Wagner - Greatest Recordings

[Conchis]

It is a slow burn - unlike the incandescent Walter which made my hair stand on end when I first heard it ! And still has a similar effect on me .

Although I’m not the biggest fan of the Bohm Ring, I’ve always loved his Walkure Act 1:James King sounded a lot happier than he did under Solti and Leonie Rysanek trademarking the ‘Sieglinde scream’.

[Petrushka]

I love all of Wagner’s operas from Lohengrin onwards. It’s having time to listen to them!

Indeed! You can listen one Act per evening but I much prefer to listen as intended, that is. on one evening with a lengthy interval between Acts. It's impossible to get back in after a hard day in the office and expect to put Wagner in the CD player. With forthcoming retirement in mind, I've lined up some of the Orfeo Bayreuth boxes to play when the time comes.

Regarding the Solti Ring, It's nearly 50 years since I first started collecting the LPs and, minor quibbles aside, it is an awesome achievement and remains my favourite.

[Conchis]

Indeed! You can listen one Act per evening but I much prefer to listen as intended, that is. on one evening with a lengthy interval between Acts. It's impossible to get back in after a hard day in the office and expect to put Wagner in the CD player. With forthcoming retirement in mind, I've lined up some of the Orfeo Bayreuth boxes to play when the time comes.

Regarding the Solti Ring, It's nearly 50 years since I first started collecting the LPs and, minor quibbles aside, it is an awesome achievement and remains my favourite.

The Blu-ray is just stunning.

[Petrushka]

The Blu-ray is just stunning.

I have already bought that in advance of buying a blu ray player, hence my thread the other day asking for recommendations.

[Conchis]

I think all Solti's Wagner recordings are recommendable and worth owning, even the less successful ones (the two Meistersinger and the Chicago Hollander. He got all the best exponents of their roles (with the exception of Vickers, who refused to work with him) even if they weren't always in their prime. And the classic Decca sound is reliably stunning.

I'd say the same for Karajan's Wagner recordings, which were the first ones I listened to. This very much includes his tortuously brought to birth Lohengrin, recorded over a five year period and released in 1981. The Penguin Guide was always sniffy about it but it topped the poll in a BAL some years ago.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think all Solti's Wagner recordings are recommendable and worth owning, even the less successful ones (the two Meistersinger and the Chicago Hollander.

Solti’s Vienna Meistersinger topped the BaL list on two occasions.

[BBMmk2]

Indeed! You can listen one Act per evening but I much prefer to listen as intended, that is. on one evening with a lengthy interval between Acts. It's impossible to get back in after a hard day in the office and expect to put Wagner in the CD player. With forthcoming retirement in mind, I've lined up some of the Orfeo Bayreuth boxes to play when the time comes.

Regarding the Solti Ring, It's nearly 50 years since I first started collecting the LPs and, minor quibbles aside, it is an awesome achievement and remains my favourite.

I have two or three. Barenboim’s DVD set, Marek Jurowsy, spelling.(iir).

[Richard Tarleton]

Meistersinger? Karajan in Bayreuth and Dresden, Kubelik in Munich - and I'm very fond of the Jurowski Glyndebourne DVD. (I'm actually also quite fond of the Jochum when I want to hear the work presented as an oratorio.)

My go-to Meistersinger on CD is Sawallisch/Bavarian State Opera, with Weikl, Studer, Heppner etc. - Weikl a bit dry but characterful, the orchestra as one might expect quite marvellous. I love the Jochum, the set through which I became familiar with the work, and also have the ROH set with Haitink, Tomlinson (again characterful if not ideal as Sachs), Thomas Allen and the glorious late Gösta Winbergh as Walter. A lovely memento of the last production before the House closed for the refit. Alan Blyth in the CD booklet is a little ungracious about poor Nancy Gustafson ("Although she may not lead the Act III Quintet with quite the poise and bloom one might wish for, she is always musical and easy in her singing...." - all very well in a review but odd in the actual booklet? )

I just wish I had this wonderful production on DVD. I also went to the revival a few years later. I do have the Met's DVD with James Morris, Karita Mattila, Ben Heppner, Thomas Allen, René Pape/cond. Levine - marvellously acted as well as sung, and a typically lavish production. There's just one crucially important Wagner stage direction which it misses - Ernest Newman discusses it at some length.... Cosima explained it in a letter to King Ludwig...Wagner realised you couldn't just have the same Prize Song sung twice in the same Act...so he side-steps the problem of the Masters not realising Walter's final version is not the one on the paper by having Kothner (who is holding it, it having been handed it by Sachs, who picked it up after Beckmesser flung it down) drop it, overcome by emotion - which Walther notices, leaving him free to re-invent the song...as Cosima wrote, "This difficult problem, which has kept him uncommonly busy during the last few days, has in my opinion been solved with wonderful success...."

