Customer Reviews

Wagner: Tristan Und Isolde

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

 

 

Solti's Tristan und Isolde (1960)is one of the great Wagner recordings, capturing Nilsson at her very zenith, partnered with a most impassioned Tristan, Fritz Uhl. Resnik is the most intense Branganae on disc, with her Act II interjections hair-raisingly beautiful, yet still menacing. Nilsson shows her absolute mastery of this most difficult soprano role, both vocally and dramatically, with Solti proving to to be a more congenial counterpoint than Bohn from 1966, who rushes things along too often. Fritz Uhl is an authentic heldentenor who has a innate feel for the role - his Act III is among the finest on disc. The remastered recording belies its 40 some odd years and sounds quite impressive, with a perfect balance between soloists and orchestra - John Culshaw knew how to produce his Wagner and Strauss! A must have recording for any serious Wagnerite.

It is my feeling that with "Tristan Und Isolde", reactions are bound to be very personal and sometimes not understood even by the listeners themselves. The 1952 Furtwangler-Flagstad version is said to be the greatest of all "Tristan" recordings, but there are those who don't respond to it. Many people, as well as myself, who want it in stereo, seem to veer towards the Bohm-Nilsson-Windgassen DGG recording from 1966, though that set has had it's detractors as well. I find this 1960 Solti version somewhat surprising and far better than many would have you believe. Though many have dismissed Fritz Uhl as being an ineffective Tristan, I find him no better or worse than Ludwig Suthaus on the celebrated EMI Flagstad/Furtwangler version. Let's be honest: a tenor who can even passably perform Tristan is a rarity, and Fritz Uhl was probably the only option (Jon Vickers had not yet put Tristan into his repertoire in 1960, and Wolfgang Windgassen was bound exclusively to DGG) Decca had at the time. He requires no real defense------but a Melchior or Vickers he's not (who IS?). Nilsson is in a completely different category. At the time of this recording, she was already acclaimed as the greatest Wagnerian soprano since Kirsten Flagstad, and would remain so for the next fifteen years. Her Isolde became more violent, searing, and refined when she participated in the 1966 Bohm-Windgassen version, but here, in 1960, she is somewhat more generalized, yet vocally awesome. We must remember that when Nilsson made her Met debut a year before this recording was made, she made the front page of the New York Times -- and with certainly good reason. She took the opera world by storm, and wanted Decca that she insisted on recording her complete Isolde immediately, and that is what we have here. If one forgets her incisive work six years later, if only for a few hours, they will be struck dumb by her massive voice as heard here. Despite other's opinions,, I do not find Solti's shaping of this monumental score to be wanting. He manages to make this musical drama work on his own terms. Yes, there are tremendous orchestral climaxes here, and they are very dramatic and exciting. I think that there are many ways to do "Tristan", and that Solti's way surely isn't the only way. Still, Nilsson is truly awesome here, with top B's and C's that jump out of your speakers like a trumpet. It's almost as though she relishes every opportunity to let fly with those lightning notes ---- every note above G is a thrill. But, of course, she had plenty of great sound in the middle and lower reaches as well. Her Isolde of six years later under Bohm was more savage and exciting than here, but the sound wasn't as youthful either. Solti was a great conductor for Nilsson, and as a combination they are in a class by themselves. How well I recall a 1974 "Salome", done in concert at Symphony Center in Chicago, where the two of them together all but made the plaster fall from the walls. I find this to be an excellent representation of "Tristan", and am not in the least influenced by what the "critics" say. If this doesn't please, you, there are certainly many, many other options.

As the past recedes and it becomes clear that there will never be an equal to Birgit Nilsson as Isolde, even her second-tier recordings will gain in stature. I think that's already happened with this 1960 set under Solti. It's been considered a warm-up to Nilsson's famous live performance on DG seven years later under Karl Bohm. But in his review below, Mr. Schnall hits every nail on the head: Bohm is rushed and often impatient (he takes 6:19 for 'Mild und Leise' compared to 7:26 here under Solti, by no means going at a crawl). Solti has the far better recording, a feeling for Wagner's richness, and above all the incoparable Vienna Phil., compared to which even the excellent Bayreuth band is an also-ran.

