Customer Reviews

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

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

 

 

..with lesser known singers. Hans Knappertsbusch is at his most inspired and exciting in this electrifying performance. The two leads, Helena Braun and Gunther Treptow, are not among the very greatest to have sung these roles, but they are both very, very good, and in this performance they rise to great heights. Ferdinand Frantz as King Marke, however, stops the show with his extraordinarily moving and beautiful account of Marke's big scene. His is a voice for the ages. (BTW, he was also Helena Braun's husband.)

Knappertsbusch was one of the great conductors of Wagner, and in the set of CDs he proves that his critics were right. Helena Braun and Ferdinand Frantz give spectacular performances. It's unfortunate that Helena Braun is relatively unappreciated by modern listeners, since she has such a wonderful lyric soprano voice. Gunter Treptow is good, but not outstanding, as Tristan. This is an old recoding (1950) so the sound is not quite up to modern standards, but is still quite good and makes this CD set an enjoyable listening experience. All in all this is one of my favorite performances of Tristan & Isolde, worthy of repeated listening.

Granted the sound is less than ideal, but comparing it to most historical operas it is pretty good and the voices are never compromised. Wagner colelctors "in the know" have long talked up the merits of this greatest performance on record. The prestigous critic Alan Blyth ranked this as the number one Trisolde record ahead of Furtwangler(2), Bohm(3) and Karajan-52--also avail on Orfeo(Vinay-not Vickers)-(4). I have to admit I prefer Nilsson mostly, but Braun is absoltuly stunning turning in one of the all time great interrpretations that I am sure many feel surpasses Nilsson. If you want to buy only one performance, I would recommend Furtwanglers or Bohms only because they are in better sound, but if you want 2, dont you dare hesitate because this is what makes life worth living.