Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Marek Janowski) Now available.

Written By The Wagnerian on Thursday 29 December 2011 | 9:07:00 am

A little late it would seem, I was under the impression that this was not due for release till the 16 January 2012 (at least in the UK) and indeed this is the case - but on CD/SACD only. It is however available as either an MP3 or Flac download from the usual suspects: Amazon, Itunes, Emusic, Presto Classical, etc (Although Flac only seems to be available from Presto Classical at the moment).

I have not been able to investigate it greatly so far but will certainly say, provisionally, that orchestrally, if perhaps not vocally (not that it is vocally impotent in anyway), this is one of the finer Meistersingers available.

Cast

Lehrbuben (Apprentices)
Alt 1 - Christine Lichtenberg, Kristiina Mäkimattila, Tatjana Sotin
Alt 2 - Roksolana Chraniuk, Judith Simonis, Annerose Hummel
Tenor 1 - Christoph Leonhardt, Ulrich Löns, Norbert Sänger
Tenor 2 - Hans-Christian Braun, Robert Franke, Johannes Spranger

Rundfunkchor Berlin
Chorus Master Eberhard Friedrich

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
conducted by Marek Janowski

Live recording
of the concert performance in the Berlin Philharmonie
on June 3 , 2011

A review of said performance from someone that was there. Click the link at the end to continue reading:

Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, 03.06.2011

June 4, 2011 by rml

When reviewing Janowski’s Parsifal with the RSB, I have written that clarity above richness of sound seemed to define the conductor’s approach to Wagner, especially if one has his recording of the Ring with the Staatskapelle Dresden in mind. Well, this evening proves that Janowski’s Wagnerian abilities are more varied than I thought. Maybe because Die Meistersinger is notoriously long and massive, the conductor might have hought that a little orchestral glamour could be helpful. And his musicians did not hang fire. The overture alone was worth the expensive ticket price – full orchestral sound without any loss of structural transparence and flexibility. Then the Rundfunkchor Berlin happened to be in top form. The evening had a promising start.
I had never seen this opera in concert version and never realized until this evening how much of a challenge it is to balance a big orchestra on stage and roles meant for lighter voices in many conversational passages, often in the middle register of singers’ voices. Janowski took the decision of not sacrificing his orchestra and allowed singers to be heard over it by a very small margin. In the end of act I, for example, instead of giving the tenor the opportunity to shine in Fanget an! , he would rather give pride of place to the sensuous ebb and flow of string sounds in a way that made me rethink the whole scene. Act II never sounded so organic, with the difficult transitions spontaneously and coherently handled. If I had to make any observation, this would regard the last scene, the “on stage” band could be a little bit subtler and more integrated with the main orchestra. I am tempted to say that the more “intimate” passages could have a bit more Innigkeit and less objectivity and forward-movement, but then I am not sure if we had this kind of cast this evening.

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