Semperoper Dresden presents an historic performance of Tristan and Isolde, directed by Marco Arturo Marelli and conducted by world-leading conductor Christian Thielemann. The sound he obtains from the Wagnerian score "fills the room with elegiac longing, drawing listeners into the emotional depths of the famous lovers." (Opera Online) Klaus Florian Vogt, in his debut as Tristan, is "fully present and convincing with natural phrasing and clear diction" (Opernmagazin), while Camilla Nylund as Isolde "convinced with her still incredibly lyrical, light soprano" (Sachsische Zeitung). At the zenith of his career, Christian Thielemann manages to set a new standard with his permeation of this difficult score and leads the Staatskapelle Dresden to new heights of artistic expression. "It would be most wonderful if this Tristan never ended." (Opernmagazin). "Brilliant performances that bring you to your knees". (Sachsische Zeitung)
Semperoper Dresden presents an historic performance of Tristan and Isolde, directed by Marco Arturo Marelli and conducted by world-leading conductor Christian Thielemann. The sound he obtains from the Wagnerian score "fills the room with elegiac longing, drawing listeners into the emotional depths of the famous lovers." (Opera Online) Klaus Florian Vogt, in his debut as Tristan, is "fully present and convincing with natural phrasing and clear diction" (Opernmagazin), while Camilla Nylund as Isolde "convinced with her still incredibly lyrical, light soprano" (Sachsische Zeitung). At the zenith of his career, Christian Thielemann manages to set a new standard with his permeation of this difficult score and leads the Staatskapelle Dresden to new heights of artistic expression. "It would be most wonderful if this Tristan never ended." (Opernmagazin). "Brilliant performances that bring you to your knees". (Sachsische Zeitung)
With this remastered edition of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde from the 1952 Bayreuth Festival, Note One label launches it's new series Note One Heritage, which makes important historical recordings in music history accessible again. The legendary performance on 23 July 1952 at the Bayreuth Festival Theatre is considered one of the most striking documents of the early post-war years and the artistic renewal of the festival in the era of the so-called New Bayreuth. At the podium is Herbert von Karajan, whose conducting steadily intensifies the dramatic tension of the score, ultimately culminating in an almost ethereal Liebestod. At the centre are two extraordinary singers: Martha Modl, one of the most dominant dramatic voices of her time, and Ramon Vinay, whose powerful, passionate Tristan ranks among the greatest interpretations of this role. Their encounter unites two contrasting temperaments in an electrifying musical dramaturgy - from eruptive passion to meditative introspection. The cast is complemented by outstanding Bayreuth forces such as Hans Hotter as Kurwenal, Ludwig Weber as King Marke and Ira Malaniuk as Brangane. The Bavarian Radio recording - long out of print and now remastered - reveals the atmosphere of a performance whose intensity and immediacy were celebrated as extraordinary even at the time. Note One Heritage's first release invites listeners to rediscover a pivotal moment in the history of opera and the festival.
Hardly any work by a great composer has undergone as many arrangements as Richard Wagner's music dramas. Just a few years ago, Cord Garben discovered the "50 Symphonic Movements from Richard Wagner's Music Dramas" in an antiquarian bookshop. They were created by the Hamburg lawyer, composer, and patron Hermann Behn (1859-1927) between 1914 and 1917. While Behn used the "conventional" method in his arrangement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 for two pianos, four hands (Musicaphon M56915)-meaning nothing more than distributing the relevant material of the orchestral score in a way that is easily playable for both pianists-he took a completely different approach with Wagner's dramas. In 1914, he had already achieved his signature symphonic sound on the pianos in his arrangement of the first fragments of the "Ring of the Nibelung." To this end, he skillfully employed doubling of chord sequences and absurdly wide fingerings in the left hand, which can only be reproduced in a "broken" style, i.e., by quickly plucking the notes from bottom to top. This inevitably results in deliberate inaccuracies in the harmony, which-with sufficient pedal use-lead to a previously unheard richness of sound. Christiane Behn (great-grandniece of Hermann Behn) and Cord Garben play Behn's arrangements (in excerpts) on two 1912 Steinways that once belonged to Hermann Behn's cousin Rafael Behn and are now in Christiane Behn's possession. Behn himself once played his arrangements on these instruments (together with his friend Gustav Mahler, among others, as well as with Rafael Behn).
