Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Tannhäuser (1845, performed in ‘Dresden’ version, 1860)
Tannhäuser - Klaus König (tenor)
Elisabeth - Lucia Popp (soprano)
Venus - Waltraud Meier (soprano)
Wolfram von Eschenbach - Bernd Weikl (baritone)
Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia - Kurt Moll (bass)
Walther von der Vogelweide - Siegfried Jerusalem (tenor)
Biterolf – Walton Groenroos (bass)
Reinmar von Zweter – Rainer Scholze (bass)
Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra/Bernard Haitink.
rec. 2-13 January 1985, Herkulensaal, Munich. DDD
Includes bonus CD with synopsis and libretto with translation.
EMI CLASSICS OPERA 50999 6408002 [3 CDs: 56:07 + 66:51 + 50:41]
Though Mark Twain recommended Tannhäuser as ‘music to make one drunk
with pleasure’, it’s taken me longer to absorb than the Ring cycle and Meistersinger:
despite exposure initially to the well-regarded Franz Konwitschny recording
(EMI, no longer available), I had always thought of the work as too episodic.
Despite, too, my love of the Middle High German works of the Minnesänger
(literally ‘love-singers’), the poet-musicians among whom were numbered Wolfram
von Eschenbach and Walter von der Vogelweide, real historical characters who
feature in the opera, as indeed was Tanhûser himself – the CD cover shows
his depiction from the 14th-century Codex Manesse. The legend which
underlies Wagner’s opera derives via the Brothers Grimm from his own Bußlied,
or poem of repentance.
I recently recommended the Plácido Domingo/Cheryl Studer/Giuseppe Sinopoli
recording of the Paris version of Tannhäuser (DG 427 6252 – see April
2010 Download
Roundup), the version which finally convinced me. If you can accept Domingo’s
rather mangled German, this is the Tannhäuser to have, on CD or as
a download. Domingo’s singing more than compensates for his poor diction;
the rest of the cast are almost equally ideal and the direction superb. All
in all, this recording makes the strongest case for regarding Tannhäuser
as Wagner’s masterpiece, the Ring cycle only excepted.
That DG version remains at full price, around £35, unless you download from
Passionato.com.
The mp3 transfer is good and the price (£17.99, temporarily reduced to £13.49
at the time of writing) represents quite a saving on the CDs. Though there
is no libretto or synopsis, these are easily available from the web. Now that
EMI have reissued their recording with Bernard Haitink at a price (around
£22) which is competitive even with the download of the Sinopoli, the question
must be asked if it’s still preferable to pay more for the DG recording.
There is, in fact, an even less expensive way to obtain the Haitink reissue,
as a download at the maximum mp3 bit-rate from HMV Digital for £10.49. You’ll
miss out on the bonus disc with the synopsis, libretto and translation, but
substitutes are not hard to find online.
The first consideration must lie with the version chosen for this opera with
a most complex stage history to match Glück’s Orfeo or Verdi’s Don
Carlo/Don Carlos. Sinopoli recorded the most complete, Paris version,
Haitink the so-called ‘Dresden’ version which is some 15-20 minutes shorter.
The EMI booklet, not surprisingly, praises the ‘relative economy and stylish
consistency’ of the 1860 version, but there are considerable losses, not least
that of the extended Venusberg Bacchanal – and I really like that extra
music.
Daniel Barenboim whose version has also been reissued recently (256480207,
around £18), and who shares with Haitink Waltraud Meier as Venus, offers the
‘Dresden’ version with the addition of the Paris Venusberg music. This
is something of a compromise, a patchwork even, but it works and Terry Barfoot
recommended this version with confidence – see review.
Georg Solti’s 1972 recording is still at nearly full price, recently reissued
in 24-bit digitisation (470 8102, around £31). He employs the Paris version,
has a strong team of soloists, including René Kollo (Tannhäuser), Christa
Ludwig (Venus) and Helga Dernesch (Elisabeth) and the recording still sounds
very well. The mp3 download of this version from Passionato.com,
normally £17.99, was reduced to £13.49 at the time of writing.
You might wish to supplement the Haitink reissue with Solti’s energetic 1961
account of the Overture and Venusberg music on Decca Originals 475
8502 (around £8.50 or download from Passionato.com).
This also contains Solti’s surprisingly sensuous account of the Siegfried
Idyll plus the Rienzi and Flying Dutchman Overtures. The
2-CD Double Decca which previously included these is apparently deleted, though
still available as a download. This is not to be confused with the Decca/Eloquence
reissue of a mixed batch of Solti recordings with Zubin Mehta and Edo de Waart,
the latter contributing the Tannhäuser excerpts on a 2-CD set which
Tim Perry made Recording of the Month – see review.
(442 8283, currently out of stock at Buywell, the main suppliers, at the time
of writing, though due to be available again soon).
