Before 'The Golden Age'

[Tapiola]

I have recently taken receipt of this box, the earliest record of Bayreuth singers in existence.

Apologies for the duplication; I posted this first on the currently languishing New Releases thread, and thought it could do with a bump up, especially during this high point of Wagner performances at The Proms during Wagner year.

Of the 93 singers represented in this collection, I have heard (or heard of) very few. They predate the "Golden Age' of Wagner singers of the 20s and 30s (e.g. Melchior, Flagstad, Schorr et al), and include the likes of Lili Lehmann (who sang at Bayreuth in 1876) and Hermann Winkelmann (Wagner's handpicked, and first, Parsifal).

I have yet to audition any of this (and it may be some time before I do) though it is my primary intention on this thread to alert Wagnerians to a collection which may disappear as quickly as did its Gebhardt predecessor (the two boxes are identical in content).

Of course, I would be grateful for any views from those who have and have listened to this collection...

[amateur51]

I have recently taken receipt of this box, the earliest record of Bayreuth singers in existence.

Apologies for the duplication; I posted this first on the currently languishing New Releases thread, and thought it could do with a bump up, especially during this high point of Wagner performances at The Proms during Wagner year.

Of the 93 singers represented in this collection, I have heard (or heard of) very few. They predate the "Golden Age' of Wagner singers of the 20s and 30s (e.g. Melchior, Flagstad, Schorr et al), and include the likes of Lili Lehmann (who sang at Bayreuth in 1876) and Hermann Winkelmann (Wagner's handpicked, and first, Parsifal).

I have yet to audition any of this (and it may be some time before I do) though it is my primary intention on this thread to alert Wagnerians to a collection which may disappear as quickly as did its Gebhardt predecessor (the two boxes are identical in content).

Of course, I would be grateful for any views from those who have and have listened to this collection...

Fascinating stuff, Taps I'd certainly welcome an indication from you in due course as to the sound quality of these recordings. I have fairly tolerant ears but I'd be interested to hear your views.

[verismissimo]

It’s an absolutely fascinating collection, Tapi, one which I bought in its previous incarnation. As the recordings come from the first decade of the twentieth century, the sound can be primitive, but is often astonishingly realistic and present. All recorded completely acoustically – nothing electrical involved. Woodwind instruments predominate as strings recorded poorly at that time. Some of the artists were in their prime, while others were substantially past their sell-by date.

Only three of the hundred-plus singers represented actually sang under Wagner ‒ Marianne Brandt, a pupil of Viardot, who was Waltraute in Wagner’s first complete Ring in 1876, recorded when she was 63; Hermann Winkelmann, a close friend of the composer, who created Parsifal at Bayreuth in 1882, returning frequently there after the composer’s death, and becoming a member of Mahler’s company in Vienna; and, as you mention, Lilli Lehmann, who also sang in the first Ring – as Woglinde, Helmwige and the Forest Bird. Lehmann’s recording of the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde is an extraordinary survival. It was never issued and one single test pressing has miraculously emerged from the mists of time.

Most of the singers were in their prime in the period at Bayreuth dominated by Wagner’s second wife, Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt. It seems to me that Cosima concentrated and intensified various principles that had emanated from Wagner – the clear enunciation of words, focusing on consonants, the suppression of vibrato, actor-like declamation with the tone of voice as close to the speaking voice as possible, legato singing only in arioso passages, and so on.

If one listens to these Cosima-era singers with the ears of later generations, one is bound to be disappointed. But if one listens with an open mind – with a view to understanding performing practice close to the time of the composer – there is much to be learned. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is the heldentenor Ernst Kraus, a great favourite at Bayreuth, with an enormous voice, who sang with little of the vibrato of later generations. It’s unfortunate that the leading Brünnhilde of the day, Ellen Gulbranson, has only survived in recordings/transfers with too much wow. They don’t make contraltos any more like the amazing Ernestine Schumann-Heink.

[Tapiola]

Fascinating stuff, Taps I'd certainly welcome an indication from you in due course as to the sound quality of these recordings. I have fairly tolerant ears but I'd be interested to hear your views.

