Customer Reviews

Wagner: Die Walkure

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This recording indeed did get lost and fall between the cracks and the consumer is the poorer for this. Superbly sung, the singers can contend with any present Walkure recording available. Even if London is crilticized for not having the depth of interpretation of Wotan, he certainly had the voice and drama. Besides Hotter - and his performance with Solit was recorded too late in his career although his Solti "Wanderer" in seigfried is excellent -, only Norman Bailey for Goodall leaves a lasting impression for me. Nilsson as Brunhilde is a given! Very few can compete with her glorous singing and interpretaton. Brouwenstijn sings a beautiful and dramatic Sieglinde. Along with his Aeneas for Colin Daivis, Vickers's Siegmund is a miracle of a performance. Leinsdorf keeps it all going with life and drama. He and the London Symhony do marvels with the score. Don't hesitate to buy! Bargains and greatness don't usually come in the same package. A wonderful performance! Eric Leinsdorf and Karl Boehm own the Die Walkure market on CD.

As everyone knows, the great mystery of the 20th century wasn't "Who shot JFK", or even "What really happened at Roswell?"*

It was this: "How come at the beginning of the twentieth century Wagner was conducted fast while Bach was slow, but by the end of the 20th century it had worked the other way round?"

You can blame aliens, the Mob, Cuban refugees or the communists, but here at Conspiracy Central we know the true culprits. First, general (rightful) reverence for the conductors Furtwängler and Knappertsbusch, whose Wagner was notoriously slow - though they still made things move when the drama required it. Despite their own greatness, their influence on a generation or two of imitators who thought slow had to mean deep (Reginald Goodall, for example) was mostly malign. Second, cultural shift: the Victorians and their early twentieth century successors thought of Bach as essentially religious music, even the secular pieces, so that listening to Bach was as virtuous as attending church. We're now less inclined to take Bach's apparent Lutheran pieties at face value, while Wagner's more complex spirituality becomes accepted as part of the Sacred. So while Bach performance moved from the ritualised to the dramatic, Wagner performance headed in the opposite direction.

But there's an alternative twentieth century tradition of Wagner conducting, which stayed closer to the fast-moving pace set by Wagner himself in his own works, and by conductors close to Wagner. Two giants in this brisker tradition are Toscanini and the under-rated (and sadly under-recorded) Alfred Coates. Another is Leinsdorf. To get a feel for Leinsdorf's approach to _Walküre_, and its merits, it's only necessary to begin at the beginning, and listen to what Leinsdorf makes of the Act I prelude.

I used to wonder, hearing other versions of this music (Furtwängler, Karajan, Solti, Böhm), why Wagner's earliest critics were so excited by that opening weather report. I heard only a passage with little melodic interest and no very convincing evocation of a storm. In the bass strings we had perhaps an echo of Siegmund grimly plodding through some bad weather, but that was about it. But in the Leinsdorf version Wagner's music suddenly made sense. It was like a fuzzy image coming into focus, revealing a crisp, clear picture. At Leinsdorf's speed you really do feel and hear the buffeting wind and something of Siegmund's danger and desperation. Play it and the temperature in your room will drop.

Leinsdorf's speed and vividness pay off in other places: for example Brünnhilde and Wotan's lighthearted exchange at the opening of Act II, before Fricka sets the tragedy in motion, and in big moments such as the Walkürenritt and Wotan's farewell. The other great strength of this set is the cast. The advantages of Hans Hotter's Wotan over George London's are well known: Hotter was the greater vocal actor, and makes you feel Wotan's dilemma and pain like no one else in this role. But there's another side: compare Hotter's and London's "Nun zäume dein Ross" at the beginning of Act II. Hotter is stretched beyond endurance; the voice seems big but ungainly, insecure both of note and of rhythm. By contrast George London takes the passage in his stride, with focussed, strong and handsome singing. He may not have Hotter's insight in the long monologue, but where the role calls first and foremost for firm and beautiful singing (as in Wotan's final passages in Act III) London comes into his own.

The young Jon Vickers gives us one of the best Siegmunds since Melchior. I prefer Vickers' performance on this set, at the beginning of his career, to his later performance for Karajan. In that set the problem wasn't Vickers but Karajan, who adopts a leaden pace for the impossibly romantic music where Siegmund promises Sieglinde that he will Take Her Away From All This. In Leinsdorf this music, like the twins themselves, is properly passionate. Vickers' partner Gre Brouwenstijn is at the end of her career, but still an ardent and youthful-sounding Sieglinde. This set also introduced Birgit Nilsson, with her first complete recording of the _Walküre_ Brünnhilde. Flagstad's golden tone has never been replaced, but Nilsson's steely strength is the next best thing. Nilsson was better for Solti, but in Leinsdorf she gets to sing her glorious Act III music with George London almost equally glorious in reply, which gives the advantage to Leinsdorf. Of the remaining cast David Ward is an adequate Hunding and Rita Gorr an adequate Fricka, but no more. On the other hand Leinsdorf's Walküren make a great flight team.

