There have been two previous releases from this
Ring cycle of
opera concert performances conducted by Marek Janowski with his
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. To my increasing regret I have not heard
Das Rheingold. I recently reviewed
Siegfried on CD but more significantly was
present in Berlin for
Die Walküre in November 2012 and
Götterdämmerung on 15 March 2013. The latter has now been
released here on SACD and brings to a conclusion the Wagner concert series
that began for Janowski and his orchestra at the Berlin Philharmonie in
November 2010. All ten parts - representing the mature Wagner operas - were
recorded by PentaTone and Deutschlandradio Kultur for release on SACD before
the end of 2013 - the Wagner bicentenary year.
Another reminder of what I have written previously: Janowski, the
celebrated Wagner conductor, made the first digital recording of the
complete
Ring cycle between 1980 and 1983 for RCA-BMG, with the
Staatskapelle Dresden. With these recent performances his intention was to
focus attention entirely on Wagner’s music without any directorial
distractions - a point emphasised by Norbert Lammert, president of the
German Bundestag, in his ‘greeting’ in the accompanying booklet.
There is also a full German/English libretto and interesting background
notes on the opera by Steffen Georgi translated into French, as well as,
English. Prof. Dr. Lammert elaborates on how Janowski wanted to make it
possible to hear some of the nuances in Wagner's works that can often be
lost in the opera house. At the same time this concentration on the voices
and the music - along with the excellent acoustics of Berlin’s famous
Philharmonie - gave the best possible conditions for a live recording.
Janowski’s Hagen for his 1980s’
Ring was Matti
Salminen and the veteran bass returned some thirty years later to sing it
for him again. The Philharmonie ‘belongs’ to the Berlin
Philharmonic and because each concert needed a fixed rehearsal period this
meant that the RSB was limited in its options for suitable dates. Some cast
changes resulted for this current
Ring including two Brünnhildes
and two Siegfrieds
. In March 2013 when it was finally over, Petra
Lang in an elegant black evening gown stood still with her arms to her sides
having taken charge of events during the ‘Immolation Scene’ -
both as her character, Brünnhilde, and as a singer relatively new to
her role. She had earlier sung a superb Brünnhilde in
Die
Walküre, with Violeta Urmana - in her own role début -
proving a reasonably adequate replacement in
Siegfried, especially
because she really does not have much to sing.
As I recalled earlier, the concert in Berlin ended a few minutes
before midnight with a standing ovation for the singers and the Berlin Radio
Symphony Orchestra - but most especially for their conductor and artistic
director Marek Janowski. The orchestra obviously likes him, and with good
reason. Everything heard live and on CD suggests he clearly loves these
scores. He absolutely fulfils Wagner’s need for his music-dramas to
allow for a straightforwardly retelling of the narrative, with utmost
clarity and without undue reverence or unnecessary
re-interpretation.
Also I cannot praise the orchestral interludes highly enough, yet these too
seem totally integrated into Janowski’s overall musical vision.
Throughout, the conductor’s approach to this
Ring has seemed
swifter than some of his contemporaries, nevertheless it sounds entirely
appropriate because of a total control of the music’s tempo, flow and
arc. In the famous hall, from where I was sitting, the sheer volume he
unleashed from time to time challenged some of the singers. Although the
orchestral balance has been adjusted on the recording the effect it had on
some of the soloists’ performances remains audibly present. By no
means is Matti Salminen the only one to suffer this. Hagen’s call to
the vassals in Act II tested both him and the Eberhard Friedrich-trained
Berlin Radio Chorus to the full. This can still be heard on this CD.
Nevertheless, when Valhalla had finally been set ablaze and the last
bars faded away, the audience in the Philharmonie remained spellbound. There
was complete silence before Janowski lowered his hands and a voice from on
high - summing it all up for those who would acclaim the Polish maestro, his
singers and musicians - cried out ‘Danke!’ I suspect he had been
at all ten evenings and gave thanks for this wonderful project. I miss that
sense of ‘occasion’ on these CDs.
It is not all
just about the music, and
Götterdämmerung brings many challenges for its roster of
singers. The trios of Norns and Rhine daughters sound better here than when
I heard them in Berlin where their positioning on the edge of the platform
may not have been to their advantage. Jochen Schmeckenbecher confirms the
good impression I had of him from
Siegfried and I look forward to
hearing his Alberich again. Markus Brück and Edith Haller were well
paired as Gunther and Gutrune. Marina Prudenskaya brought real pathos and
dark Slavic hues to Waltraute.
That leaves the important triumvirate for any
Götterdämmerung - that of Hagen, Siegfried and
Brünnhilde. I am sure Salminen would have sounded fresher in his
earlier recording for Janowski … how could he not? However, sometimes
gravitas is more important than smoothness of vocal projection.
Salminen’s impressive Hagen is grizzled and careworn in the same way
John Tomlinson’s now is. It remains just as engrossing an assumption
of this pivotal role. Lance Ryan continues to be everywhere these days as
Siegfried, including last summer’s new Bayreuth
Ring. On the
one hand, I commend him for his lyrical approach as this is very much my
style of Wagner
Heldentenor singing. One of his early teachers was
Gianni Raimondi who I saw in Vienna near the end of his career and remains
one of the finest tenors I have ever heard. However, for Siegfried’s
significant moments Lance Ryan’s voice is not nearly
Helden
(heroic) enough for me. He sounds like a pumped-up Loge and frequently
resorts to shouting too much.
At this recorded performance Petra Lang was relatively new to the
Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde and had yet to sing it on
stage in a production. When I saw her on stage in Paris in June 2013 she was
quite outstanding and better than she is here, even though - as captured on
CD - her voice doesn’t sound as good as I recall when I was sitting in
the hall. That Ms Lang is so good now is only to be expected as she will be
more used to its demands. There is a significant difference between learning
any role and performing it. Nevertheless, this celebrated singer still
reveals here many of the wonderful qualities for which she is famed. The
words are well enunciated and she has a rich dark sound across her lowest
registers to which she has added some laser-bright top notes. Though this
may not be the sound some listeners want, I certainly much prefer Petra Lang
taking risks occasionally on this recording to Nina Stemme’s
ultra-safe Brünnhilde at the BBC Proms in July when she seemed
temperamentally unsuited to the role. Petra Lang is currently pre-eminent in
any Wagner requiring spite or vengeance; Ortrud for example. There is plenty
of this for her in Gotterdammerung: she is at her imperious best
in Act II when seeking revenge, as well as, during her incandescent final
moments in Act III.
There is a definite crisis about casting the huge Wagner operas in
the twenty-first century, which is something I cannot debate further here.
The three
Ring operas I have reviewed on CD in this series have been
rather vocally uneven but there have still been some moments of memorable
singing. They all come with Maestro Janowski’s fresh and totally
gimmick-free Wagner.
Jim Pritchard
Masterwork Index:
Götterdämmerung
[4 SACDs: 263:42]
