If you’re looking for a good, inexpensive performance of the complete incidental music to Egmont, you could do worse than this disc, but you can also do considerably better. There’s nothing particularly wrong here. James Judd’s version of the overture is aptly belligerent, but also a bit heavy-handed. It might have worked if the New Zealand Symphony had a richer bass section, and if the engineers had captured the timpani with some impact and definition. But they didn’t. The less heavily scored bits come off best.
Soprano Madeleine Pierard sings quite well, both in Egmont and in Ah! perfido, though she could attack the latter work’s opening recitative with more histrionic fire, while Claus Obalski speaks Egmont’s melodrama with obvious relish. It’s a pity that the combination of music and spoken text is so annoying. The voices also have a halo of reverberation around them that will bother some listeners. If you can’t find Szell’s Decca recording–still the “gold standard” in this music–this one could do, but it’s certainly not a first choice.
