The Greatest Recordings Ever! Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

[@gregoryglading1517]

Lenard Bernstein stated that Tristan and Isolde was the hub of the wheel that music turned. It’s the music. Love, passion, beauty. It’s complexity, depth, and degree of difficulty makes a great production an epic achievement and a pinnacle of human achievement

[@jeffreydanowitz3083]

Ok so till this time I only really listened to the wild Bernstein recording of Tristan. This morning I started the Bohm and heard the entire thing at one sitting. I could not stop. You are so darn right - this is a stellar performance. Everything goes right here. There is not one moment of being let down. This is a powerhouse for 3 and a half hours. It sort it reminded me of Electra with its wildness and passion. And you said Wagner wanted something relaxed and not too big!!! This is THE big of biggies! Thanks for this suggestion. I broke my Bernstein exclusivity for the piece. It took some doing to get there but I did it. David you said you “did not get” the opera Parsifal in one of your videos. This may be also due to the recordings. To me the famous Von Karajon recording is outstanding. I had to stop my car on the side during the prelude. It’s not like Tristan with all the fuss but it’s amazing. Imagine listening to the Mahler 9th for the first time. It’s a slightly different thing than the second with all the fury. But once you get past that expectation that it’s still Mahler and worthy than you begin to appreciate it. It took me time to get into mahlers ninth. I heard Parsifal before I heard a lot of other Wagner operas so I had less expectations. Anyway, thanks for all the great work you do. I love your shtick and all your comments. Keep em coming:)

[@GarthAstrology]

I saw the opera for the first time in San Francisco in 1999. During the "Liebesnacht" - Brangaene's warning, to be exact, I actually felt like a member of the audience at the first performance. I was astounded and overwhelmed by the beauty and originality of this section. I found myself saying "what music is this? where does a musical imagination like this come from" over and over again. I also found it a gripping night at the opera house and was fully absorbed in the music drama for the entire performance.

[@fredrickroll06]

Brangaene's Wacht is the point where Tristan and Isolde actually make love. If the stage directors miss up on this, it's their fault.

[@louise_rose]

I would suggest this beautiful sequence is also an early example of bitonality in classical music - for much of it, Brangäne is clearly not in the same key as the orchestra around her. This is very rare in 19th century romantic music.

[@BTinSF]

FYI: San Francisco is doing it again this year in a limited post-Covid season with Simon O'Neill, Anje Kampe, Wolfgang Koch, Annika Schlicht, Kwangchul Youn and Christopher Oglesby.

[@achalprakash3598]

The beauty and genius of this opera is the opening chords don’t resolve until about 4 hours later, all the while keeping the audience tense. The liebestod is a masterpiece, a real masterpiece.

[@louise_rose]

Classic recording. It was one of my first encounters with Wagner and his music - we had a "highlights" album of it at home, running to half an hour on each side, and I first listened to it at the age of ten or so. The full-colour drama of the orchestra and singers blew me away of course, it was the beginning of a lifelong interest in Wagner and his music. (I'm from Sweden myself, so there was also a very natural connection both with Bírgit Nilsson and other great Nordic Wagner singers, from Kirsten Flagstad to Nina Stemme, and to the tradition of Nordic mythology that Wagner mobilized for the Ring) One thing that struck me early on about the Böhm/Nilsson Tristan recording is the rhythmic pregnancy. In the famous prelude to the first act, the phrases appear like sculpted against a living, dark silence behind them: the cohesion of the orchestra, from solo phrases to powerful tutti sweeps, is marvellous, and it feels very close. I realized much later that this is also a reflection of the acoustics of the Festspielhaus,, but Böhm's ability to use subtle changes in the tempo and rhythm like it's the living breath of the orchestra is still immaculate, and he does that in his recordings of Beethoven symphonies too. The pauses and open spaces in the orchestral web become meaningful, part of the whole.

[@porcinet1968]

for me this is still the only Tristan I have ever needed - I knew someone who attended the 1966 Bayreuth festival and he said listening Nilsson you could hear the hall breathing with her and matching her phrasing, just waiting for the next perfect bit of singing, he said he never wanted to see it with anyone else and also described to me how beautiful the coloured lighting and sets were in the theatre. if time travel was real that's a night I would want to visit.

[@petterw5318]

Amazing recording. It was live but recorded one act at a time, so Windgassen didn't need to spare his voice. May Tristan broadcasts from the Bayreuth Festival are great: Karajan going nuts in 1952, Jochum in 1953 with Varnay as the most vengeful, angry Isolde, and Carlos Kleiber in 1976 conducting the most intense Tristan ever (it was so great that he fled the festival and never came back, of course).

[@ShaneyElderberry]

I’m very fond of the 2017 remastering of the Böhm 1966 performance. Each remastering seems to emphasize different features within orchestration. In the 2017 remastering, the loudest fortissimo moments have significantly less clipping. A lot of the analogue background sound of the recording medium is also removed. Wonderful performances from all the musicians and soloists, and unforgettable.

