Despite its undeniable sonic and musical flaws, this live Klemperer-led Magic Flute, sung in Hungarian, provides an interesting gloss on his early-1960s EMI studio recording. Tempos are not significantly faster, yet the conductor imposes more forceful accents and elicits tauter phrasing all around. The mike placement, though, captures a skewed sound image, with singers popping in and out of audibility, and orchestral balances tipped in favor of the bassoons. While the spoken dialogue is faded out in between each musical number, you get a real sense of the care and consideration governing Klemperer’s tempo relationships. In addition, Klemperer’s iron hand makes itself felt through the rhythmic precision of the vocal ensembles. Unfortunately, the singing mostly leaves a lot to be desired. Odön Mindszenti’s hammy Papageno cheapens the music to the point of caricature, as does Pál Fekete’s Monostatos. While Lászlo Nagypál’s Tamino is pleasantly lyrical most of the time, Maria Mátyás’ lacerating, ugly high notes in the Queen of the Night’s two showpieces are guaranteed to make your blood curdle. Julia Osvath’s heavy voice is wrong for Pamina, but she turns in a more than passable, involving “Ach, ich fuhls”. The renowned Hungarian basso Mihaly Székely is the cast’s one great asset and his sonorous Sarastro adds a modicum of elegance and class to his squally surroundings. Klemperer specialists should hear this release, but if you buy it, you’ll probably play it just once.
