| |
Gramophone April 2003
...... And while we're on the joint issues of transfer quality and Wagner, Guild
has released the final instalment of its 'Dream ' Ring with what
initially looks like an unlikely cast of Melchior, Flagstad, Janssen, Thorborg,
Habich, Denster and Hilde Konetzini. By which I mean a rather broad stretch
across the generations. All is explained by re-creation/restoration producer
Richard Caniell who has drawn his material from performances at The Met in 1936
and 1939 (both Bodanzky), then in 1951 (Stiedry), from Covent Garden in 1937 and
La Scala in 1950 (both under Furtwängler), with a couple of commercial 78s
added. Only someone with the most intimate knowledge of these recordings could
have effected such seamless aural transitions. As it happens the later tapes
were always rather thin-sounding, even in the best transfers, and although the
various conducting styles are fundamentally unalike the somehow seem to meld in
the heat of the 'live' moment. It's and extraordinarily brave and surprisingly
successful venture and the transfers of the older material are extremely good.
All in all, an inspired climax to Richard Canaille's 'Dream'
Robert Cowan
MusicWeb Monday March 24 03
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Die Götterdämmerung (1876)
Siegfried, Lauritz Melchior; Brünnhilde, Kirsten Flagstad;
Gunther, Herbert Janssen; Gutrune, Hilde Konetzni and Maria Nezádal;
Hagen, Dezso Ernster and Ludwig Weber; Alberich, Eduard Habich;
Waltraute, Kirsten Thorborg; Woglinde, Erna Berger; Wellgunde,
Lucine Amara; Flosshilde, Herta Glaz; First Norn, Doris Doe;
Second Norn, Lucielle Browning; Third Norn, Dorothee Manski.
 Orchestras
of Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera, "various conductors"
Notes in English with B/W photographs and cast biographies, synopsis, and
article on the audio assembly. No text.
Recorded from various broadcasts between 1934 and 1944 and personal sources. AAD
GUILD
HISTORICAL GHCD 2224/7 [4CDs: 236.03]
Really
serious collectors who are willing to buy many reissue copies of different
historical performances of a work will endlessly debate which particular
performance has the best moment of each particular artist’s performance in each
of the classic roles. But collectors like me who have not the time, energy nor
financial resources to explore to this degree will be grateful to Richard
Caniell and Guild for having spliced together a "dream performance" from many
sources. Not only that but they have applied reasonable digital restoration
which removes most of the distracting noise but does not filter out any of the
musical sound in the vocal range. It is presented as part of the ‘The Dream Ring
Cycle’.
The
sources of these recordings are not the original acetates but tape copies from
the very late 1940s. The voices are clear and the instruments well
differentiated. The customary artefacts of digital filtering are amazingly
inaudible. We are told there are 512 splices in this recording made from many
different sources, (in one case 16 minutes of music took 43 hours of work to
reconstruct) but I never found any of them objectionable although on occasion I
would be aware of one here and there. Occasionally one wishes it were possible
to keep a little more of the orchestral bass than they have here. They of course
had to join sources of varying audio quality as seamlessly as possible. This
meant that, regrettably, the lowest quality source would occasionally have to
set the standard.
These
disks are enjoyable and the spirit of the music is genuinely evident. Listening
for long periods of time to restricted recordings generally makes me feel
headachy and short of breath. For this reason I generally have to break up my
listening into half hour sessions, but this recording grabbed me at once and I
heard it straight through. Flagstad sounds amazingly young throughout. Melchior
in the sunrise scene sounds nasal and wobbly. Gunther huffs and puffs and may
have been a fine stage actor, but what survives here is not distinguished.
Gutrune scoops into her notes, but Siegfried’s sight of "the first woman he has
ever seen (onstage, at least) who wasn’t his aunt" must have been good for him,
because Melchior abruptly sounds ten years younger.
Hagen’s
speech is appropriately menacing and must have frightened the orchestra players
as they struggle for a while. The audience also comes down with a serious attack
of morning bronchitis at sunrise. In Scene 3 Flagstad is fabulous; the orchestra
is inspired by her. Even Gunther and Siegfried are feeling much better. In Act
II Alberich is terrific. Hagen and his henchmen are so convincing you want to
jump up and yell "rittorna vincitor!" The Act II finale is just overwhelming,
better than I’ve ever heard it (here Hagen is sung briefly Ludwig Weber), and
the audience applause shows they fully appreciated what was before them.
