Reznicek: Ritter Blaubart
Soloists
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Michail Jurowski
Reznicek’s Donna Dianna was a major discovery of last year’s project and since then I have started to explore some of his orchestral music. But I wanted to include one of his other operas in this project and fortunately this recording was available. It is a version of the story of Bluebeard’s castle made famous by, among others, Bartok and Dukas. I thought that this operas was quite worthy to be included in the same company as those two great works. Reznicek has a real sense of the dramatic and there were some thrilling passages in this opera as well as some lyrical music and some very effective supernatural moments. There were also moments of grim humour, when the two grave robbers attempt to take away the body of one of Bluebeard’s wives only to find that the hear as been removed.
The style is a mixture of Strauss and Wagner but with some passages which were reminiscent of the fairy tale operas of Humperdinck and others where the music seemed nearer to the Schoenberg of piece like Erwartung. The fire music near the end of the opera when the castle catches fire, taking Bluebeard with it, was very reminiscent of the Magic Fire Music from Die Walküre. This can’t be co-incidence. The composer must have his tongue at least slightly in his cheek when wrote it.
Reznicek’s reputation rests on one short overture. Lovely as the overture is it give a quite false picture of his output. The two operas of his I have now heard make a very strong impression and show that he was a serious composer of real standing. Heresy to say it of course, but he seems to me to be at least the equal of Richard Strauss!