Newman says audiences never notice this anyway (it must have been done once upon a time) as their eyes are on the tenor...or if they do see Kothner drop it, do not realise the significance of it....so perhaps not that crucial.

Just one from these? Don't be ridiculous!

Listened to the Tennstedt/LPO Walküre Act 1 last night - fabulous.

[Barbirollians]

Been listening to the famous Klemperer recording of the Flying Dutchman this week - I think it lives up to its reputation - tremendously exciting and splendid singing.

[Braunschlag]

Listened to the Tennstedt/LPO Walküre Act 1 last night - fabulous.[/QUOTE]

Isn’t it just! A real knockout performance.

I’ll add my own favourites here -

Leinsdorf Lohengrin (someone has to rescue it and that RCA is worth it for Sandor Konya.

Kubelik Meistersinger - Konya again.
Leinsdorf Walkure- and why didn’t they finish the whole set, a real missed opportunity

Solti - Proms live (Testament), ok, a bit rough and ready here and there but the ROH Orchestra are excellent.

[LHC]

Listened to the Tennstedt/LPO Walküre Act 1 last night - fabulous.

Isn’t it just! A real knockout performance.

I’ll add my own favourites here -

Leinsdorf Lohengrin (someone has to rescue it and that RCA is worth it for Sandor Konya.

Kubelik Meistersinger - Konya again.
Leinsdorf Walkure- and why didn’t they finish the whole set, a real missed opportunity

Solti - Proms live (Testament), ok, a bit rough and ready here and there but the ROH Orchestra are excellent.[/QUOTE]

Coming rather late to this thread, but I'd also vote for the Kubelik Meistersinger as the best studio recording. Karajan's live performance from Bayreuth is also worth hearing - much more alive than his later studio recording. My favourite Meistersinger though is an off-air recording from Covent Garden in 1982 under Colin Davis. The cast includes Reiner Goldberg as Walther, Geraint Evans as Beckmesser and Norman Bailey, who was standing in for the indisposed Hans Sotin as Sachs, as well as Robert Tear, Gwynne Howell, and John Tomlinson as the Nightwatchman. Best of all is Lucia Popp as Eva - in my view no one comes close to her, and her O Sachs, Mein Freund, and the lead in to the quintet are simply magical. I may be biased as I saw these performances, but I still love this recording.

[gradus]

Isn’t it just! A real knockout performance.

I’ll add my own favourites here -

Leinsdorf Lohengrin (someone has to rescue it and that RCA is worth it for Sandor Konya.

Kubelik Meistersinger - Konya again.
Leinsdorf Walkure- and why didn’t they finish the whole set, a real missed opportunity

Solti - Proms live (Testament), ok, a bit rough and ready here and there but the ROH Orchestra are excellent.

Coming rather late to this thread, but I'd also vote for the Kubelik Meistersinger as the best studio recording. Karajan's live performance from Bayreuth is also worth hearing - much more alive than his later studio recording. My favourite Meistersinger though is an off-air recording from Covent Garden in 1982 under Colin Davis. The cast includes Reiner Goldberg as Walther, Geraint Evans as Beckmesser and Norman Bailey, who was standing in for the indisposed Hans Sotin as Sachs, as well as Robert Tear, Gwynne Howell, and John Tomlinson as the Nightwatchman. Best of all is Lucia Popp as Eva - in my view no one comes close to her, and her O Sachs, Mein Freund, and the lead in to the quintet are simply magical. I may be biased as I saw these performances, but I still love this recording.[/QUOTE]

I saw this production and maybe even this performance as the Bailey/Sotin substitution rings a bell. Lucia Popp singing Eva could not be bettered and Wagner's writing in the scenes with Sachs is what really draws me to this work.

[Katzelmacher]

Listening to the famous Bohm 1966 Bayreuth Tristan, I’ve come to think of Windgassen as a drawback of this set, in the same way I think of Adam as a drawback to the Bohm Ring.

And it gives me no pleasure to think this, as Windgassen is intelligent and musical. But he sounds elderly and tired. Being the world’s go to Siegfried for the previous decade was really showing in his voice at this point and his retirement was only four years away (plus, he had only eight years left to live). A younger voice was needed here, but Vickers wasn’t singing the role yet. It’s such a shame, as this is an exciting performance with Nilsson, Ludwig and the young Talvela all at their best.

[gradus]

Tristan's entrance in Act 1 is electrifying with so much pent-up tension and emotion in Bohm's reading -just one of the reasons why this is the recording I go to, Windgassen notwithstanding.

[BBMmk2]

Tristan's entrance in Act 1 is electrifying with so much pent-up tension and emotion in Bohm's reading -just one of the reasons why this is the recording I go to, Windgassen notwithstanding.

Act two, scene is my favourite part of Tristan.