Our Summer BAL No 30: Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder

[HighlandDougie]

I have much enjoyed this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Wesendonck-Lieder-Dausgaard-Swedish-Orchestra/dp/B00BXHLLZM/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1377245400&sr=1-1&keywords=wagner+stemme+dausgaard

although the accompaniment by the vibrato-lite Swedish CO may not be to everyone's taste.

[umslopogaas]

I have Jesse Norman cond. Davis and Christa Ludwig cond. Klemperer, both on vinyl, but like otherposters these are not favourite works and I havent played either for ages. The 2010 Penguin Guide recommends the Norman performance on CD, and a historic mono version with Kirsten Flagstad, cond. Beecham which sounds well worth investigating, apparently as a bonus you get a talk by Flagstad on singing Wagner: well, she would know ...

[gurnemanz]

See this "Why Shouldn't Men Sing Romantic Drivel, Too?" - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/ar...anted=all&_r=0 - for comments on male singers singing songs conventionally sung by women.

Thanks for that interesting link. As well as Melchior dong two songs, I also have Richard Tauber in Träume. Both work perfectly well. The Wesendoncks are not absolute favourites of mine but I do enjoy them from time to time. I have several good versions, including Janet Baker and Christa Ludwig. My favourite is probably Kirsten Flagstad with Gerald Moore on piano, which I only got to know quite recently via her EMI Icon Box. Having seen Anna Caterina Antonacci in Trojans last year at the Proms we were considering going to the Prom, but didn't make it. I watched on TV didn't really like what I heard and didn't stick with it.

[Parry1912]

The incomparable shooting star that was Cheryl Studer, accompanied by the Staatskapelle Dresdener under the baton of Sinopoli, on a DG mid 90s CD when her voice was all silky luxuriance. Yummy.

Incidentally, both versions (piano and mottl's orchestrations) can be found on this set (Jessye Norman and Christa Ludwig respectively.

[Stanfordian]

I have a considerable number of recordings of the Wesendonck Lieder and the account that I admire the most is by Astrid Varnay and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leopold Ludwig. I feel that Varney is quite sublime with Im Treibhaus. The mono recording was made in 1955 at Hercules Hall, Residenz, Munich that I have on Deutsche Grammophon 423 955-2.

[Barbirollians]

Baker and Boult - but also Flagstad .

[BBMmk2]

I do not have this work in my collection!! I have seen from 'The Rivder people', that Christa Ludwig has revorded this with klepmerer, which seems to be rather good(5 *s).

[verismissimo]

I'm to see Rachel Nicholls sing these songs at Longborough tomorrow, so I sorted through what I have in my 'library'. I'm sure that I had Anne Evans, but that seems to have gone away, so my only current versions are the Flagstad/Moore from 1948 and the Baker/Boult, which is beautifully sung, played and recorded, but somehow misses the mark with me.

Really my favourite single song recording from the cycle is Laura Hilgermann from 1908 singing 'Traume'. Then Sabine Kalter in 1924 in 'Schmerzen'.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm sure that I had Anne Evans...

She did them on a BBC Music Mag CD, Vol III No 7 if that helps at all. Recorded at a Prom 3/8/94, BBCNOW/ Otaka.