint of overacting. No doubt the intimate impression Stewart makes is due to his voice being captured in a dry, close-up perspective. By contrast, the more resonantly engineered Claude Rains and live Jon Vickers versions enhance both speakers’ declamatory proclivities (Vickers’ bardic, sing-songy deliberation stretches the work out to 86 minutes, as opposed to the 53-60 average).
For his part, Emanuel Ax commands the piano writing beautifully, with imaginatively inflected phrasing and a warm, generous tone to match. He shapes inner voices as well as Glenn Gould (Rains’ accompanist), but with more of an organic and vocally oriented flow. Two solo piano selections from Op. 3 follow as encores. They already reveal the teenaged Strauss’ easy mastery and assurance, and Ax’s supple, lilting interpretations point up their superficial resemblance to Schumann. Although I still gravitate toward the excellent-sounding 1961 Rains/Gould edition and its more equanimous balance between participants, Stewart and Ax are no less than a class act. What’s their next project? [10/17/2007]
