Music / opera

Tristan und Isolde


Reviews (30)


Klassik.com

d. 15. Aug. 2023

By

By

Jürgen Schaarwächter

d. 15. Aug. 2023

"Was für ein Luxus - die grosse Zahl historischer Rundfunkmitschnitte von Opern vor 1950 ist auch heute noch beeindruckend ... Vor allem aber ist der Aufnahmeklang erhalten - verhältnismäßig wenige Nebengeräusche (die man angesichts des Alters ohnehin verzeiht), die Stimmen in guter Balance zu Chor und Orchester ... Der vorliegende Mitschnitt von 'Tristan und Isolde' aus der Metropolitan Opera vom 3. Januar 1948 wird hier tatsächlich als Erstveröffentlichung vorgelegt, obschon Einspielungen mit ähnlicher Besetzung hinreichend bekannt sind. Diesmal Helen Traubel und Lauritz Melchior unter Fritz Busch. Busch ist wie immer stark fokussiert auf das Gesamterlebnis ... Verglichen mit dem Mitschnitt von 1943 unter Erich Leinsdorf mögen Melchior und Traubel etwas reifer klingen - doch welch eine dramatische Dichte, welche sing-darstellerische Hingabe an die Musik bei steter voller Kontrolle über das Stimmmaterial! ... Tonmeister Richard Caniell hat Erstaunliches vollbracht - obschon er in Mosaikarbeit aus unterschiedlichen Quellen die Aufführung wieder 'zusammensetzen' musste, ist trotz einiger klangtechnischer Eintrübungen ein mitreissendes Opernerlebnis wiedererstanden".


The Sunday times

d. 4. Nov. 2012

By

By

Hugh Canning

d. 4. Nov. 2012

"Vurdering: Pick of the week" - "This finds [Stemme] at her glorious peak, making much more of the text than in her previous recordings. She now stands proud as the leading Isolde and Brünnhilde of her generation and an interpreter to rank with her greatest predecessors on disc ... [Gould] is probably the darkest-voiced contemporary interpreter of the exhausting part, and he is tireless and touching, if not always tonally alluring".


MusicWeb international

2022 June

By

By

Ralph Moore (musikanmelder)

2022 June

"Tristan und Isolde is my favourite opera. I have spent more time listening to various recordings of it than any other and chose some of my favourites in my survey of 2018 - and I found listening to this newly issued live recording from 2013 a profoundly depressing experience. The sound is dim, removed and lacking depth ... The cast consists of a once-fine tenor who by this stage of his career - nearly sixty - had lost all the velvet his voice and is visibly labouring, a soprano whose persistent wobble I find maddening and otherwise a roster of indifferent supporting singers unknown to me, apart from the usually estimable Stephen Milling as King Mark ... I am baffled that anyone thought this was worth issuing nearly a decade after the performance, given the quality of so many alternatives".


Jyllands-posten

d. 22. Mar. 2005

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d. 22. Mar. 2005


Jyllands-posten

d. 10. Sep. 2003

By

d. 10. Sep. 2003


Jyllands-posten

d. 20. Sep. 2004

By

d. 20. Sep. 2004


Berlingske tidende

d. 16. Aug. 2005

By

d. 16. Aug. 2005


Jyllands-posten

d. 24. Oct. 2005

By

By

John Christiansen

d. 24. Oct. 2005


Jyllands-posten

d. 27. Aug. 2001

By

d. 27. Aug. 2001


Jyllands-posten

d. 21. June 2004

By

d. 21. June 2004


Fono Forum

2013 Januar

By

By

Gerhard Persché

2013 Januar

"Nina Stemme klingt rund und golden, Goudl viril und zärtlich zugleich ... Marek Janowski hält es, abgesehen von den erwähnten gelegentlich Ausreissen in der Agogik, eher mit der sachlichen Verwaltung der Partiturvorgaben".


