In Reply to: Recordings of Tristan und Isolde posted by George S. Roland on October 22, 2016 at 20:14:33:
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.
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Follow Ups
- I've got Bohm and Furty LPs... - kuma 01:21:06 10/23/16 (0)