So why only four stars? I've praised Leinsdorf's brisk approach, but it does have a cost. In some moments where the music should linger, where tenderness of phrasing is called for, Leinsdorf throws the musical line away. Try the Act I orchestral interlude, where Siegmund stares into the fire before bursting out with "Ein Schwert verhiesst mir". Leinsdorf is merely efficient here, where he needs to be magical. The plaintive working and reworking of Sieglinde's and related themes, the startling appearance of the sword motif, all these things simply pass by, too quickly to make the proper impact.

There is no perfect _Walküre_ recording. My own solution is to play the legendary Bruno Walter Act I with Melchior, followed by Solti's Act II, and finally Leinsdorf's Act III. So while this is not the perfect _Walküre_ either, it has some unique strengths, in Leinsdorf, London, Vickers and Nilsson, that place it among the best.

Cheers!

Laon

(* The answers to the less important 20th century mysteries? "Probably just Lee Harvey Oswald", and "Impressive commercial exploitation of an urban myth".)

When I was growing up I had the Solti Rheingold, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, but I kept this Walkure. I only purchased the Solti when it appeared on CDs. To me this is THE Walkure. Leinsdorf was known for pushing the tempi along. For those who have heard the Traubel/Varnay/Melchior performance from the Met, you know that he's much more refined and restrained here. I like that the music keeps flowing. A glance at the list of Valkyrie sisters shows several who appeared in much larger roles at Covent Garden and the Met, including Gwyneth Jones (just starting her career). Nilsson is astonishing, and I can't hear the "added depth" in her later recording over this one. Vickers sings beautifully as Siegmund, and he doesn't resort to the cruning that inflicted his Karajan performance. David Ward may not snarl like Gotlob Frick, but his firm voice still makes a wonderful impression. He's still dangerous. Gre Brouenstijn's voice is a more lyrical voice than we sometimes hear in the role, but the tremolo in her voice adds to the emotion (at least for me) and her soaring "Hehrstes Wunder" - abetted by Leinsdorf's great conducting - is the great moment of act three. George London may not be ideal to some ears, but he has a steadier tone than Hotter and makes many points through the sheer beauty of his voice. Amen to the comment elsewhere about his "Leb'wohl." It is overwhelming. The CD pressings eliminate some of the gritty overload the LPs had - see the end of acts one or two. I return to this recording more frequently than to Solti, Furtwangler or Swarowsky (whose Ring is also underrated and no longer available.)

I remember this recording from when I was a teenager. If I was forced to have only one Walkure performance, this one would be it. I remember being impressed by everybody, especially Jon Vickers and George London.... and Birgit Nilsson and Rita Gorr. These are not only among the finest ever interpreters of their roles, the sheer voices are almost impossible to equal, never mind beat... and I am thinking of any age of Wagner recording, never mind just the sixties. From what I remember of the sound and the conducting, I thought of George Solti's recording as coming in a magnificent second. That's all until I can get my hands on it and listen again!

