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My wife and I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Nina Stemme and Stuart Skelton sing Tristan und Isolde at the Met a week or so ago. I don't know if it would be possible today to hear a stronger cast in this work and Sir Simon Rattle's conducting was sublime.
After I came home, I longed to listen some more to this extraordinary work. I have the Solti London LP version with Nilsson and the DG version, again with Nilsson, conducted by Bohm.
My NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music recommends the DG set with Bohm and the Furtwangler EMI version with Flagstad.
I find the voices on the DG version, on CD, to be rather shrill and hard to listen to, but I like its balance of singers-to-orchestra better than the London recording, where, I think, the orchestra is a bit overwhelming.
I would appreciate hearing especially from those who have heard the DG version on LP and CD as to the relative recording quality--whether the LP is any less shrill than the CD.
I would also like to hear from those who have the Furtwangler version for their degree of satisfaction with it.
Are there any newer recordings than these I ought to consider?
Many thanks,
George Roland
Follow Ups:
I've given up listening to Opera since I can watch it on my HT. A completely differnt experience, much closer to the composer's intent (gesamptkunstwerk)
This is one of those operas that requires at least three recordings. One needs the EMI Karajan version for the Vickers Tristan. It has far and away the most powerful, anguished rendering of the 3rd act, among modern recordings. But the Isolde is not so good. Bohm has the best modern Isolde in Birgit Nilsson. Bohm's conducting is okay, but not nearly as good as Furtwangler. The latter is probably the best overall performance if you can accept the 1951 mono sound. It is pretty decent sound for mono. If I had to settle for one recording, that would be the one. If you can deal with archaic sound quality, the Reiner, recording from the 1930's is worth a listen for the incomparable performance of Melchior and Flagstad in her prime. I am a big Kleiber fan, but I don't care much for his too fast Tristan und Isolde.
Edits: 10/24/16
Interesting discussion here of the Tristan recordings. One aspect that needs a little more attention is the orchestra, especially in Wagner. There are complaints about the balance sometimes on the Solti recording, and he himself wanted to redo it later in his career, as he wanted to change his interpretation in places, especially the second and third acts. However, despite some issues, this is one of the finest played recordings by the orchestra, which has just as important a role in Wagner as any of the principals. In this way, it realizes Wagner's intention more than some of the others mentioned. Culshaw also fixed some of the balance issues in their later Wagner recordings.
The knock on the Bohm one with Nilsson singing Isolde is that the orchestra is much shabbier. Many people think this is Nilsson's better performance, though, and she was a great Isolde.
The Furtwangler one is great, and yes, it did have Dennis Brain leading the horn section. For you fans of older recordings, you can find records with Flagstad and Melchior singing some of the duets. They were great together. The orchestra sounds terrible on many of these, however.
There are some other "live" Bayreuth recordings by both Furtwangler and Karajan that are worth seeking out.
I have the Kleiber recording, and although I love Margaret Price in general, I think the over-miking here in an attempt to make her voice heavier doesn't quite work. I am also not the biggest fan of Kollo. The orchestra, however, sounds quite good.
As far as current Tristan's go, I would like to put in a good word for Jay Hunter Morris, who some of you may have heard as Met's latest Siegfried. He is also very good as Tristan - I have heard him live doing it. As far as I know he has not recorded it yet, though.
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.
Thanks for mentioning. I wasn't aware of that. Sounds like a must listen for me. ( Flagstad fan )
Even in his "compromised" old age state, I find his voice far more preferable to the usual late 20th C suspects.
I agree - we've suffered some pretty abysmal singers of this role in the past few decades.
Have a listen to Carlos Kleiber with Margaret Price as Isolde before you commit.
Very musical and many fans.
...boy my vinyl sounds dry and brittle.
To me, Overall this production feels a bit light weight all around. The Love Duet has no emotion sounding distant. Beautiful orchestration let down by dry emotionless voices. Price's Isolde does not have the warmth or depth of Flagstadt. It's a studio recording so perspective is slightly lost as everyone is equally mixed into the score. IIRC, Price does not do well on a lower register keys losing a composure and depth. Kollo sounds dry and no sex appeal.
But this stuff is highly subjective obviously. But from a sound quality Philips tramples early 80s DG digital.
Edits: 10/23/16 10/23/16 10/23/16
Her Tristan's voice is a bit hard compared to Suthaus though.
Klieber certainly knocks the cobwebs off the score.
and hands down prefer Furty/Flagstadt in spite it's in mono. I love the voice of Flagstadt but Schwartzkopf was said to re-record some spots for Flagstadt who no longer could hit a high C.
Two of DG Tristan LP I have ( Bohm & Karlos Kleiber ) are both cool in tonal range and can sound a little stressed in upper register and massed strings. I don't have corresponding CD of these recordings but I found DG's early efforts in CD was not very nice way behind Philips, JVC and Denon.
One of the nicer sounding Tristan I have is Lenny's on Phillips. The performance is either you love or hate due to its slow tempo (10 min. slower than Furtwangler, 20 min. slower than Karajan and 30 min. slower than Carlos Kleiber) So if you like Bohm's swift direction ( almost 50 min. shorter than Lenny's ) you might have trouble following it but I found it uniquely intense.
It's interesting to read about Böhm commenting on Bernstein's Prelude in the liner notes:
'For the first time somebody dares to perform the music as Wagner wrote it. The rest of us never dared to!'
But this is a well balanced early digital recording. Low noise and very little distortion altho the voices at upper register can get stressed a bit. A decent low end weight. Beautifully produced heart stopping dynamics and scale. Soprano has a sweeter voice than Nilsson with more vibrancy.
I think this is well worth seeking vinyl copies. ( I bet my money this is a high res. digital file on vinyl ) Or maybe I got really lucky on the vinyl lottery.
There is a note about this recording in the liner notes.
Apparently Bernstein wanted to record the live performance but to ease the demands on the performers, it was decided to record concert performances with the symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich, and act at a time with a few months in between. The dress rehearsal and two performances of each act would be recorded and followed ( if necessary) by two days of remarks and corrections. This way it'll still have the excitement of live performances but with a better studio sound quality.
Flagstad is more "feminine" - sounding than Nilsson and Furtwangler's interpretation is far more imaginative and intense than Bohm's, IMHO. Sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but always riveting. The Philharmonia was arguably at its peak, with Dennis Brain leading the horn section, I believe.
Very good, late mono.
. . . are you aware that there's a blu-ray of Nina Stemme singing Isolde? I have it myself and like it very much - for the staging as well as the singing. The conductor, Jiri Belohlavek, could be a bit less phlegmatic, but overall, this is a good production. And if you were impressed with Stemme in the Met production you saw, you should probably give this blu-ray (also available on plain old DVD) a listen. There is a ten-minute cut in this performance however - check out the Amazon comments for particulars.
(BTW, I haven't heard the Furtwangler recording on EMI since my LP days.)
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