DGG 3-LPs 2709 014: VERDI - Rigoletto - KUBELIK, Scotto, etc. - 1973 GERMANY SS
  C$   50
  $   36

 


C$ 50 Sold For
Dec 8, 2017 Sold Date
Dec 7, 2017 Start Date
C$   60 Start price
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Background -

FACTORY SEALED item from 1973!

Rafael Jeroným Kubelík (29 June 1914 – 11 August 1996) was a Czech-born conductor and composer.

Son of a well-known violinist, Jan Kubelík, he was trained in Prague, and made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 19. Having managed to maintain a career in Czechoslovakia under the Nazi occupation, he refused to work under what he considered a "second tyranny" after the Communist Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, and took refuge in Britain. He became a Swiss citizen in 1967.

Kubelík was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1950–53), musical director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden (1955–58), and music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1961–79), and was a frequent guest conductor for leading orchestras in Europe and America.

As a composer, Kubelík wrote in a neo-romantic idiom. His works include five operas, three symphonies, chamber music, choral works, and songs.

Kubelík was born in Býchory, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, today's Czech Republic. He was the sixth child of the Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelík, whom the younger Kubelík described as "a kind of god to me". His mother was a Hungarian countess, Anna Julie Marie Széll von Bessenyö. Kubelík studied the violin with his father, and entered the Prague Conservatory at the age of 14, studying violin, piano, composition, and conducting. He graduated from the conservatory in 1933, at the age of 19; at his graduation concert he played a Paganini concerto and a composition of his own for violin and orchestra. Kubelík was also an accomplished pianist, and served as his father's accompanist on a tour of the United States in 1935.

In 1939, Kubelík became music director of the Brno Opera, a position he held until the Nazis shut the company down in November 1941. The Nazis allowed the Czech Philharmonic to continue operating; Kubelík, who had first conducted the orchestra when he was 19, became its principal conductor. In 1943 he married the Czech violinist Ludmilla Bertlová, with whom he had one son.

In 1944, after various incidents, including one in which he declined to greet the Nazi Reichsprotektor Karl Hermann Frank with a Hitler salute, along with his refusal to conduct Wagner during the War, Kubelík "deemed it advisable to disappear from Prague and to spend a few months undercover in the countryside so as not to fall into the clutches of the SS or Gestapo". Kubelík conducted the orchestra's first post-war concert in May 1945. In 1946, he helped found the Prague Spring Festival, and conducted its opening concert.

After the Communist coup of February 1948, Kubelík left Czechoslovakia, vowing not to return until the country was liberated. "I had lived through one form of bestial tyranny, Nazism," he told an interviewer, "As a matter of principle I was not going to live through another." He defected during a trip to Britain, where he had flown to conduct Mozart's Don Giovanni with the Glyndebourne company at the Edinburgh Festival. He had been engaged on the recommendation of Bruno Walter, whom Kubelík had assisted in this work at the 1937 Salzburg Festival. Kubelík told his wife of his decision to defect as their plane left Czechoslovakia.

In 1953, the Communist government convicted the couple in absentia of "taking illicit leave" abroad. In 1956, the regime invited him back "with promises of freedom to do anything I wanted," said Kubelík, but he refused the invitation. In a 1957 letter to The Times, Kubelík said he would seriously consider returning only when all the country's political prisoners were freed and all émigrés were given as much freedom as he would have possessed. He was invited back by the regime in 1966 but again refused; in 1968, after the Prague Spring had been ended by the Soviet invasion, he organised an international boycott, in which many of the major classical artists of the West participated.

In 1950, Kubelík became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, choosing the position over an offer from the BBC to succeed Sir Adrian Boult as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He left the post in 1953. Some hold that he was "hounded out of the [Chicago] job" (to quote Time magazine) by the "savage attacks" (to quote the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians) of the Chicago Tribune music critic Claudia Cassidy. But Chicago Sun-Times music critic Robert C. Marsh argued in 1972 that it was the Chicago Symphony trustees who were behind the departure. Their foremost complaint, and that of Cassidy as well, was that Kubelík introduced too many contemporary works (about 70) to the orchestra; there were also objections to his demanding exhaustive rehearsals and engaging several black artists. Many recordings made by Kubelík in Chicago for Mercury Records are available on CD, and have received critical praise.