[@Tenortalker]

So good to hear praise for Windgassen without whom several major recordings could not have been made. So often comments about him are qualified with ' but he wasn't such and such a tenor.' It really is about time his fine contribution was re-assessed. The great Birgit young and on fabulous form was stunning and unforgettable. How I wish Flagstad had also recorded the role when she was in her prime simply because her warm tone quality and humanity made for a great Isolde. Still, I am grateful she got to record it at all.

[@julianholman7379]

dave is so right about what surprisingly good theatre Tristan is ! I once took a van load of university freshman, none of whom had any great experience of orchestral music - let alone opera! - to a performance 60 miles from campus. Not wanting them to be greatly disappointed, I told them not to expect enjoyment so much as a kind of cultural initiation, undertaken as a duty to art. How amazed i was though that they *all* enjoyed it *alot* ! and that no one seemed to notice how very Long it is ! I think one might say that the music has a *viscerally hypnotic* quality that can divert and compel the most uncommitted audience

[@waynesmith3767]

Absolutely a great recording! And I also went to a performance of Tristan expecting a sort of dressed up concert and was astounded by how dramatic it was! I have since taken the opportunity to experience it live when I can. I also remember seeing Eaglen and other sopranos and One never quite forgot their physical appearance, but somehow it added to the drama.

[@JamesDavidWalley]

Interesting...this is the first recording of a Wagner opera I ever owned, when I was around 15. Afterwards, I got told by everyone that I had made a serious mistake, that the only version to own was the Furtwangler. So, when I moved from LPs to CDs, I bought the Furtwangler, listened to it, enjoyed it...and then rushed out and bought the CD version of this one, too.

[@fafner607]

Great video as always, Dave. Something to add: the Bayreuth Festspielhaus acoustic is also a major factor in the recording's success. It allows for a perfect balance between singers and orchestra, allows every word to tell without the singers having to force, and creates a gloomy atmosphere that is perfect for the work.

[@stepheng9607]

I totally agree with everything you said. Patrice Chereau said about directing the Ring that he always came back to the idea that Wagner was theatre. Also I think Clara Schumann said that everything seemed different when you saw Wagner on the stage. Tristan is really about passion and is certainly what you get with recording

[@karldaniel5202]

Wagner called Tristan not an opera, not a philosophical treatise but of all things an "action" (Handlung)! In 1976 I had the opportunity to watch the Kleiber Tristan on the "Green Hill" or as they say the "Scheune" (barn, because of the unspectacular sight of the Festspielhaus) in Bayreuth.

[@marcoantoniofalquete557]

Yes, it's called an "action", but almost nothing happens ... The barn is philosophical/religious, it's the sacred barn to feed the sacred cows ...

[@marcoantoniofalquete557]

But the brits are unbeatable: the Britten Aldeburgh Festival is LITERALLY into a malting barn ...

[@karldaniel5202]

@@marcoantoniofalquete557 😂

[@madadam12]

This is an amazing recording for the (rare) times I want to hear Tristan. Agree too that Jane Eaglen and Ben Heppner are probably going to be the best singers I’ll ever get to hear sing this piece - saw them in the Seattle production in the 1990s that preceded their Met outing with Levine. Even with both of them just sitting in each other’s arms for most of Act 2, the effect was completely mesmerizing. T&I really is an opera to be heard live before going to a recording.

[@bbailey7818]

Zambello's production was excellent to my way of thinking. Far better than either of the last two Met versions

[@madadam12]

Francesca Zambello, yes! I couldn’t remember who conceived of the set and the production, thanks for reminding me. It didn’t get uniformly great reviews, but I thought it was fantastic.

[@louise_rose]

Saw it in one of the New York Met's live in HD broadcasts to the local movie theatre, around six or seven years ago, with Nina Stemme as Isolde, Stuart Skelton as Tristan and Ekaterina Gubanova as Brangäne. All three are outstanding singers of course - Nina Stemme is not always a great actress but she really fit in on stage here, Gubanova is a very good actress/singer and lent both depth and realistic character to her part as servant, friend and confidante of Isolde...and Skelton was in great form too. Beautiful! :) I've known the Böhm/NIlsson 1966 recording since childhood, it's often seen as THE reference recording of the opera.

[@tomgoff6867]

Dave's comments perfectly sum up my feelings about this recording. Ideal casting, great theater-minded conductor, the Bayreuth pickup orchestra giving its utmost, and you can hear the theatricality in places: broadswords clash briefly but convincingly, stabbed bodies--Tristan, Kurwenal, Merlot, er, Melot--fall to the boards with hearty thumps, and the lovey-dovey drinking cup, eagerly emptied, is dashed histrionically to the quarterdeck with metallic gusto.

