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Pristine Classical release: Furtwängler's 1952 Tristan und Isolde
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Andrew Rose
Nov 18, 2011, 11:46:36 AM11/18/11
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New release today:
Furtwängler's legendary Tristan and Isolde
Possibly its finest recording - new 32-bit XR remaster
"It is moving beyond words to hear the great singer, with her art at the
height of its maturity, as time bids her say farewell to Tristan,
shirking nothing in her exacting part, pouring out her voice as
generously as ever, and adding to the flood of golden tone an emotion
not present in previous years..."
PASC 314 WAGNER Tristan und Isolde
Recorded 1952
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Andrew Rose
Tristan Ludwig Suthaus
Isolde Kirsten Flagstad
Brangäne Blanche Thebom
König Marke Josef Greindl
Kurwenal Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Melot Edgar Evans
Seemann Rudolf Schock
Hirt Rudolf Schock
Steuermann Rhoderick Davies
Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Philharmonia Orchestra
conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler
Web page:
http://www.pristineclassical.com/LargeWorks/Vocal/PACO067.php
Short Notes
Furtwängler's Wagner was legendary, and this, his first full-length
studio recording, remains perhaps the greatest Tristan und Isolde ever made.
It's hard to conjure up a better cast - Kirsten Flagstad is stunning as
Isolde, Ludwig Suthaus likewise as Tristan, with with a support cast
that includes the likes of Josef Greindl and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
coupled with a Philharmonia Orchestra playing at their peak, you have a
recipe for real magic.
This was recorded in the early days of tape and was among EMI's first LP
issues, and although very well made for its day, for some the sound
quality has been the only possible flaw here. Now Pristine's 32-bit XR
remastering technology has taken this recording to new heights, cleaning
out the murk, correcting wayward pitch, and extending both treble and
bass response - in a word: fabulous!
Review LP issue (excerpts)
No other chord in music, surely, makes so startling an emotional impact
on the listener as the one first heard in the Prelude to Tristan and
Isolde. One may have heard it a hundred times in the opera house: but
when the lights dim and go out and the house grows still as the
conductor raises his baton, when there rises out of the orchestral pit
the almost unbearably long-drawn motive of longing suddenly stabbed by
the wood-wind chord of the motive of desire, we drink, as if for the
first time, the magic potion that will cause to be enacted within us, as
well as on the stage and in the orchestra, the tragedy of the ill-fated
lovers.
It was in the course of Sir Thomas Beecham's second season of opera at
Covent Garden, in 1910, that I heard Tristan for the first time. Up to
then I had heard the Prelude and Liebestod in the concert version,
studied the work at the piano as best I could (no radio, no records of
the music in that dark age !) and read and re-read a book and an essay
which now are, I suppose, forgotten. These were the imaginative essay on
the opera in Filson Young's Mastersingers and a novel by Gertrude
Atherton called The Tower of Ivory, old-fashioned in style, no doubt,
and not always musically accurate, but still absorbingly interesting....
This fine recording has the great merit of suggesting a performance in
the opera house without the corresponding drawback of extraneous noises,
and the balance between voices and orchestra seems to me as good as
anything of the kind we have yet had, and in the last act, even better
than that. It is only in the Prelude to Act 1, for some reason or
another, that the music sounds rather distant and light in bass.
Furtwängler makes a finely controlled crescendo to the climax but, as in
previous recordings, the timpani, in the recapitulatory passage, hardly
tell at all. When the curtain goes up (so to speak) and the young sailor
has sung his song, with the right perspective (though he sounds as far
away after Brangäna has pulled the curtains of Isolde's cabin aside),
the orchestra comes in with a reassuring vitality, depth of tone and
spaciousness.
The splendid string playing is exceptionally well recorded, as is
Wagner's lovely writing for the wood-wind, and the six off-stage horns
give no cause for pain in the second act. But to do justice to such
playing as this one would have to mention each member of the orchestra,
from whom Furtwängler has drawn so distinguished and inspired a performance.
His firm control and masterly conception of the score and his unfailing
response to the subtleties of Wagner's writing are shown in page after
page, and I can quote only the first scene of the last act, in which
Kurwenal is seen watching over Tristan. Furtwängler brings out most
movingly the joyful emotions of Kurwenal when he realises that his hero
lives and the swift changes to Tristan's faint replies to his trusty
servant's anxious questions....