Buying four CDs at full price when the Bohm set comes on three is expensive, and it would help if the rest of the cast were really fine. Fritz Uhl was neither a heldentenor nor a great artist, but there were no real Tristans around in 1960--Karajan was immensely fortunate to find Vickers a decade later, and now we are just as fortunate to have Heppner. But as Mr. Schnall says, Uhl's has a sweet voice; too bad he's sometimes placed too far form the microphones. Nilsson holds back considerably in their Act 2 Love Duet to keep Uhl from being overwhelmed by her voice, and the effect is unusually tender. Uhl's grasp of Tristan's suffering in Act 3 is moving, and overall he acquits himself well (with all his vocal limitations, he sounds more like a young hero than the leathery Windgassen for Bohm).

In all, this set has so many plusses that it makes a very worthwhile purchase and a great memento of the young Nilsson in all her glory.

It is fashionable to say that among the many Tristan und Isolde's in the discography, the finest recordings usually require a conductor who understood the harmonic language of the score and brought the dark, intense, narcotic nature of the plot into the gloriously flowing music (finest exponent being Furtwängler). Another necessity is the assembling of a great cast who not only had the vocal chops to sing these incredibly difficult parts, but also the insight and inspiration to make truly unforgettable characters live an arrest audiences with their complexity.

In the light of legendary recordings such as Furtwängler's groundbreaking Tristan on EMI and Böhm's equally compelling yet different view of the opera on DG, a great many reviewers have come to dismiss the artistic efforts of other musicians as lesser and uninspired. As such were the Karajan 1972, the Kleiber 1982, the 1980 Goodall, the 1982 Bernstein, the 1995 Barenboim, and this 1960 Solti recordings labeled, the Solti one with no less an Isolde than the young Birgit Nilsson. Nearly fifty years after this recording was produced and subsequently remastered, I believe that this Tristan needs a reevaluation to assess the importance of its documentation of some of the finest Wagnerians of our time.

Tristan und Isolde is for me one of the very most personal pieces of music ever written by any composer. It is personal to me just like Bach's Saint Matthew's Passion, Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, and Beethoven's 9th are personal. What it expresses in four hours of music is by some miracle of chance a summation of all of Wagner's artistic, philosophical, and romantic ideals. It is a tribute to love and death. Nothing could be more intense, harrowing, and bewitching than that.

Solti's Tristan was documented in the wake of Nilsson's triumphant debut as Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera. As with his monumental Ring Cycle, Solti recorded the opera with the legendary producer John Culshaw, known for pioneering the practice of introducing histrionic stage effects into much of his recorded work to simulate a stage performance in the more controlled environments of the studio. Culshaw emphasizes certain instrumentation such as authentic hunting horns in place of the usual orchestral fodder, and this may be considered a detraction or an additive to a fantastic recording. Ultimately, I think it is the balance in this recording that caused critics to pan it for what should have been really considered as a major entry in the discography. There are moments when the orchestra seems to strongly swamp the singers in a deluge of sound, rendering them inaudible in perspective to how they would sound in an opera house. That was of course the case almost fifty years ago, and the engineers have since then remastered the tapes and produced a more listenable version of the opera.

Of course, in the light of great recordings made by Furtwängler, Böhm, Karajan, Kleiber, and Pappano, Solti's Tristan seems to have a few chinks here and there that prevented it from attaining the kind of legendary status that it should have been awarded in the first place. To start off, there was the orchestral sound. Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic produce next to Karajan and the fabulous Berliners one of the most bewitchingly beautiful readings of the score, and in many ways, the dark, almost melancholy tone of the Viennese make this recording far more convincing than most orchestral aspects of the work. Rhythmically, Solti is very precise and drives one of the most animated renditions of the score without the bombast that his detractors usually assign to his work. Tristan, in fact, put some of that drive into perspective and gave him a vision of the work that while never approaching the grandeur and pulse of a Furtwängler or the lucid beauty of Karajan (I have never found Böhm's reading all that great...too fast for my taste), has enough warmth and passion in it to truly becoming a fascinating entry in the discography. The Prelude is brimming with sounds of longing and death, and the VPO's sound seems to emphasize these qualities even more strongly.

