Guild Music has an association with Immortal Performances
which has an archive of first-generation historic broadcasts from
the 1930s and 1940s. This initial release (the others are a complete
1943 Figaro, excerpts from a 1928 Boris Godunov with Chaliapin,
and all of Act 2 of Parsifal from 1938) sets a standard hard
to beat. All the discs are transfers from the original transcription
discs' master tapes. Transcripts of the complete Toscanini broadcasts
from the same period are also planned. So too is a complete and mouth-wateringly
cast Ring, of which this Siegfried forms a segment.
Frankly it is hard to believe that the cast of this
Siegfried could be bettered, Melchior being probably the finest
Siegfried ever, while Schorr and Flagstad were among the greatest exponents
of their respective roles of Wotan and Brünnhilde. Bodanzky would
not be an interpreter of my first choice, and especially as only three
years later Erich Leinsdorf arrived at the Met to give Wagner operas
uncut for the first time (about fifty pages of vocal score are omitted
here, and they are detailed in the booklet). Sound quality sometimes
becomes poor such as at Schorr’s first entry as the Wanderer where there’s
a fair deal of "purring" for a minute or two, but Guild are
very upfront about the problems of ‘sporadic ticks, grit and occasional
swishes, as well as one or another short-lived groove defect’ which
are inevitably the consequence of the ravages of time and storage, while
it should be remembered that posterity was on no-one’s mind 55 years
ago. Mercifully the persistent hacking coughs which, on that cold January
night, seemed to have plagued the audience during the opening orchestral
prelude disappear by the time the action gets underway, and this is
apparently ‘one of the better sounding broadcast recordings by NBC’
(18 preserved from 1937 alone). It’s more than worthwhile putting up
with the technical weaknesses, for this surely was a golden age for
Wagnerian singers, and we have to wait until the 1950s before such heights
were reached once again.
Schorr’s dramatic authority is soon revealed, so too
the true stature of his noble voice for he had a magnificent sense of
phrasing and tonal colour. During the course of this segment of the
cycle Wotan, the Wanderer, is agonizingly gradually worn down by not
only events but also the burden of guilt he must carry after his dishonesty
in stealing the Ring, which he neither forged nor owned. It’s not all
wearisome however; there are even moments of light humour when he mocks
Alberich, and at such points this opera can be seen as a movement, the
Scherzo at that, in a four-movement symphonic cycle (Siegfried too has
some lighter moments when he is trying out his reed and, once he has
dispatched Mime, when he cavorts around with the Woodbird). Schorr was
unsurpassed in his day and his career at the Met lasted twenty years.
This is an admirable testimony to an immortal voice.
Laufkoetter’s neurotic Mime is characteristically wheedling,
pathetic and even at times sympathetic, but always crafty and deadly
dangerous until his abrupt demise at Siegfried’s contemptuous hands
during the second act. It will be interesting to hear how the character
has developed out of Das Rheingold when, in due course, that
set will be released. Habich as Alberich sustains the venomous fury
which is born of his rejection by the Rhine Maidens and the theft of
the Ring by Wotan, both incidents occurring in Das Rheingold
and which set off the unstoppable and fateful train of events of the
tetralogy. It’s a snarlingly evil characterisation to send shivers down
your spine. Melchior’s youthful enthusiasm produces glorious singing
in Act One, hauntingly ruminative when thinking of the mother he never
knew as he tries to communicate with the Woodbird in Act Two, and ardently
erotic in his third act encounter with Brünnhilde whose somnolent
body he greets with the memorable words ‘Das its kein Mann’. We are
a few years away from the notorious incident when Melchior taught a
young and apparently impudent Leinsdorf a lesson by sustaining his crowning
top A for what seems an eternity while the bemused Leinsdorf could do
nothing more than hold the orchestral strings’ tremolando until the
tenor was ready to move off the pause he had decided to insert, but
apart from trying to keep Bodanzky on the move during the whole of this
forging scene, the relationship between stage and pit seems to have
been a happy one on this occasion. His fight with Fafner (an initially
somnolent then threatening Emanuel List) is vividly thrilling followed
by the bright if distant singing of Stella Andreva as the Woodbird.
As Erda the great Thorborg brings a monumental sense of poise and drama
to the Earthgoddess as she rises statuesquely from her subterranean
slumbers to begin her long conversation with Wotan, once her husband,
foretelling the inevitable doom which awaits the gods. That leaves the
other Nordic female member of the cast, the legendary Flagstad, who
awakens from her 20 year sleep with all the naturalness of an everyday
experience, quiet, light-toned, almost virginal, but then as the act
progresses her ecstasy builds with consummate ease, her top Cs full
of glancing light, emphasising the role’s youth until the brilliant
top Bs of the final duet to introduce a sexual as well as musical climax
into the drama.
