If you're only going to hear one recording of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, it should be this 1979 recording by
Karl Böhm leading the Staatskapelle Dresden with an all-star, mostly German cast.
Böhm's unique combination of the dramatic with the lyric and the human with the sublime made him the leading Austrian Mozart conductor of the postwar period -- pace
von Karajan -- and his recordings of the great operas have become the standard by which all subsequent recordings are measured. With the heroic
Peter Schreier in the title role, along with steely toned
Julia Varady, the sweet-toned
Edith Mathis, the stentorian-toned
Theo Adam, and the sensuously toned
Teresa Berganza,
Böhm has a superlative cast and with the marvelously musical Staatskapelle Dresden, he has a sumptuous orchestra. And Deutsche Grammophon's late stereo sound remains unrivaled for clarity, lucidity, and immediacy. While La Clemenza di Tito may not be Mozart's greatest Italian opera -- how could it be with competition from Le nozze, Così, and, of course, Don Giovanni? -- in
Böhm's performance, it nevertheless sounds like great Mozart.