The Act I is one of the most driven and well-propelled readings, more alert than Furtwängler and almost to the extent of Karajan, if not quite approaching Böhm. Act II is where Solti falters slightly, but he is never less than good. Karajan takes the top honors for making the most out of this Act. Naturally, Act III cannot be bettered by anyone other than Furtwängler. Ultimately, I think it is a lack of an overarching concept in the style of Furtwängler or Knappertsbusch or Barenboim where Solti is somewhat lacking. Solti expressed interest in rerecording this work ten years ago had he not passed away, and we are all the poorer without what could have been one of the most fascinating accounts of the opera, but this is a fine enough specimen of what he did with the work. (Listen to his Meistersinger...I don't know anyone who could have redeemed himself like that and produced one of the finest readings of Wagner's most Mozartean score)

His cast has a few strengths and weaknesses. The best feature here is Nilsson's Isolde, far more generalized than with Böhm but also a bit more tender, youthful, and feminine in her vocal production. Her Act I isn't nearly as insightful as she was in Bayreuth, but her Act II is a lot more in keeping with Isolde's ecstacy and passion. Her Liebestod here is also sublime, better with Solti than with Böhm due to Solti's more luxuriant pacing of the score. Wieland eventually made her a more compelling stage creature, but what we have here is a commodity that is far better than anything else we have today or for that matter, the majority of the fodder we get from Wagnerians. Fritz Uhl, the Tristan, is the caveat in this recording. Although people have criticized him for having a voice too small for Tristan, I think that his lovely, youthful tone is perfect for characterizing the part. His Tristan may have been a trick of the studio, but Kollo (whose 1982 Tristan could only have been realized in such a setting, even if he did fine in the tiny Bayreuth theater and perhaps some small European houses) fares less well than he does. Uhl is lightyears ahead of such singers like Treleaven, West, Kollo, and any other Tristan other than Vickers, Windgassen and Domingo (I don't consider Melchior here since he was recorded before the modern era). His singing is beautiful and his sound is balm to the ears (more the young, handsome hero than the towering amphora a la Melchior), and it ends up becoming a convincing portrayal if not an entirely wrenching one like Vickers or a potent one like Windgassen or even seductively beautiful like Domingo.

Regina Resnik is characterful as Brangäne, but her sound is sometimes strained. Culshaw's engineering saves her in certain instances, and when she interacts with characters, she is fine. When long lines are required of her, the weaknesses of her instrument are put on full display. Tom Krause is a fine if not memorable Kurwenal (like Wächter or Berry). Arnold Van Mill has a fine voice for Marke, but one could have hoped for Gottlob Frick in the part. Ernst Kozub is a surprise as Melot. Solti was rooting for him in his Siegfried recording, but the interpretive difficulties of the part prevented him from taking the role. In terms of vocal endowment, he could have replaced Uhl as Tristan, but oh well, we do not really know the politics behind this project after all. Vickers was supposedly going to be cast as Tristan, but he couldn't get along with Solti so Uhl was the replacement.

This isn't essential like Karajan and Furtwängler are essential, but you have it as a first, it isn't such a bad recording to begin with. I'll give it four and a half stars.

I disagree. I think that this Tristan is fantastic. Birgit Nilsson's vocal splendour is unbelievable. Her voice is beautiful and the gleam is simply incredible. Birgit Nilsson is well-known as a "no-nonsense" soprano who could smell a phony a mile off. She never curry favored with critics and I think that consequently some critics were kind of mean towards her. People were jealous of her and refused to give her the credit for her interpretation of roles. As the reigning Wagnerian soprano, she could have remained static and just sing but all through her career, she always sought to improve on her interpretation. Here, she was younger and the voice was shiny and brilliant. Wonderful - Birgit Nilsson alone is worth this set. As for therest of the castm they are underrated. Fritz Uhl is excellent as Tristan. He is no Jon Vickers but he is not a lousy Tristan either. I concede that there are better Tristans sets out there. But come on, do you want to listen to some soprano screeching out at the top B's and top C's? No, you want to listen to Birgit Nilsson with her rock solid, absolutely steady high B's and high C's. As for complaints about singers being in the pit and orchestra on the stage - don't you have enough opera sets with singers on the stage and orchestra in the pit already?? If you were a collector, would you not like a change and have the singer in the pit and orchestra on stage. I do!! I have Nilsson's Bohm version as well - she's on the stage there. And I would like to see her in the pit this time (in this set), challenging the orchestra!! I don't want all my sets sounding the same, in which case there is no need for me to collect any set - I just buy one set and I know that every other set sounds exactly the same.