[@porcinet1968]

I love the foot stomps before "Isolde Tristan geliebter" in Act 2 - it also helps that the conducting and playing is so bloody intense!

[@clementewerner]

If only contemporary productions did pay attention to Wagner's requests! I have seen a swimming pool in Act 2 (Geneva), last year in Munich the whole opera took place in a palatial hall, while at Covent Garden the two lovers spent the entire evening stuck to a wall on the extreme left of the stage so nobody on that side of the opera house could see them, and so on. As for tempi, there is a video of Bernstein justifying his slow tempi compared to Bohm -he argues his rests are as long as Wagner intended, and claims that Bohm attended the dress rehearsals and told Bernstein afterwards (not an exact quote) 'today I have heard Tristan und Isolde for the first time'. I prefer Bohm's pacing of the music but it doesn't make that the only choice.

[@stevemcclue5759]

Can't argue with this one: a great performace and a great recording. Not overall my favourite (usually that's Karajan from Bayreuth in '52) but the Bohm is a real reference recording, and the one almost universally recommended to Tristan newbies.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

And oldbies too.

[@dr2549]

Wow... people here are really carried away with "action" aspect of this most static of operas... Reminds me of those literary critics that enthusiastically describe Proust's "À la recherche du temps perdu" as "In fact - a thriller"...

[@jaykauffman4775]

Nilsson had improved tremendously from her earlier recording from Decca in 1960

[@smileydts]

My response to this video: 😂🤣😂🤣 Bravo.

[@marcoantoniofalquete557]

ok, Merlot is Wächter, who is Cabernet?

[@jerelzoltick6900]

I have always loved this recording - very passionate- " a sexual drive." However one cannot exclude Furtwangler. There is something so perfect about that recording. The Furtwangler Flagstad recording as always been considered one of the near perfect recordings -like the early Callas Tosca. I live with both recordings - so different but one needs both to understand the perfection of Wagner.

[@eddihaskell]

Question: And I admit Tristan is not my favorite Wagner Opera. Where does the Furtwanger/ Tristan Philharmonia version from 1952 fit into the scheme of things? With Suthaus as Tristan and Flagstad as Isolde. I thought this was a great version. (I have a confession - I own this and a Placido Domingo version from Covent Garden and I have never been able to listen to the entire Opera non-stop).

[@natwhilk487]

The Furtwängler is still a classic recording. I prefer it to Böhm, honestly.

[@petterw5318]

The Furtwängler is great, but it's extremely slow. It's better to start with another recording.

[@bbailey7818]

​@@petterw5318My memory of WF's was also that it was extremely slow. But when I listened to it again about a year ago it didn't seem slow or overly expansive. I was surprised.

[@bbailey7818]

Boris Goldovsky, Mr. Opera, once said he'd thought the last act weaker than the other two. A mentor suggested he go separately to hear the 3rd act fresh by itself. After doing so, he changed his mind. The great thing about recordings is we can take those long Bayreuth style intermissions or even play one act a day.

[@jaykauffman4775]

@@natwhilk487 As do I - Furt really knows how this score should go

[@richardfox2862]

This was my first recording of T&I. I expect to be eviscerated for even suggesting this, but I actually prefer the Kleiber recording. While I think Nilsson was sensational, just listen to her at the end of Siegfried or Salome, both with Solti, she does not sound like Isolde to me. In his surveys of recorded opera, Ralph Moore describes her Isolde as being ‘chromium plated’. But I don’t think Isolde should be chromium plated. That is why I prefer Margaret Price, even though she never sang it on stage. It’s alright, I can take the approaching criticism.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Hey, you like what you like. It can be one of the greatest recordings every made but not your favorite. Happens to me all the time.

[@clementewerner]

Margaret Price had a lovely voice, but in Act 1 she never sounds angry as she is supposed to be, where you are almost assaulted by the rage in the 1966 Nilsson performance, while Kleiber, I believe was not happy with the recording or the version DG released.

[@kingconcerto5860]

I'm looking to explore this work but I generally despise opera. Which recording should I devote my undivided attention to for a first listening that features the most outstanding symphonic musical performance? I have zero interest in melodrama, story, theatrics, and I'm not particularly fond of singing either. I approach listening to opera as if the stage portion doesn't exist at all, and I'm much more attracted to the instrumental music than the vocal solos. Does anyone reading this have a suggested recording for me if I wanted to hear this work as more of a symphony and less of a stage production?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Don't waste your time listening to opera.

[@meropale]

🤣

[@MegaVicar]

That recording was my second opera, after Marriage of Figaro, and the first I saw. I agree it is exciting to see, and you don't expect that. Looking back 23 years later, I am surprised that Christoph Eschenbach did it in just over four hours...I think he has overly slow tempi.