Ripe For Reissue: The Böhm Opera Box on DG

The Karl Böhm opera box on DG contains 70 discs featuring music mostly of Mozart, Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Wagner, along with a few vocal recitals and a terrific recording of Haydn's The Seasons. Even more than the presence of Böhm himself, these performances reveal the kind of ensemble work that has all but vanished from the world of opera performance, and for that reason alone the set ought never to vanish from view.

[@nhaggin]

That Figaro recording is what made me fall in love with the opera, 26 years ago. Hermann Prey imprinted on me as *the* Figaro; no other voice is quite right in the role for me. Thanks for reminding me to pull it off the shelf and give it a listen again, Dave.

[@morrigambist]

Not only is the Salome video wonderful, but so is the Elektra with Rysanek and company.

[@grantparsons6205]

Bohm's conducting in the late 60s Figaro from Berlin is an absolute masterclass. It takes my breath away everytime I play it. Totally masterly in an unassuming way. What riches we have with it & the equally fabulous Kleiber from the preceding decade!

[@vKarl71]

Thank you for doing this!! I LOVE Böhm - his 1956 recording of Cosi Fan Tutte was the first opera LP set I ever bought. Later I bought that Wozzeck recording which is a total knockout. He worked with such great singers and was one of the greatest Mozart conductors.

[@stephenschroth3616]

Bohm was such a masterful conductor, and his opera legacy is unparalleled. Not only did he conduct marvelously, but he also had access to a caliber of singers that just isn't available anywhere today. I don't really compare him and Karajan and Bernstein (great is great--they were all great), but Bohm is very underrated and overlooked.

[@vinylarchaeologist]

Böhm‘s RING is apparently also a DG recording, but they decided to release it on the “befriended” Philips label, because Karajan had just announced his Ring intentions and DG‘s management decided they would clash. It‘s something I read somewhere once, but wasn‘t able to confirm since. If true, they should have included it in this box.

[@finylvinyl66]

Deluxe Swastika - Hahaha Bohm was great and so are you Dave.

[@ronaldswedlund4683]

I have this wondrous box! It's out-of-print? Wtf? :( I love Bohm, and particularly relish his attention to detail, orchestral clarity and, in opera, the rich vocal vocal ensemble. Specifically, I recently been listening to his Don Giovanni (circa 1967), and comparing it to other recordings: my favorite recording of this opera, however, might be Fricsay's. But Bohm offers incomparably rich, sonerous vocal ensemble, almost obsessive orchestral detail (quite different from Fricsay's revelatory orchestral detail), and the most terrifying hell-scene I've heard .

[@djquinn4212]

The Milnes Don Giovanni is also live, and the final scene is absolutely glorious singing, if you like hearing the interpolated high A of No! in the confrontation with the commendatore, this scene at minimum is a must hear. Zaüberflöte has the best cast of men ever assembled, James King and Matti Talvela are the armored men. Never been bettered. The Tristan also fits on 3 discs which also explains why it’s one of the best recordings of it. If they ever reissue this, the rest of his recordings in the Universal catalogue, the early Cosi, Magic Flute, Frau, and of course the Ring ought to be included.

[@tom6693]

It's true that Milnes sings the role marvelously here, but I can't help relaying one NY critic's response to his stage portrayal: "Sherill Milnes's Don Giovanni has all the dangerous sexual allure of an Illinois frat house stud." Having seen it, I'd have to agree.

[@djquinn4212]

@@tom6693 As we've seen from current events, frat house studs might not have all the allure but they can certainly still be dangerous

[@bbailey7818]

I hope they could include the complete Meistersinger Act 3 recorded in 1938. It was state of the art recording for its period and excellently cast.

[@tom6693]

@@djquinn4212 Too true.

[@chokhong9927]

Fascinating insights from Dave of one of the great conductors of the past. I heard Boehm many times in the opera house in the 1970s, in Salzburg, Vienna, Munich and even Paris and London, where he conducted in his last few years, and also quite a number of times in the concert hall conducting his beloved Wiener Philharmoniker. The standout performances that resonate in my memory were the Fidelio from Munich with Hildegard Behrens, and the many Mozart and Strauss operas from Salzburg ... his Frau ohne Schatten was a tour de force.

[@psono429]

allright! I saw Bohm 1979 opening night visit. Vienna Phil Schubert 2nd and 9 loved it.

[@petterw5318]

Böhm championed two operas and tried to get them into the mainstream: Wozzeck and Die Frau ohne Schatten, and he mostly succeeded. He brough the first to the Met, in English and with Hermann Uhde (terrific) and Eleanor Steber.

[@finylvinyl66]

Can't imagine WOZZECK in English. It's far from Hansel and Gretel or Magic Flute.

