Wagner: "The Ring"; BPO/Karajan & chums.
I first got to know this epic through the TV broadcasts of the Boulez/Chéreau Bayreuth Centenary production, which I saw both times it was broadcast. With my first salary cheque in 1983, I went into London and bought this Karajan LP boxed set (an enormous and hefty cube of a thing) from the HMV Shop - and it was from this recording that I really "learnt" the work. In my stupid attempt at "downsizing" in the early '90s, I sold off the box to a second-hand Record shop - and I hadn't heard it in nearly thirty years. I rectified my hasty error by finally buying the CD version as a Christmas present to myself, and played it over the past week.
Wow!
I had forgotten just how good this set is. From a Musical point of view, this is exemplary - the singing is superb (not a screecher among them), the orchestral playing breath-taking - and the conductor's overall vision ... ! I mentioned on Joseph's "Listening Habits" Thread how I often put discs on as semi-"background" Music whilst I do other things. No chance with this - the intensity of the Music-making completely demands your attention: it slaps the book out of your hands, makes you sit up straight and pay attention! It reminded me of the first time I ever heard a Karajan performance: the power and intensity of the Music-making just commands total attention; the Music becomes absolutely the total focus of your attention - time takes a long tea break. Magnificent. Magnificentissimo.
There are a couple of points that some listeners find annoying on the "casting" side - feeling that not having the same singer for Brunnhilde throughout (for example) is a problem, For me, it's fine that Brunnhilde is a different voice when she wakes up as a woman from when she was an immortal - and Helge Dernesch is a superbly Musical singer in Gotterdammerung (a bit less wonderful in the duet that concludes Siegfried - she and Jess Thomas sound "pushed to their limits" here) - none of the Fog Horn sonorities or hard-edged shrieking of other singers who have recorded the role. My only problem, really, is with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Wotan in Rheingold - beautifully sung, Musically, but dramatically, rather too beautiful - he doesn't sound nearly "seedy" enough. It would have been much better if Thomas Stewart had sung Wotan throughout - what a fantastic Wotan his is - pitch-perfect, and with all the necessary range (from feeble self-pity to snarling, bestial menace - and that's just in Walkure!) and power. Amongst my favourite Wotans, along with Gerald London and Donald McIntyre - but so distinctive a voice makes his reappearance as Gunther in Gotterdammerung a bit odd: it's as if Wotan is in disguise again. (DF-D should have been given this role - exactly the right sound for Gunther - and Stewart the Wotan in Rheingold - as he is in the video of that work with Karajan.)
Gundula Janowitz
is perfect as both Sieglinde and Gutrune. When the former is sung by a "heavier"-voiced singer, one often wonders why she hasn't poisoned Hunding on their wedding night, and why such a powerful role from Act One has turned into such a feeble wimp in Act Two. Janowitz brings out the fragility of the character from the start, but with a voice that soars above the orchestra, beautifully piercing the texture - clear, lucid and perfectly in tune even with Jon Vickers doing his "Jon Vickers" thing. Both are superb. Gutrune is (with Freia) one of the least sympathetic roles in all opera - Janowitz brings out the strength of character that Wagner's notes offer: she creates a rare (for me) feeling of sympathy for the character (helped in no small part by James Galway, who played the principal Flute which so often accompanies her vocal line - the blend of these two "instruments" is but one of the innumerable miracles on this recording). Josephine Veasey is unsurpassed as Fricka - none of the "nagging wife" that put Anne Sophie von Otter off taking on the role, Veasey and Karajan portray her as a dignified woman, deeply wronged, who has genuine grievances against the behaviour of her double-dealing husband, and who presents them with force of moral character. And with this casting the contrasting pairs of women in these operas - Fricka and Friea in Rheingold, Sieglinde and Brunnhilde in Walkure, Brunnhilde and Gutrune in Gotterdammerung - is made very clear to an extent I'd never noticed before.
The Penguins used to chortle about Jess Thomas that "when Siegfried is out-sung by Mime, it is time to complain", without pointing out that this was equally true of the other sets available at the time. He's in very good voice - much, much better than many a singer recorded in the role since - and, as I mentioned, just pushed to his limits at the very end of Siegfried (although he and Dernesch are both in much better voice than Kollo and Behrens in the Sawallisch set - both well-past their Best Before dates, they bellow horrendously off-key and rhythm - Thomas and Behrens are gloriously beautiful in comparison). But the real revelation for me this time was Helge Brilioth as Siegfried in Gotterdammerung - what a tremendous voice! Blimey - this role has never been bettered on disc; strong, powerful, and beautifully sonorous voice, smack-bang in the middle of intonation and rhythm. And this seems to have been his only important recording! If only he'd've been in Siegfried as well!
And Karajan - perfection of pacing, with equal grasp of individual details (the Bass Clarinet which splices Wotan's farewell into the Magic Fire Music - exactly the right level of crescendo to move the tone from the languorous "sleep" Music to the forceful "fire") as of overall "arch" (the Funeral March isn't treated as a Concert item, with everything blazing - it is tremendous, but Karajan holds back, saving the real climax for he very end [the bit where certain other recordings have to resort to the sound effects to make up for the conductor's having shot his bolt earlier on].)
It isn't a recording for "everyday" hearing (that would possibly be the earlier of the two Janowski recordings) - but as a very special event, making clear just how important the Work is on the scale of things ... this is unbeatable.
