Customer Reviews

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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...

This is one review where I do not feel the need to elaborate too much on the work because of what has been already written. In particular, thank you to the very honest reviewer below from Calgary, Alberta, Canada...you have said largely what I would have said. Moreso, it was that particular Amazon review that led me to make this purchase. I therefore read exactly what I needed to hear.

In summary, Kollo is not fantastic (the wobble is ungainly) but you can get used to him and grant him his idiom with relatively little difficulty. I would add that Fischer-Dieskau's Kurwenal wasn't to my taste either. He does "bark" a little too much. On EMI for Furtwangler he was splendid but I only say that by comparison...not to advocate the Furtwangler recording.

For me, THIS recording has made a phenomenon out of what had previously been just too BORING. I had previously owned the well-touted Bohm recording and I just HAD to get rid of it (gave it away). Not even for Christa Ludwig's sake would I keep it. Shocking as it may sound, I can't stand the Nilsson/Wagner combination...or any other Wagner combination with a 'meat-and-potatoes' sounding soprano, for that matter (the "immortal" Flagstad included). It's too heavy. Wagner has too commonly been portrayed as heaving, lumbering, pedantic pieces of work with a good deal of 'intellectual' disussion on precision in tow. Well I find the "tireless" Nilsson to be TIRESOME. There, said it. For me, Birgit's best work was Elektra, but not here.

The Price/Fassbaender exchange is netherworldly. Rapturuously sung by two BEAUTIFUL voices and full of emotion and character. The roles are excedingly convincing. Price is very much the young, noble but vulnerable Irish princess. Both performances are very real without being overdone. "Mild und Leise" on a still, clear night under the stars weaves a ritual of rapture in death. The clear...and I do mean CLEAR....digital sound makes you feel like a god personally witnessing a human drama. Every note from Price or Fassbaender seems like an evocation.

I kneel before Carlos Kleiber for his impeccable judgement and wonderful imagination. The music swirls and flows...yes, as one reviewer said, it evokes the very image of the dark water pictured on the cover. No mud here though. Excellent achievement.

While writing the Ring cycle, Wagner decided to take a break and write a different opera. Most composers would have selected a comedy, or at least something lighter, but not Wagner, he decided to write one of his most demanding works, TRISTAN UND ISOLDE. Though I have been an opera lover all of my life, this work was not one of my earliest favorites. I believed that it was literally a taste to be acquired. Yet once I began listening to it, I found myself under its intoxicating spell. I have often wondered if Wagner somehow inserts a portion of Isolde's love potion into the music.

TRISTAN UN ISOLDE is one of Wagner's most popular pieces, even though it is not performed as often as many would like, due largely to the impossibility of gathering a cast that can do justice to the music. The complexity and beauty of the music captivates listeners, and the drama of the work, both musically as well as the story itself, makes it unique in the history of opera.

Like many people when it comes to Wagner, I am not an impulse shopper. Sometimes I will take a chance with a two CD set, may be a three, but never a four. Most of Wagner's complete operas are four disc, at least when it comes to his later works, and I do not want to spend anywhere from fifty dollars to seventy five on a set that I will not enjoy. Also, most Wagner fans have favorite conductors and performers, and when it comes to Wagner, I usually select Solti as the conductor, and overall I am usually pleased. I originally planned on purchasing the Solti set, but another customer recommended the Kleiber set, and the clerk agreed, so I took a chance and purchased it, but I will have to admit, I almost returned the set before listening to it. I was only familiar with Margaret Price as a soprano in two Verdi operas: Don Carlo and Un Ballo in Maschera. As much as I enjoyed her as Amelia in Un Ballo, would she be an even adequate Isolde? While Rene Kollo is one of my favorite Wagnerian tenors, this set was recorded in the early 1980's and critic had noted his vocal decline. Could he possibly be the heldentenor Wagner envisioned for this role? Kurt Moll is nearly always a safe bet in Wagner, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is always up to par no matter what he does, but these two performers as Kurvenal and King Marke respectively, are not nearly as important as the performers playing Tristan and Isolde. I suppose the reason I did end up keeping the set is largely due to the fact that I have other Kleiber sets and know if he is conducting, the recording will more than likely be great. I am now glad I listened to the advice of strangers.

