According to the booklet notes, Hans Knappertsbusch led this live 1955 Der Rosenkavalier on a wing and a prayer. He knew Rosenkavalier, the Vienna Philharmonic knew it, so why bother rehearsing? And, as it happens, the performance comes off pretty well. There’s an aura of nonchalance plus easy give and take between pit and stage that make it seem as if the plot’s delicate intricacies are unfolding on the spot, in real time. Listeners who’ve braved Knappertsbusch schlumping through Wagner’s Ring Cycle will be surprised at the lightness and transparency he brings to Strauss’ large forces. The Vienna Philharmonic, of course, can play this music in its sleep, but not necessarily in tune and without the detailed, disciplined ensemble that distinguishes its studio versions under Bernstein, Solti, and Erich Kleiber. In fact, the three female principals (well, two and a half, if you count the trouser role of Octavian) from Kleiber’s classic 1953 recording are featured to lesser advantage here. Compare, for instance, the singers’ controlled, carefully contoured Act Three Trio to the hooty, overloud results here, and you’ll hear what I mean.
Kurt Bohme’s oafish, hammy Baron Ochs, moreover, can’t hold a candle to Ludwig Weber’s gorgeously conniving yet dignified Ochs for Kleiber, let alone his rich, ebony-hued sonority. But Alfred Poell is a pillar of a team player, bringing the same life and substance to Faninal as he did with Kleiber. Karl Terkal’s brief Italian tenor aria in Act One is appropriately overwrought. As with Karajan and Bernstein, Knappertsbusch observes the opera’s traditional cuts, while Kleiber and Solti play the score complete. The sound is not bad for an archival tape. But in a work where every word counts, and you can’t hear 25 percent of them because of stage noises and balances that go out of whack, you need a libretto, and RCA doesn’t provide one. That won’t concern specialists, for whom this release will have appeal.