John Steane once wrote, ‘to learn how Wagner could
be sung, the public in general had to wait for the great days of Melchior,
Schorr and Flagstad’. Well, here is the chance to experience such an
occasion - seize it.
Christopher Fifield
Robert Farr has also listened to this disc
Guild Music's "Immortal
Performances", a series of operas and orchestral works derived from
broadcasts, was launched in January 2002. The sources come via the Immortal
Performances Recorded Music Society and Richard Canniel who have had
access to NBC (American) broadcast transcriptions, and preservations
made for singers, from the 1930s and 1940s. These first generation tapes,
originally made in the late 1940s, have been subject to restorative
techniques aimed specifically at preserving the overtones of the voice
and instruments, as well as the original acoustic; no electronic reverberation
has been added. Where, as was often the case with NBC, more than one
performance of an opera was broadcast in a season, the choice has been
made on the basis of the best sounding performance available. On these
facts it is claimed that this series represents "The Finest in Broadcast
Recordings". Many will also be heartened to see the name of Keith Hardwick
as "Series Consultant'. Certainly the NBC opera broadcasts from the
Met. which continue to this day, have casts and conductors which read
like a roll-call of the greatest, just as they often still do. If the
series aims are realised by the discs issued, it will be a veritable
treasure-trove of pleasure for collectors. It should, perhaps, be pointed
more clearly that an unusual degree of artistic licence has been used
in these transfers to CD in that where masters were found to be in poor
condition, insertions have been made from other performances -, usually,
but not always, involving the same cast and conductor. While the reasons
are laudable, some purists may find this unacceptable. It will be incumbent
on reviewers to point out these insertions when present.
Wagner staging at
the Met in the 1930s and 1940s was a golden age, not known before, or
equalled since. More by circumstances than design many of these performances
were broadcast by NBC in their Saturday afternoon series and some were
preserved. Influenced by circumstances in Germany the greatest Wagner
singers had migrated to the Met where memorable performances were the
order of the day. They were often conducted by Bodansky, who
was chief Wagner conductor from 1915 until his death in 1939. He infuriated
Wagnerian purists by his performance cuts (48 pages here); a truly complete
performance of a Wagner opera did not occur until he was succeeded by
Erich Leinsdorf in 1940. Bodansky's conducting is flowing, dramatic
and well phrased and paced; not for nothing was he Mahler's assistant
in Vienna (1902-1904). Only Furtwängler's fans will dispute his
strengths.
Despite the fact that the
recording favours the orchestra, it is the singing that will draw purchasers.
Above all the name of Melchior, here as the eponymous hero. No
tenor since has brought such vocal riches to the heldentenor fach. As
the young hero his even toned voice gleams right to the top of the range
without strain (CD 1 tr .17 the Forging scene). In his confrontation
with Mime the tone is darker; but always the words are clear. The greatest
joy for Wagnerians is the fact that Melchior's superb singing is matched
elsewhere in this wonderful cast. First among these is the Wotan, as
Wanderer, of Schorr, with his strong, expressive voice, long
breathed phrases and refulgent tone, you can sense every mood. The same
can be said of the Erda of Kerstin Thorborg whom Ernest Newman
considered the greatest Wagnerian mezzo he had seen or heard! With Schorr
and Thorborg the Act 3 musings of Wotan and Erda (CD 3 tr .4) draw the
ear. Act 3 also brings that great Wagnerian Kirsten Flagstad as
Brunnhilde. In her awakening, she is quite light toned, rising to the
finest high C. As the Act progresses, whilst holding a firm legato,
she enriches her tone to convey the emotions Brunnhilde feels on seeing
and embracing Siegfried. The Mime and Alberich contribute fully to the
quality of this performance.
All in all, a formidable
performance and welcome addition to the catalogue in this presentation.
Will every Wagnerian rush out and buy? Certainly those used to the sonic
limitations of recordings of live performances from this period should
be tempted. Others, for whom the sonic qualities of Solti's Ring
are paramount had best beware. Although, for its time, the orchestra
is well caught, the singers, particularly when they move away from the
front stage microphone, are less so. There are noises and coughs at
the start of the Act 1 prelude, but these do not greatly intrude greatly
elsewhere.
The discs are well laid
out with one Act on each disc. A spoken commentary introduces and concludes
each Act; applause is kept to the end of acts. The booklet includes
biographical appreciations of the leading singers, a track listing and
synopsis; regrettably the latter does not include track numbers.
Robert J Farr
See letter recieved from Richard
Caniell regarding the Guild Historical Series
Siegfried - Lauritz Melchior
(tenor)