Elektra

"Recommended: A superb recital disc from a quite exceptionally talented pianist. I didn't find all of the music on this recording to my taste but I was consistently won over by the fabulous talents of Jokubaviciute ... A case in point is the pieces included here by Bent Sorensen. I doubt I would have persevered with them but for Jokubaviciute's seductively persuasive way with them ... I found her playing so ravishing that I was persuaded to overlook my usual antipathy toward Vasks where she makes a rather run of the mill piece sound thrilling ... This is the performer's album and, regardless of how you feel about the repertoire, it is a recording that all lovers of piano playing will need to hear.".

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"Lidt mere flosset melodisk-harmonisk i sin udprægede germanske senromantiske sættemåde, hvor komponisten kradser med rustne søm i den uvantes øren. Men stærk i den skikkelsesdannende scenegang, hvor Karl Bohm med orkester, kor og solister markerer for betragtelig musikteater, hvorunder alt er medtaget".

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"Sangens udtrykskraft, selv i piano, hendes [Birgit Nilsson] skikkelse og hele udstråling tegner firmaet Metropolitan Operahouse med alt, hvad der her bydes på, og er man modtagelig og påvirkelig af Richard Strauss' inderligt tyske, svulstige senromantiske musik med dens krøllede og komplekse harmonik, der denne udgave et must".

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"Richard Strauss' Elektra i Herbert Wernickes meget enkle opsætning ... Linda Watson som Elektra ... og Jane Henschel som Klytämnestra og Manuela Uhl som Chrysothemis sidder fast i hver sin farvestærke lyskegle, men de synger godt sammen ... Hovedattraktionen er Christian Thielemann ... Der spilles vidunderligt gennemhørbart, fornemt klangligt artikuleret og med fine dramatiske pointer".

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"Those who have not experienced Herlitzius in full flight in the theatre might be best to start off with bel Air Classiques' fil from Aix-en-Provence ... she performs the role with a dramatic commitment that few singers - in any role - can match ... well-balanced conducting of Esa-Pekka Salonen".

"Patrice Chéreau hat im schmucklosen Einheitsbühnenbild eines geschlossenen Richard-Peduzzi-Hinterhofes nicht viel interpretiert. Aber er erzählt theatralisch, extrem genau und mit Hitchcock-Thrill ... Esa-Pekka salonen dirigiert dazu mit dem wunderbaren Orchestre de Paris einen strukturellen, sorghaft-leisen, dann sich in hartem Klangschwall entfaltenden Strauss".

"It's a change to see a production of Strauss's and Hoffmannsthal's psychotic masterwork that's not weighted wit greater German gloom, louring Second World War-derived imagery and cakes of lurid make-up. Martin Kusej directs people well ... For an alternativ vision allied to a close, human reading of the text, the new performance, while not quite the sum of its parts, makes for intelligent viewing".

"If there's such a thing as an anti-Solti Elektra, this is it ... [It] burns at its own distinctive temperature, with a strong sense of live-performance through-line and in a much more orchestrally integrated approach ... Because the performances does all the right things, you reach the end emotionally but not aurally exhausted ... The opera's central trio of female singers ... are substantial but not heavyweight Wagnerians".

"Jedem Opernanfänger kann man diese Aufzeichnung ... nur empfehlen. Nicht nur Schnitt, Bild und Ton sind stimmig, hier bekommt man zeitgemässe Interpretationen mit den besten Künstlern von Heute ... und mit starken, nie auftrumpfenden Dirigenten".

"Its particular value lies in Thielemann's special perspectives on the orchestral part and its relationship to the voices".

"Christian Thielemann brings a little more weight to the score than Salonen but, helped by a Staatskapelle Dresden on supremely responsive ... form, he also conducts with flexibility and clarity ... Herlitzius's vocal performance maybe sounds a little rougher than it might otherwise ... but remains dramatically compelling".

"Die Szene in der Felsenreitschule zeigt links einen Glas-Stahl-Kubus, so die Königin und ihre Schranzen residieren ... Die litauische Sopranistin [Ausrine Stundyte] ist keine echte Hochdramatische, nur eine Hysterodramatische ... Asmik Grigorian weiss ihre hohen Töne als Leuchtraketen abzufeuern, ist vokal wendig und sexy girllike. Franz Welser-Möst am Pult kommt erst spät auf Touren. Aber kein Kollektiv kann Strauss-Opern so schmelzend schroff und harmonisch graziös sich aufbäumend wie die Wiener Philharmoniker. Wunderbar gleisst und glimmert die Baumgartner dann in ihrer echten Klytemnästra-Singszene".

"Editor's choice: Krzysztof Warlikowski's formidable new staging of Elektra ... hauls the opera forward into an unspecified period after the Second World War, where we find Tanja Ariane Baumgartner's Klytemnestra in designer chic ... At the centre of this unsettling, eclectic vision is Stundyte's brooding, grieving Elektra, a towering performance both vocally and dramatically. Her tone is beautiful and engulfing ... In the pit, Welser-Möst shapes the score with slow, inexorable detail, gradually tacheting up the tension to almost unbearable levels by the end. The playing, as one might expect, is matchless. Despite its eccentricities, I found the whole thing utterly compelling. Highly recommended".

"Albert Dohmen is the businesslike Orest and René Kollo puts in a star cameo as Aegisth. In the absence of competition from the great singers of the past at their peak, this well-produced DVD will do nicely".

"Wernicke's own design places the action before an enormous black panel taking up almost the entire height and width of the stage. There's little else, other than a raked platform stage left and a staircase ... standard contemporary attire for the men and long black smocks and head scarves for Elektra and her maids ... She [Linda Watson] offers a rich, mezzo-ish middle register ... Never do Christian Thielemann anf the Munich Philharmonic overwhelm the singers".

"This is a superbly recorded, highly charged version which does justice to a work that still has the power to shock and amaze after almost a centurys existence".

"Her dirigerer Semyon Bychkov, så det slår gnister, og med sig har han et hold af sangere, der ved, hvordan det her skal gøres ... Det bliver vanskeligt at finde en orkestralt mere overbevisende indspilning, og orkestret er altafgørende her, Hvis nerverne slår til, er Bychkovs "Elektra" et godt valg".