Do I recommend this set? Yes!! Esp if you are avid collector like me.

I disagree. I think that this Tristan is fantastic. Birgit Nilsson's vocal splendour is unbelievable. Her voice is beautiful and the gleam is simply incredible. Birgit Nilsson is well-known as a "no-nonsense" soprano who could smell a phony a mile off. She never curry favored with critics and I think that consequently some critics were kind of mean towards her. People were jealous of her and refused to give her the credit for her interpretation of roles. As the reigning Wagnerian soprano, she could have remained static and just sing but all through her career, she always sought to improve on her interpretation. Here, she was younger and the voice was shiny and brilliant. Wonderful - Birgit Nilsson alone is worth this set. As for therest of the castm they are underrated. Fritz Uhl is excellent as Tristan. He is no Jon Vickers but he is not a lousy Tristan either. I concede that there are better Tristans sets out there. But come on, do you want to listen to some soprano screeching out at the top B's and top C's? No, you want to listen to Birgit Nilsson with her rock solid, absolutely steady high B's and high C's. As for complaints about singers being in the pit and orchestra on the stage - don't you have enough opera sets with singers on the stage and orchestra in the pit already?? If you were a collector, would you not like a change and have the singer in the pit and orchestra on stage. I do!! I have Nilsson's Bohm version as well - she's on the stage there. And I would like to see her in the pit this time (in this set), challenging the orchestra!! I don't want all my sets sounding the same, in which case there is no need for me to collect any set - I just buy one set and I know that every other set sounds exactly the same.

Do I recommend this set? Yes!! Esp if you are avid collector like me.

Esta grabación tiene todas las virtudes de DECCA: Un gran sonido, buen balance y excelentes efectos estéreo, la dirección de Solti como siempre es excelente, con los tempi exactos. Esta es la única versión que respeta las indicaciones orquestales de Wagner, mantiene los tempi, en donde otras versiones no los respetan. Esta remasterización suena mucho mejor que la versión anterior en CD. Es una versión espectacular y dos ejemplos bastan para demostrarlo: El preludio del Acto II no tiene igual, las fanfarrias de las trompas en ese mismo pasaje, son en mi opinión inigualables, como sólo la Orquesta Filarmónica de Viena puede ofrecer. El Preludio del Acto III no tiene igual en la discografía, la dirección es perfecta y el sonido espectacular. Sin embargo, el gran pero es Fritz Uhl, que en el papel de Tristán dista mucho de estar a la altura de otros cantantes. El resto del reparto es excelente y de hecho, Birgitt Nilsson demuestra porque es la mejor Isolda del siglo XX a pesar de diferencias en la versión que hizo con Karl Böhm, Regina Resnick y Tom Krause están a la altura y Arnold Van Mill canta un buen Marke. Pienso que si en vez de Uhl, hubiera estado Windgassen, esta sería sin dudas la mejor versión de Tristan, por ese motivo creo que la versión de Böhm en DG y de Furtwängler en EMI son mejores, aunque una tenga el problema de haber sido grabada en vivo con las consecuentes toses, susurros, etc. y la otra ser monoaural. Para los puristas del sonido, la versión de Solti es la mejor. Las demás versiones mas modernas no tienen nada que hacer, no hay que olvidar que Wagner dejó de cantarse bien en 1970 y de ahí en adelante hay una crisis de voces VERDADERAMENTE Wagnerianas.Llama la atención la falta de memoria:Esta versión fue premiada con el Grand Prix du Disque de la Academia Francesa y en su tiempo era considerada la mejor versión.