Thanks ams. The collection is almost completely unknown territory for me and I am mentally preparing for the plunge by revisiting the earliest Wagner recordings I know (Pearl's late 20s Potted Ring), Muck's Parsifal, Hertz's 1913 Parsifal excerpts etc, although I suspect that this will be of limited benefit.

There is also the small matter of the 100-page booklet with which to orientate myself before listening.

[Tapiola]

It’s an absolutely fascinating collection, Tapi, one which I bought in its previous incarnation. As the recordings come from the first decade of the twentieth century, the sound can be primitive, but is often astonishingly realistic and present. All recorded completely acoustically – nothing electrical involved. Woodwind instruments predominate as strings recorded poorly at that time. Some of the artists were in their prime, while others were substantially past their sell-by date.

Only three of the hundred-plus singers represented actually sang under Wagner ‒ Marianne Brandt, a pupil of Viardot, who was Waltraute in Wagner’s first complete Ring in 1876, recorded when she was 63; Hermann Winkelmann, a close friend of the composer, who created Parsifal at Bayreuth in 1882, returning frequently there after the composer’s death, and becoming a member of Mahler’s company in Vienna; and, as you mention, Lilli Lehmann, who also sang in the first Ring – as Woglinde, Helmwige and the Forest Bird. Lehmann’s recording of the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde is an extraordinary survival. It was never issued and one single test pressing has miraculously emerged from the mists of time.

Most of the singers were in their prime in the period at Bayreuth dominated by Wagner’s second wife, Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt. It seems to me that Cosima concentrated and intensified various principles that had emanated from Wagner – the clear enunciation of words, focusing on consonants, the suppression of vibrato, actor-like declamation with the tone of voice as close to the speaking voice as possible, legato singing only in arioso passages, and so on.

If one listens to these Cosima-era singers with the ears of later generations, one is bound to be disappointed. But if one listens with an open mind – with a view to understanding performing practice close to the time of the composer – there is much to be learned. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is the heldentenor Ernst Kraus, a great favourite at Bayreuth, with an enormous voice, who sang with little of the vibrato of later generations. It’s unfortunate that the leading Brünnhilde of the day, Ellen Gulbranson, has only survived in recordings/transfers with too much wow. They don’t make contraltos any more like the amazing Ernestine Schumann-Heink.

Many, many thanks for your most informative post, verismissimo.

All I need now is a week or two off - and some piece and quiet - in order to immerse myself completely. Your pointers are very useful as a way in (Gulbranson, Kraus and Winkelmann may be the first auditions).

[verismissimo]

Many, many thanks for your most informative post, verismissimo.

All I need now is a week or two off - and some piece and quiet - in order to immerse myself completely. Your pointers are very useful as a way in (Gulbranson, Kraus and Winkelmann may be the first auditions).

Tapi, if you listen to the Potted Ring first, I'm sure you'll notice the gulf in performing style between the 1900s and the 1930s. I absolutely love that Ring (Leider, Austral, Melchior, Widdop, Schorr etc), but they are in a different artistic universe from those earlier singers.

[Tapiola]

Tapi, if you listen to the Potted Ring first, I'm sure you'll notice the gulf in performing style between the 1900s and the 1930s. I absolutely love that Ring (Leider, Austral, Melchior, Widdop, Schorr etc), but they are in a different artistic universe from those earlier singers.

Noted, verismissimo.

To digress slightly further, and as an adjunct to the Pearl Potted Ring recordings, did you catch Saturday's CD Review feature on the Sony reissue of Met performances from the 30s/40s? I have some of these recordings on Naxos (the Ring recordings 1936-41 conducted by Bodansky and Leinsdorf) with a number of the same singers you mention above. These are discs I return to often. The conducting is swift and always exciting, the voices are almost uniformly beautiful, notwithstanding sound quality issues and structural flaws (cuts throughout).

[verismissimo]

Noted, verismissimo.

To digress slightly further, and as an adjunct to the Pearl Potted Ring recordings, did you catch Saturday's CD Review feature on the Sony reissue of Met performances from the 30s/40s? I have some of these recordings on Naxos (the Ring recordings 1936-41 conducted by Bodansky and Leinsdorf) with a number of the same singers you mention above. These are discs I return to often. The conducting is swift and always exciting, the voices are almost uniformly beautiful, notwithstanding sound quality issues and structural flaws (cuts throughout).

