Search - Richard Wagner, Regina Resnik, Fritz Uhl :: Tristan Und Isolde

If only...

J. H. Gaulard | London United Kingdom | 01/26/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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)."

A Great Wagner Recording

The Cultural Observer | 02/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."