After leaving Chicago, Kubelík toured the US with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and, in the words of Lionel Salter in the Grove Dictionary, "had a brilliant success with Janá?ek's Kát'a Kabanová at Sadler's Wells in London in 1954". Kubelík became musical director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, from 1955 to 1958. Among his achievements there was, in 1957, the first practically complete production in any opera house of Berlioz's Les Troyens. Although Covent Garden sought to renew his contract, he chose to leave, partly because of a campaign by Sir Thomas Beecham against the engagement of foreign artists at Covent Garden. In 1961 Kubelík accepted the position of music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in Munich. He remained with the BRSO until 1979, when he retired. Salter considers this 18-year association the high point of Kubelík's career, both artistically and professionally.

In 1961 Ludmilla Kubelík died after a car crash. Also in 1961, he premiered the concerto performance version of Schoenberg's Jakobsleiter-Fragment in Vienna, with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and choir.

In 1963 Kubelík married the Australian soprano Elsie Morison (1924-2016). In 1967 he became a Swiss citizen, and began an association with the Lucerne Festival, in addition to his work with the BRSO.

In 1971, Göran Gentele, the new general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, asked Kubelík to accept the position of music director. Kubelík accepted partly because of his strong artistic relationship with Gentele. The first production he conducted as the Met's music director was Les Troyens. The death of Gentele in a road accident in 1972 undermined Kubelík's reasons for working at the opera house. He had prior conducting commitments away from the Met in his first season there, which diverted his attention. He resigned from the Met in 1974, after only six months in the post.

In his post-Czechoslovakian career, Kubelík worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras, among others. His final concert was with the Czech Philharmonic.

In 1985, ill-health (notably severe arthritis in his back) caused Kubelík to retire from full-time conducting, but the fall of Communism in his native land led him to accept a 1990 invitation to return to conduct the Czech Philharmonic at the festival he had founded, the Prague Spring Festival. He recorded Smetana's Má Vlast live with the Czech Philharmonic for Supraphon, his fifth recording of the piece. He also recorded the Mozart "Prague" Symphony and Dvo?ák's "New World" Symphony at the festival. During the rehearsal of the "New World," he told the Czech Philharmonic, "It is my joy to hear this. I always wanted it to sound like this but never really found it with any other orchestra in the world. That eighth [note] is great!"

Kubelík died in 1996, aged 82, in Kastanienbaum, in the Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. His ashes are interred next to the grave of his father in Slavín, Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851.

It is considered by many to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi's middle-to-late career. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto and Rigoletto's beautiful daughter Gilda. The opera's original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to the curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter had been seduced by the Duke with Rigoletto's encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda likewise falls in love with the Duke and eventually sacrifices her life to save him from the assassins hired by her father.

Verdi was commissioned to write a new opera by the La Fenice opera house in Venice in 1850. By this time he was already a well-known composer and had a degree of freedom in choosing the works he would prefer to set to music. He then asked Francesco Maria Piave (with whom he had already created Ernani, I due Foscari, Macbeth, Il Corsaro and Stiffelio) to examine the play Kean by Alexandre Dumas, père, but he felt he needed a more energetic subject to work on.

Verdi soon stumbled upon Victor Hugo's five-act play Le roi s'amuse. He later explained that "The subject is grand, immense, and there is a character that is one of the greatest creations that the theatre can boast of, in any country and in all history." It was a highly controversial subject, and Hugo himself had already had trouble with censorship in France, which had banned productions after its first performance nearly twenty years earlier (it would not be performed again until 1882). As Austria at that time directly controlled much of Northern Italy, it came before the Austrian Board of Censors. Hugo's play depicted a king (Francis I of France) as an immoral and cynical womanizer, something that was not accepted in Europe during the Restoration period.

