Wagner: Die Walküre [Live, Box set]

Linda Finnie / John Tomlinson (Artist), Nadine Secunde (Artist), Hebe Dijkstra / Matthias Holle (Artist), Poul Elming (Artist), Anne Evans (Artist), Eva-Maria Bundschuh (Artist), Ruth Floeren (Artist), Richard Wagner (Composer), Daniel Barenboim (Conductor), Bayreuth Festival Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Bayreuth Festival Orchestra
• Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
• Composer: Richard Wagner
• Audio CD (September 7, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 4
• Format: Live, Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Teldec
• ASIN: B000000SK8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #444,748 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Erster Aufzug: Vorspiel - Bayreuther Festspiele/Daniel Barenboim

2. Erster Aufzug: Wes Herd dies auch Sei - Poul Elming/Nadine Secunde

3. Erster Aufzug: Kuhlende Labung gab mir der Quell - Poul Elming/Nadine Secunde

4. Erster Aufzug: Einen Unseligen labtest du - Poul Elming/Nadine Secunde

5. Erster Aufzug: Mud am Herd fand ich den Mann - Nadine Secunde/Matthias Holle/Poul Elming

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Zweiter Aufzug: Vorspiel - Bayreuther Festspiele/Daniel Barenboim

2. Zweiter Aufzug: Nun zaume dein Ross - John Tomlinson/Anne Evans

3. Zweiter Aufzug: Der alte Sturm , die alte Muh! - John Tomlinson/Linda Finnie

4. Zweiter Aufzug: Si ist es denn aus mit den ewigen Gottern - Linda Finnie

5. Zweiter Aufzug: Nichts lerntest du - John Tomlinson/Linda Finnie

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. So sah ich Siegvater nie - Anne Evans

2. Raste nun hier; gonne dir Ruh! - Poul Elming/Nadine Secunde

3. Hinweg! hinweg! Flieh die Entweihte! - Nadine Secunde/Poul Elming

4. Wo bist du, Siegmund? - Nadine Secunde/Poul Elming

5. Siegmund! Sieh auf mich! - Anne Evans/Poul Elming

See all 10 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. Dritter Aufzug: Vorspiel Hojotoho!, Hojotoho! - Bayreuther Festspiele/Daniel Barenboim

2. Dritter Aufzug: Schutzt mich und helft - Anne Evans

3. Dritter Aufzug: Nicht sehre dich Sorge um mich - Nadine Secunde/Anne Evans

4. Dritter Aufzug: So fliehe denn eilig - Anne Evans/Nadine Secunde

5. Dritter Aufzug: Wo ist Brunhild', wo die Verbrecherin - John Tomlinson

See all 14 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expencive, but worth every penny!, September 5, 2000

By 

Vidar Palsson (Garğabær, Iceland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wagner: Die Walküre (Audio CD)

As a student in history I'm well familiar with the "everything-used-to-be-better" syndrome, and unfortunely it seems to me that all to many Wagnerians suffer from it. The recording now under our microscope is propably one of the best evidence avaliable of how very wrong this is. Surely there were great Wagnerians before but that doesn't mean that everything has gone down the drain! If you're curious in estimating this for yourself then this should be the set.

The sound is excelent and dynamic. The awareness of the live circumstance's is great and the stagenoises can be heard very clear. Personally I favour live recordings that contane every sound of the performance, and I even like to hear the applause at the end (which is cut at the end here). So people who don't like anything but clean studio performances should go and look elsewhere!

Barenboim is simply wonderfull. He has an enormuse power but never drowns the inner lines of the music nor overhvelms the singers (someone belove me thought that but I can't find that). He's a Wagnerian to kill for.

I'd specially like to comment on John Tomlinson (Wotan): David Gottner (one of the reviewers on this set on this site) said that he has a "dry tone". I must protest and say that his voice is very rich and beautifull. I fact, he must be the star of this set! Tomlinson is very dominat on stage (I have seen him singing Hagen live at Bayreuth), powerfull and thick-voiced. He stands every comparison with Hotter, Morris or whom ever. He's currently my favorite Wotan on record.

The other singers are all very good and I find Elming very pleasing, while Hölle is at the most fair but never on the level of Frick. On the whole the cast is very strong with no weak links.

This set is superb and must obviously be leading among modern versions. The standard today is as high as ever!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better as a soundtrack than as a performance, September 24, 2005

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Wagner: Die Walküre (Audio CD)

Anyone who has seen the DVD of this 1993 Bayreuth Die Walkure knows that it is stark and desperate, a modern post-apocalypse setting of unending grayness lowering over the action. Siegmund and Sieglinde never smile at each other, because after nuclear annihilation, the most they can hope for is lustful clutching. Wotan is frantic, throwing both Brunnhilde and Fricka to the ground in quasi-epileptic lurches of passion. At the time this was considered a harrowing breakthrough dramatically. Without judging whether the approach holds up or is true to Wagner's spirit, considerable light is shed on the singing here in the audio version.

Expect dry, nearly desperate expression without warmth or human connection. As everyone else points out, the singers aren't first-rate, even by our present diminished standards, but they give their all on stage, which makes up for a lot. Heard in isolation, no one except Tomlinson, a Wotan with real authority, comes close to filling the shoes of past singers. Secunde is good enough as Sieglinde, but Poul Elming has half the voice needed for Siegmund, and what he has tends to be edgy and nasal. Anne Evans is a physically striking Brunnhilde but doesn't match even Behrens for Levine, and she possessed barely half the needed voice in her own right.

For me the weak link, however, is Barenboim, and if I were to judge this Walkure by him alone, it would get two stars. He is maddeningly wayward in his tempo choices, often slowing down just when the drama calls for excitement, applying exaggerated ritards in his attempt to be Furtwangler, and generally leading a sluggish reading except for thse moments when he cuts everything loose and goes for frantic accelerandos. I know there are those who admire him, but I cannot join their number. Fortunatley, Die Walkure has been lucky on disc, and I can enjoy Karajan and Boulez to my heart's content, with occasional returns to Furtwangler and Keilberth.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly superb Walkuere, December 7, 2006

By 

M. Kelly "Hot Rider" (Hopetown, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wagner: Die Walküre (Audio CD)

In the wake of the hugely more expensive Keilberth recording I would urge prospective buyers to consider this 1994 recording taken from Bayreuth. Tomlinson and Barenboim alone make this one worth buying: Tomlinson for his supremely penetrating, considered interpretation of Wotan, and Barenboim for creating a living and breathing atmosphere for the singers to be a part of. Dame Anne Evans sings with stunning purity, suggesting a warm and womanly figure, and yet with clean and penetrating tone, for all its natural beauty. Other cast members all excel: Poul Elming far superior to his counterparts on any other recent cycle, Nadine Secunde a sympathetic and dramatically convincing Sieglinde, and Matthias Hoelle yet another in the strong tradition of dark and rich German basses. I must also devote a special mention to the Fricka of Linda Finnie! Wonderfully and confidentally sung, her characterization is completely convincing, and provides a convincing foil for Tomlinson in the second act dialogue.

All in all, a wonderful achievement.

P.S. The sound is fantastic, too!