And Flagstad. It is moving beyond words to hear the great singer, with
her art at the height of its maturity, as time bids her say farewell to
Tristan, shirking nothing in her exacting part, pouring out her voice as
generously as ever, and adding to the flood of golden tone an emotion
not present in previous years. One of the loveliest things is her quiet
singing, with the high notes beautifully covered, as (in the first act)
Isolde offers the cup to Tristan and clearly reveals her inmost
feelings, one of the most exciting the extinguishing of the torch in the
succeeding act (the orchestra tremendous here) and the most poignant
Isolde's bitter cry from the heart as Tristan dies...
Alec Robertson - The Gramophone, March 1953
Notes On this recording
This recording surely stands as one of the first truly great opera
recordings of the era of tape recording - at last Furtwängler was free
in the studio from the stifling requirements of 4-minute 78rpm sides,
and what a fabulous result he and the EMI engineers made with this
opportunity. My role here has been chiefly to clean up some of the murk
and noise present in the original, and to extend both the top end and
very deep bass. I was also able to address some pitch anololies
previously ignored or undetected, most notably the first tape reel of
Act 2, which has been heard quite a bit sharp (until now) for nearly 60
years...
MP3 Sample ACT 2 O sink herneider... http://tinyurl.com/PACO067
--
Andrew Rose
Pristine Classical: "The destination for people interested in historic
recordings..." (Gramophone)
www.pristineclassical.com
Furtwängler's legendary Tristan and Isolde
Possibly its finest recording - new 32-bit XR remaster
"It is moving beyond words to hear the great singer, with her art at the
height of its maturity, as time bids her say farewell to Tristan,
shirking nothing in her exacting part, pouring out her voice as
generously as ever, and adding to the flood of golden tone an emotion
not present in previous years..."
PASC 314 WAGNER Tristan und Isolde
Recorded 1952
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Andrew Rose
Tristan Ludwig Suthaus
Isolde Kirsten Flagstad
Brangäne Blanche Thebom
König Marke Josef Greindl
Kurwenal Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Melot Edgar Evans
Seemann Rudolf Schock
Hirt Rudolf Schock
Steuermann Rhoderick Davies
Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Philharmonia Orchestra
conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler
Web page:
http://www.pristineclassical.com/LargeWorks/Vocal/PACO067.php
Short Notes
Furtwängler's Wagner was legendary, and this, his first full-length
studio recording, remains perhaps the greatest Tristan und Isolde ever made.
It's hard to conjure up a better cast - Kirsten Flagstad is stunning as
Isolde, Ludwig Suthaus likewise as Tristan, with with a support cast
that includes the likes of Josef Greindl and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
coupled with a Philharmonia Orchestra playing at their peak, you have a
recipe for real magic.
This was recorded in the early days of tape and was among EMI's first LP
issues, and although very well made for its day, for some the sound
quality has been the only possible flaw here. Now Pristine's 32-bit XR
remastering technology has taken this recording to new heights, cleaning
out the murk, correcting wayward pitch, and extending both treble and
bass response - in a word: fabulous!
Review LP issue (excerpts)
No other chord in music, surely, makes so startling an emotional impact
on the listener as the one first heard in the Prelude to Tristan and
Isolde. One may have heard it a hundred times in the opera house: but
when the lights dim and go out and the house grows still as the
conductor raises his baton, when there rises out of the orchestral pit
the almost unbearably long-drawn motive of longing suddenly stabbed by
the wood-wind chord of the motive of desire, we drink, as if for the
first time, the magic potion that will cause to be enacted within us, as
well as on the stage and in the orchestra, the tragedy of the ill-fated
lovers.
It was in the course of Sir Thomas Beecham's second season of opera at
Covent Garden, in 1910, that I heard Tristan for the first time. Up to
then I had heard the Prelude and Liebestod in the concert version,
studied the work at the piano as best I could (no radio, no records of
the music in that dark age !) and read and re-read a book and an essay
which now are, I suppose, forgotten. These were the imaginative essay on
the opera in Filson Young's Mastersingers and a novel by Gertrude
Atherton called The Tower of Ivory, old-fashioned in style, no doubt,
and not always musically accurate, but still absorbingly interesting....
This fine recording has the great merit of suggesting a performance in
the opera house without the corresponding drawback of extraneous noises,
and the balance between voices and orchestra seems to me as good as
anything of the kind we have yet had, and in the last act, even better
than that. It is only in the Prelude to Act 1, for some reason or
another, that the music sounds rather distant and light in bass.
Furtwängler makes a finely controlled crescendo to the climax but, as in
previous recordings, the timpani, in the recapitulatory passage, hardly
tell at all. When the curtain goes up (so to speak) and the young sailor
has sung his song, with the right perspective (though he sounds as far
away after Brangäna has pulled the curtains of Isolde's cabin aside),
the orchestra comes in with a reassuring vitality, depth of tone and
spaciousness.
