EMI's German label, Electrola, took up the cause of Franz Schubert's neglected stage works in the 1970s. One such effort was Der vierjáhrige Posten (The Four-Year Sentry), a delightful if insubstantial one-acter that is the subject of today's post.Electrola engaged some of the best-known singers of the day - the American Helen Donath, the Germans Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Peter Schreier, under the direction of the experienced Heinz Wallberg conducting the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the Munich Radio Orchestra.
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| Heinz Wallberg at the recording session |
Let me call upon the opera critic George Jellinek for his view of the proceedings: "In Der vierjährige Posten, the spoken passages are in verse, the libretto by the highly productive though modestly gifted Theodor Körner. The slight plot concerns the ingenious ways in which a French deserter avoids punishment.
"This is early Schubert (1815, contemporaneous with his Third Symphony). lightly scored, charming, certainly skillful, but revealing none of the boldness the young Schubert exhibited in his early songs." George may be underselling the merits of this work - he aptly cites the Symphony No. 3, and if you know that score, you know it is a beguiling piece, well worth anyone's time.
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| Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau |
The excellent singers are to the fore in the superbly vivid recording, with the orchestra and chorus arrayed behind them. To me, this is one of the high points of analogue recording, atmospheric and open.
Here's George's summary: "Both works [he also reviewed another Schubert opera] receive expert performances here, lovingly conducted by Heinz Wallberg. The prominent singers acquit themselves in a manner worthy of their reputations."
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| Helen Donath, Peter Schreier |
Let me mention that Electrola did not see its way clear to provide a libretto or translation, so I have included the relevant parts of the booklet from Peter Maag's recording, which translates the German into English and Italian. The slight plot is explained in the LP's gatefold, along with more about Schubert at the time (he was 18!) and poor Körner, who, annotator Karl Schumann assures us, "produced an uncontrollable amount of mediocre works" before his early death.
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