Tristan: Robert Dean Smith Marke: Robert Holl Isolde: Iréne Theorin Kurwenal: Jukka Rasilainen Melot: Ralf Lukas Brangäne: Michelle Breedt Junger Seemann: Clemens Bieber Ein Hirt: Arnold Bezuyen Ein Steuermann: Martin Snell Bayreuther Festspiele Chorus/Eberhard Friedrich Bayreuther Festspiele Orchestra/Peter Schneider Stage Director: Christoph Marthaler rec. live, Bayreuth Festival, 9 August 2009. Special Features: include ‘Kinder, macht was Neues!’ The making of Tristan und Isolde. Video Tracks: 16:9 Audio Tracks: 5.1 DTS Surround, PCM Stereo Subtitle Tracks: English, French, German, Spanish OPUS ARTE OA 1033 D [3DVDs: 292:00]
As I reported last year this performance of Tristan und Isolde was chosen for only the second live relay from the ‘Green Hill’ following Die Meistersinger in 2008. Katharina Wagner who now controls Bayreuth alongside her half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier, wishes to open up the Festival to a much wider audience. So again the Bayreuth Festival joined forces with the city of Bayreuth and a leading German engineering company, Siemens, to present the Siemens Festival Night. This allowed several thousand people the opportunity of a free event at the Bayreuth Festplatz. In addition, the opera, like last year’s, was available on the Internet.
As I look back on what I wrote last August as the reviewer of this performance I was in no danger (in mid-January) of bright sun shining on my TV screen and creating the problems I had initially with the outdoor showing. I had reported on Christoph Marthaler’s 2005 anti-romantic staging of Tristan und Isolde from the theatre in 2008 and most of what I wrote both then and again last year stands without much significant alteration. The Prelude introduces us to the circles of light that are the light bulbs and the recurring imagery for the ocean liner in which the ‘action’ is set. Katharina Wagner has called Marthaler ‘a master when it comes to staging boredom, standstill and desperation’ though whether this is damning him with faint praise I cannot tell. In his metaphysical interpretation there is little eye contact — or any contact for that matter — between the characters. It must not be forgotten that Katharina had little — if anything — to do with this production as, at the time it was planned, the Festival was solidly in the hands of her father, Wolfgang, and late mother, Gudrun.
As revived here by Anna Sophie-Mahler little does happen in this Tristan und Isolde but Michael Beyer’s direction for TV puts our attention directly onto the faces of the singers and the truth they showed holds the viewer’s attention. In the opera house you are distanced from the facial expression of the singers but here we can focus on crucial small moments to mostly good effect. Iréne Theorin as Isolde is revealed to be quite a stunning actress and her best moment remains near the end of Act I when she is quite deranged at ‘Nun lass uns Sühne trinken!’ Here having drunk the ‘wrong’ potion she is beginning to feel the effect of passion and not her death; she very subtlety undoes her top button and then takes her pulse. Robert Dean Smith, as Tristan, also benefits from the close-ups particularly in his Act III ravings. As before, the other highlights include Michelle Breedt’s concerned Brangäne trying to snatch back the Todestrank from Isolde in Act I, King Marke’s pain at being deceived being etched so clearly on Robert Holl’s craggy features and the passing of the knife that fatally wounds Tristan from Marke on to Melot then Tristan and back to Melot and finally returned into Marke’s hands. Then significantly there is Tristan staring straight at Kurwenal (Jukka Rasilainen) convincing me that his coming back to life in Act III is all in his faithful retainer’s mind. Much of this might be missed if – as a member of the theatre audience – you were looking elsewhere.
