Customer Reviews

Legendary Wagner Singers of the 1930s (Telefunken Legacy Series)

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The title of this CD is a little disingenuous (''Great Wagner Singers of the Nazi Era'' would have been more honest), but it's an impressive issue. Nostalgic packaging make it look like an old album of 78s from the 1930s, and the notes by Jürgen Kesting give you a good sense of who these (mostly obscure) singers are. Don't look for Wagnerian stalwarts such as Freida Leider, Kirsten Flagstad or Lauritz Melchior. The singers on this CD are probably unknown to the casual Wagnerite, but their performances are impressive.

I was particularly engrossed by Willy Störring's rendition of two tracks from ''Siegfried.'' Störring is nothing short of electrifying -- far more impressive than anyone you'll find singing the part in an opera house today. I would say that those two tracks alone make the set worth buying, but there's plenty more performances that are, if not as impressive, than nearly as enjoyable (including four tracks recorded live at the 1936 Bayreuth festival).

If you're a fan either of Wagner or historical recordings in general, I would grab this two-CD set. While not on the ''must-have'' level of Bruno Walter's Act I of ''Die Walküre,'' it's a set that Wagnerites will want to own.

As the previous reviewer noted there is no Leider, Flagstad or Melchior here, but what we have are some outstanding artists who continue to deserve a wider audience for their exceptional performances. I love the three Lorenz excerpts from Siegfried, with the tenor in his youthful prime. The forest sequence in particular is beautifully done in spite of a couple of croaks from Lorenz on soft notes. There is also a tiny snippet of Erich Zimmermann's Mime, a role he owned at Bayreuth festival throughout the 30s. The less well known Willi Störring is also an impressive Siegfried in his two pieces. I would love to hear more from him. Anny Konetzni and the tragically short lived Gertrude Bindernagel serve to remind us all that there were other hochdrammatische sopranos active between the wars besides Leider and Flagstad. Anyone interested in great singing should seek out Bindernagel's magnificent Oberon recording of Ozean du Ungeheuer, available on Preiser. She was a rare artist who was murdered by her jealous husband just as she was coming into her prime. Anny Konetzni's Immolation scene is heavily shortened, but she has the right weight of voice for Brunnhilde. The Lohengrin tracks are famous souvenirs of the 1936 Bayreuth production, featuring Franz Völker's magnificent Lohengrin, wonderfully poetic, supported by great Wagnerians like Klose and Müller. We also get Müller and Völker as the Volsung pair in Die Walküre, another souvenir of a 30s Bayreuth production. We are treated to Herbert Janssen's superb, elegant Wolfram and as Wotan, we get both Rudolf Bockelmann and Hans Reinmar, both beautifully sung with wonderfully eloquent treatment of the text. Throughout, the listener can hear the way singers of the interwar years treated the text without resorting to sprechgesang. Wagner lovers should hear these discs.