I’m
tired of Wagnerians looking to the past for great singing. As
critic Hugh Canning noted following the poorly-cast 2007 Bayreuth
Ring, every generation seems to hark back to a supposed
golden age “only to be accused of cleaving to ancient, dust-gathering
recordings and dyed-in-the-wool nostalgia” (Cycle of Despair,
Sunday Times, 12 August 2007). Canning then discusses the glories
of 1950s Bayreuth, notably captured on the live 1955 Keilberth
Ring (Testament).
History
certainly gave us the exceptional Melchiors and Flagstads. However
on the basis of this 1951 Act III Walküre, the first
complete Ring act recorded live in Wagner’s own Festival House,
I am not convinced that today’s overall standards have fallen
so drastically.
Leonie
Rysanek’s gripping Sieglinde is certainly the stuff of legend.
Sieglinde’s whole being seems to pour through Rysanek’s chesty
soprano culminating in the most ecstatic cries “O hehrstes Wunder!
Herrlichste Maid!”.
Richard
Osborne’s booklet essay notes that Sigurd Björling’s fine authoritative
Wotan is marred by “occasional declamatory manner”. Legato should
certainly not be top of Björling’s CV but the voice is solid
and Björling does reveal Wotan’s dramatic journey from fury
to resignation.
Hugh
Canning specifically praises the Varnay-Windgassen-Hotter triptych
in 1950 Ring performances. In 1951 Varnay fully connects with
Brünnhilde’s predicament but her fruity tone is an acquired
taste. Moreover Varnay’s mannerism of sliding into notes is
frustrating, particularly as the results are impressive when
she does choose to nail top-notes forte and cleanly.
Karajan’s
energetic, passionate and poetic conducting really justifies
this Act III Walküre’s inclusion as an EMI Classics ‘Great
Recording of the Century’. The opening Ride blends airiness
with power, mercifully avoiding Soltian bombast. Strings and
brass seethe and stamp accompanying Wotan’s entrance. The great
orchestral arch as Wotan kisses away Brünnhilde’s godhead almost
rivals Furtwängler (1954 Naxos) for elastic tension through
rubati as the violins hold the line and emerge shining from
the crescendo’s apex. Karajan knows Wagner’s culmination points
and his sense of structure is unerring.
The
sound here includes shifts of perspective and understandable
compression but there’s nothing annoying. The EMI microphones
certainly capture a pleasing halo of resonance about the voices
and there is a better sense of the Festival House stage acoustic
than the contemporaneous Decca Götterdämmerung (Testament)
where the microphones where closer. Where the Decca 1951 Götterdämmerung
and 1955 Ring microphone placement really score is
in bringing forward the colours of Wagner’s orchestration. That
said, EMI’s engineers certainly caught the brass and timpani
better than, say, the radio broadcast tapes of the famous 1953
Krauss Ring. And blame for the distant woodwind can partly
be levelled at Karajan.
Our
generation has assembled Walküre casts equal to or greater
than this. For example Christine Brewer, Janice Watson and James
Morris sang with Donald Runnicles conducting at a 2000 Proms
concert. Or who can forget Meier, Terfel and Gasteen at the
2005 Proms? Going back further in living memory there was the
powerful English National Opera team of Norman Bailey and Margaret
Curphey with
one of the greatest Brünnhildes of all: Rita Hunter.
Furthermore
there is a better cast 1951 Walküre which is not from
Bayreuth. Not far away in Geneva we have an impressive live
concert performance under Robert Denzler (Walhall). The broadcast
sound is mostly satisfactory and Denzler is not as consistently
inspired as Karajan. But Helene Werth’s pure and passionate
Sieglinde is a lyrical foil to Rysanek, revealing a beguiling
youthfulness and vulnerability. Ludwig Hofmann’s Wotan shows
some strain in Wagner’s higher writing but his rich resonant
bass will make your spine tingle. It feels churlish to mention
Georgine von Milinkovic’s tight vibrato because her Brünnhilde
mixes bright metal, power, melting freshness and radiance. Take
a teleological approach and sample Milinkovic’s final lines
first: she soars upward and outward thrillingly extending the
notes as Brünnhilde makes one last great stand; truly a goddess
who cannot bear to let go. This is recorded history’s often
overlooked ‘B’ cast and you should make their acquaintance.
EMI’s
booklet includes a libretto with English and French translations,
a background essay by Richard Osborne, cast photos and a reproduction
of the dull original album cover.
David
Harbin
see
also Review
by Göran Forsling
Astrid Varnay
(soprano) … Brünnhilde 