I first got to know this epic through the TV broadcasts of the Boulez/Chéreau Bayreuth Centenary production, which I saw both times it was broadcast. With my first salary cheque in 1983, I went into London and bought this Karajan LP boxed set (an enormous and hefty cube of a thing) from the HMV Shop - and it was from this recording that I really "learnt" the work. In my stupid attempt at "downsizing" in the early '90s, I sold off the box to a second-hand Record shop - and I hadn't heard it in nearly thirty years. I rectified my hasty error by finally buying the CD version as a Christmas present to myself, and played it over the past week.
Wow!
I had forgotten just how good this set is. From a Musical point of view, this is exemplary - the singing is superb (not a screecher among them), the orchestral playing breath-taking - and the conductor's overall vision ... ! I mentioned on Joseph's "Listening Habits" Thread how I often put discs on as semi-"background" Music whilst I do other things. No chance with this - the intensity of the Music-making completely demands your attention: it slaps the book out of your hands, makes you sit up straight and pay attention! It reminded me of the first time I ever heard a Karajan performance: the power and intensity of the Music-making just commands total attention; the Music becomes absolutely the total focus of your attention - time takes a long tea break. Magnificent. Magnificentissimo.
There are a couple of points that some listeners find annoying on the "casting" side - feeling that not having the same singer for Brunnhilde throughout (for example) is a problem, For me, it's fine that Brunnhilde is a different voice when she wakes up as a woman from when she was an immortal - and Helge Dernesch is a superbly Musical singer in Gotterdammerung (a bit less wonderful in the duet that concludes Siegfried - she and Jess Thomas sound "pushed to their limits" here) - none of the Fog Horn sonorities or hard-edged shrieking of other singers who have recorded the role. My only problem, really, is with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Wotan in Rheingold - beautifully sung, Musically, but dramatically, rather too beautiful - he doesn't sound nearly "seedy" enough. It would have been much better if Thomas Stewart had sung Wotan throughout - what a fantastic Wotan his is - pitch-perfect, and with all the necessary range (from feeble self-pity to snarling, bestial menace - and that's just in Walkure!) and power. Amongst my favourite Wotans, along with Gerald London and Donald McIntyre - but so distinctive a voice makes his reappearance as Gunther in Gotterdammerung a bit odd: it's as if Wotan is in disguise again. (DF-D should have been given this role - exactly the right sound for Gunther - and Stewart the Wotan in Rheingold - as he is in the video of that work with Karajan.)
Gundula Janowitz
is perfect as both Sieglinde and Gutrune. When the former is sung by a "heavier"-voiced singer, one often wonders why she hasn't poisoned Hunding on their wedding night, and why such a powerful role from Act One has turned into such a feeble wimp in Act Two. Janowitz brings out the fragility of the character from the start, but with a voice that soars above the orchestra, beautifully piercing the texture - clear, lucid and perfectly in tune even with Jon Vickers doing his "Jon Vickers" thing. Both are superb. Gutrune is (with Freia) one of the least sympathetic roles in all opera - Janowitz brings out the strength of character that Wagner's notes offer: she creates a rare (for me) feeling of sympathy for the character (helped in no small part by James Galway, who played the principal Flute which so often accompanies her vocal line - the blend of these two "instruments" is but one of the innumerable miracles on this recording). Josephine Veasey is unsurpassed as Fricka - none of the "nagging wife" that put Anne Sophie von Otter off taking on the role, Veasey and Karajan portray her as a dignified woman, deeply wronged, who has genuine grievances against the behaviour of her double-dealing husband, and who presents them with force of moral character. And with this casting the contrasting pairs of women in these operas - Fricka and Friea in Rheingold, Sieglinde and Brunnhilde in Walkure, Brunnhilde and Gutrune in Gotterdammerung - is made very clear to an extent I'd never noticed before.The Penguins used to chortle about Jess Thomas that "when Siegfried is out-sung by Mime, it is time to complain", without pointing out that this was equally true of the other sets available at the time. He's in very good voice - much, much better than many a singer recorded in the role since - and, as I mentioned, just pushed to his limits at the very end of Siegfried (although he and Dernesch are both in much better voice than Kollo and Behrens in the Sawallisch set - both well-past their Best Before dates, they bellow horrendously off-key and rhythm - Thomas and Behrens are gloriously beautiful in comparison). But the real revelation for me this time was Helge Brilioth as Siegfried in Gotterdammerung - what a tremendous voice! Blimey - this role has never been bettered on disc; strong, powerful, and beautifully sonorous voice, smack-bang in the middle of intonation and rhythm. And this seems to have been his only important recording! If only he'd've been in Siegfried as well!
And Karajan - perfection of pacing, with equal grasp of individual details (the Bass Clarinet which splices Wotan's farewell into the Magic Fire Music - exactly the right level of crescendo to move the tone from the languorous "sleep" Music to the forceful "fire") as of overall "arch" (the Funeral March isn't treated as a Concert item, with everything blazing - it is tremendous, but Karajan holds back, saving the real climax for he very end [the bit where certain other recordings have to resort to the sound effects to make up for the conductor's having shot his bolt earlier on].)
It isn't a recording for "everyday" hearing (that would possibly be the earlier of the two Janowski recordings) - but as a very special event, making clear just how important the Work is on the scale of things ... this is unbeatable.
) , which would be wonderful live, and, on reflection, might be a good one to introduce to interested younger people.
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