Needless to say I have been enjoying this set for over ten years and have given it as a gift to others who also love it. Individually each of the major cast members stands out, but they also work beautifully as an ensemble. Each performer, particularly Kollo and Price, vocally project the twists and turns of this great drama. I am certain that this will continue to be a top choice of fans of Wagner and will one day be one of the great, all time studio recordings of this work.

DG is planning on releasing this on their 'Originals' label early next year, with each act on a single disc. At mid-price & only taking up 3 CDs, it's worth the wait.

I have written a few words about other recordings of this opera, and I have mentioned that it was THIS recording that won me over. This opera, along with Parsifal, are the two Wagner operas that were the hardest for me to learn to enjoy. They were just TOO BORING. Nothing happens in either of them for hours on end. I found this reaction odd, since I instantly fell in love with the Ring Cycle, and it has hours of nothing happening, too. It was a journey to come to love this opera, and it was THIS recording that helped me do it.

Most of the others, especially the one conducted by Bernstein, were conducted so slowly the music simply went no where to me. This one had life. Suddenly, I could feel the inner struggle and meaning expressed in the music, even in the first act prelude which normally put me to sleep (even in a live performance). I guess I am not alone in finding it hard to endure this opera, for even the great Flagstad fell asleep during it finding it the most boring work she had ever heard. We all know, she went on to become one of the most wonderful Isoldes in memory.

Price, who is wonderful in Mozart, adds a incredibly beautiful lyric quality to the role, which adds much to the enjoyment of the opera. There is real passion in her voice, but also real lyric sentiment. Kolo, on the other hand, has never been a singer I much enjoy. The voice sounds old and worn out, even when he was young. He does sing this Tristan well, however, and there is little to distract the hearer of his usual heavy "wobble."

It is the conductor that is the one who really makes this version sing. He knows how to make the details fit into the whole without being lost, or without putting too much importance on them so they stick out inappropriately. The orchestra is lush and just carries you away. I have to comment on a rather small bit of music which is sung by Brangane. During the love duet, which is extrememly long, there is a beautiful passage sung by this character as she keeps watch on the tower. Many singers have sung this part with great beauty, but there is something about it in this recording that simply takes you breath away. The duet is what is important, but this simple little part overshadows it all. It is a warning you wish Tristan and Isolde had paid as much attention to as you the listener does.

This recording is simply wonderful, and simply the best, in my view. A person can't go wrong buying it. For those who have never listened to this opera, even with this fine recording, DON'T listen to it in one sitting. It will be too much. Listen to it in sections, and when you have time to really listen. When you have come to know where all the really super parts are, then you will have something to look forward to, to anticipate, as you listen to the work as a whole. Wagner is very long, even when he is short (and he is not short in this opera), so don't overwhelm yourself in the beginning. As a composer, he really grows on you, and this opera is one of those works that if you don't like it right off, if you give it time, it will also grow on you.

I own Kleiber's and Böhm's Tristan and find them to be complementary. Kleiber's very lyric interpretation is best where the score calls for harmony (after drinking the potion in the first act and until being discovered by Marke in the second act), Böhm's very dramatic interpretation is best where the score calls for drama (until drinking the potion in the first act and after being discovered by Marke in the second act). The Kleiber recording is mellifluous where it should be - but a touch too lyric where the protagonists should be at the verge of madness. In contrast, the Böhm recording succeeds at conveying the deepest pain possible where it should but falls short at conveying utter one-ness of Tristan and Isolde.

As I haven't found the perfect Tristan yet (which probably doesn't exist), I enjoy next to perfect Tristan listening sessions by switching between the Böhm and Kleiber recordings at the points given above. The only part I am yet undecided about is the final part of act 1 (when the curtains are torn wide apart and Brangaene breaks in between Tristan and Isolde).

This Kleiber recording contains the best second act of Tristan I know. Throughout the recording, the main protagonists sing beautifully AND clearly. If you know your German but don't have your libretto at hand, you will find that you can easily do without reading the lyrics.

