<<  -- 3 --  Patric Standford    MIGHTILY DRAMATIC

Glauke, the king's second daughter who is to marry Jason, is taken by Julie Moffat with a bright and wide dramatic range, recognising her sister from descriptions and asking if she is dead [listen -- CD2 track 1, 10:14-11:07]. The part of Jason is the tenor Robert Künzli -- 'never shall I be happy again' [listen -- CD2 track 6, 0:00-1:00] and throughout, Winfried Wagner takes much delight in his part as narrator -- 'the plague has come to our city' [listen -- CD2 track 1, 0:01-0:56]. The Berliner Singakademie and Symphony Orchestra are conducted by Achim Zimmermann.

Georg Katzer was born in what is now a part of Poland in January 1935, studying at the Berlin Hochschule under Wagner-Régeny and Ruth Zechlin until 1959, and then with Janecek in Prague before returning to the then DDR and masterclasses with Hanns Eisler at the Berlin Academy of Arts, of which he became a member in 1978. In 1982 he founded the Electroacoustic Studio there. His work covers a wide range from opera to chamber music, and is perhaps best represented in his two Concertos for Orchestra, though he seemed to suffer some political constraints with operatic projects in the eighties.

This double CD issue of Medea is a live recording of a performance at the Konzerthaus, Berlin in September last year, and maintains the vivid and clear spontaneity of the event.

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