Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Richard Wagner (Orchestra), Carlos Kleiber (Performer), Margaret Price (Performer), René Kollo (Performer), Staatskapelle Dresden (Performer), Brigitte Fassbaender (Performer), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Performer), Kurt Moll (Artist), Werner Götz (Artist), Anton Dermota (Artist), Eberhard Büchner Wolfgang Hellmich (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Carlos Kleiber, Margaret Price, René Kollo, Staatskapelle Dresden, Brigitte Fassbaender, et al.
• Orchestra: Richard Wagner
• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 4
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B000001G51
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,578 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Modern Recording!, October 15, 2003

By 

Christopher Forbes "weirdears" (Brooklyn,, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Audio CD)

For me, there is only one definitive recording of this Wagnerian masterwork, the famous Furtwangler reading of it with Kirsten Flagstadt...there are other good Tristans but none that quite gets to the heart of this turbulent and yearning score quite like the Furtwangler. However, that recording is from the 50s, and in the prehistoric era of sound technology. As a result some of the marvelous subtleties of Wagnerian orchestration are missed on the recording, and most people will want a modern recording. As far as modern recordings go, this Carlos Kleiber session from the 80s is just about the best one you can get.

Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is titanic. It is monumentally difficult for the singers and a revolutionary work of musical drama. The orchestral role in the drama is for the first time elevated to match that of the singers. The mastery with which Wagner approached his material is astounding. As a result, more than in most operas, the conductor of Tristan is of paramount importance. Kleiber is masterful in this reading. From the opening notes of the Prelude, the atmosphere drips with longing Kleiber is neither too languorous, nor too rushed in this music. He allows the phrases to shape themselves naturally. During the climaxes he whips the orchestra up to a frenzied pitch, but is still able to change moods on a dime. The dark opening of the third act alone is worth the price of this CD. Not since the Furtwangler recording, have I heard this work so completely bleak and understated. Most conductors try to emote in every measure of the third act prelude. Kleiber lets the music be and the effect is even more powerful.

The singing is mostly good on the CD. Rene Kollo's voice shows some strain, and indeed his career was only to last a few more years. But he is still a marvelous singing actor, something that is much more important in this role than often thought. Margaret Price is a wonder.... fierce in the first act and radiant in the last two. Her "Liebestodt" (a misnomer if ever there was one...Wagner called it the Verklarung) is every bit as powerful as Flagstadt. Fischer Diskau is virile, as the Kurneval role calls for if not quite as much as in his first recording, and Birgitte Fassbaender's Warning in the second act is ravishing...Brangane's one moment to really shine in the opera. As King Marke, Kurt Moll is fine, but I've rarely heard anyone do a Marke as affecting as Rene Pape's recent Marke at the Met. Moll's Marke comes across as an impotent nice guy, but doesn't have the depths of heartbreak that Pape has shown are present in the role.

There are many, many competitive versions of Tristan to be had. However, in modern recordings I would recommend this above even the von Karajan Tristan, partly because Kleiber is a more exacting conductor than von Karajan ever was, and partly because the Dresden players are just not the sloppy musicians the Berliners can be. (It's not often said aloud, but it's true...take a score of any work and following along with a von Karajan/Berlin performance. You'll see how truly sloppy it all is. Sometimes the interpretations mitigate this...but not always.) So if you want just one Tristan, and you want modern sound, this is the disc to get. Hence five stars. But keep in mind...there are not enough stars at Amazon to award the Furtwangler recording!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very "Lyric" Interpretation, January 9, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Audio CD)

Let's face it: most of us just can't accept the fact that Wagner lived in an era of lyric voices for opera. Thus, he wrote for the lyric voice. He also wrote for an accompanying "lyric" orchestra. It is only after his death that we begin to see lyricism converted to what has become known as the dramatic voice, especially the so-called dramatic soprano, very deep and very powerful. Likewise, the orchestra played Wagner very loud and, sometimes, at very fast tempos, to emphasize the dramatic stage action and libretto. In this recording, Carlos Kleiber has very carefully crafted what must surely be the original, and thus authentic, approach that Wagner intended.The result is astounding, in comparion to other interpretations. This is truly a monumental interpretation of a monumental work. Kleiber brings out orchestral colors and hues that have been hidden or overlooked by others. Margaret Price, at the time of this recording, one of the finest lyric sopranos ever, sings like a bird. No one, not even Flagstad, Nielson, Dernish or today's Isolde-of-choice, Jane Eaglan, sings this role as beautifuly as Price. Rene Kollo is a wonderful, lyric Tristan. Kurt Moll, as King Marke, is smooth as silk and quite convincing. The orchestra is wonderful. To top it off, the recording is technically flawless. For those of you who wish to hear this great work as it was intended to be heard, you need look no further. For others who have many recordings of Tristan, and have seen it performed at the opera house, this addition to your collection will fill it out to completion and add yet another dimension to this work, the high water mark in romantic musical composition. A word of caution: this interpretation is so powerful and moving that it may take you some time to recover from its intoxicating effect. After listening to it, be prepared to spend time alone or with someone appreciative of Wagner's contribution to art and thereafter let the impact slowly dissolve within the events of the day.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the really few greats, January 16, 2001

By 

kedem berger (Ramat Hasharon, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Audio CD)

I would have rated this recording 6 stars, if possible. Tre, it is not "perfect", but the closest to perfection in this imperfect world. Full marks for Kleiber for preferring a bel-canto soprano for Isolde and taking pains in persuading Dame Margaret Price to take the role. He taught her the role, step by step, over a year, and it shows. She gives an altogether remarkable and lovely performance. Hang the volume debate, if anyone ever sang the beginning of act II in a more bewitching, silvery-pure manner, I'll be d***ed! Kollo and Fischer-Diesaku have both their rough moments, but both rise to the occasion in the two last acts. Moll and Fassbaender are superb. Kleiber's merits are well known for his diaphanous, exciting, silvery, mozartish conducting. Let me stress once more what an unbridled JOY I find time and again in he playing of this utterly SUPERB band, the Dresden Staatskapelle, these fabulous musicians also give special glow to the Karajan Meistersinger II and the Janowski Ring cycle. Bel canto lovers (and possible Wagner-haters): buy, buy buy and be converted for ever...