This is a sincere, well-prepared performance with no surprises in tempi, interpretation or emphasis; just a thoroughly Beethovenian reading of this wonderful work. Böhm balances the Singspiel moments with the more breakthrough passages naturally and one can see how the latter grew out of the former; his reading may not have the grandeur of Klemperer’s, but it gets Beethoven’s message across loud and clear. “Mir ist so wunderbar” is a truly heartstopping moment, as certainly it should be, with the four singers defining “ensemble” and singing in gloriously hushed tones. There is plenty of energy despite generally leisurely tempi, and one might even argue that the “big” moments — Pizarro’s and Leonore’s arias, the Act II quartet — benefit from the deliberateness of their delivery. The singing is a mixed bag: Popp is a terrific, girlish but determined Marzelline but Orth is weak as Jaquino. Moll’s rich, cavernous sounding but morally weak Rocco is just right, while McIntyre, as Pizarro, sounds severely challenged by the role vocally but impresses with his nastiness. Behrens is a fine singing actress and she’s in good voice here; she lacks the vocal potency of Nilsson or Flagstad, the manic energy of Rysanek or Modl and the everything of Ludwig, but her Leonore is vivid, touching and noble. King certainly has the voice for Florestan and is just about better here than I’ve ever encountered him, singing with security, effectiveness and great attention to the text. But he doesn’t have the emotional depth of Vickers (or even McCracken). The orchestra performs well for the aged Bohm, but they’re not the Vienna or Berlin Philharmonic; the chorus is very moving at the close of each act: poignant in their gratefulness in Act I, euphoric at their freedom in the finale. Bohm includes the Leonore Overture No. 3 before the finale; it is played well, but its necessity in the opera remains a mystery to this reviewer. There are many Fidelios available on CD and many of them are better, but if this were your first contact with the opera it would hardly disappoint and you would get a genuine sense of what Beethoven was trying tell us.