Haitink takes the Overture at a broad tempo, as does Solti in both 1961 and
1972. In fact, Solti 1961 takes a little longer than Haitink, yet the effect
is of greater drive and power and the ADD recording (John Culshaw) still has
plenty of impact. By 1972 Solti had shaved a few minutes off the combined
Overture and Venusberg music – from 27:21 overall to 21:39 – but the
excitement is there in plenty in both versions. By comparison Haitink is more
refined, but I’d swap that refinement any day for the power of either Solti
version.
Sinopoli also begins at a broad tempo. Though his overall timing is faster
than either Solti 1961 or Haitink, he never sounds rushed; his version combines
Haitink’s precision with the drama of Solti. There’s some really soft and
delicate playing at times, too. His Venusberg is a little faster than
Solti 1961 – his overall timing for these two tracks is very similar to Solti
1972, where the two are combined on one track – but he makes an equally strong
case for the inclusion of this music. If anything his bacchanal is
a little more wild and stormy than Solti’s.
Plácido Domingo’s Tannhäuser is both the glory and the weakness of the Sinopoli
recording. Though René Kollo (Solti) and Klaus König (Haitink) could never
be accused of letting down their sides vocally, and both leave Domingo far
behind when it comes to German pronunciation, I willingly overlook the diction
on this occasion. König has been regarded in some quarters as a little too
heavy for the part; certainly he seems so by comparison with Domingo, but
it’s the usual case of the outstanding placing the very good in the shade.
All three Elisabeths are very good, though each brings something different
to the role. Taking Dich, teure Halle as the test-piece, Cheryl Studer
is potentially stretched by Sinopoli’s slow tempo – half a minute longer than
either Haitink or Solti – but this doesn’t seem to cause any problems for
her. Her singing of the role is often seen as the ideal compromise between
Lucia Popp’s ecstatic voice (Haitink) and Helga Dernesch’s Wagnerian credentials
(Solti), a judgement with which I’m not going to argue, but I could happily
live with any one of the three.
I was less impressed by Waltraud Meier’s Venus, finding her less of a temptress
than I had expected in the light of Terry Barfoot’s review of her later appearance
on the Barenboim set. Agnes Baltsa (Sinopoli) is preferable, though she takes
a little time to warm to the part; neither quite effaces memories of Christa
Ludwig (Solti) or Grace Bumbry (Sawallisch, Philips, download only from amazon.co.uk,
or highlights from passionato.com).
The playing of the Philharmonia offers Baltsa an ideal platform from which
to launch her invitation to the grotto (Geliebter komm!) and she takes
full advantage, despite Sinopoli’s typically slow tempo. Solti is slower still
and Haitink is much more fleet of foot here.
None of the other soloists on the Haitink reissue gave me any cause for complaint
– Kurt Moll’s Landgrave and Siegfried Jerusalem’s Walter especially worthy
of note – and the Bavarian Radio Choir and Orchestra offer excellent support.
Listen to the chorus greeting the entry of the guests in Act II, Freudig
begrüßen wir die edle Halle (CD2, tr.5), to see what I mean. Once again,
however, the Vienna State Opera Chorus and Vienna Philharmonic (Solti) and,
perhaps even more, the Covent Garden Chorus and the Philharmonia (Sinopoli)
excel. The orchestral playing on the Sinopoli set is particularly successful,
helping to make the (mainly) slow tempi seem most natural. Not that Sinopoli
is incapable of taking things with a swing: exceptionally, in that chorus
Freudig begrüßen wir die edle Halle, as in the Overture, he’s actually
a few seconds faster than Haitink.
Having scratched enough on my critical Beckmesser slate, I sat back just to
listen to the third CD. I enjoyed it thoroughly, finding nothing to make me
leap up to scratch away again, which proves yet again that it’s sometimes
a mistake to make close comparisons when a particular performance makes perfect
sense in its own terms. The only thing that you will notice if you are used
to the Paris version is the shorter ending of the ‘Dresden’ text employed
here.
The Haitink, Sinopoli and Barenboim recordings are all offered in digital
sound, and you need have no reservations about the EMI reissue on that score.
Decca have recently refurbished the Solti and I imagine that has left what
was already an ADD version for which no excuse needed to be made sounding
even better.
The EMI booklet is skimpy but the libretto and translation are available on
screen from the bonus CD. That’s still not the same thing for stick-in-the-muds
like myself who really prefer to have the words in print in our hands, but
it’s better than having to search online.
Solti, then, is still hard to beat, Sinopoli harder still. This Haitink reissue
is well worth having if price is a consideration, though Barenboim is even
less expensive. It isn’t quite in the same league as some of the other opera
recordings which have been reissued in this lower-mid-price series – Karajan’s
Rosenkavalier (9668242), Giulini’s Don Carlo (9668502) or Klemperer’s
Fidelio (9667032) – but it certainly doesn’t let the side down. Sinopoli’s
version remains my prime recommendation as the recording which finally made
Tannhäuser click for me, but I think Haitink might well have taken
me some considerable way along the Road to Damascus if I’d encountered his
version first.
Brian Wilson
A welcome reissue with a considerable price advantage over Sinopoli and Solti.