Beethoven - Fidelio / Janowitz, Popp, Kollo, Sotin, Fischer-Dieskau, Jungwirth, Dallapozza, Wiener Phil., Bernstein

In 1970 Leonard Bernstein was invited by the Vienna State Opera to prepare a new production of Fidelio for the Beethoven bicentennial He returned in 1978 to make this recording with an all-star cast featuring Gundula Janowitz in the title role At the same time Bernstein was finishing his integral recording of the Beethoven symphonies with the State Operas pit orchestra the Vienna Philharmonic Its hardly surprising then that this account of Beetohovens only opera conveys such an extraordinary sense of occasion and exhibits a degree of musical cohesion that can only be described as symphonic Bernstein is of course the biggest star of all here and he presides over a performance of remarkable strength and dramatic conviction especially memorable for the emotional intensity of the climactic moments in particular Pizzaros Ha Welch ein Augenblick the ActI finale and the ActII quartet One of the accounts most striking features is its insertion of the Leonore Overture No3 before the final scene of ActII honoring a tradition established by Gustav Mahler when he was director of the Vienna Court Opera at the beginning of the 20th century