PARTIAL OVERVIEW OF A FEW CD SETS OF TRISTAN
--Geoffrey Riggs
The
Wilhelm Furtwaengler set from 1952 is the first studio recording of the complete
opera, a general favorite and a towering reading: endless line, amazing dynamics,
Flagstad's sumptuous tones, the underrated Thebom (her exchange with Kirsten Flagstad
at the opening of Act II is a highlight of the recording). But Furtwaengler's
Tristan, Ludwig Suthaus, was already on the way down by the time this was made,
and he is also oddly uninvolved (comparatively) in the Act III delirium. Flagstad
too fails to mine all the feelings raging in Isolde in Act I, though she is clearly
superb and thoroughly engaged in the later scenes (some listeners are bothered
by the fact that Elizabeth Schwarzkopf provided Isolde's high Cs in the second
act, but this doesn't really bother me at all). Moreover, I find that Furtwaengler
himself, while supreme in the opening scene of Act II and the closing scene of
the opera, and very involving for the bulk of Acts II and III, strikes me as atypically
rigid in much (though not all) of Act I. That said, his peaks here are still unsurpassed.
The
other supreme Tristan conductor, Hans Knappertsbusch, is available in a set that
boasts a Tristan, Gunther Treptow, in his prime. Treptow's discography is spotty,
but here, for once, he reaches his full potential. This performance is recorded
"live" at Munich (1950). Unfortunately, it's the Isolde here, Helena
Braun, who is found wanting. This set remains notable for probably the most hugely
satisfying conducting of all on disc, combining a superb sense of flow with an
innate sense of theater -- what the Furtwaengler set might have been had it been
"live". Moreover, this is the earliest extant performance with no cuts
at all.
Going back to the earliest generation to be preserved in complete
"live" broadcasts, the Fritz Reiner and Sir Thomas Beecham sets from
Covent Garden (1936 and 1937) feature Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior in
their prime. These two combined an opulence of tone and a sheer staying power
that, together, made them the chief box-office draw of their generation. But there
are regular cuts made in all their extant performances together that, on rehearing,
start to grate. And other rare broadcasts of these two from the Metropolitan Opera
under the fine Artur Bodanzky cut even more than these Covent Garden readings!
Sure, a few later sets without these two also take out the same large snip in
the "Tag und Nacht" exchange in the Act II duet. But in addition, it's
in these Flagstad/Melchior sets, even those from Covent Garden, where we still
miss, for instance, Tristan's "Isolde noch im Reich der Sonne!" passage
that might also sound particularly apt in a voice like Melchior's, who never recorded
the whole role commercially. It's omissions like this that, taken together, loom
more and more on rehearing rather than less. At the same time, Melchior's Tristan,
especially in the Beecham performance, happens to rise to vocal heights rarely
(if ever) equalled by others elsewhere. These rare broadcasts are all available
on various different labels, but avoid EMI's one-time issue of, purportedly, the
Beecham version, which is, in fact, a botch, clumsily patching together a mix-and-match
of the Reiner and Beecham, using somewhat more of the Reiner than of the slightly
more satisfying Beecham, which is more on a par, artistically, with the Bodanzky
readings from New York.
Though Helen Traubel (on a hard-to-get NAXOS
set), "live" with Melchior conducted by Erich Leinsdorf (1943), strikes
me as an even greater Isolde than Flagstad, there are still those usual cuts of
the time. But Traubel is one of those rare birds who combines intensity with vocal
opulence. That alone places this set in a special niche. Melchior's Tristan is
heard in an unusually disciplined musical reading (for him, that is), but his
voice, while still impressive, is no longer at its freshest. Of course, Melchior
at less than his freshest is still worth hearing.
For
the one Isolde from Flagstad that strikes me as coming closest to Traubel's intensity,
one has to look to the postwar period: I would take her "live" reading
from Buenos
Aires (1948) under
Erich Kleiber as the best Flagstad Isolde. In spite of a few cuts here, as well,
and Flagstad's taking only one of the two high Cs in the duet, there is such a
striking variety of expression from her, compared to what we hear elsewhere, that
our knowledge of Flagstad's Isolde would be incomplete without this set. And Erich
Kleiber's attentive command of the entire score matches Flagstad on a musical
level all the way. Kleiber's reading, in fact, is one of those that come closest
to the Furtwaengler/Knappertsbusch standard, although it does not fully equal
it. Flagstad's Tristan here, Set Svanholm, is also in fine form. If not for
those cuts....
