Excerpts from
'DER FREISCHUTZ'
(The Marksman) by Weber
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor, Adrian Boult : Overture
Act I
Alexander Kipnis (bass) with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Clemens Schmalstich : Caspar's Drinking Song-Hier im ird'schen Jammerthal (In this earthly vale of woe)
Act II
Irene Eisinger (soprano): Kommt ein schlanker Bursch (Here comes a gallant youth)
Lotte Lehmann (soprano) : Agatha's
Aria, Leise, Leise (Softly sighing)
Kate Heidersbach (soprano),
Irene Eisinger (soprano), Erik Wirl (tenor), with Orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, conducted by Clemens Schmal stich : Trio-Wie ? Was ? Entsetzen ! (Where ? What ? Oh Terror)
Act III
Margarete Teschemacher (soprano), with Orchestra conducted by Hans Miiller : Agatha's Prayer, Und ob die Wolke sie verhiille (Although a cloud o'erspreads the earth)
Friedrich Schorr (baritone), with the New Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Albert Coates : Hermit's Air-Leicht kann des Frommen Herz ? (What sinful man is free ?)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Berlin
State Opera, conducted by Dr. Leo Blech : Bridal Chorus, Wir winden dir den Jungfernkranz (We bind the bridal wreath} (soloist, Genia Guszalewicz , soprano) ; Huntsmen's Chorus
The story of Der Freischutz (The Marksman), Weber's most successful opera, is adapted from the mediaeval legend relating how the devil tempted huntsmen to sell their souls in return for magic bullets that never failed to hit their mark. In the opera Max is the huntsman ; he must shoot straight to win a contest, and the hand of Agatha. He is persuaded to make a contract with the devil for some magic bullets, and in the course of the contest nearly kills Agatha with one of them. All ends well, however, and the opera is not tragic. On the other hand, it is heavily streaked with that vivid romanticism popular in opera of that period, and even now to be found frequently in a certain type of film drama. But there is no evidence in the robust and genuinely dramatic music that Weber was seriously handicapped by the occasionally ridiculous and bombastic text. It is, indeed, the music of a great master who deeply influenced those who came after him.
Weber was a contemporary of Beethoven, and shares with him the responsibility for moulding the musical nucleus of the romantic nineteenth century.