Ah, the great Marjorie Lawrence, to name but one! I've had her Gotterdammerung for several years, but just ordered the cycle.

[Tapiola]

Ah, the great Marjorie Lawrence, to name but one! I've had her Gotterdammerung for several years, but just ordered the cycle.

I hope you gain as much pleasure from the rest of the cycle as I have. The 1941 Walkure (especially Act 1) is beyond compare (imo). Melchior in particular is emotionally devastating as Siegmund (making his own earlier, legendary, studio version with Bruno Walter sound almost pedestrian by comparison).

[Tapiola]

I have sampled only disc 6 of this set so far: excerpts from Rheingold and Walkure. There follows my rather tentative first impressions.

The Rheingold is a mixed bag - difficult to excerpt at the best of times, opening with rather wobbly Rhinemaidens. Theodor Bertram is an authoritative, secure Wotan in the celebrated passage in scene four where the Siegfried motif is heard for the first time, with a lovely tone, though uncertain-sounding in the scene 2 extract (not helped by some pitch insecurity in the transfer, to my ears).

The highlight of the disc for me is a wonderfully extended passage (14 minutes worth from 1911!) from Walkure - starting with Hunding's entrance. Siegmund is Ernst Kraus and his voice has beauty, power, drama and security in spades.

Voices seem lighter than what we are used to from The Golden Age singers and, as the informative liner notes state, there is a tendency to favour declamation of text over beauty of tone and legato (though legato does have its rightful place in the Cosima Era "sound", when required).

It is a different world though from the 1920s recordings I know (as verismissimo has already mentioned), and some tolerance is needed of the acoustic sound and essentially stop-start nature of recording in those distant days. However, despite the largely inadequate piano and (especially) orchestral accompaniments, the voices really shine through. The sound quality is perfectly reasonable and in some cases surprisingly good for these centenarian snapshots.

I do think this collection will be a grower and I intend to take my time over auditioning it in its entirety, perhaps until the end of this bi-centenary year.

[verismissimo]

... The highlight of the disc for me is a wonderfully extended passage (14 minutes worth from 1911!) from Walkure - starting with Hunding's entrance. Siegmund is Ernst Kraus and his voice has beauty, power, drama and security in spades...

In his The Grand Tradition, the magisterial John Steane dismisses Ernst Kraus in two words... "dreadful sounds". Clearly he was listening with some kind of "Golden Age" ideal in his mind's ear - Melchior probably. So many of the critics of his generation (and ours) seemed to listen without a curiosity about different aesthetic principles operating at different times.

[verismissimo]

Another that I like a lot in CD6 is Pelagie Greef-Andriessen's "Hojotoho!" from 1906.

She toured as a member of Neumann's Wagner company in 1882-83 and was part of the first Ring cycles in London under Mahler (as Mme Ende-Andriessen) in 1892.

[Tapiola]

In his The Grand Tradition, the magisterial John Steane dismisses Ernst Kraus in two words... "dreadful sounds".

Clearly he was listening with some kind of "Golden Age" ideal in his mind's ear - Melchior probably. So many of the critics of his generation (and ours) seemed to listen without a curiosity about different aesthetic principles operating at different times.

Yes indeed - who compares to Melchior though? He's a one-off, imo. One thing I neglected to mention earlier (and the booklet makes explicit) is the distinct lack of vibrato from these early singers.

EDIT: verismissimo, I had forgotten you mentioned this upthread - apologies.

[Flosshilde]

Most of the singers were in their prime in the period at Bayreuth dominated by Wagner’s second wife, Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt. It seems to me that Cosima concentrated and intensified various principles that had emanated from Wagner – the clear enunciation of words, focusing on consonants, the suppression of vibrato, actor-like declamation with the tone of voice as close to the speaking voice as possible, legato singing only in arioso passages, and so on.

I found this particular comment interesting, given my view of Terfel's performance in the Proms Walkure (I said that I thought someone should remind him that he should be singing the role)