COMPOSERS: Wagner
LABELS: Warner
ALBUM TITLE: Wagner
WORKS: Tristan und Isolde
PERFORMER: John Treleaven, Christine Brewer, Dagmar Pecková, Boaz Daniel, Peter Rose, Jared Holt, Eugene Ginty, Jonathan Lemalu, Mark le Brocq; Apollo Voices; BBC SO/Donald Runnicles
CATALOGUE NO: 2564 62964-2
In a work on the scale of and
with the sublimity of Tristan und
Isolde, it is foolish to expect any
performance or recording to be
flawless: it’s safe to say none ever
has been or ever will be. There
are already several outstanding
recordings in the catalogue, of
which the first, made under
Furtwängler in 1952, has long been
recognised as the standard by which
all others are judged. But Böhm’s
exciting rather than moving account
from Bayreuth, and Barenboim’s
more recent one, also have very
strong claims. Nonetheless, among
modern accounts, this new one
strikes me as altogether exceptional.
Here is the record of three evenings
at the Barbican, in 2002 and 2003,
widely spaced performances of the
three Acts, with some patching
up done afterwards in the studio.
This recording in some ways even
surpasses those wonderful occasions
in magnificence, with more detail
from the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
and the Tristan of John Treleaven
sounding far less strained than he
did in the concert hall. Lacking
a beautiful voice, he still makes a
great deal of the part, and rises to
noble heights in Act III. Christine
Brewer is quite stupendous, the finest Isolde I have heard for decades,
even though she was new to the
part, and not entirely inside it – but
the sound she makes! There is no
weak link in the cast, even such a
small role as the traitor Melot being
sung with distinction by Jared Holt.
And Donald Runnicles provides a very detailed account of this
inexhaustible score. Listening to
these discs straight through is a
shattering experience.