The splendid string playing is exceptionally well recorded, as is
Wagner's lovely writing for the wood-wind, and the six off-stage horns
give no cause for pain in the second act. But to do justice to such
playing as this one would have to mention each member of the orchestra,
from whom Furtwängler has drawn so distinguished and inspired a performance.
His firm control and masterly conception of the score and his unfailing
response to the subtleties of Wagner's writing are shown in page after
page, and I can quote only the first scene of the last act, in which
Kurwenal is seen watching over Tristan. Furtwängler brings out most
movingly the joyful emotions of Kurwenal when he realises that his hero
lives and the swift changes to Tristan's faint replies to his trusty
servant's anxious questions....
And Flagstad. It is moving beyond words to hear the great singer, with
her art at the height of its maturity, as time bids her say farewell to
Tristan, shirking nothing in her exacting part, pouring out her voice as
generously as ever, and adding to the flood of golden tone an emotion
not present in previous years. One of the loveliest things is her quiet
singing, with the high notes beautifully covered, as (in the first act)
Isolde offers the cup to Tristan and clearly reveals her inmost
feelings, one of the most exciting the extinguishing of the torch in the
succeeding act (the orchestra tremendous here) and the most poignant
Isolde's bitter cry from the heart as Tristan dies...
Alec Robertson - The Gramophone, March 1953
Notes On this recording
This recording surely stands as one of the first truly great opera
recordings of the era of tape recording - at last Furtwängler was free
in the studio from the stifling requirements of 4-minute 78rpm sides,
and what a fabulous result he and the EMI engineers made with this
opportunity. My role here has been chiefly to clean up some of the murk
and noise present in the original, and to extend both the top end and
very deep bass. I was also able to address some pitch anololies
previously ignored or undetected, most notably the first tape reel of
Act 2, which has been heard quite a bit sharp (until now) for nearly 60
years...
MP3 Sample ACT 2 O sink herneider... http://tinyurl.com/PACO067
--
Andrew Rose
Pristine Classical: "The destination for people interested in historic
recordings..." (Gramophone)
www.pristineclassical.com
wkasimer
Nov 18, 2011, 11:58:24 AM11/18/11
to
On Nov 18, 11:46 am, Andrew Rose <and...@pristineaudio.com> wrote:
> Notes On this recording
>
> This recording surely stands as one of the first truly great opera
> recordings of the era of tape recording - at last Furtwängler was free
> in the studio from the stifling requirements of 4-minute 78rpm sides,
> and what a fabulous result he and the EMI engineers made with this
> opportunity. My role here has been chiefly to clean up some of the murk
> and noise present in the original, and to extend both the top end and
> very deep bass. I was also able to address some pitch anololies
> previously ignored or undetected, most notably the first tape reel of
> Act 2, which has been heard quite a bit sharp (until now) for nearly 60
> years...
What did you use as your source material?
> Notes On this recording
>
> This recording surely stands as one of the first truly great opera
> recordings of the era of tape recording - at last Furtwängler was free
> in the studio from the stifling requirements of 4-minute 78rpm sides,
> and what a fabulous result he and the EMI engineers made with this
> opportunity. My role here has been chiefly to clean up some of the murk
> and noise present in the original, and to extend both the top end and
> very deep bass. I was also able to address some pitch anololies
> previously ignored or undetected, most notably the first tape reel of
> Act 2, which has been heard quite a bit sharp (until now) for nearly 60
> years...
Bill
Abbeddrose Bierce
Nov 18, 2011, 2:30:00 PM11/18/11
to
On Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:46:36 +0100, Andrew Rose
<and...@pristineaudio.com> wrote:
>, and extending both treble and
>bass response -
Lumpy gravy is for shitty turkey
<and...@pristineaudio.com> wrote:
>, and extending both treble and
>bass response -
Man. you are clueless
Abbedd
Mitt Romney's Dead Dog
Nov 18, 2011, 2:30:43 PM11/18/11
to
>32-bit
Thank you
Shaemus
Thank you
Shaemus
Andrew Rose
Nov 18, 2011, 5:38:54 PM11/18/11
to
wkasimer
Nov 18, 2011, 10:40:06 PM11/18/11
to
On Nov 18, 5:38 pm, Andrew Rose <and...@pristineaudio.com> wrote:
> > What did you use as your source material?
>
> A very good copy.
A very good copy of what? LP's? CD's? Open reels?
> > What did you use as your source material?
>
> A very good copy.
Bill
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