Opus

2012, nr. 44

By

By

Axel Lindhe

2012, nr. 44

"Vurdering: Opus rekommenderar" - "Nina Stemmes Isolde har både kraft och en skirhet och gräddlik mjukhet i rösten när så fordras. Stephen Gould som Tristan med sin märgfulla, utsökta tenorröst passar perfekt vid hennes sida ... Till upplevelsen bidrar också en fabulöst spelande orkester ... Janowskis dirigerande ger verket en puls åt det kvickare hållet och ger musiken en intensitet, energi och en direkthet som känns befriande".


BBC music magazine

2013 February

By

By

Michael Tanner (musikanmelder)

2013 February

"This is the latest in the highly succesful series of complete Wagner operas under Marek Janowski and is by some way the least satisfactory, though it has its merits. Chief among them is superb playing of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, from which Janowsky demands heroic efforts in speed and intensity ... Soprano Nina Stemme is the ranking Isolde of our time; she has a beautiful voice and paces herself perfectly. But I can't hear much passion ... Tenor Stephen Gould is also unflagging ... The two voices are ill-suited and the duet in Act II is less moving than it should be".


BBC music magazine

2013 October

By

By

Michael Tanner (musikanmelder)

2013 October

"Torsten Kerl is ... an impassioned performer, though not a subtle one ... Still, he makes a great deal of the part ... His Isolde, Anja Kampe, is a singer of comparable merits and defects ... Sarah Connolly [gives] a wonderful performance in all respects ... An indispensable addition to a Wagnerian's collection, however large it may be".


BBC music magazine

2006 October

By

By

David Nice

2006 October

"While Brewer's Liebestod, gleaming with characteristic generosity of spirit, may lack the last degree of [Margaret] Price's more centred radiance, she almost makes up for the shocking absence of a studio Four Last Songs from the other great soprano. It's a long time since we've had such a richly-gilded sound in this repertoire, darker colours in the lower register moving seamlessly to luminous tone above the stave ... The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Runnicles sounds equally glorious".


The gramophone

2013 October

By

By

Mike Ashman

2013 October

"This release certianly joins the shortlist of recommended Tristans alongside the Kleibers, Knappertsbusch and Furtwängler".


Operabladet Ascolta

(2001) 19. årgang nr. 8

By

(2001) 19. årgang nr. 8


Børsen

d. 11. Dec. 2001

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d. 11. Dec. 2001


Operabladet Ascolta

(2005) 24. årgang nr. 2

By

(2005) 24. årgang nr. 2


The gramophone

2006 Awards

By

By

Mike Ashman

2006 Awards

"Tod und Verklärung is taken quite gently ... the loudest pages make their points without being supercharged ... and the work's overall structure is always clearly in view ... In the Four last songs Christine Brewer uses her large voice cunningly, always staying with the words ... Runnicles accompanies like a fine pianist, full of subtle nudges and holds ... Brewer's Four Last Songs should be heard".


Operabladet Ascolta

(2004) 23. årgang nr. 1

By

(2004) 23. årgang nr. 1


Operabladet Ascolta

(2002) 21. årgang nr. 1

By

(2002) 21. årgang nr. 1


The gramophone

2022 September

By

By

Mike Ashman

2022 September

"Although this new release enshrines a performance now almost a decade old ... it seems to mark an important watershed in the conductor's work with this score ... A conductor so involved inevitably brings a cast with him. The younger Stemme [as Isolde] is in excellent courageous voice throughout, and again evidently committed emotionally ... Stephen Milling's King Marke maintains status while clearly experiencing a traumatic shock. Peter Seiffert, as always, is a keen and collegiate presence in the joint title-role ... This new/old set is of absorbing interest for the conductor's work with the score and the special strengths of his Isolde".


Kristeligt dagblad

d. 21. June 2004

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d. 21. June 2004


Weekendavisen

d. 14. May 2004

By

d. 14. May 2004


Berlingske tidende

d. 8. June 2004

By

d. 8. June 2004


Operabladet Ascolta

(2004) 23. årgang nr. 2

By

(2004) 23. årgang nr. 2



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