I have spent nearly a month intermittently trying
to source the provenance of this issue, a task as difficult as
ascertaining its purpose in the market place. None of the singers
has particular distinction and there are some examples of excess
of vibrato and vocal spread to be heard. Recorded a year after
Decca embarked on their monumental ground breaking ‘Ring Project’,
this was, perhaps, another company giving us a brief example of
Kempe’s somewhat more languid and shaped interpretation compared
to Solti’s more dynamically driven version. Whatever, 47 minutes
of an opera that lasts two and one quarter hours is sparse measure
and I assume that length to be related to two LP sides. The recording
itself is set at a fairly high level, the voices well forward,
the whole in an over-reverberant ‘swimmy’ acoustic. The leaflet
has an interesting essay, in German and English, and a good summary
of the plot. It is a pity that there is no reference to the five
tracks of the disc in that plot summary; what is a listener to
make of track 1 which simply states ‘Auf dem Grunge des Rheines’
and lasts 21 minutes?
This is the least successful of the recent issues
in this series from Berlin Classics. Only Wagner addicts, or Kempe
enthusiasts, will find much enjoyment or interest.
Robert J Farr
Orchestra of the Staatskapelle
Berlin/Rudolf Kempe