Although Carlos Kleiber never produced recordings in the same bulk that Karajan and Solti did, his output was always amazing. This recording of Tristan proves the quality of his music-making as one of the prime exponents of Wagner conducting, and without a doubt, Carlos Kleiber brings out all the passion, eroticism, lyricism, tragedy, and beauty in Wagner's score. Like the old Wagnerian stalwarts such as Knappertsbusch and Clemens Krauss, he has an ability to make a seamless and endless string of music that seems almost incandescent...yet brimming with passion. Hearing this Tristan, I sometimes feel that the drama would sometimes threaten to leap out of the speakers and engulf me in the tragedy of Tristan. That said, I would think that this would be the work's best conducted version, and with the contribution of the Dresden Staatskapelle (Wagner's favourite orchestra), there is nothing that could surely remove this from the Wagnerian oeuvre of conducting.

Regarding the cast, I would say that the most outstanding singers in this record are Kurt Moll and Margaret Price. Never having had sung Isolde on stage, Margaret Price gives this Isolde a lyricism, youthful quality, and beauty that you can never hear from other recordings. While I certainly find Dernesch, Modl, and Nilsson more compelling, she is one of the best Isolde's I have ever heard in the part. One could wish that she had sung it on stage. Kurt Moll is revelatory as King Mark. His monologue is superbly sung and acted. You can never go wrong with this artist, as everything he touches is definitive (he would probably be the Christa Ludwig of basses). Slightly below this standard of singers is the tenor Rene Kollo, who gives an amazingly youthful and heartfelt portrayal of Tristan. While I would take Vickers over him any day of the week, his Tristan offers siomething that others do not: youthful tone, ardent lyricism, and dramatic impact that singers like Suthaus never had. Fassbaender is an excellent Brangaene, although I would never take her over someone like Christa Ludwig.

All in all, this set is an excellent when you sum up the components that make it so seductive and alluring. But you must never forget the EMI Karajan set, or even that which he conducted in Bayreuth in 1952.

I'm surprised when I don't find this set included on lists of greatest recordings of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde." From the opening Prelude it's clear that the listener is in for a very special musical experience. What impresses me most about this performance is the quality of orchestral playing: when the recording was made in the early 1980s, the Staatskapelle Dresden was arguably the finest orchestra in the world (during the Blomstedt tenure); indeed this set contains some of the most amazing orchestral playing that I've ever heard of a Wagner opera. Again and again, details emerge between the interplay of voices and orchestra that bring a wonderful clarity to Wagner's score. The excellent digital sound certainly plays a role in this--as most of the comparable great recordings of the past, such as Furtwangler's legendary recording with Kirsten Flagstad, are not of the greatest sound quality (it is mono), and therefore, many of the same orchestral subtleties are either diminished or lost. With that said, however, I can think of no other conductor of Tristan who has had an orchestra so remarkably in tune as the Dresden players, and Kleiber's conducting is sensational--riveting and insightful. Just listen to "Mild und leise wie er lachelt" in Act 3, scene 3 (Isoldes Liebestod), where vocalist (the sublime Margaret Price), conductor, and orchestra achieve a sense of rapture that I have rarely heard captured on disc: (Sorry, but Amazon has removed the "You Tube" link that I provided here.)

If you're open to considering a second digital recording--that is, if one recording of this great masterpiece isn't enough, I would also recommend a Decca recording from roughly the same period by the Welsh National Opera, with Reginald Goodall conducting. While the orchestral playing is not on the same exalted level, Goodall's conducting of Wagner makes for a fascinating alternative, as he tends to opt for slower tempi than the more impulsive Kleiber. (Interestingly, Kleiber admired Goodall's Wagner.) EDIT 1: Though Goodall's Tristan has been out of print since the mid-1990s, Archiv music has recently reissued it in the summer of 2011 (so far, I've not found an Amazon USA listing): (Sorry, but Amazon has again removed the Archiv link that I provided here.)

In closing, I should also mention that a British composer once told me that Tristan was one of those rare works he could not believe had been written by a mere human--so, if you haven't heard it yet, it is certainly worth getting to know.

EDIT 2: I recently bought a 2000/2002 Japanese release of this recording from Amazon.co.jp and found the sound to be even more detailed--it's just wonderful. I strongly recommend it to those who particularly care about having the best sound quality (though regrettably it comes with higher shipping costs).