BaL 30.01.21 - Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel

[Goon525]

I saw thew Opera North production in Leeds a few years ago. The singing was fine but the production, even by modern standards, was wierd in the extreme. Perhaps it is as well that DVD recordings are not being discussed!

From the list and casts given, the one that stands out for me would be the Runnicles, but its download only availability rules it out for me. When will record companies ever learn that there is an ongoing demand for CDs?

I know that classical probably represents more than the average percentage of physical media buyers, but here's why (from the Washington Post):-

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) just released its midyear compilation of recorded music industry sales data for 2020. Although the numbers follow trends that have existed in the industry for a few years, they hit a couple of important milestones: music downloads now bring in less revenue than physical products, and CDs are all but dead.

CDs represent the most astonishing change since last year. In 1999, at the music industry’s all-time revenue peak, CDs garnered $13 billion in sales, or almost 90% of music industry revenue. As file-sharing began to take its toll on the industry and revenues fell, CDs were the main casualty. Last year CDs only brought in $614 million or 5.5% of total revenue.

CDs’ year-over-year decreases in revenue hovered around the 20% from the mid-2000s until last year. But the downturn from the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2020 was 48%; CD sales were cut almost in half over the last year. CDs brought in only $130 million during the first half of this year; that’s only 2.3% of total industry revenue. CDs are now worth less to the industry than every category of music distribution other than tiny ones like ringtones and music video downloads.


As for paid downloads (mostly iTunes, now part of Apple Music), their decline continues at about the same pace as in the last few years. Downloaded albums and singles are down to $330 million for the first half of 2020; that’s 23% less than last year. Downloads hit their peak in 2012, during the music industry’s worst period since the RIAA started keeping sales records in the early 1970s. It’s clearer now than ever that paid downloads were merely a stopgap between physical products and streaming that did not help the industry recover from the file-sharing era.

Vinyl, on the other hand, appears to have plateaued. Its $232 million in revenue for the first half of this year is 3.6% ahead of last year—keeping up with inflation but slightly behind overall industry revenue growth of 5.6%. Vinyl’s peak relative to total industry revenue came in 2015, when it represented 5.5% of the total; now it’s at 4.1%.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

As an, ahem, sort of horn player, I'd be interested in a sub-category for the overture. Any thoughts out there?

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Vinyl, on the other hand, appears to have plateaued. Its $232 million in revenue for the first half of this year is 3.6% ahead of last year—keeping up with inflation but slightly behind overall industry revenue growth of 5.6%. Vinyl’s peak relative to total industry revenue came in 2015, when it represented 5.5% of the total; now it’s at 4.1%.

Let's face it, there can only be so much demand for wall furniture...

[makropulos]

As an, ahem, sort of horn player, I'd be interested in a sub-category for the overture. Any thoughts out there?

I love Klemperer/Philharmonia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjIjltaGPW0

Potentially interesting: Slivestri/Philharmonia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0i_SX0omEQ

Also good:
Kempe/RPO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6jbNd9rs8M

and Boult with the 1932 BBCSO horn section:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXQbNqInpzQ

[Darloboy]

Last covered on BaL by Rodney Milnes in Jan 97 when he he made Solti his first choice and Colin Davis his second choice. In June 82 Alan Blyth made Karajan's mono Philharmonia recording his first choice (out of only 3 available at the time; Solti and Pritchard were the others). John Steane covered the work in December 88 but I've been unable to identify his first choice.

Incidentally if anyone has any of the old BaL fact sheets that Radio 3 used to send in exchange for a stamped addressed envelope, I'd be very interested in obtaining scans of them. I have all of them myself back to September 1991.

[Wolfram]

[QUOTE=Darloboy;829752]Last covered on BaL by Rodney Milnes in Jan 97 when he he made Solti his first choice and Colin Davis his second choice. In June 82 Alan Blyth made Karajan's mono Philharmonia recording his first choice (out of only 3 available at the time; Solti and Pritchard were the others). John Steane covered the work in December 88 but I've been unable to identify his first choice.

I'm really looking forward to this one. I like the Solti, it's very slick, beatifully played and sung. But I have a real soft spot for the Eichhorn. The orchestral playing is so characterful, not as plush as the VPO maybe, but full of charm and wonder. I like it that the Gertrude of Charlotte Berthold sounds like a real exasperated mother - she's quite terrifying in Act One when she is berating the the children - and not at all like the haughty Irish princess, as is the case on some more recent recordings. I like Fischer-Dieskaus's feckless Peter too; not at all warm and avuncular, and all the more believable for that, although not everyone is going to agree. The children on both sets are terrific, as are the witches. I wouldn't be without either of these two recordings. I have the Colin Davis and the Runnicles as well, but I find the Davis a bit too soberly conducted for my taste, a grown-ups view rather than a child's, and the sound on the Teldec to be a bit dull and recessed. It would be such a terrible shame if I had to buy another recording as a result of this BaL

[Darloboy]

[QUOTE=Wolfram;829798]

Last covered on BaL by Rodney Milnes in Jan 97 when he he made Solti his first choice and Colin Davis his second choice. In June 82 Alan Blyth made Karajan's mono Philharmonia recording his first choice (out of only 3 available at the time; Solti and Pritchard were the others). John Steane covered the work in December 88 but I've been unable to identify his first choice.