[@GarthAstrology]

The 1944 performance of "Ariadne auf Naxos" was a special performance for Richard Strauss's 80th birthday and Strauss was present in the audience.

[@petterw5318]

These are not recordings with star singers that hardly know each other, but real ensembles, people who sang together many, many times in the German opera houses and abroad, and it shows.

[@jacklong2286]

I heard Bohm conduct the Marriage of Figaro at London’s Covent Garden in 1977. It was an experience I will never forget. I believe Hermann Prey sang Figaro.

[@Bucky58]

Love the ripe for reissue series. After the Haydn Symphonies, which you have mentioned before, I would hope for is the Liszt Symphonic Poems that was on the Hungaroton label with Arpad Joo. My copy got destroyed and I always thought that set was terrific.

[@bbailey7818]

There's a nice well in the middle of these Bohm and Karajan boxes. Maybe one could undercut the swastika look by filling it with cheery M&Ms? The most thrilling Leonore No.3 I ever heard live was Bohm's at the Met in 1971. I don't want to be unfair but I often get the feeling when I hear Bohm conducting symphonies that he would much rather be conducting an opera, although he is a very good and considerate concerto accompanist. All of his opera sets are worth having and playing often. ( Your survey today is getting me to pull some of these off the shelves for an encore.) The 1944 Ariadne was Strauss's 80th birthday fest and he was present. That Dutchman would be great if Rysanek had re-recorded it with him but I like it much better than Solti's CSO Decca which is the dog among his Wagner recordings. I agree, for me that Capriccio is like one of the ten greatest opera recordings.

[@williamkeller5176]

Was in the house for that incredible Böhm Leonore 3; agreed. The Tennstedt recording is exceptional as well.

[@bbailey7818]

​@@williamkeller5176 Yes, Tennstedt's Fidelio was special.

[@ianng9915]

For Ariadne auf Naxos I would like to point out his Wiener staatsoper recording in 1976 on Orfeo. Never bettered cast and conducting, surpassing both recordings in this box, but also in fabulous stereo sound, like seriously amazingly natural and full live sound. Go listen to itttt it's wonderfulllll. It's on KZbin as well. Another Bohm recording really worth mentioning is his 1968 Meistersinger on Orfeo, also unbelievable sound and a swift interpretation from Bohm and the cast is more than adequate with Gwyneth Jones as Eva before she became the Wagnerian Dramatic soprano to wreck her voice. But then the attraction is the Bayreuth sound so transparently captured by the Bavarian radio

[@markgifford6291]

I agree! That Meistersinger is my desert island disc!

[@dragicaklomp9810]

The Ariadne auf Naxos of 1944 is a wonderful performance. There you can hear how wonderful Maria Reining as Ariadne was. Warm and radiant. I prefer her over Lisa della Casa to be honest.

[@mvjonsson]

Böhm was one of Richard Strauss favourite conductors, the other was Clemens Krauss.

[@grantparsons6205]

The 1944 Ariadne is spectacularly well done. And there is some consolation for its doubtful 1944 provenance in that both Reining & Lorenz were outsiders to the regime, Reining especially so. She is reported to have secreted, at great personal risk, a persecuted family in her Vienna flat & to have provided information to American intelligence during the war.

[@ianng9915]

They continued with Ariadne shortly after the war as well, tho not no recording documents exist publicly. Fascinating story, Lorenz was also homosexual and had a Jewish wife, but sang at Bayreuth until 1943 and Vienna here and Berlin in other recordings during the war under Hitler's eyes

[@millercgr]

Was the Wonderama show with Sonny Fox or Bob McAllister

[@cappycapuzi1716]

no RIng?? I think you're are a Boehm opera fan Dave. Just read recently that the reason the character Don Giovanni gets so few solo pieces is that the baritone that Mozart wrote it for had limited talent.

[@ozoz9582]

No Meistersinger?

[@fred6904]

Böhm did not record Meistersinger commercially. It was Jochum who conducted DG's recording in 1976 whith Fischer Dieskau singing Sachs and Domingo von Stolzing.

[@ozoz9582]

@@fred6904 Thnx, Seems that I’m mistaken - coincidentally, I have the Jochum that you reference - there are two Bohm/Meistersinger recordings on Golden Melodram from the 1964 & 1968 Bayreuth Festival’s…

[@bbailey7818]

​@@ozoz9582 And the complete Act 3 recorded in 1938 for Electrola/HMV/Victor. It was supposed to be part of a project to record the complete opera but Hitler's nefarious plans put an end to that.

[@petterw5318]

@@bbailey7818 The 1968 Bayreuth Meistersinger is fantastic.

[@ianng9915]

@@ozoz9582 the 1968 one on Orfeo is in fantastic Bavarian radio stereo