Another
great Isolde who, alongside Traubel, habitually combines intensity with genuine
vocal opulence is Gertrud Grob-Prandl. Unfortunately, her one available Isolde,
from La Scala (1951), is
simply in lousy sound. And there are also numerous cuts, more than in the Flagstad/Melchior
sets! On the other hand, Victor De Sabata's conducting offers one of the most
incandescent readings on disc, thoroughly attuned to Grob-Prandl's inspired vocalism.
However, she is stuck with a Tristan, Max Lorenz, who's all over the place.
One cut continues to rear its head from time to time in the LP era: that
snip of the "Tag und Nacht" sequence. This bedevils the otherwise uncut
and strongly sung Birgit Nilsson/Jon Vickers performance from Orange (1973). As
it is, this is still a top contender. But it's a shame that not at New York, not
at Orange, not in South America, not at Vienna, do Nilsson and Vickers ever do
the "Tag/Nacht" section together. The happily energized Karl Boehm (in
Orange anyway, where he's "up"), Nilsson vintage '73 and Vickers vintage
'73 would have filled a big gap in their discographies had the three of them performed
the duet uncut at Orange. How unfortunate it was not to be. Yet despite all that,
Vickers' delirium in the last act, as heard here with Boehm, is arguably the only
other reading, aside from Melchior's with Beecham, that can be appreciated for
its own sake as something which is as magnificently self-sufficient and artistically
complete as any other achievement by any other artist ever recorded in this work.
Since this CD is also available on DVD, it is now possible to savor this performance
in its original setting as an inspired Lehnhoff production. We have here the chief
Wagner heroes of their generation together, towering presences that were never
given the opportunity to partner each other in this work in the recording studio.
Since this is a "live" performance from an outdoor festival, that entails
frequently audible breezes throughout the evening, occasioned by the mistral in
full force during that part of the year. But I find that this detracts far less
than the occasional cut.
Returning to a clutch of commercially released
recordings that started appearing roughly ten years after the pioneering Furtwaengler
set, both Nilsson and Vickers are available in uncut sets but never together.
Nilsson is heard in two generally available Tristans: one with Fritz Uhl
and Georg Solti from circa 1960 (DECCA/LONDON), and the other with Wolfgang Windgassen
and Boehm from 1966 (DG). Solti is sometimes inspired in Wagner, but I find this
one of his most disappointing recordings. It doesn't lack for energy and general
commitment. But there is too little variety of mood and, while some prize the
clarity of the orchestra here (in fact, the sonics as such are simply superb throughout
this set), I will always opt for a balance more like Bayreuth's, where the intimacy
of the scenes can come through better. Moreover, aside from Nilsson, no one here
seems to be in good vocal form or vocally effective. Granted, I have heard Uhl
in worse voice elsewhere, but in this role he simply lacks impact, which would
be less of a concern if his Isolde were not one of the most powerful voices anywhere
on disc. I find the contrast too jarring. For me, this has to be one of the least
satisfying sets available.
As for the Nilsson/Windgassen/Boehm, this
has become, like the Furtwaengler recording, a general favorite. It features Windgassen's
Tristan and Boehm at the podium. Windgassen is also an inapt partner for Nilsson,
I find, though he exerts somewhat more presence than Uhl. That said, his approach
to certain critical passages can seem crude alongside Uhl's. What this set has,
in far greater measure than the Solti, is strength of ensemble: Christa Ludwig's
Brangaene and Martti Talvela's Koenig Marke are particularly noteworthy and help
enhance an eminently theatrical experience, combining more intimate specifics
of characterization than in the Solti (although still not ideal) with a commendable
energy similar to Solti's. This recording, made from Bayreuth performances in
1966, may be a more consistent recording in a way than the Furtwaengler, but without
its emotional peaks. For that reason, I view this as more of an also-ran than
the Furtwaengler.
