Weber: Die drei Pintos (Completed by Mahler)

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Left unfinished at the composer’s death, the comic opera, Die drei Pintos, whose plot centers on an attempt to sabotage an arranged marriage, had to wait until around the time of Weber’s centennial before the first fully successful completion, by the twenty-six year old Gustav Mahler, who also conducted the première in 1888. In the absence of sketches for almost two-thirds of the opera, Mahler reconstructed a performing edition from the extant vocal parts by orchestrating the fragments and, additionally, rescoring unfamiliar and unpublished music of Weber. While the completed work contains music almost entirely by Weber, the rescoring and the conception are entirely Mahlerian.

Tracks:

Symphony No. 1 in C Major; J. 50: Allegro con fuoco
Symphony No. 1 in C Major; J. 50: Andante
Symphony No. 1 in C Major; J. 50: Scherzo And Trio
Symphony No. 1 In C Major, J. 50: Finale: Presto
Symphony No. 2 In C Major, J. 51: Allegro
Symphony No. 2 In C Major, J. 51: Adagio ma non troppo
Symphony No. 2 In C Major, J. 51: Menuetto And Trio
Symphony No. 2 In C Major, J. 51: Finale: Scherzo presto
Turandot, J. 75: Overture
Turandot, J. 75: Funeral March From Act V
Turandot, J. 75: March From Act II
Silvana, J. 87: Tanz der Edelknaben
Silvana, J. 87: Fackel Tanz
Die Drei Pintos, Anh. 5: Entr'acte

Customer Reviews:

Another Outstanding Naxos Recording!.......2007-03-23

Weber wrote both of his Symphonies in the same year (1807), and both are in the key of C Major. However, each one brings different delights. The sound is excellent on this Naxos release, and the playing by the Queensland Philharmonic is impressive, especially by the horns, with a wonderful viola solo in the Adagio of the Second Symphony. Weber's music here is witty, adventurous and at times a little unpredictable. The Penguin Guide has awarded this great recording a Rosette, which is their highest honor, reserved only for a recording that "shows special illumination, magic or a spiritual quality...that places it in a very special class". I wholeheartedly agree. And, as a nice bonus, Naxos has added attractive excerpts from two lesser-known operas, as well as incidental music from Turandot. I highly recommend this CD, and the price is easy on the budget, to be sure.

Symphony No. 2, a really great discovery.......2006-03-21

Until I bought this CD, I had never heard the Weber 2nd Symphony. It is a strange but an absolutely delightful piece. The first movement is longer than the rest of the symphony combined. It is also as fine an example of sonata-allegro form as you will ever hear. The horn solo in the second theme is just gorgeous. The second movement is short but lovely, the menuetto even shorter and the finale is less than 2 minutes and just when you think it is over the bassoon plays one last fade away phrase. It almost like Weber is poking fun at Beethoven's 5th. The rest of the music, including the much more popular 1st Symphony, are all lovely and fun to listen to. But it is the 2nd Symphony that really caught my ear. Great performances from New Zealand.

FIRE AND AIR.......2004-01-24

Naxos really are doing us proud. Here is yet another first-class disc of comparatively out of the way music, beautifully performed and recorded. I am very enthusiastic for Weber in general. He had a superlative melodic gift for one thing, he was a brilliant orchestrator and he is blessedly free of pretentiousness. Nobody would look to his compositions for lessons in intellectual techniques, but I will happily trade that to be spared laboured workings-out, twaddling `passages' and the whole baggage of second-rate 19th century instrumental music. All the music on this record is comparatively lightweight, but the symphonies less so than the incidental music. Being perfectly candid, I find them more interesting than the early symphonies of my beloved Schubert. There is a theatrical feel to them, but that is no bad thing in my opinion, and when the inevitable thoughts of Rossini came to the forefront of my mind I also found myself reflecting that Weber had a soul within him, a thing of fire and air, where Rossini had nothing but a vacuum.

The recorded quality is in some ways very striking indeed, with startling resonance in the bass - to start with I could almost have sworn that I heard a tuba. The Queensland Philharmonic play with real life, vigour and enthusiasm, and the conductor has to my way of thinking the right extroversion and sense of style and pace for this particular music. There is also a businesslike and helpful liner-note giving some information on conductor and orchestra as well as commentary on the music.

Right at the end we have something very different and very interesting indeed - an entr'acte put together by Mahler from material Weber had left from an unfinished opera The Three Pintos. Suddenly to hear Mahler's idiom and Mahler's scoring in a ghostly embrace with Weber's has real `tingle-factor` for me, something like the effect of the last bars of the Flying Dutchman overture, written by the Wagner of Tristan and Isolde. I am going to get very attached to this record.

Amended review.......2001-06-30

I lowered my original score from 4 star to 2 star after listening to it a few more times. It became clearer to me that, though the recording is dead quiet with no extraneous noise, the strings are muffled considerably. Great music, OK recording quality.