From the beginning, Verdi was aware of the risks, as was Piave. In a letter which Verdi wrote to Piave: "Use four legs, run through the town and find me an influential person who can obtain the permission for making Le Roi s'amuse." Correspondence between a prudent Piave and an already committed Verdi followed, but the two underestimated the power and the intentions of Austrians and remained at risk. Even the friendly Guglielmo Brenna, secretary of La Fenice, who had promised them that they would not have problems with the censors, was wrong. At the beginning of the summer of 1850, rumours started to spread that Austrian censorship was going to forbid the production. The censors considered the Hugo work to verge on lèse majesté and would never permit such a scandalous work to be performed in Venice. In August, Verdi and Piave prudently retired to Busseto, Verdi's hometown, to continue the composition and prepare a defensive scheme. They wrote to the theatre, assuring them that the censor's doubts about the morality of the work were not justified but since very little time was left, very little could be done. At the time, Piave and Verdi had titled the opera La maledizione (The Curse), and this unofficial title was used by Austrian censor De Gorzkowski in an emphatic letter written in December 1850 in which he definitively denied consent to its production, calling it "a repugnant [example of] immorality and obscene triviality."

In order not to waste all their work, Piave tried to revise the libretto and was even able to pull from it another opera, Il Duca di Vendome, in which the sovereign was with a duke and both the hunchback and the curse disappeared. Verdi was completely against this proposed solution and preferred instead to have direct negotiations with censors, arguing over each and every point of the work. At this point, Brenna, La Fenice's secretary, showed the Austrians some letters and articles depicting the bad character but the great value of the artist, helping to mediate the dispute. By January 1851 the parties were able to agree that the action of the opera would be moved from the royal court of France to a duchy of France or Italy, and some of the characters would have to be renamed. In the new version the Duke reigns over Mantua and belongs to the Gonzaga family. The House of Gonzaga had long been extinct by the mid-19th century, and the Dukedom of Mantua no longer existed, thus no one could be offended. The scene in which the sovereign retires to Gilda's bedroom would be deleted and the visit of the Duke to the Taverna (inn) was no longer intentional, but provoked by a trick. The hunchback jester (originally called Triboulet) was renamed Rigoletto from a parody of Hugo's play, Rigoletti, ou Le dernier des fous (Rigoletti, or The last of the fools). By 14 January, the opera's definitive title had become Rigoletto.

Verdi finally completed the composition of the opera on 5 February 1851, a little more than a month before the premiere, although as he worked on the final stages of Act 3, Piave had already arranged for the sets to be designed. The singers were given some of their music to learn on 7 February. However, Verdi kept at least a third of the score at Busseto. He brought it with him when he arrived in Venice for the rehearsals on 19 February and would continue to refine the orchestration during the rehearsal period. For the première, La Fenice had cast Felice Varesi as Rigoletto, the young tenor Raffaele Mirate as the Duke, and Teresa Brambilla as Gilda (although Verdi would have preferred Teresa De Giuli Borsi). Due to the high risk of unauthorised copying, Verdi had demanded the maximum secrecy from all his singers and musicians. Mirate had use of his score only a few evenings before the première and had to swear that he would not sing or even whistle the tune of "La donna è mobile" except during the rehearsals.

Musicologist Julian Budden regards the opera as "revolutionary", just as Beethoven' Eroica Symphony was: "the barriers between formal melody and recitative are down as never before. In the whole opera, there is only one conventional double aria [...and there are...] no concerted act finales." Verdi used that same word – "revolutionary" – in a letter to Piave, and Budden also refers to a letter which Verdi wrote in 1852 in which the composer states that "I conceived Rigoletto almost without arias, without finales but only an unending string of duets."

