Ike Hawkersmith, Kirsten Gunlogson - Menotti: Amahl and the Night Visitors, My Christmas (2008)

In Fanfare 11:4, Anthony D. Coggi reviewed a reissue of the 1952 RCA classic recording of Amahl (RCA Gold Seal 6485), and a then new recording on MCA, conducted by David Syrus. Coggi gave many reasons (with which I agree) to underline the superiority of the RCA, which is still available: Thomas Schippers's brilliant conducting, and the high quality singing of what was the original cast of the 1951 world premiere telecast. The MCA recording is limply conducted and not as well sung. Coggi also made an eloquent case for the opera itself--pointing out that while many snobs have spent a good deal of their time looking down their noses at Menotti's output, his operas have always found an audience, and Amahl is one of the most performed operas in history.

Given its popularity, the fact that those two recordings have been the only ones released (and Fanfare 11:4 was the March/April 1988 issue!) until now is perplexing. Naxos's new entry is certainly superior to the MCA, and has the advantage over the RCA of being in modern digital, stereophonic sound. Alastair Willis shapes the music lovingly and with energy, and the Nashville Symphony plays with both skill and involvement. This recording is also the first to give the buyer a bonus--a 12-minute choral work dating from 1987 called My Christmas that represents Menotti at his most touching and eloquent.

But if I want to listen to Amahl and the Night Visitors, I'm going to return to the Schippers recording, not because of some kind of hazy nostalgia, but because it is better sung throughout. The singing here is not terrible--but it is uneven. The Amahl's intonation is not as dead center as is Chet Allen's on the RCA, and Rosemary Kuhlmann for Schippers has a richer voice with a wider palette of colors than is available to Kirsten Gunlogson here. There is some unsteadiness in the baritone of King Melchior here as well. George Mabry leads what sounds like a fine performance of My Christmas, and this seems to be the work's first recording.

If you want a modern-sounding Amahl, this is clearly preferable to the only other stereo recording, particularly because of the livelier and more colorful conducting, and because of the choral bonus. Naxos does not provide a text (and I don't see one available from their Web site), but the diction is excellent and the recorded sound very clear, so that isn't really a problem. -- Fanfare Archive, Henry Fogel , May/June 2009