WAGNER
The Valkyrie
Alberto Remedios -
Siegmund
Clifford Grant - Hunding
Norman Bailey - Wotan
Margaret Curphey - Sieglinde
Rita Hunter - Brünnhilde
Ann Howard - Fricka
English National Opera Orchestra, Sir Reginald
Goodall
Chandos CHAN3038(4),
4 discs - 73'06, 52'09. 47'57, 76'02,
mid-price.
Crotchet
£34
Chandos have rather shrewdly opted to re-issue Reginald Goodall's 1975
performance of The Valkyrie as the first of their magnificently remastered
ENO Ring cycle. I say shrewdly, because of all the elements that go into
making this recording one of the cornerstones of the Wagner discography The
Valkryie is also, consistently, the most human of all the operas that form
the tetralogy. The humanity of The Valkyrie makes it the most popular and
approachable of the cycle and so self contained is the work that Act I and
Act III are often performed in concert as separate entities. Goodall was
primarily a masterly conductor, but also one of the most humane of men. This
recording of the second opera in the cycle is nowhere better than in Act
II, a semi- summation of the opera's theme - passion, which has Goodall
encompassing the fragility of love, despair, rage, tenderness and death more
powerfully than any other interpreter on disc. It remains to this day the
most personal and emotional interpretation of this act I have heard and gives
us only the slightest hint of what Goodall, almost uniquely, could do with
Wagner. In Siegfried, the next issued opera in this series, Goodall takes
this to its natural conclusion in an unmatched interpretation of Act III
that is simply spellbinding in its beauty and heartrending in its warmth.
It may be worth putting this recording into context. It comprises part of
a cycle recorded between 1973 and 1977 - making it the only non-integral
live cycle on disc - all other live recordings coming from single
years. Only Solti's studio recording of The Ring, recorded between 1958-66,
had a longer gestation period. It is the most spacious recording of The Ring
available taking almost 17 hours (most others taking under 15) - and only
Hans Knappertsbusch, at Bayreuth in 1958, approaches this breadth. It is
also, of course, the only cycle to be sung in English and in Chandos' new
re-mastering it must surely now be one of the very greatest cycles ever to
have been recorded.
Solti's cycle is over two hours shorter than Goodall's, and a great deal
less involving, yet has attracted a legendary status which actually overstates
its merits. Solti had the Vienna Philharmonic in the pit - but just listen
to Goodall's ENO orchestra in The Valkyrie at the beginning of the Act I
Prelude, - with trenchantly deep cellos and basses - or during the exhilarating
Ride of the Valkyrie's in Act III, to hear how sumptuous and imperious the
playing is. Brass are magnificently burnished and strings have a depth of
tone which can only be described as opulent. Throughout the entire work Goodall's
orchestra are fully the match of Solti's. Listen to the Vienna Philharmonic
on Furtwängler's studio recording of the opera, however, and the story
is rather different. Here we have a conductor and orchestra at the height
of their collective powers. Not even Goodall could summon such monumental
passion and electricity from an orchestra as Furtwängler commands on
this magnificent recording [EMI CHS 7 63045 2].
The common factor in recordings of not just The Valkyrie but all of The Ring
operas under Goodall or Furtwängler (or Knappertsbusch for that matter)
remains a glowing, spacious nobility. Coupled with a transparent understanding
of what the work is about one finds in these conductors a sense of the profound
romanticism and undiluted drama of these epic structures. Goodall is not
alone in having a unique feeling for The Valkyrie's inner textual meaning,
whether it be in the D minor tonality of the opening, the C major/A minor
clash of the Recognition or the E major close of the work ; but he perhaps
reveals a sublime metaphysical sound world more akin to the richness of these
motives than either of the above conductors simply because of the breadth
he layers over this work's development. Goodall's grip over the long paragraphs
which frame this work is unerring and his sense of the work's dynamic range
is all but a revelation. Details that have been missed in studio cycles made
over the past thirty years (Karajan included) are here convincingly
perpendicular. One of many examples could include the Act I - Scene III exchange
between Siegmund and Sieglinde (as Siegmund sings ' Oh sweetest enchantment'
- track 17). Here, Goodall sets the passion motives not only masterfully
but demonstrably - an English horn responds almost in exclamation and the
ensuing clarinets and flutes phrase with genuinely loving turns. You will
look in vain to find this so transparently done elsewhere.
None of this would be possible without Goodall's superb cast. Alberto Remedios,
one of the few British tenors to have earned the title 'Heldontenor', is
a magnificent Siegmund. Rather like Ludwig Suthaus on Furtwängler's
studio recording, Remedios has a bell-like tone and sings with idiomatic
understanding of the text. But he is also capable of enormous poetry, such
as in the Act II - Scene V 'Charms of sleep' narration as he listens to the
breathing of the sleeping Sieglinde. Margaret Curphey as Sieglinde is a fine
match for Remedios. She brings to the role a reigned-in passion - notably
in her long duet with Siegmund - but is also capable of generating terror
and frenzy in her narration as she imagines hearing Hunding's dogs. The lyricism
of her soprano register brings dividends in her Act III realisation that
she is carrying Siegmund's child.
Norman Bailey, as Wotan, is full of understanding for a role which requires
elements of compassion and anguish, and Clifford Grant's Hunding is a
black-toned, sinister creation. The battle between Hunding and Siegmund,
following Hunding's horned battle cry, is as thrilling as it should be. Rita
Hunter, as Brünnhilde, is effortless in a tough role. Her exchanges
with Wotan are often profoundly moving.
This is a remarkable set. Newly minted in Chandos' typically bass-resonant
fashion, it has a darkness and profundity few other recordings of this opera
can equal. With an astonishingly sensitive cast and a conductor with visionary
ideas on how the music should grow, it has once again proved the revelation
it was on first issue. Many people brought up on Goodall's legendary cycles
at ENO will be well aware of what is being offered here. For others, too
young like myself to have ever heard Goodall conduct Wagner, the set should
offer many riches. At such a bargain price (less than £30) it should
be in everyone's collection.
Marc Bridle
Performance & recording