Budden's conclusions about this opera and its place in Verdi's output are summed up by noting that: Just after 1850 at the age of 38 Verdi closed the door on a period of Italian opera with Rigoletto. The so-called ottocento in music is finished. Verdi will continue to draw on certain of its forms for the next few operas, but in a totally new spirit.

Renata Scotto – a Gilda? This was my first thought when I saw this recording advertised. It is currently not available in the U.S. – only as an Import. My experience with Scotto's voice has been in the latter part of her career. I have found her tolerable though shrill at times. A full-bodied intense voice, it was one I never associated with coloratura roles. Boy was I wrong. In this recording, her top registers were anything but shrill. She shows an amazing flexibility and control. Her Caro nome is one to be heard many times. She reaches a high D and decrescendo's to an incredible ppp. I felt the aria drug a little in tempo, but the gorgeous sound more than made up for it. This recording makes me want to buy her Traviata if she has one available.

As Rigoletto, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has the vocal power demanded by the score. Too often he sounded as if he was delivering a recital of Leider. A smooth velvet sound was his mark throughout. In his duets with Gilda, this payed off handsomely. Even in his dealings with the courtiers after Gilda's abduction he showed us a rarely seen Dietrich blustery side. He picked up some of the visciousness for the final duet in the second act but the majority was too good to be true. Everywhere but his dealings with Gilda requires harsh almost crude sounds in keeping with his general character. Fischer-Dieskau gave a very solid performance. His voice at times, however, did not match the situation.

Carlo Bergonzi has a wonderful tenor although at times a little excessive on the vibrato. He captured the care-free nature of the Duke to an exact measure. At the end of Addio, speranza ed anima he ended it in a high D. This D is one of the most resonant vibrant notes ever captured on a recording. It is not that strong, but the quality is great. This recording makes me a Bergonzi fan.

Fiorenzo Cossotto made a formidable match for Sparafucile as sung by Ivo Vinco. The comprimario roles were well handled. The chorus and orchestra well directed. Kubelík kept a firm pace throughout. A performance worth purchasing. - Stephen L. Parker

One of the best places to test a conductor's fitness for Rigoletto is the Duke's solo "E il sol dell'anima", and Kubelik passes with flying colours. Anybody can set the fire going and make the big noises; but to accompany the vocal line with orchestral parts that look on paper to be so utterly devoid of interest a conductor has to have a true feeling for the traditions of Italian opera. Kubelik and Bergonzi here are at one, fine exponents of the tradition and a pleasure to hear. So too in "Parmi veder" with its eloquently rounded cadenza... In other places there's too much gravims, too little bounce and joy. In the 30-year-old Renata Scotto they had a Gilda who no longer sounds young: her best singing is done after her  crisis off-stage, with an unusually affecting "Tutte le feste" and, in the final duet, "V'ho ingannato". Rigoletto, on the other hand, sounds young enough to be almost anything but her father. Fischer-Dieskau jests pointedly, broods with bitter loathing, and runs the full range of emotions in his scene with the courtiers. "Miei signori" finds him lacking richness, but "Ah, veglia o donna" which brings so many to grief is beautifully done. In short, a recording of mixed merit, the best of it distinctly too good to miss. — Gramophone

  • LPs made by DGG - Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft Records, in GERMANY

  • LPs released in 1973

  • LPs are recorded in STEREO

  • Record Catalog Number: 2709 014

  • Record Labels are assumed to be primarily ?? with ?? lettering, with the Record Co. Logo.