The other hero of the Orange performance, Jon Vickers,
is available uncut with Helga Dernesch, in a studio recording from the early '70s,
on EMI. This is a heartfelt and entirely apt partnership. These two principals
show great beauty of tone and fine emotional commitment, hobbled by Herbert von
Karajan's "matured" (read "devitalized"!) conducting. He gives
nowhere near the unified sweep to this work that he was capable of decades earlier
(see below). Despite the warmth and humanity in the two principals, this set,
after rehearings, comes off as more and more fragmentary and capricious (only
in the second-act love duet do things "click").
The
Leonard Bernstein recording (Munich, 1983) is somewhat more cohesive. It shows
a better sense of flow, albeit at extremely distended tempi, a polar opposite
to Boehm. People disagree on the extent to which this vitiates the energy in the
music. I find, for the most part, that it doesn't. There is still a vivid projection
of the hallucinatory that lies at the centre of this drama, and I prize Bernstein
for that. Unfortunately, his leads split the difference between an attractive
instrument indifferently handled (Peter Hofmann), and an indifferent instrument
adroitly handled (Hildegard Behrens). They both project uncommon dramatic commitment.
But they both embody too many significant vocal compromises that can be a deal-breaker
for many (I find some of Hofmann's "sleights" especially regrettable,
since he had such an unusually telling vocal color and a distinct persona).
Sir
Reginald Goodall marks the emergence of a small number of state-of-the-art stereo
recordings with conducting that recalls some of the hallmarks of Furtwaengler
and Knappertsbusch, if not their full theatrical genius. Conductors like Goodall,
Carlos Kleiber, Daniel Barenboim and Christian Thielemann all recover, to one
degree or another, the knack of transforming the musical line in Wagner into endless
melody. In earlier sets on disc, only Furtwaengler, Knappertsbusch, the young
Karajan (on occasion, see below), De Sabata (on occasion), Reiner (on occasion),
Beecham (on occasion) and Bernstein (on occasion) had demonstrated this same capacity.
While generally effective, I don't find the same cohesion in Solti and Boehm,
even though they're both capable of being master colorists. Goodall's is one of
the most flowing Tristan readings available in modern stereo, although hardly
the most theatrical. Still, it also boasts a thrilling Isolde in the riveting,
however eccentric, Linda Esther-Grey; but her Tristan, John Mitchinson, doesn't
even begin to come up to her level.
The Carlos Kleiber recording, albeit
in a very, very different style from the Goodall, parallels that set in featuring
a maestro who has the same superb knack of sustaining a true flow throughout the
music -- while using a remarkably sinuous approach in contrast to Goodall's. The
Kleiber also parallels the Goodall in excellent sonics, a superb Isolde (Margaret
Price, highly effective at least in the recording studio) and an iffy Tristan
(the spindly Rene Kollo, who is, however, far more effective in the Ponnelle video
under Daniel Barenboim with Johanna Meier as Isolde).
The
Daniel Barenboim CD with Waltraud Meier and Siegfried Jerusalem features an efficient
enough pair, occasionally insightful, occasionally pressured (more so Jerusalem).
Essentially unobjectionable, neither performer exactly overwhelms in the way that
others do. What distinguishes this Tristan is Barenboim's superb conducting, a
fine antidote, I find, to the occasionally hard-bitten Boehm. Barenboim reflects,
to an extent, the mercurial but flowing ideal that I most treasure. He defers
to Goodall slightly when it comes to immacculate musical flow, but he is Goodall's
superior in his keener theatrical spirit. He is not as consistent as Furtwaengler
and Knappertsbusch, but his lively projection of what binds the connective tissue
of Wagner's score together is welcome.
The
Thomas Moser/Deborah Voigt set under Christian Thieleman is distinguished by conducting
that is at least on a par with Goodall's. Voigt does not get very deeply into
the role, although she is generally in viable enough vocal form. Unfortunately,
Moser isn't even that -- he is the main liability here. But Thielemann's genius
is so special that the Tristan discography would be the poorer without this set.
