Matthaus-Passion BWV 244 - conducted by Fritz Lehmann

Recording

V-2	J.S. Bach: Matthaus Passion
Matthäus-Passion BWV 244
Fritz Lehmann
Großer Chor des Berliner Rundfunks & the Boys’ Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale Berlin / Runfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Tenor [Evangelist, Arias]: Helmut Krebs; Baritone [Jesus]: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Soprano: Elfriede Trötschel; Alto: Diana Eustrati; Bass [Arias]: Friedrich Härtel
Vox / Pantheon / Music & Arts / Dante		Apr 1949	3-CD / TT: 200:31
Recorded live in Berlin, Germany. Buy this album at: Amazon.com

Lehmann's SMP

Frank Forman wrote:
I don't think Fritz Lehmann is Lotte's brother. I've never heard such a claim, and I think Lotte was Jewish, whereas Fritz conducted in Germany throughout the Third Reich. "Denazification," an earlier version of the Poliitically Correct Thought Police.

Lehmann's live recording of the St. Matthew Passion, the one presumably reissued on LYS, is the first complete recording in German, Koussevitzky's having been in English. It was also the first recording of Fischer-Dieskau, although I recall reading that something earlier has surfaced.

It is my favorite recording of the work, mostly though for the Evangelist and tenor, Helmut Krebs, whose angelic voice is exactly right for Bach. But everything about the recording is perfect.

Lehmann's recording of the German Requiem is also my favorite. This performance is very slow, esp. in the first mov., and takes just under the 80 min. max. time for a CD. The slowness may bother some, but I got used to it quickly enough.

Lehmann was one of the house conductors DGG used to build up its LP catalog. I'm not sure what concert orchestras he directed. I've compiled one of two discographies, the other being a quite imcomplete one in the back of a book about Lehmann written in German.

He also made my favorite recording of the Choral Fantasy (with Andor Foldes, a largely forgotten pianist), which is very articulate and emphatic, and also of the Capriccio Italien, a work most of us are probably burned out on, but whose value is renewed in Lehmann's heavily articulated interpretation. Like Scherchen, he brings out instrumental groups that are largely submerged in other interpreations. I've listened to these four Lehmann recordings many times, and the interpretations still thrill me. They are not mere eccentricities.

Only the Bach and Brahms are on CD, and the only other Lehmann on CD is a DG disc of Bach Cantatas. You get to hear Krebs and F-D again in solid, reliable interpretations.

Benjamin Maso wrote (August 21, 2000):
< I don't think Fritz Lehmann is Lotte's brother. I've never heard such a claim, and I think Lotte was Jewish, whereas Fritz conducted in Germany throughout the Third Reich. >
Although she went into exile, Lotte Lehmann wasn't Jewish. She had a brother called Fritz, who also emigrated to the USA, but he wasn't a conductor.

< "Denazification," an earlier version of the Poliitically Correct Thought Police. >
I don't know anything about any

Apos3 wrote (August 21, 2000):
< Only the Bach and Brahms are on CD, and the only other Lehmann on CD is a DG disc of Bach Cantatas. >
There is also one of Händel works on DG Originals.

Fritz Lehmann: Short Biography | Berliner Motettenchor | Recordings | BWV 244 - Lehmann

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Last update: ýSeptember 26, 2005 ý07:55:00