Wagner: Gotterdammerung

I've waited a while to put my thoughts together and take a listen to this performance several times and also give a listen to another dozen or so RINGS to reach some conclusions. First, this is one of those truly GREAT RING CYCLES that gets it RIGHT! That said there are others Rings that also do this great work full justice. This one however is so strong and consistent in cast, conducting and sound that it is a must for any serious Wagner collection. Here is an ensemble that works as a complete unified team and each individual gives of their very best and many of them are definitive or as close as one can get to that illusive ideal. Bayreuth in the post war 50's assembled one of the legendary casts that would own these roles if they were here to sing them today in their vocal prime. We just don't come near this level of singing and complete identification with the character today! Varnay, Windgassen, Neidlinger, Kuen, Hotter in the other operas give their all which is a lot. The others in this illustrious cast are right up there with them. Every not so perfect Wagnerite should own this Ring as well as many other RINGS which I'll try to list a few and why. I'll stick my neck out and say this would be my first recommendation to someone new to the Ring because of this cast and this cast captured in very good stereo. I also recommend the KNA RING'S from Bayreuth especially 1957 (Melodram my preference because of Nilsson's wonderful Sieglinde) and now especially the new excellent remastering on WALHALL and very inexpensive to boot. I also would not part with Krauss of 1953. Both of these conductors get very good or better MONO Broadcast sound. If you can handle less than great Mono sound don't pass up Furtwangler's 1953 RAI Rome Cycle or in just barely acceptable broadcast sound with fluctuations and some weak areas the LA SCALA RING of 1950. For those who can handle the Ring in English try Andrew Porter's excellent translation with a great Wagnerian at the helm -Reginald Goodall with another great cast. You get to hear one of the most beautifully sung Siegfrieds in Alberto Remedios. For only the brave of heart and die-hard Helen Traubel Fans (and I'm one) there is a Met 1951 Ring with the pedestrian conducting of Stiedry. Flagstad sings DIE WALKURE but, you get Helen Traubel in SIGFRIED and GOTTERDAMMERUNG. She no longer has the high Bs and Cs but everything else is just beautifully sung and she sings sanctioned alternate high notes. The sound is quite good for 50's broadcast sound with some weak short patches;luckily, few and far between. I find it amazing that many of the great Rings are live recordings; and many of them from Bayreuth with the 50's cast. Now one must not forget Solti, Decca and Vienna. Many of us grew up with this Ring and it deserves its excellent reputation. I lean more to the Keilberth because of some of the same singers being so much more involved before a live audience, the wonderful Bayreuth acoustics and Windgassen and Hotter singing so much better and sounding far more fresh and youthful in the 1950's. There are no dry leathery tones or wobbles in this Ring. ONE NOTE: in my hearing there is a marked volume drop and tape editing blur in the Immolation Scene (Spectacularly sung by Varnay) which I found only needed a slight volume increase to match the rest of the full sonics of this Historic Cycle. I truly believe this was left in the Decca Vaults because it would have made Culshaw's Sonic Stage Ring with Solti redundant. As one can see a true lover of Wagner has many excellent choices and sometimes the conductor (Furtwangler, Krauss, Knappertsbusch, Goodall or Keilberth) can give use a new view and a great transcendent experience of this ever fascinating work. Some of these greatest Rings come with sonic handicaps that a great conductor with a majestic concept truly overcomes if we are willing to really listen and not just hear. As one grows in knowledge and love of the Ring the sonics can be ignored if the conductor or cast is inspiring! The reader may want to read my extensive comment as to why I cannot recommend the 1958 Knappertsbusch Bayreuth RING.

I got a chuckle out of a curmudgeon's comment in American Record Guide that this set was overpriced and overrated. He's entitled to his opinion and is right-on about the price, however these Ring performances have been adequately qualified by a number of listeners and critics for what they do and don't deliver. They are certainly NOT overrated. First, what this recording does deliver; a rare evenly cast Götterdämmerung led by Astrid Varnay's sturdy warm lyric Brunhilde. Secondly; it does so in pretty decent stereo sound. There are ample other comments about the conducting and cast so I wanted to focus a bit on the sonics. For 1955 live performance, the sound and remastering are amazing. There is very little distortion, much less than one hears in many late 60s recordings. The voices are especially well captured with acoustic ambiance and wide stereo separation. There are of course moments when the singers' movements will divert their voice from the mics but those are minimal. The stage noises have likely been left alone to avoid dampening the bass response. I noticed some wow and flutter from the 1950s tape recorders. It's more audible in soft passages such as the opening of Act II but generally not distractingly so. The tutti orchestral passages such as the Dawn and Rhine Journey of Act I are handled fairly well although I noticed a tendency for the trumpets to dominate. I suspect that is a result of recording technology limitations more than any error on the musicians' or conductor's part. The orchestra is captured in detail by rather hot mics under the famous Bayreuth canopy. The orchestral stereo separation is narrow and the sound somewhat dry. However, the engineers did a fine job in the final balance between voices, orchestra and theater ambiance. I liken the quality to the famous RCA Living Stereo recordings of 1954; the Munch/Boston Daphnis and Chloe and Reiner/Chicago Heldenleben. As for Keilberth, he's a fine conductor who keeps the drama moving never slighting the big moments, overpowering the singers or avoiding the lyricism of this great work. Maybe he's not Furtwangler or Krauss, but neither of those guys lived long enough to record in stereo so I don't wish to hear their mono performances. Keilberth certainly chooses better tempi than James Levine and has a better interpretive handle on the Ring than Barenboim. I've heard live Ring performances conducted by Runnicles who's competent but prosaic, and one by Jesus Lopez Cobos who was outstanding. But neither of them could come up with a good cast. I've heard Schnaut, Vinzing, Polaski, Jones and Eaglen live as Brunhilde and while Eaglen came close, none of them are anywhere near Astrid Varnay's class.I appreciate a critic friend for turning me on to the quality of the singing in these sets. He absolutely raved about the second cast Walküre for the opportunity to hear Mödl's Brunhilde and was equally impressed by Varnay's first cast Brunhilde. I'm so pleased with this recording, that I've ordered the Walküre and Siegfried although in the form of cheaper used sets. I listened again to my recordings of the Böhm 1966 Ring and found the orchestral work more taut, and the sound more transparent and open, but there is a dryness to the remastering, a lack of bass response (likely due to trimming to remove stage noise) and ultimately one has to put up with Windgassen's aging tenor, the dry Wotan of Theo Adam and Birgit Nilsson's lack of vocal flexibility. Frankly, much as I admired her work, I consider her more a vocal phenomenon than a great singer. I never warmed to her recordings and for my money, would much rather hear Astrid Varnay's Immolation Scene than Nilsson's anyday.So I add this to my list of favorite Wagner Ring recordings, along with the EMI Haitink Rheingold, the DGG Karajan Walküre with Crespin's Brunhilde, the Böhm Siegfried and Solti Götterdämmerung. Testament charges a wopping tariff on these recordings but they did a magnificent remastering job and packaged them with excellent notes. The fact that they are selling well perhaps justifies their business model in that they are selling to a niche market. Perhaps though, if they lowered the price they could sell four times as many sets.

この神々の黄昏も大変素晴らしい出来上がりになっており、全てCDの中でもベストだと考えます。しかし個人的には後で発売になった第二チクルスのブリュンヒルデがメードルの方が更に素晴らしい！