Posted by Richard Loeb That’s all for now – with the proliferation of live performances available from the Golden Days of the 30s and 40s you really have to go back to Flagstad, Melchior, Traubel, to hear how this music can sound in the hands of great singers. There you can really hear the possibilities of this tremendous score. I would recommend the 1937 Beecham and the 1936 Reiner off the top of my head.
on March 31, 2006, 2:23:39, in reply to "Tristan Records"
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I don’t think any of the commercial recordings are perfect in every respect, but there is one commercial I go back to and that is the EMI 1952 with Furtwangler and Flagstad. This is a case where a score and a conductor are perfectly in sync – I don’t think the Tristan score calls for sharp dramatic “effects” but instead needs a long line which is resolved in the Liebestod. That kind of conducting plays exactly to Furtwanglers strengths – the orchestral playing is deep and organ like- constantly pointing towards the end . Some think that Flagstad sounds too old – I don’t agree but even if I did I wouldn’t mind trading that for her classic legato, her deep feeling and her warmth. And in the important parts of the role (no- not the top C’s but “Mir erkoren….” or “Er sah mir in die Augen” she is unsurpassed.) The rest of the cast is simply not on the same level but for pages here and there we get the overwhelming Tristan experience.
I can quickly comment on the other commercials but before that I must say that no Wagner opera has more suffered from the lack of true Heldentenors than Tristan. The part calls for a dramatic tenor with a brilliant top among other things and since the retirement of Melchior that is very, very rare.
Solti – suffers from terrible engineering that makes the voices unable to be heard half the time, a Tristan who is totally swamped by the demands of the part and sounds like a Boy Scout and an Isolde lacking in warmth.
Bohm – awful conducting (the love duet is so fast that it has no time to register with us or make any kind of musical point). Windgassen sometimes fools us with his intelligent phrasing but he is no Heldentenor either, Nilsson is in her prime but I still find a lack of warmth here and there.
Karajan – weird engineering that keeps altering the orchestral balance – an Isolde who is off-form and extended by the demands of the role in any case, Vickers throws himself into the role but I wish the voice had more core.
Barenboim – I saw Meier in Bayreuth as Isolde and she was stupendous but that’s the problem – you really have to see her to really appreciate her art – I am usually disappointed with her recordings since the voice itself is nothing special. Jerusalem sounds better on CD than live but he is never more than just good – if you don’t have a brilliant top than you’re in trouble for the role of Tristan.
Kleiber – very personal, idiosyncratic conducting, either you love it or hate it – Price is OK in the first Act but vanishes afterwards and Kollo is intelligent but dry. Fischer-Dieskau is terrible.
Bernstein – impossibly dull conducting (the prelude just sits there with one damned note after another). Hofmann and Behrens were both sympathetic and intelligent interpreters but devoid of the visuals there just isn’t enough voice from either one.
Pappano – might be great conducting with more experience with the score – sounds half-baked for now. With Domingo its nice to hear a real legato after a lot of German tenors who don’t have one – but his German consonants are so weird – it may annoy others more than myself. Stemme is a very good Isolde with a voice that is about half the size it should be - she sounded good at Bayreuth but the recording helps her – the interpretation is solid without being magical.
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