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I was lucky to find a decent copy of this first ever recording of the Incidental Music to Schubert's Rosamunde led by the fine, and underrated, Dean Dixon. I've spoken in the past on Dixon; truly a man of great abilities who appeared on the American musical scene "before his time" as the old cliche goes. It's a damn shame that his greatest success was in Europe, with its more liberal racial climate and, not in his home country. Only toward the end of his life did he begin to gain recognition here - he died at the terribly young age of 61.
This recording is a fascinating and satisfying affair. Dixon strives for clarity and his brisk tempos would be more in line with period performance practice then the romantic, big bodied approach that Schubert was typically given during the early 50's when Westminster recorded this performance. I like Dixon's way, he doesn't linger or get overly sentimental and nothing is forced, in short, he lets the music speak for itself. His efforts are well supported by Ferdinand Grossman's fine Academy Chamber Choir and the famed contralto Hilde Roessel-Majden. Interestingly, the overture to Alfonso und Estrella is included as the opening number.
My opinion is that had Dixon lived, he would've achieved greater fame in the US and been counted as one of the major podium presences of his time. Instead, we have here a document of an immensely talented man whom the fates dealt not the best hand.
