Rudolf

[liaku]

Listening to the Affaire Mayerling official recording, and I've just got to say that I never realized the music is very good.  I still can't say I like Lisa Antoni, she's just a bit shouty and sometimes poppy at unexpected moments, and Uwe isn't sounding his best (but he sounds good enough that it doesn't really bother you if you're not paying close attention), but the music is actually very nice.  I've heard that the Vienna version cut out all the intricacies of the original score in Budapest, but even as it is, VBW's orchestra is phenomenal.  I really want to know who their first violin is, because that wo/man is fantastically talented.

Comments

[liaku.livejournal.com]

a) Is it really that lame? I'd heard they'd been simplified (or some of the harmonies were ripped out), but I think what's there is still lovely even if it's less of a masterpiece in composition. For some reason, the score felt very Brahms to me. I really wish there were an official recording from Budapest!

b) Yeah, I can tolerate Uwe fine on the official recordings where they've made sure he isn't missing notes, and I'm sure that helps out a lot for enjoying the songs!

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

My biggest problem with the orchestrations is that they lack energy and make the music dragging and boring, but they've also lost a lot of the beauty and intricacy of Koen Schoot's gorgeous orchestrations. There's really a huge difference between how much I love to listen to the Budapest version and how much I don't like to listen to the Vienna version - despite the gorgeous sound of the VBW orchestra. I can't remember all the songs that there are considerable differences in because I don't listen to the Vienna recording at all, but one that sticks in my mind is Larisch's first song - no idea what it's called in German, in English it's Pretty Little War, anyway it's the one about how to get yourself a man by making yourself pretty. Anyway, in the Budapest version, it's fun! It's energetic! I love it! It's one of the highlights of the first act! In Vienna... It's so slow and dragging and without any energy that I hated it on stage, even Carin Filipcic couldn't make it worth watching and I love Carin.

I've never really been a Brahms fan, so maybe that's why. :P I think the Budapest score would remind me rather of some other composer, though I can't say who. There are a couple of soundboards from Budapest that are perfectly nice quality, it shouldn't be so difficult to listen to them.

The problem with Uwe isn't only whether he misses notes or not. It's that his voice sounds like sandpaper on blackboard. I'm just not going to listen to that willingly. I seriously haven't listened to any of Taaffe's songs on the CD completely, because I tried one for about 30 seconds and it was so painful I had to stop.

On a positive note, Drew is love, and at least they've kept the gorgeous orchestrations to A holnap hídja (don't remember the title in German, but it had the word Zukunft in it).

[liaku.livejournal.com]

ETA: I'm really sorry about rambling so much geeky music stuff to you. >.<

I compared the two at work today (turns out I had the nice 2nd cast audio-rip from the premiere DVD or something on my iPod), and hm. I think the changes Vienna made gave the musical is more appropriate for then sort of musical they were trying to make--it's much more typical of a sprawling epic romance. They removed or at least softened a lot of the brass, which is most noticeable in Die Fäden (if I'm actually LISTENING, it becomes really difficult to suffer Uwe's voice, so this was rather not fun), and for some reason Wien replaced the buzzing (like a bee) violin bits and replaced it with this badass staccato refrain in the second violins that you can barely hear so it just sounds empty instead. :( I suppose you would blame the conductor for that. And for some reason, they've removed the snare drum from a lot of songs, which I personally think they need to be shot for, but I could see how they found it more of a rock sound than a romantic sound. ...But they should still be shot.

I think, actually, that for a lot of songs (some were obviously changed), the loss of intricacy is actually just the conductor making a very strange (and wrong, imo) decision to create some sort of melody in his orchestra--which is kinda silly since the singer's voice is supposed to be the melody, the orchestra is pretty much all harmony. He does so love his violins, and you can only sometimes hear the horns all nice and clear over the violins. In Budapest, they definitely played alongside each other like equals, which definitely helped out a lot in that Larisch song you mentioned since I feel that that song especially is one that benefits a lot from the whole orchestra just letting go and having fun--Vienna's turned it into a carefully conducted symphonic poem, which is, um, stupid. Also, you can barely hear the snare drums if they're there at all (sometimes I think I imagine them when listening to the Wien recording), and I think for that, someone deserves to be shot. I loves me my percussion.

I think maybe the Budapest version reminds me of some strange combination of Berlioz and Gershwin (more Berlioz's romantic style, but Gershwin's and energy, and both of their complexity). It's hard to say since the operettszinhaz conductors don't approach their music like a song on its own right--they conduct almost entirely to harmonize with the voice, which is awesome. ...Now if only they sounded as good as VBW (and were better at keeping beat with the actors). >.>

I've lived with roommates that have played music with truly awful singers. I can tolerate Uwe's voice fine as long as I'm not paying attention, and I tend to focus more on the orchestra when I go to a musical anyway. It's actually Lisa Antoni that annoys me. She just gets screamy occasionally, and it startles me out of whatever I'm doing. Perhaps I'm just too used to listening to Brandi on the English demo, who has a much smoother and more reliable voice.

Yes, Drew is love. I'll need to wait to get a DVD and to re-watch the Budapest DVDs I have, but I'm leaning toward thinking I prefer Drew over both Atti and Árpi as Rudolf.