A Delight In All Respects.......2001-06-23

Weber clearly liked to keep a little fun in his music. These two symphonies are delightful music. Weber used a light touch to lead the listener through a spirited conversation between the orchestra sections. Instead of hiding the woodwinds behind a curtain of strings as was typical, Weber brought them out where they shine without being shrill or syrupy. None of that thin, reedy stuff here, its all full-bodied. Weber's love of the oboe shows. The orchestra plays Weber beautifully and the engineers did a great job too.

Average customer rating:

Weber/Mahler: Die Drei Pintos [Germany]
Popp , Holweg , Prey , Moll , Kruse , Bertini , and Munchner Philharmoniker
Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000252CM
Release Date: 1995-12-27

Tracks:

Act One
Act Two
Act Three

Average customer rating:

The Best of Weber

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Best of Glazunov
The Best of Bartók
The Best of Haydn
The Best of Fauré
Best Of Sibelius

ASIN: B0000014HR
Release Date: 1999-06-22

Tracks:

Overture to Euryanthe
Symphony No. 2 in C major - Adagio ma non troppo
Clarinet Quintet in B flat major, Op. 34 - Menuetto: Capriccio presto
Piano Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 49 - Rondo: Presto con molta vivacita
Overture to Der Freischutz
Entr'acte from Die drei Pintos
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 11 - Presto
Overture to Oberon
Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73 - Adagio ma non troppo
Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65 (Orchestrated Berlioz)

Average customer rating:

Portrait

Manufacturer: Berlin Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00002571N
Release Date: 1996-01-23

Weber: Die drei Pintos (Completed by Mahler)

Average customer rating:

'Mahler's Only Opera?'
Curiosity with an unknown cast

Weber: Die drei Pintos (Completed by Mahler)

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B0002TXT6G
Release Date: 2004-10-19

Tracks:

Ensemble: 'Leeret Die Becher, Mutige Zecher!'
Rondo A La Polacca: 'Was Ich Dann Tu', Das Frag' Ich Mich'
Terzettino: 'Ei, Wer Hatte Das Gedacht!'
Romanze Vom Verliebten Kater Mansor: 'Leise Weht' Es, Leise Wallte'
Seguidilla A Dos: 'Wir, Die Den Musen Dienen'
Terzet: 'Also Frisch Das Werk Begonnen!'
Finale: 'Auf Das Wohlergeh'n Der Gaste!'

Tracks:

Entr' Acte
Introduction Und Ensemble: 'Wisst Ihr Nicht, Was Wir Heir Sollen?'
Ariette: 'Hochste Lust Ist Treues Lieben!'
Arie: 'Ach, Wenn Das Du Doch Vermochtest!'
Duett: 'Ja, Das Wort, Ich Will Es Sprechen'
Terzett: Finale: 'Geschwind Nur Von Hinnen!'
Lied Mit Chor: 'Schmucket Die Halle Mit Bluten Und Zweigen!'
Duett: 'Nun, Da Sind Wir'
Terzettino: 'Madchen, Ich Leide Heisse Liebespein!'
Ariette: 'Ein Madchen Verloren, Was Macht Man Sich D'raus?'
Rondo-Terzett: 'Ihr, Der So Edel'
'Habt Ihr Es Denn Schon Vernommen?'
'Mit Lieblichen Blumen, Mit Duftenden Bluten'
Finale A: 'Was Wollt Ihr?'
Finale B: 'Heil Sei Euch, Don Pantaleone!'

Album Description

Left unfinished at the composer's death, the comic opera, Die drei Pintos, whose plot centers on an attempt to sabotage an arranged marriage, had to wait until around the time of Weber's centennial before the first fully successful completion, by the twenty-six year old Gustav Mahler, who also conducted the première in 1888. In the absence of sketches for almost two-thirds of the opera, Mahler reconstructed a performing edition from the extant vocal parts by orchestrating the fragments and, additionally, rescoring unfamiliar and unpublished music of Weber. While the completed work contains music almost entirely by Weber, the rescoring and the conception are entirely Mahlerian.

Customer Reviews:

'Mahler's Only Opera?'.......2005-01-10

This review's title is that used by this CD's booklet-note writer, Michael Kennedy, and is apt because this unfinished opera by Carl Maria von Weber, begun in 1820 but dropped in favor of work on 'Euryanthe,' was indeed completed by Gustav Mahler in 1887 and premièred in Leipzig (where Mahler was Artur Nikisch's assistant) with Mahler at the helm in early 1888. It was initially successful but dropped out of sight after only a few years. Any current interest in this opera almost surely derives from the today's feverish interest in anything to do with Mahler. It has been recorded before much more successfully in 1976 with a cast that included Lucia Popp, Werner Hollweg, Hermann Prey and Kurt Moll under Gary Bertini, on the RCA label. That recording is no longer available, alas, but copies could probably be found with a diligent search.