The walls of the hold where Tristan is shown ‘lying in state’ look even more mildewed and graffiti-covered in the final Act here on DVD than on the night of the relay. Some moments also still look ridiculous such as Tristan and Kurwenal’s Act I hand gesturing when the latter sings about Lord Morold, though this is not now blown up on a huge 90m² screen.
The sound from my DVD player was reasonably faithful to the live transmission though arguably more vivid than before because of the work of the engineers. The voices sound mostly very even and the orchestra under Peter Schneider’s experience baton seems faultless and perfectly balanced though, as outdoors in August, it still seems a little louder than you would get in the Festspielhaus.
As an extra there is a short backstage self-congratulatory feature entitled ‘Kinder, macht was Neues!’ Sadly this urge by Richard Wagner to future generations to ‘do something new’ has often been taken too literally. Here we get rehearsal footage, comments and a justification for the production by those involved and even a plug for the sponsors, Siemens.
Katharina has stated that she aims to ‘make the Festival accessible to a wide public’ and for ‘a strategy of transparency while setting artistic standards for future interpretations of Wagner and winning new opera fans’. With the long wait for Bayreuth tickets it is now more possible to keep up-to-date with what is going on than ever before. It is no good some critics complaining that things are not what they were at Bayreuth without the Wagnerian, as well as the general opera-loving public, having the evidence to discuss the work going on there. At least the recent two DVD releases, along with the Ring CDs conducted by Thielemann, can only help promote the debate that I am sure Katharina and Eva surely welcome from those distanced from — what the blurb on this Tristan calls — ‘the spiritual home of Wagner’s work’.
This imbues this DVD with an historical importance but it is recommended for so much more — and even though the supporting singers are not the same quality — there are still world-class performances from Iréne Theorin’s committed, radiant Isolde and Robert Dean Smith’s lyrical, inexhaustible Tristan. It is also extremely well conducted by the Bayreuth veteran, Peter Schneider and, together with the two central performances; it is often possible to be transported to a realm far away from the drabness of the stage designs.
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde / Stemme, Seiffert, Welser-Möst, Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Orfeo
CD · 3 discs
$37.99May 06, 2022
Although the premiere in 1865 was not to be at Vienna State Opera but at Munich’s court theatre (June 10th), Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde was performed more than 400 times at the House on the Ring since its premier in 1883. This live recording from June 2013 under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst presents Nina Stemme as Isolde – her debut in that role at Vienna State Opera –, Peter Seiffert as Tristan (who was honoured Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera the same month the recording was made), Jochen Schmeckenbecher as Kurwenal, Stephen Milling as König Marke and Janina Baechle as Brangäne. The 3 album set was first released in 2019 in the sold out 150 Years Wiener Staastoper – The Anniversary Edition (C980120).
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde / Nilsson, Sawallisch, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra
Orfeo
CD · 3 discs
$37.99Jun 08, 2018
Nobody mastered and shaped the great roles of high drama in the post-war period as effortlessly as Birgit Nilsson - this is her stupendous breakthrough as Isolde at Bayreuth with the musical colleagues she so highly respected. Birgit Nilsson, the young Swedish singer, had, together with Sigurd Bjorling, been recommended by Leo Blech to Winifred Wagner back in 1948 “because her sons felt eager and obliged to establish a new ensemble,” or so Wolfgang Wagner commented in 1994. Nilsson declined an offer to portray Sieglinde in Die Walkure in Bayreuth in 1951 due to an engagement at Glyndebourne. After much negotiation, she was first engaged at the festival in 1953 when she assumed the soprano part in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It was this production from 1958, however, that cemented her place in Bayreuth history. Wolfgang Wagner observed in his memoirs: “The way that Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen, in collaboration with Karl Bohm and Wieland Wagner, became the perfect duo in the title of Tristan… had been part of my design several years previously, and so I was delighted to have conferred the ‘minor orders’ on these two great artists.”