Thielemann now rivals Barenboim as a true inheritor of the Furtwaengler/Knappertsbusch
tradition, and in his matching of Goodall's superb sense of flow he excells Barenboim's,
although Barenboim still has a somewhat sharper theater feel. Taken together with
the fine engineering in this set, we have an unusual combination: a set comprising
authentic Romantic conducting in the most up-to-date sound. Thus, the Goodall
and Barenboim sets finally have company. It's just a shame that here too both
lovers could not dominate.
The
newest set comes from EMI and stars Placido Domingo and Nina Stemme, with Antonio
Pappano at the podium. Pappano has given us a strong and energetic interpretation,
which never flags. On paper, one would expect Stemme, whose Senta has been incandescent
and whose Isolde, particularly at Stuttgart, a year or so prior to this set, showed
such mastery over Isolde's musical volatility, to display a more natural command
of the sheer sweep of her role and of the Wagnerian idiom than her more celebrated
partner. Domingo, who has never performed Tristan on stage and whose undeniable
effectiveness on stage in other roles can sometimes be offset by somewhat monochromatic
delivery, however adroit the musical assurance, could be expected to give a reading
with efficient musical manners and somewhat restricted expression.
Yet
all this is not quite what we have. In fact, Domingo has left us a Tristan of
uncommon variety and feeling, matched to his customary musical aplomb. Although
there are fleeting moments of slight unsteadiness, they remain fleeting, and far
more remarkable is the continuing resilience of his unfailing legato and plangent
tone. Given his age in this set, this is nothing less than astonishing. The one
caveat one must concede is his continued inability to provide a full-fledged pianissimo
head tone, of a sort we hear from a Melchior or a Vickers: no such note, for instance,
at the word "zeronnen" in the Act II Love Duet, and other similar moments.
Yet he has developed a reading of genuine dynamic variety for all that. Short
of such a head tone, we still have genuinely tender, intimate singing when needed,
and even here, the core of the tone always remains intact. Domingo unfailingly
projects an awareness of Tristan the knight, half savoring his love with Isolde
and half tormented by its threat to his honor. And there is also a feeling of
a true journey made as we follow that torment. This is an honorable and sincere
and detailed response to Wagner's characterization.
Stemme
too shows alert sensitivity to the journey Isolde takes emotionally. Her sense
of color and communication are sure. Yet, surprisingly, she fails to come up to
her partner's level of musical control, let alone her own of a couple of years
back, which was arguably at an even higher plane than Domingo's here! Sounding
frequently pressed and uncomfortable throughout, her singing here projects strain
and uncertainty as often as it projects Isolde the character. There is also a
more marked and slower rate of vibrato from her than we ever hear from Domingo,
whose occasional unsteadiness rarely becomes a downright wobble at all. It is
this pronounced unsteadiness from Stemme that sometimes throws her pitch off in
addition. Consequently, although Stemme is a much younger singer than Domingo,
this whole recording suffers from an inherent dramatic imbalance throughout: Tristan
and Isolde simply do not sound like contemporaries at all..............the Isolde
sounds older!
Finally,
we go back to Neu Bayreuth in the 1950s for a pair of "live" recordings
featuring the Tristan of Ramon Vinay. In the latter of the two (1953), we have
Eugen Jochum conducting a cast headed by Ramon Vinay and Astrid Varnay. There
is something forbidding in the Astrid Varnay persona that, I find, prevents real
sympathy for her Isolde. Ramon Vinay was one of the great Tristans, but he's just
starting to show some wear and tear, particularly in the Love Duet in Act II.
He is heard to better advantage in the one reading that I find I prefer now to
all others..........
...........The "live" Martha Moedl/Ramon
Vinay/Herbert von Karajan performance from a year earlier (1952), not the greatest
in each and every respect, hangs together in a marvelous way as a whole. Available
on MYTO, MELODRAM and ORFEO (excellent transfers all) and on OPERA D'ORO (an awful
transfer/pressing), this broadcast preserves Wieland Wagner's first Tristan production
for the so-called "Neu Bayreuth". Here is a thrilling dramatic interpretation
that is uncut, boasting two genuinely heroic voices that are caught in prime condition
under a conductor who is clearly "up" for the occasion. What other set
brings it all together like this? Yes, there are some warmup problems for both
principals -- in fact, for all the chief cast members, if it comes to that --
but once we're into Isolde's Act I Narrative and Curse, everyone, not just the
two lovers but even the palllid Ira Malaniuk and the quavery Hans Hotter, "straighten
up and fly right", with von Karajan providing a "spine" to the
proceedings that is all too atypical of his later years and a joy on this occasion.
