On Wednesday, April 4, 2018 at 1:08:17 PM UTC-7,
meyers...@gmail.com wrote:
Although I have had this performance for awhile this was the first time I gave it a detailed listen and what a superb performance it is. Lets get the big problem out of the way and that's the cuts. A major one in Wotan's narration (very sorry for that
considering Janssen but more of that later) and in the third act scene between Wotan and Brunnhilde.
Considering this Szell was one of the great Wagner conductors. For him the orchestra did not just accompany - it commented, it was another singer, it illuminated. I heard things from him I have heard from no other conductor. I had no idea he was this
good in Wagner and I have some other Wagner with him I will certainly hear.
We all know that Janssen was a wonderful lyric baritone (still my favorite Wolfram and Kurwenal) who was pushed by the MET into the heavier Wagner roles when Schorr retired and its true sometimes there is not quite enough there. But that happens
surprisingly infrequently here and his reading is the reading of a great Lieder singer. Only Hotter matches him in his delineation, his feeling, his emotional reading. It was a stunner for me and a wonderful surprise.
Traubel is in magnificent voice and she responds to Janssen with a reading that I didn't think she had in her. And that lower third - stronger than either Flagstad or Nilsson is absolutely gorgeous.
Melchior is Melchior - the only thing I can add is he seems to stress the valiant warrior a bit more here. Other than that THE Wagner tenor,
Rose Bampton I only know from the Toscanini Fidelio and she is warm and telling - Lehmann she ain't but who is and I enjoyed her.
Thorborg wipes up the floor with her Fricka - exactly the voice the role needs.
The sound on my set (Immortal Performances) is quite good - apparently quite a bit of remastering improvements went into it
All told I highly recommend this performance to my fellow Wagnerians
Weren't Traubel and Szell in the 1945 MET opening night "Lohengrin"?
By the way, in 1954, she was on WHAT'S MY LINE?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTVGwStHXxc
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