This listing is for a rare, out of print 3-LP boxed set - a FACTORY SEALED, NEVER PLAYED and assumed to be in MINT condition set PRESSED and ISSUED by DGG Records of a highly collectible title from their catalog - a superb title featuring -

Verdi // Rafael Kubelik

Title and music on this rare item -

Rigoletto

Tracks -

1. Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi 
Performer:  Renata Scotto (Soprano), Ivo Vinco (Bass), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone), Carlo Bergonzi (Tenor), Fiorenza Cossotto (Mezzo Soprano), Mirella Fiorentini (Soprano), Virgilio Carbonari (Bass Baritone), Lorenzo Testi (Bass), Alfredo Giacomotti (Bass), Caterina Alda (Mezzo Soprano), Piero de Palma (Tenor), Giuseppe Morresi (Bass Baritone) 
Conductor:  Rafael Kubelik 
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Milan Teatro alla Scala Orchestra,  Milan Teatro alla Scala Chorus 
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1851; Italy 
Language: Italian 
Atto Primo
A. Parte Prima
B. Parte Seconda
C. Parte Terza
Atto Secondo
D. Parte Prima
E1. Parte Seconda
Atto Terzo
E2. Parte Prima
F. Parte Seconda

Performers / Credits -
• Baritone Vocals [Marullo, Cavaliere] – Virgilio Carbonari
 • Baritone Vocals [Rigoletto, Suo Buffone Di Corte] – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
 • Bass Vocals [Il Conte Di Ceprano] – Alfredo Giacomotti
 • Bass Vocals [Il Conte Di Monterone] – Lorenzo Testi
 • Bass Vocals [Sparafucile, Bravo] – Ivo Vinco
 • Bass Vocals [Usciere Di Corte] – Giuseppe Morresi
 • Choir – Coro Del Teatro Alla Scala, Milano
 • Chorus Master – Roberto Benaglio
 • Composed By – Giuseppe Verdi
 • Conductor – Rafael Kubelik
 • Engineer [Recording] – Günter Hermanns
 • Libretto By – Francesco Maria Piave
 • Liner Notes [English] – Lionel Slater
 • Liner Notes [French] – Jacques Bourgeois
 • Liner Notes [German] – K. H. Ruppel
 • Liner Notes [Italian] – Gianfranco Zàccaro
 • Mezzo-soprano Vocals [Giovanna, Custode Di Gilda] – Mirella Fiorentini
 • Mezzo-soprano Vocals [Maddalena, Sua Sorella] – Fiorenza Cossotto
 • Orchestra – Orchestra Del Teatro Alla Scala, Milano
 • Producer – Otto Gerdes
 • Recording Supervisor – Hans Weber
 • Soprano Vocals [Gilda, Sua Figlia] – Renata Scotto
 • Soprano Vocals [La Contessa, Sua Sposa] – Catarina Alda
 • Soprano Vocals [Paggio Della Duchessa] – Catarina Alda
 • Tenor Vocals [Borsa Matteo, Cortigiano] – Piero Di Palma
 • Tenor Vocals [Il Duca Di Mantova] – Carlo Bergonzi
Other Information -
Issued with 50-page booklet containing liner notes and libretto in Italian, German, English and French.
Release date taken from printing date on original inner sleeves.
Disc 1 contains sides 1 & 6, Disc 2 contains sides 2 & 5 and Disc 3 contains sides 3 & 4.
CONDITION Details:

The 3-LP box is in mint condition! The box has NO splits or crushed corners and NO cut out marks - just gorgeous! The corners and seams are solid with no shelf wear. The outer plastic cellophane wrap has a bit of tearing. The colors on the box are sharp and clean (see pictures with this listing as they are of the actual item).

The set comes complete with a paper insert/libretto.

The 3-LPs are assumed to be in mint condition as this vintage 1973 item is still FACTORY SEALED!  A Short Note About LP GRADING -
  • Mint = Only used for sealed items.
  • Near Mint = Virtually flawless in every way.
  • Near Mint Minus = Item has some minor imperfections, some audible.
  • Excellent = Item obviously played and enjoyed with some noise.
  • Very Good Plus = Many more imperfections which are noticeable and obtrusive.

For best results, always properly clean your LPs before playing them.

The LP is an audiophile quality pressing (any collector of fine MFSL, half speeds, direct to discs, Japanese/UK pressings etc., can attest to the difference a quality pressing can make to an audio system).

Don't let this rarity slip by!!!


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