Concert in Berlin, and: Concerto a Berlino (review)

The 1952 concerts marking Kirsten Flagstad's Berlin debut claim an important place in the Norwegian soprano's discography. Various LP and CD releases have provided conflicting documentation of the programs and misidentified the orchestra that accompanies the soprano. Excerpts from the 9and 11 May concerts were first released on LP in 1978 in the Cetra series "Concerto Live" (LO 513). The single LP contained the brief excerpt from the Recognition Scene in Elektra, three excerpts from Tristan und Isolde, and the Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung. The record jacket attributed all five performances to 9 May. Four years later, Melodram issued a double-LP set containing both the 9 May and 11 May concerts in its "Live 50 Concerti Indimenticabili" series (MEL 221). Like the earlier Cetra LP, this gatefold LP set contained no notes and failed to list the program for either concert. In addition to the excerpts released by Cetra, the Melodram LPsincluded the five Wesendonck Lieder (spelled "Wesendock"), the Karfreitagszauber (Good Friday Spell) from Parsifal, and three of Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder. The Cetra issue lists Georges Sébastian as conductor of the Orchester der St?dtischen Oper. Melodram also cited Sébastian as the conductor but listed the orchestra as the RIAS Sinfonieorchester.

In 1989 both Melodram (MEL 26514) and Hunt (HUNTCD 576) issued the two Berlin concerts in double-CD sets—the Elektra excerpt and Isolde's Narrative and Curse had already appeared on CD in a Flagstad compilation released by Legendary Recordings (LRCD 1015-2). Now Melodram claimed that the 9 May concert included the Tristan excerpts, the Wesendonck Lieder (correctly spelled), and the Karfreitagszauber. According to this issue, the 11 May program featured the Immolation Scene, preceded by Siegfrieds Tod und Trauermarsch, Strauss's Drei letzte Lieder, and the scene from Elektra. Correcting the error in its LP issue, Melodram now listed the Orchester der Städtischen Oper (in the new CD release, the label once more incorrectly cites the RIAS Sinfonieorchester!). Hunt attributed all of its excerpts—in order: the Tristan scenes, the Immolation Scene, the Wesendonck Lieder, the Elektra segment, and the Letzte Lieder—to the 9 May concert with Sébastian and the "Orchestra dell'Opera di Stato di Berlino." The Elektra excerpt was also included in the 1995 release of various live performances between 1948 and 1957 in Simax's comprehensive reissue of the Norwegian soprano's recordings (PSC 1823). The Simax booklet listed the year (1952) but cited no month or day for the concert.

The original events' concert programs enable us to untangle the contradictory dates and incorrect information contained in the various CD and LP issues of these performances. Both the 9 and 11 May concerts took place in the Titania-Palast and featured the Orchester der Städtischen Oper under Georges Sébastian. The 9 May concert opened with the Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, followed by the five Wesendonck Lieder. The first half closed with the Prelude and Karfreitagszauber from Parsifal. In the second half, Sébastian led the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, and then Flagstad sang Isolde's Narrative, her act 3 Lament, and the Liebestod. On 11 May Sébastian conducted Richard Strauss's Don Juan before Flagstad sang the Drei letzte Lieder ("Beim Schlafengehen," "September," and "Im Abendrot") and the excerpt from the Elektra Recognition Scene. In the second half, Sébastian conducted the Siegfried Idyll and then Siegfrieds Tod und Trauermarsch from Götterdämmerung, followed by the Immolation Scene.

Before these Berlin concerts, Flagstad appeared in a 6 May concert in Hamburg, in which she sang the Liebestod and the Immolation Scene with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt and the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk Symphonie-Orchester. That concert had marked Flagstad's first public performance in Germany since 20 August 1934, when she last sang at the Bayreuth Festival. Her only other performance in Nazi Germany was an hour-long shortwave broadcast of a studio recital from Stuttgart, transmitted by RCA's "Magic Key." For a singer accused...