If only Fritz Uhl could have been replaced during the recording sessions of this "Tristan" we would have the definite, ultimate version of this opera. Solti is at its best: always the story-teller, the drama unfolds magnificently and he is helped by the best orchestra in the world. The brass section is fantastic, the conductor finds details in the score that had completely escaped me before, and the arrival of Tristan in Act II is the most dramatic, erotically-charged I have ever heard since...well since the Karl Elmendorff conducting in Bayreuth in 1928...'Nuff said... La Nilsson, in 1960, is simply the best Wagnerian singer in the world and the legend unfolds in front of your speakers...and you have the pain and suffering of the character as well..who said that Nilson was too "icy"? listen to the beginning of Act I: you can almost feel the fear of Isolde on this big boat, among strangers and mockeries. And as for the final "Lust"...well you just have to listen to it and let the emotion overwhelms you...Opposite this great orchestra, this very inspired conducting and the genius singing of Birgit Nilsson, Uhl sounds exhausted. In Act I, it is not quite a problem. In Act III the lightweight voice can work since Tristan is dying anyway, but in Act II the disaster strikes. The love duet is turned into a solo for soprano with loud orchestral accompaniment. Sir Georg wanted to re-record Tristan with Placido Domingo (already!) and Jessye Norman, in the 80s. But when Norman cancelled the recording of Pavarotti's Otello, the project was binned altogether. Maybe too bad in a way but despite this "Tristan & Isolde" being without a Tristan, it is a very precious addition to the discography. For more gobsmacking love filters please go to Elmendorff 1928 (Graruud, Larsen-Todsen), Bodanzky MET 1935 - if you can find it (Melchior, Flagstad), Furt 1952 (Flagstad/Suthaus), Kleiber 1982 and Bernstein (Behrens/Hoffmann).

How anyone could be so dense as to consider this recording "great" is beyond me. Nilsson is available in a number of live performances with a FAR better conductor and Tristan than here. Solti is too slap-dash. He knew nothing of TRISTAN but, based on his Ring sales, he was given this and other recordings. Yet he had no concept of the opera at all. Nilsson is great but she's the only one. Uhl was a decent enough artist but was never a Tristan even with the help of over-miking. Go for any of the Nilsson - Windgassen or the Nilsson - Vickers sets (by the way, Windgassen was much better than the crooning Vickers as Tristan). If you can find the LIVE Bayreuth performance with Nilsson & Windgassen under Bohm, THAT will raise you blood pressure. The DG set is good but was a patchwork of live & rehearsal perfoamnces. The live one has the occasional blemish but you don't remember them. Bottom line - forget this Solti.

The positives
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Nilsson is wonderful as always. The tenor Uhl is quite OK. Yes, he's lighter, but acceptable. Would take him a million times over other tenors who can't sing very well, like Vickers and his awful comical 'e' vowels on Karajan! Orchestra is recorded pretty well. Sound is OK (except for Culshaw things) but not super great, and VPO in that period was not perfect, so ignore hype about wonderful sound. But quite OK in general.

The negatives
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Crazy John Culshaw's stupid "effects". He did that to many Decca recordings in this period and they are so childish at times. Here he really wrecks the sound at times. Very frustrating and (literally) painful. Why can't we just listen to the music as is, instead of these tacky effects which are stupid?

Examples:

Awful moving of whole sound to left or right at times. Is actually painful on the ears some times.

Can hardly hear Brangaene when she comes in in the Liebesnacht. Please! Also, she's out of tune on her top note there! Not necessarily her fault; probably Culshaw effect. She is really painful when she returns at the end of the first statement of the Liebestod; ouch, groan!

Sailor at beginning is distorted and warped and too much on the left.

Why does the chorus pronounce "Heil" as "DA-EIL!!!" twice at the end of Act I??? I'm not joking. Must have been Culshaw's idea (again); perhaps he wanted the attack on the notes clearer. But that's not quite the word that's in the text!!!

Could go on.

But on the whole, it's quite good overall and has better principals than Karajan by a long shot.