This is a live recording from a production of the Wexford Festival, in Ireland, which specializes in mounting rare and unusual operas--I recently reviewed their nice production, in its original Czech, of Jaromir Weinberger's 'Svanda Dudák' ('Schwanda the Bagpiper'). The present production is a merely OK performance, though, I'm afraid. The singers in general are a notch or two below world class and the orchestra sounds underpowered. There are intrusive stage sounds. Further, there is no libretto included, although there is a fairly good synopsis in the booklet.

As to Mahler's involvement in completing the opera, Kennedy's booklet notes are very helpful. In brief, Weber sketched only seven of the projected seventeen numbers and never came back to it. After his death his wife sent them to Meyerbeer to see if he could complete it, but he returned them to the family in 1847. Weber's grandson, Carl, gave them to Mahler who agreed to use the sketches as the basis for his own completion; Carl set about revising the fairly inept existing libretto. Mahler originally thought to finish Acts I and II and have Act III spoken, but then changed his mind. His final version consists of 21 numbers. He used all of Weber's original numbers but not in their original positions and then supplemented them with little-known pieces by Weber which he arranged and rescored. He wrote a completely new entr'acte (which sounds for all the world like original Weber to my ears although there are perhaps some Mahlerian orchestration fingerprints here and there). Mahler's work is essentially undetectable to any but musicians immersed in the styles of both Weber and Mahler. If Mahler's notion was to leave no significant personal traces on the work, he certainly succeeded.

Finally, I would have to say that if a musiclover really wants to hear a performance of this comic opera, they would do well first to try to find a copy of the 1970s recording. Otherwise, this one will do, at least in terms of one being able to hear what Weber and Mahler came up with.

CD1=39:07
CD2=75:15

J Scott Morrison

Curiosity with an unknown cast.......2004-10-26

Several years ago, RCA issued a recording of Die Drie Pintos with a surprisingly high-profile cast. Jeannette Scovotti, Kurt Moll, Franz Grundheber and Werner Hollweg (if memory serves me right) were A-1, and the recording was very good. It is no longer available.

This recording is not in that class, but it is very good, once you get past the thunderous stage noises. This is a "live" recording. As always with Naxos, no text or translation. In a work of this rarity, the sketchy synopsis is just not enough. In following the score, I found one repeated section omitted, but otherwise the performance was complete. (I won't name the singers, because they are unknown, but will give character names instead.) The Don Pantaleone has sung Gurnemanz in other theaters, and his initial address in Act two made me afraid he would linger throughout the entire score. But he finally picked up steam. The Don Pintos was good but only so-so in accuracy. Don Gomez and Don Gaston were both wonderful, if unknown, tenors. Though differentiated nicely in timbres, they were able to give stellar performances of their difficult music. Ambrosio is asked to sing a good deal in falsetto, and this Ambrosio couldn't muster much diction when he did, but in his ariette in Act three, instead of singing in falsetto, he simply soared up to a high B! three times. It negated the man versus woman aspect of the aria, but it is quite exciting. The Donna Clarissa and her maid Laura take a while to warm up. Their first music is sung heavily, but once they do get warmed up, they succeed very well, Laura's coloratura mezzo sailing through some pretty tough music very well.

The recording, in additional to capturing the ambience of a live performance, captures too many foot stomps and other stage noises. The orchestra is a little too recessed to hear Mahler's lovely orchestration clearly. I remember hearing the RCA recording and thinking how Mahleresque the orchestral palate was. That cannot happen here.

Still, the fun of the piece comes through, with good diction and a good sense of pace. If only we could follow the text!! I know that takes up paper and takes some expense, but in a work as unknown as this, the synopsis just won't suffice.
4 stars for the performance, 2 stars for the engineering and the lack of text.

Average customer rating:

Lebendige Vergangenheit: Leopold Demuth

Manufacturer: Preiser Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00009IL7C
Release Date: 2003-11-25

Average customer rating:

Premiere Evening

Manufacturer: Klavier
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000003M5H
Release Date: 1995-08-08

Tracks:

Weber / Mahler: Die Drei Pintos: Entracte
Nicolai: The Merry Wives of Windsor Overture
Lalo: Arlequin - Musique de Carnaval
Busoni: Lustspiel Overture, Op. 38
Viotti: Concerto No. 22 for Violin and Orchestra
Viotti: Concerto No. 22 for Violin and Orchestra
Viotti: Concerto No. 22 for Violin and Orchestra

Album Description

Includes two world premiere recordings! Mahler's orchestration of the Entracte from the unfinished Weber opera, Die Drei Pintos (The Three Pintos) and Eduard Lalo's Arlequin.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

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