The dramatic rapport between the two principals surpasses that of any other
partnership I've heard on disc, with the exception of one abridged reading of
the Love Duet alone featuring the frenzied Frida Leider and Lauritz Melchior (Albert
Coates conducting, 1929). Outside of the Love Duet proper, if there's any exchange
between the doomed lovers that gets occasionally trivialized, it's the moment
at the end of Act II where Tristan invites Isolde to join him in oblivion, after
they have been trapped by Melot and King Marke, and Isolde responds in kind ("O
Koenig". . ."Als fuer ein fremdes Land"). Tristan's sombre invitation
is sometimes excerpted as a separate "aria", but Isolde's musical variation
on this melody in response makes it clear that this entire exchange is an ingenious
throwback to the tradition of the bel canto duet where each principal sings almost
the same melody, altering certain contours slightly in reiteration. In addition,
the intensely intimate, even morbid, psychology of the lovers in this oblivion
"duet" helps strip this musical portrait down to a raw unvarnished image
showing the bleakness of two haunted characters.
I never concentrated
that much on Act II's closing exchange until I first heard this recording. After
being mesmerized with Vinay and Moedl here, however, I almost think it may be
the most critical moment in the work. Moedl and Vinay are so exclusively responsive
to each other at this point that they have spoiled me for any other pair--so far.
Now when I hear or see this exchange done in a less mutually absorbed way, I almost
feel that something is somehow missing from the whole work. The rapport between
the two here is overwhelming, properly obsessive. The
searing effect of this moment from Vinay and Moedl is indicative of an entire
performance where the full emotional odyssey of both protagonists is revealed
more unflinchingly than in any other reading. An essential recording, in my view.
Happily, I have a sense that more and more listeners, certainly on the Internet,
may now be coming around to the view that the Moedl/Vinay Tristan does indeed
equal both the other sets that have most often been touted in the past -- the
'52 Furtwaengler and the '66 Boehm.
==============================
Rankings:
A)
Karajan/Vinay/Moedl
B)
[chronological order] Bodanzky/Melchior/Flagstad; Beecham/Melchior/Flagstad;
Leinsdorf/Melchior/Traubel; E.Kleiber/Svanholm/Flagstad; Furtwaengler/Suthaus/Flagstad
C)
[chronological order] Karajan/Vickers/Dernesch; Boehm/Vickers/Nilsson
D)
[chronological order] Reiner/Melchior/Flagstad; Knappertsbusch/Treptow/Braun;
Barenboim/Jerusalem/W.Meier
E)
[chronological order] Jochum/Vinay/Varnay; Pappano/Domingo/Stemme
F)
Goodall/Mitchinson/Esther-Grey
G)
[chronological order] C.Kleiber/Kollo/M.Price;
Thieleman/Moser/Voigt
H)
Boehm/Windgassen/Nilsson
I)
De Sabata/Lorenz/Grob-Prandl
J)
Solti/Uhl/Nilsson
K)
Bernstein/Hofmann/Behrens
==============================
Breaking
it down further:
Conductors:
A)
Furtwaengler; Knappertsbusch
B)
Barenboim; Goodall; C. Kleiber; E. Kleiber; Thieleman
C)
Beecham; Bernstein; Bodanzky; Boehm; De Sabata; Jochum; (young) Karajan;
Pappano
D)
Leinsdorf; Reiner
E)
("mature") Karajan; Solti
Tristans:
A)
Melchior; Vickers
B)
Domingo; Svanholm; Treptow; Vinay
C)
Jerusalem
D)
Suthaus; Uhl; Windgassen
E)
Hofmann; Kollo; Lorenz; Mitchinson; Moser
Isoldes:
A)
Grob-Prandl; Traubel
B)
Dernesch; Esther-Grey; Flagstad; Moedl
C)
W.Meier; Nilsson; M.Price; Voigt
D)
Stemme; Varnay
E)
Behrens; Braun