Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

RE: Recordings of Tristan und Isolde

There are five commercially available recordings that I turn to most often for T&I.

I hear nothing "shabby" about the Bayreuth orchestra on the Bohm recording for DG, and the Bayreuth acoustic allows me to hear every nuance. One could argue that Bohm races through the score a bit too quickly and superficially, but it's undeniably exciting at moments, and there's something to be said for fitting each act on its own disc. On balance, the cast is perhaps the best on record in stereo (a little late for Windgassen, though).

The Furtwangler is essential, although compared to excerpts recorded in 1947 in Dresden, his conducting is rather muted. The live 1947 Act 3, also with Suthaus, has an unbelievable intensity. Still on the studio recording the orchestra plays beautifully, and the sound, although monaural, is excellent. Flagstad sings beautifully, but she is past her best years and sounds a bit matronly. Suthaus is a solid Tristan, although I'd like more brilliance to the sound. The biggest casting blot is probably Greindl's Mark.

The live 1952 Bayreuth, with Karajan, Moedl, and Vinay is superb in every way - but be sure to buy the Orfeo issue, which sounds vastly better than any other release of this performance. Karajan's conducting here is much more direct and less fussy than his later studio recording, which is otherwise one of the better Tristans. Dernesch is a bit overparted, but the rest of the cast is superb, with Vickers pretty much the only modern Tristan who manages to sing the role with any degree of comfort.

Finally, there's the Covent Garden Tristan from 1937 with Reiner. The orchestral contribution has to be taken on faith, but you really haven't heard the title roles sung properly until you've heard Flagstad and Melchior in their primes.

Others mentioned here have their points, but on balance, aren't really competitive. I love Margaret Price's Isolde, but Kollo is terrible (and Fischer-Dieskau worse), and the entire production sounds studio-sound and sterile. I also love Bernstein's way with the score, but it sounds as though he's desperately trying to drown out (and for good reason) Behrens and Hoffman.



This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Sonic Craft  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.