Karl Amadeus Hartmann

Wachsfigurenkabinett (Waxworks) gathers the five little operas that Karl Amadeus Hartmann wrote in 1929-30. They reached the stage only fifty-eight years after their composition, thanks largely to Hans Werner Henze. This first recording won the ECHO Klassik 2002 as world premiere recording of the year.

Hartmann was a German composer, born in Munich on 2 August 1905 and died there on 5 December 1963. He refused to have his music performed in Nazi Germany and in 1945 founded the musica viva concert series, which he directed until his death. He is known above all for his symphonies, not as a composer for the theatre. He wrote these pieces for a studio for young composers at the Bavarian Opera, run by Erich Bormann and Max See. The complete cycle was first staged in Munich at the 1988 Biennale. Roger Epple conducts members of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The singers include Claudia Barainsky, Michelle Breedt, Tom Harper and Michael Kraus; Barainsky, born in Berlin in 1965, sings the Grand Duchess. The recording was made on 15-19 February 1999 in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin-Dahlem.

The cycle opens with Leben und Sterben des heiligen Teufels (Life and Death of the Holy Devil) and Der Mann, der vom Tode auferstand. Chaplin-Ford-Trott, Fürwahr ...?! and Die Witwe von Ephesus follow. Their roles include a Grand Duchess, a maid, Felix and Rasputin. The texts criticise and satirise their society and catch distinct situations from life in a spotlight. The characters are types who do not develop, hence the wax figures of the title. The result keeps its distance, tends toward the comic and is a little didactic. Besides the instrumental ensemble, the scores use piano and harmonium, played by Frank Maus, Jonathan Alder and Kevin McCutcheon, and two speaking parts.

The label calls these one-act operas documents of the musical life of Munich in the late twenties and of the early work of an artist later known for his symphonies.

CD, Wergo WER 6640 2, released in 2001, total time 74'40".