It seems as if this was the first American performance of Act
II of Tristan to be performed without cuts. It was the
prevailing practice at the Metropolitan to cut Acts II and III
whilst the first act generally emerged unscathed. Whether the
decision was John Barbirolli’s, then the resident conductor
of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, no one seems
quite sure, though it seems to me likely to have been so. The
performance was given in Carnegie Hall on 16 April 1939 and
this copy was taken down off-air by an enthusiast. It was the
third and last in a trio of performances of Act II, so by now
orchestra and singers would have been familiar with Barbirolli’s
flowing but lyrical direction of an opera that he had first
directed in Glasgow in 1932 with Florence Austral and Walter
Widdop as his principals.
In Carnegie Hall he had Kirsten Flagstad and Eyvind Laholm (born
Jon Edwin Johnson, in Wisconsin of Swedish descent). Flagstad
was, with Frida Leider, the reigning Wagnerian soprano of her
generation and opportunities to hear her at her freshest and
most communicative are always valuable. Laholm was a fine singer,
too, though clearly not in Lauritz Melchior’s class, as
examples of Melchior and Flagstad’s Wagner performances
at Covent Garden a few years earlier than this Carnegie Hall
one attest. Nor was he as impressive as Set Svanholm in the
role. However Laholm’s discography is surprisingly small,
not least because he was not retained by the Met for the 1940/41
season because of the presence of Melchior. His actual studio
discography is impossibly small, just a couple of arias from
Fidelio and Un ballo in maschera from 1936, though
this has been supplemented by off-air operatic performances
such as this one.
The supporting cast provides solid support. Enid Szántho
is the Brangane, and she was a stalwart at Bayreuth and the
Vienna Opera. Like Laholm, she didn’t have an especially
penetrating voice, though it is effective enough. John Gurney’s
King Marke is small-scaled and musicianly, though it would be
unjust to contrast him with, say, Emanuel List’s powerful
portrayal for Fritz Reiner at Covent Garden in 1936.
Barbirolli’s lyrically direct reading never sounds rushed
and it makes one regret, once more, that he didn’t record
more operatic sets when the opportunities arose. The orchestra
plays splendidly for him. The recording is pretty reasonable
for the time and circumstances, though you will expect some
degradation, and Ward Marston and Aaron Z. Snyder have done
a good restorative job. There’s a good booklet too. I
see that this same performance has been released on Archipel
as well, though I’ve not had access to it for comparative
purposes. For vocal collectors this will be a useful addition,
most especially for Flagstad (and if you want examples of Laholm).
Barbirolli admirers will definitely want it, which may explain
why this WHRA release is co-produced by the John Barbirolli
Society.
Jonathan Woolf
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Kirsten Flagstad (soprano) - Isolde 