Search - Wagner, Beecham, Furtwangler :: Conductors on Record

A Great Set of Historic Wagner Performances

Jeffrey Lipscomb | Sacramento, CA United States | 07/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As Mark Obert-Thorn observes in the perceptive and well-written notes that accompany this CD, the years between the World Wars were not only a golden age of great singing but a grand era for great Wagner conducting as well. This two-disc Pearl set brings together recordings from 1922-42 from 16 outstanding Wagner interpreters. The transfers are superb, and in the case of the Weingartner Rienzi (magnificent!) and Coates Tannhauser overtures, far more vivid than what is heard from their volumes in EMI's Great Conductors of the 20th Century series.



Amazon's display of this set's contents (shown above) contains one error: it is Leo Blech, not Stokowski, who conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in Siegfried Idyll.



There is too much here to go into detail. Here are the performances, with recording dates and a few comments:



1. Felix Weingartner (1863-1942): Rienzi Overture (1939)

2. Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Flying Dutchman Ov. (1928)

3. Albert Coates (1882-1953): Tannhauser Ov. (Dresden) (1926)

4. Artur Bodanzky (1877-1939): Lohengrin Preslude Act I (1927)

5. Otto Klemperer (1885-1973): Tristan Prelude, Act I (1927)

6. Karl Muck (1859-1940): Meistersinger Prelude Act I (1927)

7. Bruno Walter (1876-1962): Dawn & Sieg. Rhine Jouney (1932)

8. Hans Knappertsbusch (1888-1965): Parsifal I Transform.(1928)

9. Thomas Beecham (1879-1961): Faust Overture (1935)

10. Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930): Huldigungsmarsch (1927)

11. Wilhelm Furtwangler (1886-1954): Lohengrin Prelude (1930)

12. Max von Schillings (1868-1933): from Tristan Act II (1927)

13. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1952): Tristan Prelude/Lieb. (1942)

15. Fritz Reiner (1883-1963): Ride of the Valkyries (1940)

16. Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977): Gotterdamm. Finale (1940)

17. Leo Blech (1871-1958): Siegfried Idyll (1922)



All of these are wonderfully sympathetic performances that should be heard by anyone interested in the history of Wagner conducting. My favorites are the Weingartner Rienzi, the Strauss Dutchman (one of the two outstanding 78 rpm accounts, along with Schuricht's on History), the Beecham Faust Ov. (the best I have heard, along with Abendroth's), and the sweetly lyrical, portamento-laden Blech Siegfried Idyll (in surprisingly good sound for an acoustic recording).



Congratulations to Mr. Obert-Thorn and Pearl for a job well done!



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