Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Product Description
Customer Reviews
Suthaus has a most attractive masculine heldentenor voice. His is the best of any other Tristan on the market. His tone is more beautiful than Jon Vickers (compare them by listening to the EMI Karajan stereo set). As for complaints that he is strained, his duets with Flagstad are masterful and his performance in Act III is amazing, very moving without being course or histrionic. The end of Act II sound's just as it should, given his charater's waves of erotic and romantic emotion. He lives his role perfectly and has a powerful voice that matches his heroines artistically.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's portrayal of a youthful Kurwenal is of the highest artistic order. I say no more.
Many criticise Blanche Thebom. However, she is never less than highly competent in the role of Brangane. She is a perfect foil for Flagstad's incomparable Isolde. This is a significant role. One that in the wrong hands can threaten to dominate and rival rather than balance with the female lead. Thebom sounds what her role is, a servant of Isolde's, not her rival. Her voice is not unattractive, and suits her role perfectly. Artistically she serves Flagstad, with just enough edginess in her voice to denote her character's wary nervous tension.
Greindl sounds just right as the mature monarch cuckolded by his trophy wife. He sound's angry in Act II, just as his character should. There are prettier voiced interpretations. But his voice perfectly suits the drama.
I am amazed by reviews that overlook the considerable achievement everyone concerned put into this recording. The casting may have been expeditious, but it gave us performances that are dramatically compelling. It is legendary because everybody gave of their considerable best, and tuly inhabited their roles.
Wagner wrote a music-drama. This set represents a perfect blend of both. Buy this set and you will not be disappointed by anyone of the cast.
Yes, this is a fifty year old mono recording, but the sound quality is very good, it is spatial. The remastering onto CD has enhanced the clarity of sound. The conducting is amazing, as one would expect, and the orchestra are of the highest quality. But it is Flagstad who is the revelation. Having heard variou stereo sets, I recently bought this one, realising straight away this is one surpassed all others. Indeed, it is one of the finest recordings of an opera ever produced. Furtwangler takes the work at the correct speed, unlike Bohm's over paced conducting. Flagstad is the selling point though. She has both power and vulnerability. Once you have heard this performance you will find all other recordings stand in it's shadow. Do yourself a favour and buy it, you won't be disppointed.
This is arguably the best cd recording I have of a Wagner opera and I would compare it favourably with Karl Bohm's more modern recording. Where Bohm's tempi are more predictable and swift sometimes to the detriment of feeling Furtwangler's approach is more patient to the extent that he extracts greater feeling out of the dissonant chords whose failure to recapitulate are more agonizingly and passionately transmitted.
Furtwangler's recording here is long, but it is always captivating - Bohm's effort seems longer - allowing for the full ethereal mood to be engendered; such atmospheric effect I feel is of utmost importance in productions of Wagner's later works such as Parsifal, Der Ring and Tristan as it tends to imbue the works with the sort of existential angst which often appears lacking in more modern adaptations and which I believe is of fundamental importance to an understanding of the sort of sound and operatic mood that Wagner was looking for.
Liebestod is also superb here.
was an American mezzo of great promise, and her youthful Brangane provides a good contrast with Flagstad's mature Isolde. Moreover, her singing of the Warning in the middle of the Love Duet casts a unique spell of it's own. The rest of the supporting cast, especially the young Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, are all acceptable. But one treasures this wonderful set for the combination of Flagstad and Furtwangler, and it is a combination that has yet to be surpassed. Personally, this recording, as great as it is, should be complemented by the Karl Bohm version, which is completely different, though in it's way, every bit as effective. One final thought --- with the Isoldes of Flagstad and Nilsson, both of whom still stand as the two greatest dramatic sopranos of the Twentieth Century, brave and courageous is the soprano who risks being compared with either of them!
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
![DG's The Originals [9]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510stM61Q9L._AA60_.jpg)
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
