Die Walküre

"Presto disc of the week: We were all pleasantly surprised by last year's Rheingold and with Die Walküre (out today) the cycle really hits its stride. Right from the taut, suppressed energy of the stormy prelude, Jaap van Zweden draws playing of immense subtlety and detail from his Hong Kong forces, who are so consistently engaged with the drama I'd have sworn we were listening to a staged production rather than a concert performance".

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"The Sterling label continues to release recordings of live performances starring Laila Andersson-Palme ... That the sound is remarkably good is evident from the opening bars depicting Siegmund's desperate escape ... The conducting and playing are first rate - an absolutely lovely cello solo precedes Siegmund's "Kühlende Labung gab mir der Quell" and the famous Ride of the Valkyries is splendid, despite a couple of singers struggling. However, it also soon becomes apparent that the weakest link here is Sven-Olof Eliasson, whose tenor has an uncomfortable slow pulse ... contrasting strongly with Lisbeth Balslev's full, vibrant soprano with its fast, flickering vibrato and her idiomatic delivery of the text ... In the end, the deficiencies on the male side of the cast here disqualify this performance from an enthusiastic recommendation unless you want a souvenir of Andersson-Palme's considerable achievement as Brünnhilde".

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"This recording, the second instalment in Rattle's Bavarian Radio cycle of the Ring, has been rather a long time in coming - Das Rheingold was released some four years ago - but presumably the conductor will now proceed with concert performances of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in due course. If he has similar luck with his casting in these later music dramas - something that of course cannot be inevitably assumed - then I look forward to later instalments with eager anticipation. In the meantime, prospective purchasers of this Walküre can proceed safely".

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"Det er historiens første stereo-optagelse af "Ringen", og den tekniske gengivelse er rigeligt god til at åbne for de store musikalske kvaliteter ... man mærker, at det for ham [Keilberth] og sangerne er et stykke om liv og død ... Man bliver indfanget fra første til sidste øjeblik ... Tænk, at den allerbedste gengivelse af "Nibelungens ring" først er på vej nu med 51 års forsinkelse".

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"Van Zweden has broken free of both tradition and over-literal score-reading to interpret what is in front of him ... Goerne is in almost indecently good voice ... DeYoung argues Fricka's case with power and sweep ... [Struckmann] uses text rather than colour to frighten as Hunding ... This is an impressive and likeable achievement".

"Stuart Skelton gestaltar Siegmund. Och det med den äran. Hans bronsfärgade tenor gör sig tilsammans med Simon Rattle och Bayerska radions symfoniorkester ... Sopranen ... Eva Maria Westbroek presenterar sin expressiv Sieglinde och Iréne Theorins gåshudsframkallande Brünnhilde gifter sig vackert med James Rutherfords i rollen som Wotan. Den mogna klangen hos samtliga sångare är en lyx i en operavärld som alltmer värdesätter ungdom och säljande utseende framför konstnärlig fulländning".

"All the principals involved in this second instalment of Simon Rattle's Bavarian Ring in progress ... recapture impressive and mostly believable levels of intensity in their exchanges so that, notwithstanding the strengths and frailties of individual performances, the drama's pathos and twisted family values come over as they should ... In fact the entire second act draws out the considerable best of everyone concerned but, taken 'in toto', this isn't quite the Walküre we might have hoped for from this source".

"This show belongs to Jonas Kaufmann (Siegmund), whose bronzed timbre is deeply satisfying whether in heroic or intimate utterance. His legato is immaculate ... [Kaufmann] sings as thrillingly as any Siegmund since Jon Vickers ... Surely the most moving and beautifully sung Siegmund on disc ... The orchestra's virtuosity is rewarding ... The recorded sound is excellent".

"Vurdering: Diapason d'or".

"Stemme has the measure of her role in spades ... Act 1 goes well from all three participants ... Gubanova is a lively, probing Fricka and the Valkyries a well-saddled bunch. The still decidely un-Western sound of Gergiev and his orchestra is a dramatic advantage to this opera's tense underlay ... Not a major challenge to old favourites such as Krauss or Barenboim".

"The results are extremely impressive and, as with Götterdämmerung it presents an interpretation that is compelling. Elder conducts with tensile strength and a really impressive sense of dramatic and musical achitecture ... Andersen may not have the unshakeable heft of some of his great predecessors, but his dramatic involvement, the pure unforced gleam of his tone and his fine sense of line all help to make this a powerful musical experience ... I'd suggest any opera collector seeking a fresh view of this masterpiece would do well to try this moving and impressive new recording from Manchester".

"Neither singer seems entirely at ease with the German text [Yvonne Howard, Susan Bullock], yet they are both as dramatically engaged as they would be on stage ... Stig Andersen is alert and characterful throughout, without excessive emoting, and Clive Bayley is an imposingly black-voiced Hunding ... Act 2 contributes greatly to confirming the overall conviction of Elder's approach ... Elder has a cast, as well as an interpretative stance, that ensure a distinctive as well as a memorable experience ... This recording should leave you in renewed awe at Wagner's genius - not a bad thing".

"This would be a fine act if the recording were better".