Erich Kleiber / Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ottokar: Alfred Poell / Kuno: Heiner Hern / Agathe: Elisabeth Grümmer / Ännchen: Rita Streich / Kaspar: Max Proebstl / Max: Hans Hopf / Kilian: Kurt Marschner
Historic recording made for the West German radio in 1955, together with the recordings of Erich's son Carlos and Harnoncourt's my favorite Freischütz, it sports the most homogeneous cast of the three, by far. Elizabeth Grümmer is unequaled in the role of Agathe and I just love Max Proebstl's almost comically evil Kaspar. He does a great job at portraying that sort of operatic caveman that first appears in this opera, the kind we meet again in Fafner and Fasolt in Wagner's Ring for example.
But the real star of the recording is Erich Kleiber, the precision and transparency he draws from the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra (then freshly founded by Eugen Jochum) is still astounding, the engineers did a great job at capturing this event as well.
Enjoy, I'll upload more of the opera in the near future.
viva proebstl!
rezila 1 year ago