Joseph Haydn - The Creation / Von Karajan

Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)

Die Schopfung - The Creation

Herbert Von Karajan

Wiener Philharmoniker

Wiener Singverein

Edith Mathis

Francisco Araiza

Jose van Dam

 live recording made at the 1982 Salzburg Festival

Some years ago, the Gramophone picked Karajan's first live recording of Haydn's German `Die Schopfung' performance (Wunderlich/Borg/Janowitz) over the studio recording (with the BPO) of the 1966-9 and this 1982 second live performance. The major reason for the choice of the first live performance was clearly Fritz Wunderlich, who was unable to record the work in entirety in the studio recording owing to his untimely death in 1966.

In this revelatory later version, the glory of the paradise garden is primarily the beauty of the VPOs strings. In this Garden of Eden, its seems, all manner of things will be well: while in the 1969 studio version, there was still a sense of threat lurking in the Chaos, a sharper, harder edge to its chords, read more real teeth in its leonine attack. In this sense, the older Karajan, though not as biting and sharp as in the late 1960's, brought more serenity to bear.

As for the voices themselves, Fritz Wunderlich's unique sensitivity to the dramatic energy of each vowel and consonant within an effortlessly lyrical line creates unforgettable moments like the shift from sun to moonlight, and the first image of created Man. However, while the first live recording was mono, in the studio recording, Wunderlich's death, in mid-recording, means that, here and there, Walter Krenn is a substitute Uriel, cunningly matched in weight and timbre, though expressively distant. Without all those limitations, this 1982 live recording actually has the more overtly heroic Francisco Araiza who has the edge of a consistently focused recitative as well as arias.

Edith Mathis is both corporeal woman and archangel, no less ethereal or human in the two different parts of the oratorio.

Jose van Dam has a livelier verbal responses and his unique Cousteau-eye view of the deeps than either Berry of Borg.

I find it impossible to rate the two earlier Karajan outings of this oratorio over this 1982 live recording - each has its own strengths and weaknesses, but if one balances out the various components, it would be a case of 90, 90 and 93, the two earlier one each scoring 90 (basically for the strengths of Fritz Wunderlich, complete but mono, and incomplete), while the 1982 one complete in all aspects, with a slightly lessor bass baritone than Prey, Berry and Fischer-Dieskau, but sturdier than the early lively recording's Kim Borg.

It is a pity that Karajan did not engage both Edith Mathis and Lucia Popp in this Salzburg 1982 recording. Otherwise, it would have scored at least 95 to 98.