The transfer of this recording isn't perfect: a few deficiencies of the original tapes become apparent now and then, but they are minor and they never dectract from the listening-experience, which is - at least for me - highly pleasant. For some reasons this recording is the one Walkure to which I return again and again, and not only because of the singing, which is simply wonderful all around. There is not one voice in this recording I do not like, but there are the voice talents of Jon Vickers (his unique combination of 'velvet' and 'raw power'), Birgit Nilsson (ironclad Walkure of Walkures), Rita Gorr (ringing 'steely' timbre) and George London (a 'refined' Wotan) which make this - at least to me - a truly great and emotionally uplifting Walkure. (I do also like David Ward's insightful and approprately aggressive and dark Hunding.) But this recording's greatness for me also lies in the orchestral playing under Erich Leinsdorf, which is in one word captivating: sometimes sweet, sometimes powerful, sometimes hushed, sometimes suspenseful, sometimes aggressive, sometimes noble, but ever insightful, dramatic but certainly never boring.
This Walkure has a musical as well as dramatic concentration which holds my attention from beginning to end. Maestro Leinsdorf is ever the one to press on here and there, albeit - to my ears - completely naturally and with utter love for the ebb and flow of the music. First and foremost Leinsdorf goes on with an acute sense of the underlying dramatic tensions, or so it feels to me. But to me, it never feels rushed or hasty. On the contrary, in these long music dramas by Wagner I need a certain sense of forward motion and dramatic flow (aside from gorgeous singing) to keep me focussed and attentive. I would here like to highlight the finale, where the orchestral playing, as well as the refined singing of George London, is simply unparallelled in its beauty. Truly one of the sweetest and most heartfelt goodbyes from Wotan to his dearest daughter ever recorded. How could anyone ever mean it when they say that Erich Leinsdorf misses out on the beauty of this music?! On the contrary, to me, Erich Leinsdorf - although he is no Daniel Barenboim, who to me is simply the Maestro of Maestro's in this music, especially his gorgeous 'Bayreuth Ring', unparallelled certainly in its musical beauty above anything else (like John Tomlinson's incredibly powerful and emotional Wotan) - gets it right most of the time, creating the sense of a tautly dramatic, 'aus einem Guss' performance.
I could never believe any of those people who say this is a 'forgotten' performance, only because it does not fit in a complete Wagner Ring Cycle. How in heaven's name could it be 'forgotten' or have 'fallen between the cracks'?! This performance, for me, holds together the whole of the time, helped by beautiful and intelligent orchestral playing, and - most fortunately and happily - helped by the singing, which here reaches the pinnacle of artistry. Well, in the end, this is all my (very humble) opinion ...

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I wholly support the Amazon reviewers who have heaped high praise on this recording.

This is one of the two great "Die Walkure" recordings that were lost, in a sense, for more than a generation. The other is, of course, Furtwaengler's, the only achievement of his aborted studio-based Ring Cycle.

This "Walkure" boasts the most powerful cast that could be assembled at the end of the 1950s (and unmatchable today.) In that respect, it considerably outshone Furtwaengler's. Throughout the stereo and digital eras, there have never been a Brünnhilde and Siegmund to equal Nilssen and Vickers. And in the history of recording, only Flagstad fully ranked with Nilssen--voice of gold to voice of steel. The strongest competition for Vickers was Melchior, but Vickers was a better actor and far more pleasing to the ear. London was a great Wotan who managed to get himself recorded while in good voice. (Really, how many times has that happened?) If Ward lacked the sheer subterranean malignancy of List and Brouwenstijn was no Lehmann, nevertheless, they were both fine in their roles.

That this became a lost "Walkure" is simply due to bad timing. As a stand-alone set, it was totally overwhelmed in the tsunami of publicity generated for Solti's complete Ring Cycle. Looking back after all these years, I find it amazing that any classical recording project generated as much media interest as Solti's (overblown) Ring, and for so long a time.

This is a straightforward, intelligent performance, brilliantly sung, beautifully recorded, and blessedly free from the wretched excesses of Solti and Culshaw.

Five stars, without a doubt!

I have known and loved this version of Wagner's masterpiece for thirty years, first on LP, then on CD - and I remain truly mystified by the received opinion that it is inferior to the later Solti set - which is, in fact, the weakest of that tetralogy; I would favour Karajan's thoughtful, refined, beautifully sung version over that. Both the latter and this Leinsdorf set feature Vickers as Siegmund. He is in excellent voice in both but even fresher and certainly less mannered here. As for the supposed superiority of Nilsson's later assumptions of Bruennhilde - like other reviewers of this set, I just don't hear it; here, she sounds superlative and not just a chromium plated virago, either - there are moments of supreme tenderness, especially in the Todesverkuendigung. Every role is sung by voices of towering power, conviction and grandeur - especially London's magnificent Wotan, which is a worthy companion to his account of that same role in Solti's "Rheingold", another of my favourite performances. The sound is excellent; the orchestra sonorous; Leinsdorf propels the action along with tremendous gusto. Brouwenstjin is really touching and suitably febrile as Sieglinde; the slight tremulousness in her voice, with its rapid, flickering vibrato, perfect to convey Sieglinde's terror and angst. The climax to Act One with Vickers is the highlight of the set, surpassed only by Melchior and Lehmann under Bruno Walter in their elderly (1935), but still gripping, Vienna recording.

Ignore the establishment view; this is the one Wagner recording I would be found clinging to if I had to keep but one. Nobody sings Wagner today like the artists on this set - and you have to make few compromises with the quality of sound to obtain such a great performance; it's very well recorded.

I have often wondered why John Culshaw, the music producer behind the Solti recording of the Ring, started with George London and went onto Hans Hotter as his Wotan. I always thought it must be because George London suffered vocal loss (due to illness) before Seigfried could be recorded. Alternatively it could have been because London was better for the youthful Wotan of Rheingold. However, by the time Solti's Walkure came to be recorded (the last of the Decca Ring to be recorded) Hotter was past his vocal prime. He gives a rather superannuated Wotan in vocal terms. Although it must be stated his characerisation is amazing, he owns his character completely, and conveys his plight.

