Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Erich Kleiber, Emanuel List :: Wagner: Die Walküre

Kleiber conducts like a God!

04/01/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No other conductor has quite the verve and energetic pace as Kleiber. Each moment he has a firm grasp on the score and makes the characters come alive! He know when to keep the action slow and when it should be vivace. The singers, with the exception of Lawerence, are not identified with these parts:Maison, Stevens and Jessner. But there a a great surprise in the command of their repective roles. The sound is exceptional for this period"

Karaoke Wagner

David Landau | Los Angeles, CA USA | 04/02/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This recording of a concert from the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, August 1940, is a curiosity. A performance of Die Walkure, at that date and by those musicians, has historic as well as musical significance. And, as another reviewer has indicated, the conducting and singing are excellent. The sound, however, is another matter. Up to the beginning of Wotan's Farewell, it is tolerably good. But then, when we should hear from Wotan, Janssen's voice just doesn't appear. Orchestral detail is present but the singer is inaudible for a number of minutes, until the phrase "der freie als ich, der Gott". Even then, and after, Janssen's fine voice does not register with anything like the needed strength. Given the centrality of Wotan's Farewell, this problem considerably reduces the value of the set. And I cannot imagine why it was issued without any warning to the buyer. (I didn't buy this set on Amazon, by the way, so this statement has nothing to do with the Amazon website, which is such a marvelous facility for classical music buyers.) If one is eager for a live performance of Die Walkure from this period, a much better value--and with very "present" sound--is the performance from the Met, conducted by Leinsdorf, with a stupendous cast: Traubel, Melchior, Schorr, Kipnis, Varnay and Thorberg. And note the date of that Met broadcast: Saturday, December 6, 1941."