"Rosamunde" is one of Schubert's most gratifying works: it's filled with lovely melodies, and this classic mono recording from 1952/53 is quite simply the one to have. Late in 1823 Schubert, who had just completed his song cycle "Die Schone Mullerin," was asked to supply incidental music to Helmina von Chezy's play "Rosamunde." Chezy was once described as "a stout, elderly lady with all the qualities of a real blue-stocking, careless and slovenly in her appearance, not blessed with any earthly goods, but with a great deal of self-sufficiency." Apparently the play (now lost) was really terrible: it closed after only two performances. Schubert had to write this music in great haste to meet the premiere's deadline - reportedly he completed it in only 5 days! There was no time to write a separate overture, so instead Schubert borrowed one from his opera "Alfonso and Estrelle." Later the 1820 overture to his opera "The Magic Harp" was substituted, and that is the one we know today as the "Rosamunde" overture.
My suggestion: start your listening with the Magic Harp overture on track 12 (DG has mis-numbered the CD tracks here, inadvertently assigning track 11 twice: the jacket indicates Magic Harp as being on track 11, but it's really on track 12). It's one of Schubert's finest works and has those charmingly obsessive rhythmic patterns that would flower at their fullest in his 9th Symphony (and virtually all the symphonies of Bruckner as well). The Alphonse and Estrella overture on track 1 is much less interesting, and Lehmann's performance of it is a tad hard-boiled.
The rest of the performances are simply wonderful: excellent choral work and some lustrous playing by Furtwangler's Berlin Philharmonic. The contralto singing of Diana Eustrati in the charming Romance is beautiful, and the wind playing throughout is some of the finest on records: note especially the Shephard's Melody (track 8) for unaccompanied winds and the Act II ballet music (track 11) - clearly a foretaste of Dvorak.
The last track (identified as 12 but really 13) features the exquisite serenade "Zogernd leise," for female choir and piano (accompanied here by the excellent Lieder pianist Michael Raucheisen, who also recorded a great Winterreise with Hotter). This genial late work (1827) is in some ways the highlight of the entire set.
My only quibbles: no texts for the vocal parts, the aforementioned track mis-numberings, and recorded sound which, while perfectly acceptable, is a shade dry when compared with the fuller, warmer sound of the original 2-disc LP set. I was also a little saddened to discover that Schubert's setting of Psalm No. 23 "Gott mein Zuversicht" for piano and woman's chorus, which was on the original LP issue, has been left out here.
The short-lived Fritz Lehmann (1904-1956) was one of Germany's finest conductors: he died suddenly during the intermission of a performance of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion at Munich. DG has already released two of his greatest recordings on CD: a magnificent Brahms Requiem and my very favorite readings of Handel's Water Music and Royal Fireworks. Lehmann's old-fashioned but wonderful reading ("live" 1949) of the St. Matthew Passion is available on a Music and Arts CD set: it has Helmut Krebs as an expert Evangelist and, as Jesus, the 24 year old Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Lehmann's superbly incisive accompaniment in Stefan Askenase's Chopin Piano Concerto #2 can be heard in that pianist's wonderful 7-disc Chopin CD set on DG.
Hopefully DG will re-issue more of Lehmann's best recordings: the two Mendelssohn Piano Concertos with Helmut Roloff (superior, I think, to Perahia's and Serkin's), the Dvorak Serenade for Strings (second only to Talich's), Mozart's Serenade #10 (even better than Furtwangler's), his very romantic Schubert "Unfinished" and Mozart 40th, and Brahms' Tragic Overture and Schicksalslied.
Warmly recommended. --By Jeffrey Lipscomb