This new recording from the Staatskapelle Weimar under Hansjörg Albrecht presents a rarely heard compilation of Richard Wagner’s themes from Tristan und Isolde, arranged for orchestra by Henk de Vlieger (b. 1953). This is Hansjörg Albrecht's follow-up Wagner recording to his album Der Ring ohne Worte (OC1872). The Staatkapelle Weimar dates back to 1491, making it one of the oldest orchestras in the world, and one that is more than familiar with the works of Richard Wagner.
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Paraphrase for String Septet
Coviello
CD · 1 disc
$20.99Sep 15, 2023
Tristan und Isolde - the opera in which "Richard once wanted to be completely symphonic"; as his wife Cosima wrote - in a gripping one-hour paraphrase for string septet which, shortly after its premiere by the soloist ensemble D'Accord, has already conquered a place on stages all over the world.
This live recording of Wagner’s great opera Tristan und Isolde was recorded in August of 1958.; Wolfgang Windgassen, who champions the role of Tristan, was known for his powerful voice and successful performances in Wagner operas. He is often considered the most accomplished Wagner tenor of the twentieth century.; Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson was also a Wagner specialist, along with works from Strauss. Her voice is remembered for its force and brilliance in the upper register.
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90 (Recorded Live 2009)
Opus Arte
CD · 4 discs
$41.99Jun 22, 2018
Katharina Wagner, the great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, is currently director of the Bayreuth Festival, making this recording even more special.. Tristan und Isolde was first performed in 1865 and provided inspiration to many composers including Mahler, Strauss, Szymanowski and Berg. It is widely acknowledged as one of the peaks of the operatic repertoire, and has been performed regularly since it's premiere. This production, by renowned director Christoph Marthaler, stars leading Wagner exponents Robert Dean Smith and Iréne Theorin in the title roles, supported by the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Peter Schneider. The press had only good things to say about this performance: "It's hard to know where to point the awards finger first in such a complete ensemble performance... Musically everything is fine under the super-experienced Peter Schneider... Despite the ferocious competition, absolutely unmissable.' (Gramophone) 'Peter Schneider conducted with real feeling for the score and the prelude to the first act stole upon the ear with the magic of Bayreuth's amazing acoustics.' (The Stage)
WAGNER, R.: Scenes from Tristan und Isolde and Gotterdammeru
Naxos
CD · 1 disc
$19.99Aug 01, 2004
Margaret Jane Wray has performed with some of the most important musical figures of our day, including Daniel Barenboim, Maris Janssons and Seiji Ozawa and enjoys a busy career as a concert artist in addition to her varied operatic performances. Included on this disc is the rarely recorded 1862 concert ending to the 'Love Duet' from 'Tristan und Isolde'.
Less is more: true to this motto, nine orchestra musicians who were friends founded the Ensemble Minui in 2016. Active in renowned orchestras such as the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian National Opera, and the Vienna State Opera, they devote themselves here to exquisite minimalism with elegance and sophistication. Homogeneous and balanced, the five string players and four wind players offer previously unheard, sonically differentiated perspectives on large-scale operas such as Wagner's Die Walküre, Puccini's Manon Lescaut, and Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten.
“A Wondrous Love Story” takes its base in Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” as its sub title “Tristan Variations”indicates. Danish composer Bent Lorentzen has won numerous fi rst prizes in international competitions for composers. He is among the fi rst Danish composers
“A Wondrous Love Story” takes its base in Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” as its subtitle “Tristan Variations” indicates. Danish composer Bent Lorentzen has won numerous first prizes in international competitions for composers. He is among the first Danish composers to explore the sonic element of music. “A Wondrous Love Story” has been performed in German and Danish theatres to the critics and audience’s acclaim.
Liszt's first meeting with Wagner in 1840 took place when the latter was struggling as a composer, and his transcriptions can be seen as part of a campaign to bring Wagner's work to the notice of a wider audience. These include many of Wagner's most famous dramatic moments, such as Isolde's Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde and the Wedding March from Lohengrin. The program concludes with the Solemn March to the Holy Grail from Wagner's last stage work Parsifal, Liszt's transcription of which was published in 1883, the year of Wagner's death.
