Die Walküre: Act II (San Francisco, 1936)
Wotan - Friedrich Schorr (bass-baritone)
Brünnhilde - Kirsten Flagstad (soprano)
Fricka - Kathryn Meisle (mezzo)
Siegmund - Lauritz Melchior (tenor)
Sieglinde - Lotte Lehmann (soprano)
Hunding - Emanuel List (bass)
San Francisco Opera Orchestra/Fritz Reiner
rec. live, 13 November 1936, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco. AAD
MUSIC & ARTS CD-1272 [74:28]
The prospect is mouth-watering: "the two greatest living Wagnerian
sopranos" of their age - and probably any age - alongside the indisputable
king of Wagnerian tenors and one of the most distinguished and celebrated
bass-baritones ever to sing Wotan, all on stage together under the
fiery baton of Fritz Reiner.
Nothing in this world is perfect, so a few caveats: first, the sound
is gritty, swishy, hissy and derives from an AM broadcast - even though
one happily listens through it. Secondly, although Friedrich Schorr
is monumentally authoritative and delivers his narration tellingly,
there is no denying that even though he is here only 48 years old,
he is past his best. He can be heard husbanding his diminished vocal
resources, either faking or yelling his top notes - as in "O heilige
Schmach!". His last, climactic command, "Zurück von dem Speer!
In Stücken das Schwert!" is inaudible in the orchestral din,
apart from the first word which can just, faintly, be heard, Thirdly,
the three big cuts, totalling more than twenty minutes, are serious
and mar the Fricka-Wotan argument in Scene1, Wotan's narration in
Scene 2, and the “Todesverkündigung” in Scene 4.
I suppose for some who find too many longueurs in this act, which
can easily seem anti-climactic or disappointing after the thrills
of Act 1, these cuts might even be welcome, as they were for many
of the patrons in 1936 but they will scandalise the true Wagner aficionado.
Whatever the damage, I can live with it in return for being able to
hear such glorious voices. Finally, and most irritatingly of all,
the announcer Marcia Davenport invents "a slowly descending curtain"
to cover the fact that the broadcast is truncated 43 bars before the
end of the Act while Wotan has still to dismiss Hunding and voice
his wrath at Brünnhilde's disobedience in attempting to protect
Siegmund. It’s a shocking, early example of the inflexible tyranny
of NBC programme scheduling.
And yet, and yet ... this is still a collector's item and the only
extant audio record of the frequent collaboration between Kirsten
Flagstad and Lotte Lehmann. Both are phenomenal, Flagstad in particular
reminding us of the superhuman gleam of that extraordinary voice in
its prime, embodying in her more aloof, hochdramatischer soprano a
Brünnhilde as yet untouched by mortal tragedy. Lehmann's remarkable
Sieglinde is all desperate, womanly suffering, her pure intense tone
vividly conveying Sieglinde’s desperation and hysteria. As the
commentator puts it, "one is woman and the other superwoman". Those
performances alone would be reason enough to treasure this issue but
add the thrilling tenor of Lauritz Melchior and you have true Rheingold;
the moment when Melchior lets fly on the climactic phrase “Umfängt
Siegmund Sieglinde dort?” is simply marvellous. The principals
are ably supported by the lesser-known but impressive Kathryn Meisle
as an impassioned Fricka, even if her top notes are occasionally too
cautious. The few bars given at the end of the Act to Emmanuel List
remind us of why he was the Hunding du jour. Reiner conducts with
real drive; he has a totally natural and compelling feeling for the
ebb and flow of the music, encompassing both the high drama of Sieglinde's
ravings and the grave beauty of passages such as the Introduction
to the “Todesverkündigung”, the scene which for me
forms the highlight of this Act. The introductory commentary is a
quaint little gem of period sexism, musical biographer Marcia Davenport
being condescendingly described as "an attractive brunette".
Regarding the provenance of this re-mastering, I quote here the note
in full: "First released by our predecessor organization, educational
Media Associates of America, Inc., in 1976 on LP-426, this recording
was subsequently reissued in a restoration by Maggi Payne in 1999
as Music & Arts CD-1048, and was newly restored for the present
edition in 2013 from recently discovered NBC transcription discs by
Ward Marston and Aaron Z. Snyder." The sound is still hissy but nowhere
near as harsh as previous issues.
The obvious comparison to be made with this is the Act II issued on
EMI, which was derived from an assemblage of recordings made in 1935
and 1938 in Berlin and Vienna with two different conductors (Brunos:
Walter and Seidler-Winkler), two different orchestras (the VPO and
the Berlin Staatsoper) and two different singers as both Wotan and
Brünnhilde (Ella Flesch and Alfred Jerger in Scene 5 only) but
again featuring Lehmann and Melchior. Marta Fuchs is a far from inadequate
Brünnhilde, Margarete Klose a vibrant Fricka and a young Hans
Hotter is in superb form as Wotan. Despite the absence of Flagstad
- indubitably a lamentable loss for all Fuchs' competence - the superior
studio sound and a preferable Wotan might for some collectors make
it a more attractive option; the true Wagnerite will want both.
If, by the way, you find the truncated ending too much to endure,
Legato Classics have issued the same performance and patched the ending
with another roughly contemporaneous recording by Schorr.
Ralph Moore
A collector's item and the only extant audio record of the frequent
collaboration between the phenomenal Flagstad and Lehmann.
Masterwork Index: Die
Walküre
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