I'm really looking forward to this one. I like the Solti, it's very slick, beatifully played and sung. But I have a real soft spot for the Eichhorn. The orchestral playing is so characterful, not as plush as the VPO maybe, but full of charm and wonder. I like it that the Gertrude of Charlotte Berthold sounds like a real exasperated mother - she's quite terrifying in Act One when she is berating the the children - and not at all like the haughty Irish princess, as is the case on some more recent recordings. I like Fischer-Dieskaus's feckless Peter too; not at all warm and avuncular, and all the more believable for that, although not everyone is going to agree. The children on both sets are terrific, as are the witches. I wouldn't be without either of these two recordings. I have the Colin Davis and the Runnicles as well, but I find the Davis a bit too soberly conducted for my taste, a grown-ups view rather than a child's, and the sound on the Teldec to be a bit dull and recessed. It would be such a terrible shame if I had to buy another recording as a result of this BaL

Having just run out of shelf space, I know exactly what you mean.

[Barbirollians]

Looking forward to this BAL - I had the Davis but it disappeared when I was burgled in the mid 1990s .

I replaced it with the Tate after hearing von Otter & Bonney singing the famous duet in the radio.

[mikealdren]

I used that Duet as a test CD when buying my amplifiers soon after it came out although it's no longer the latest in recordings.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When compiling this list, I was disappointed to discover that the VPO/Solti recording was now download only. It's a recording I'd been considering buying ever since its first release over 40 years ago. However, a web search revealed several second hand and new sets, and I was able to find one new version for a mere £12. It arrived yesterday, and I now wish I'd bought it years ago. (It had a cracked case, but under the circumstances, who am I to complain?)

[Maclintick]

When compiling this list, I was disappointed to discover that the VPO/Solti recording was now download only. It's a recording I'd been considering buying ever since its first release over 40 years ago. However, a web search revealed several second hand and new sets, and I was able to find one new version for a mere £12. It arrived yesterday, and I now wish I'd bought it years ago. (It had a cracked case, but under the circumstances, who am I to complain?)

In the Maclintick household the VPO/Solti Hansel und Gretel is as much a part of Christmas ritual as stollen, JSB, GFH & Ceremony of Carols. Fassbaender & Popp are luxury-casting as the eponymous kinder, & Norma Burrowes shines as an angelically soporific Sandmännchen. The Bavarians under Donald Runnicles are lurking somewhere in the CD racks, & this is also very fine. A magical work, but I don't feel any compulsion to own multiple versions. Overture & Pantomime are infrequently programmed as an appetising concert suite.

[Katzelmacher]

I have the Solti version, which I remember being good, though Ive not listened to it in many years.

I recall Karajan’s mono version as being exceptionally good with a perfectly balanced monaural production by Legge.

This was the first opera I saw - on television, when I was about three. I loved it, but it didn’t really register with me as an opera.

One person who failed to appreciate it was Wieland Wagner (whose father was, of course, Humperdinck’s pupil). When Karajan’s recording was released, WW was ‘furious’. He confronted von K at the next Bayreuth Festival and told him, ‘This opera is dreadful, possibly the worst ever written. And now, thanks to you, it’s going to be more popular than ever!’

[Wolfram]

[/QUOTE]One person who failed to appreciate it was Wieland Wagner (whose father was, of course, Humperdinck’s pupil). When Karajan’s recording was released, WW was ‘furious’. He confronted von K at the next Bayreuth Festival and told him, ‘This opera is dreadful, possibly the worst ever written. And now, thanks to you, it’s going to be more popular than ever!’[/QUOTE]

I wonder what it was that WW so objected to in Hänsel und Gretel. Was it that he felt Humperdinck had diluted the inherent darkeness in the old German folk tales? And thereby detracted from their meaning and significance to German cultural and linguistic heritage. Was it the popualrity that he objected to? And by being popular it couldn't be serious. Did he think that Hänsel und Gretel had been the first step on the road to the Disneyfication of German folk culture? I think there maybe some truth in all of this, but like a good pantomime, there is nothing sentimental in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, and as much as I admire the genuis of WW as an innovative theatre director, I'm not going to let him put me off.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm very much looking forward to the BaL. Before this week, I only knew the three well known bits from this opera, but it's seems to be a work of true Wagnerian stature. If the chosen version is even better than the Solti, I may be out of pocket.

[Goon525]

Our very own Mr Makropulos delivers another superb BaL, pretty much beyond criticism. So completely on top of his subject!