This is the first attempted recording of the original 1912 version of the score, and as such is automatically worth acquiring for any Ariadne enthusiast. The necessary compromises in the endeavour, however, mean that the set is only a partial success.

The problem arises from the fact that you cannot record the entire Molière play which should precede the opera. Instead it is heavily compressed in the form of a monologue spoken by M. Jourdain, which includes the essence of the plot, and is punctuated by Strauss's incidental music. The result is, frankly, tedious. Ernst Theo Richter's persistently good-humoured idiocy becomes wearing over a sustained period, whilst the incidental music emerges as a handful of disjointed moments, mostly of little more than passing interest in their own right. It is interesting to hear how portions of the revised version emerged from Strauss's original material, such as the Italian singer's piece, Du Venus' Sohn, which Strauss craftily slipped into the composer's role in 1916, and a part of the overture to the 1916 prologue, which made its 1912 appearance as the orchestra warming up offstage. Portions of the major domo's part appear almost verbatim in M. Jourdain's monologue.

There is also some amusement to be gained from Strauss's musical puns during the courses of M. Jourdain's dinner party (the Rosenkavalier songbirds for a 'dish of larks and thrushes' for example). These do not sustain the listener over three quarters of an hour though, and I have to confess that I generally miss out the 'play' and go straight to the opera.

Despite being preceded by a whole play, the opera itself seems strangely decontextualised without the prologue. I want to have met the tenor, primadonna and Zerbinetta of the prologue instead of having them appear for the first time already in character. Nevertheless, the opera is a great deal more successful than what precedes it. The recording's crisp acoustic gives full due to individual instruments, and achieves a chamber sound without the close miking employed in Kempe's set - if anything, the atmosphere is even more intimate. Nagano's conducting is also very good. He begins the opera very slowly indeed, but it works well. The string tone is warm and intense, and he creates a particularly strong sense of mournfulness, leaning heavily into the strong beats of the opening melody. Later on he makes some unusually pronounced shifts in tempo during the harlequinade, creating an apt sense of contrast between the stasis of Ariadne's condition and the mercurial nature of her uninvited guests.

Margaret Price is one of my favourite singers, and at her peak would be my ideal choice for Ariadne, blending amazing tonal purity with strong characterisation. Here she is somewhat past her prime. The tone has darkened and has become rather cloudy, and there is a lack of true clarity and freedom in the upper register. In spite of this she is still competitive. Her performance is full of feeling and verbal detail, and her diction is excellent. She has the best of the (admittedly underwhelming) Bacchuses on disc. Gösta Winbergh has young-sounding, attractive tone, he can sing the part with reasonable ease, and he is dramatically stronger than usual as well. With a properly intimate quality to the performance he has no difficulty in sounding powerful without forcing.

The most interesting musical differences in the 1912 version of the opera occur in the part of Zerbinetta. Her aria is longer, a tone higher in the middle, and even more complex than in 1916. Sumi Jo is most definitely up to the job. She has no difficulty with the higher key, is agile and sings with seamless and attractive tone. She is especially playful when enumerating her former lovers, and uses the virtuosic phrases of the aria to flirt with, as well as dazzle, the listener. Zerbinetta has an extra scene in this version of the opera, in which she announces Bacchus's imminent arrival. The music here is quite different - more serious and without any coloratura. Jo succeeds here as well, where some soubrettes might come unstuck. All in all, she is probably the most satisfyingly rounded Zerbinetta on disc.

The supporting cast are good, if not extraordinary. Brigitte Fournier and Doris Lamprecht work well as Najade and Dryade - improving on their merely adequate contributions as the shepherd and shepherdess in the play. Thomas Mohr, though not a natural comedian, is a pleasant enough Harlekin, comfortable with the tessitura, and Alfred Kuhn makes a particularly gravelly Truffaldino.