Classical
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Mozart - Don Giovanni / Furtwangler
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Sale Price: $18.97
List Price: $29.98
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In Don Giovanni, the audacity of genius pushed Mozart to write tragedy at a time when the gallant style was overpowering. And since then, how many conductors have been able to bring that tragedy forth? In the 20th century, Furtwangler is one out of two or three. Not that this rendition is without flaws. All the women scream, the acting is heavy, and the director seemed to have understood next to nothing of the complexity of Mozart's music (although it is good that the sets are traditional and they wear period costumes).Having said this, let us take a closer look. Deep bass Cesare Siepi sings a superb title role due to his splendid vocal technique, despite the very high tessitura of the role. Not an advisable role to other basses who lack his voice training. The tremendous personality of the title character comes through his voice, if not through his acting. Perhaps a bit too deep a voice, having almost the same color as Otto Edlemann's Leporello, and Denszo Ernster's Commendatore. All three are awesome performers of those excruciatingly difficult roles. Furtwangler conducts it his way, creating an overall structure, as, early in the production, he teases the listeners, indicating the tragic motifs almost surreptitiously, like Chekhov's gun. In time, it all develops into a larger structure, always serving the big picture, and only reaching the climax at the end.Only one example: the splendid contrast between the "giocoso" atmosphere of "Gia la mensa e preparata," passing through the transition of the famous chords announcing the apparition of Il Commendatore, and the fully tragic "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco." This is where the tragedy is finally shown in sounds, with grand emphasis on the musical means Mozart used to create a work of art that is best described using Aristotle's notions. This rendition confirms Don Juan as a "tragic hero," the way Mozart created him, with his "tragic flaw": he cannot do otherwise, because, if a tragic hero behaved differently, he would no longer be a tragic hero. And with his "hubris," which is superbly emphasized musically. Also musically, "fear and pity" are transmitted, in spite of Siepi's stage movement (which is unworthy of a tragic hero); but, luckily, the audio does indeed render Don Giovanni's "tragic grandeur" at the end, when, even faced with damnation, he refuses to repent, which would have changed his identity. There are not enough stars in this modern computer system to rate this kind of conducting. Because Furtwangler brings forth Mozart's music in such a way, that the spectator experiences "catharsis" in the classical Greek meaning of the concept.
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