That is where this recording is an excellent alternative Walkure, in place of the Solti Ring. The casting of Brunnhilde and Wotan are the same as Solti's Rhinegold. We have here a recording that could easily slot into Solti's Cycle of the Ring without looking or sounding out of place with the rest. Leinsdorf's has a slightly less favourable vocal orchestral balance and is faster in tempi. But it offers the best Siegmund ever to be recorded (Vickers is absolutely amazing in his role). Brunnhilde sounds youthful as Brunnhilde and George London is in fabulous voice as Wotan, (leaving the mature portrayal of Wotan in Siegfried neatly to Hotter).

A word on behalf of Rita Gorr. She is often contrasted as second rate against Christa Ludwig (in Solti's recoding). Yet, she shares a greater tonal similarity to the Fricka in Rhinegold, Kirsten Flagstad, than Ludwig (Flagstad being "mature" in the Rhinegold recording). She does have more wobble in her voice, but prortrays the shrewish Fricka very well indeed.

I am grateful for this recording, which ties as my favourite Die Walkure alongside Solti's, and acts as a nice alternative "Decca" Die Walkure!

Every musical work has its ultimate performance (except Mozart's Requiem which I have yet to find) -- and for Wagner's "Die Walkure" this is that performance, that moment in time when you hear the Walkure played and you feel the need to stand up and scream "this is it... this is it".

The first Walkure that I heard was Boulez's performance for the Bayreuther Festival. I was utterly bored to death by this performance and for a long time did not want to hear this opera again.

I stumbled on the Levine performance with the MET -- and that performance, which is truely brilliant, brought me back to the opera again -- I even bought the DVD.

My friend at the classical music store called me over and told me that he found a performance of the Walkure that I had to hear. That was this performance. I understood then that Leinsdorf just got it all together in this performance. The tempi, whether fast or slow, are just right. The sound of the orchestra and the soloists is incredible and one has to appreciate that this is not a "recent" release! My friend had me listen to his own private copy of this performance. The moment it arrived at the music store, I bought this performance without hesitation.

This recording puts life into the Walkure and will make you wish you had been there watching Leinsdorf make this magic happen.

I don't want to compare this to other performances. I cannot imagine that this performance would let anyone down unless that person had heard another performance for so many years that he cannot get out of the chains that bind him to that performance.

The beginning Vorspiel is so strong and properly accented and just jabs you inside -- it is so so "wicked", and from then on, there is just no let-down.

Whatever inhuman brilliance got into Wagner when he wrote this extraordinary work got into Leinsdorf the day he made this recording.

If you have to have only one recording of the Walkure, this is it ... this is it.

I bought this for Jon Vicker's Siegmund, for Birgit Nilsson's earlier Walkure (interesting to listen to how she develops). I like the fast speeds that Leinsdorf adopted. But overall the Solti is better. Here's my analysis.

First of all, the balance in this recording is not as good as the Solti's. The producer here was Erik Smith who was recruited by John Culshaw in 1957 (This recording was made in 1961). A common complaint heard about Culshaw's productions is that his orchestra is too prominent. Somehow the production here favors the orchestra even more than John Culshaw's productions!! In Culshaw's Walkure with Solti, you can at least hear the singers. Here, the singers are sometimes drowned out - even Birgit Nilsson and Jon Vickers. Sometimes I cannot hear the other singers.

The other drawback is that the lesser roles are less well-cast here. Rita Gorr's Fricka is just no match for Christa Ludwig's Fricka on the Solti. (I admire Gorr's Amneris in Aida though and I wonder why she doesn't sing as well here). The 8 Valkyries here are not as good as Solti's. Looking at the list of names, I was kind of surprised. I suspect it's not so much that the Valkyries are not good but they are drowned out, in some cases completely, by the orchestra.

The treasure of this set is the preservation of Jon Vicker's Siegmund when he was at his prime. Of course, Birgit Nilsson is in splendid voice but she is even better in Solti. And George London is a magnificent Wotan, even if he lacks Hans Hotter's artistry. The other good point about this set is that Leinsdorf adopts fast speeds which makes better sense for the music. Solti is sometimes too slow, to the point that the music comes to almost a standstill.

So there you have it. This is a splendid set. I like it. But if you can only have one - buy the Bohm not the Solti or the Leinsdorf. If you are a Wagner freak like me, buy them all!!!!