In Act III
Scene II the surface crackle on the source materials is at times awful, and the
worst splice in the whole recording occurs. But Melchior seems to be yet another
ten years younger and does such a terrific job with his big scene you’re really
sorry to see him killed. I wished I were on stage so I could grab some spears
and throw one into the audience at the cougher in row C, and then one at the
squirmy occupant of that squeaky folding chair in the orchestra. In Flagstad’s
big finale scene the sound is at first disappointingly thinner than previously.
However it gets much better and she’s there and she does it and it’s great.
This
recording left me with a wonderful feeling: the art of Flagstad is not gone from
us. Here before us is her Götterdämmerung in a form every opera lover can
enjoy as well as appreciate and it will now last forever. Melchior (after scene
1), Thorborg, Eduard Habich as Alberich, and Dezso Ernster and Ludwig Weber as
Hagen are also memorable.
With all
the digital wonders available to restore historic performances, the Nobel Prize
remains to be won by the inventor of a digital cough filter. Some bright child
now among us will soar to riches and glory with this accomplishment.
Paul Shoemaker
Classics Today Monday February 17 03
RICHARD WAGNER
Götterdämmerung
Lauritz Melchior (tenor); Kirsten Flagstad, Hilde Konetzni, Maria Nezadal
(soprano); Herbert Janssen (baritone); Dezso Ernster, Eduard Habich (bass);
Kerstin Thorborg (mezzo-soprano); others
Various orchestras & conductors
Guild- GHCD2224/7(CD)
Reference Recording - Not applicable; Solti (Decca); Knappertsbusch '51
(Testament)
This "complete"
Götterdämmerung almost makes you appreciate technology, or at least what
technology can do. It is a compilation of bits of other Götterdämmerungs,
artfully joined together (only the most sophisticated among us would notice the
"joins"). We get parts of performances from the Met led by Artur Bodanzky (1936,
1939) and Fritz Stiedry (1951); Covent Garden led by Wilhelm Furtwängler (1937);
La Scala led by Furtwängler (1950); and some other recordings of excerpts. In
all, there are eight sources and 177 joins. The sound quality varies from really
okay to scratchy and difficult; but that's hardly the point. Neither,
apparently, is an overall view of the opera: it's not easy to discuss a dramatic
arc or interpretation when Bodanzky has Siegfried and Brünnhilde comfy and quick
and then Siegfried speedboating down the Rhine in the prelude; or when
Furtwängler's gravity shows up in the hero's Funeral Music and the Immolation
Scene while Stiedry tends to be formal and to-the-point elsewhere. But who
cares? The singing is staggering; those who claim that the golden age of Wagner
singing is long gone are absolutely right.
Kirsten Flagstad is
uniformly great, over a period of 15 years. Her delivery is as smooth and noble
early as late, and all notes are perfectly in place. Oddly, she ducks the high-C
that ends the Prologue in 1939! She also is not quite maniacal enough in Act
2--other sopranos have expressed rage-at-betrayal better--but still, the voice
is reassuring in a way that no other's was in the 20th century. The Immolation
Scene, from '37 with Furtwängler, is just about perfect. And Lauritz Melchior is
absolutely unique; the combination of power, legato, tonal beauty, and--despite
some critics' complaints to the contrary--involvement have not been matched
within memory. His death scene is incredibly touching.
Kerstin Thorborg gives
Waltraute's narrative an urgency that makes it riveting where many singers
simply make it seem long, and her tone is a combination of creamy and urgent.
Herbert Janssen's Gunther is ideal--a semi-dolt to whom things happen--and he
sings beautifully. Dezso Ernster's Hagen is colorful and pointedly delivered,
but a darker, meaner sound (Frick, Weber) is preferable in the role. Eduard
Habich's Alberich is almost completely unhinged; he could scare the horses.
Hilde Konetzni is a
truly pristine, unsuspecting Gutrune (Maria Nezadal sings some of Gutrune's
music and Regina Resnik sings 19 words that neither of the other two sing). The
Norns and Rhinemaidens are top-notch (Lucielle Browning, Doris Doe; Erna Berger,
Lucina Amara), and it's a particular modern miracle that the latter are taken
from 1951 while Siegfried's interactions with them are taken from 1936! I can't
say that this feels like a whole performance of this opera, but neither can I
say it does not. Is it the "dream" performance? I don't know, but it's a set
that Wagnerites will need. Robert Levine
Page revised 03.04.03
|
