Search - Schorr, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra :: Wagner: Die Walkure (Complete) [United Kingdom]

The Dream Cast

Brooklyn GV | Brooklyn NY | 07/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Anyone who is interested in hearing the 'Golden Age' of singing cannot be without this recording.

I can't go into the work that went into remastering these original records live from the stage of The Met and other various places. Act one with Melchior and Lehmann is the most exciting on record. Sparks fly for these passionate lovers. Flagstad continues to amaze the more I listen to her but a live performance is everything.

The difference between her and later Nilsson is the warmth of Flagstad's voice. Flagstd's voice had a wide single column of beautiful sound and as tireless. Friedich Schorr is heartbreaking although singing at the end of his career. List and Branzell are also wonderful. The sound is a mixed bag but anyone listening to these performances will not care about poor but listenable sound. I also enjoyed Milton Cross's commentary. Those whose concern is built around digital shouldn't even bother."

Great Golden Age Walküre

Philip S. Griffey | Bainbridge I. WA USA | 01/29/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a student of history, I tend to be skeptical of so called "Golden Age"s. Usually, if you scratch the surface of one of these "Golden Age"s (whether Athens, Rome, Spain, or some other), you find a solid core of base metal under a thin layer of gilt. The one exception I can think of to this general rule is in the performances of the operas of Richard Wagner between the late 1920's and the early 1940's. It was a tragic period for the world economically, socially and politically; but a truly glorious period for Wagnerian opera with conductors such as Fürtwangler, Böhm, Walter, Bodanzky, Knappertsbusch, Beecham, Toscanini, Elmendorff and Muck, leading singers such as Flagstad, Leider, Lehmann, Lawrence, Seinemeyer, Rethberg, Lubin, Lemnitz, Müller, Turner, Traubel, Klose, Melchior, Völker, Ralf, Lorenz, Thill, Schorr, Hotter, Janssen, List, Alsen and Kipnis.



I believe that this complete recording of Die Walküre from Feb/March of 1940 towers above any recording of the opera made since. Guild has done its usual excellent job of improving the audio - I would rate it a 6 or 7 on a scale of 10. A subsequent performance, recorded on the same stage less than two years later Richard Wagner: Die Walkure [New York -- December 6, 1941: Helen Traubel, Astrid Varnay, Kerstin Thorborg, Lauritz Melchior, Friedrich Schorr, Alexander Kipnis; Erich Leinsdorf] is not as great - but still has considerable merit.



In Act I we have the same cast (Lehmann, Melchior and List) which began the superlative - but ill fated studio recording with Bruno Walter in 1935 Wagner: Walküre Act 1. This performance does not give up much to that amazing recording; of course Leinsdorf was not Walter, and no live performance from the period could match the sound of a studio recording, but the singers are in excellent voice in spite of being five years older (Melchior was 50, List 52, and Lehmann an amazingly youthful 55), and brought all the ardor and passion they mustered for the prior recording.



I believe I may prefer the second act of this performance to that of the earlier recording Richard Wagner: Die Walküre (Act 2) in spite of the inferior sound; Leinsdorf was superior to Bruno Seidler-Winkler (who replaced Walter in Scenes 1,2 & 4) as a conductor, and Flagstad was head and shoulders above Marta Fuchs (Flagstad and Melchior in the Todesverkündigung scene are unequalled in any other recorded duet I can think of - in 1935 the distinguished New York critic, W.J. Henderson, was reported to have said "I heard Ternina, Eames and Nordica in their prime. I thank God that he allowed me to live long enough to hear Flagstad.") Melchior could be careless with the finer points, (Leinsdorf said he "gives a broad approximation of what the composer intended") and he and Flagstad had a serious falling out over his sloppy tendencies previously - but here he is on his best behavior and his strong lower register allows him to put real power into the phrasing. Although I am very fond of Schorr's Wotan, Hotter (who was only in his late '20's) and Klose in the 1935/8 recording of Act II are on a plane of their own, which I suspect will never be surpassed.



Flagstad continues to sing at full force in Act III (Tragically, there was never an Act III recorded for the studio recording - though without Walter and Flagstad, it is very unlikely that it would have been anywhere near as good as Acts I & II.); however, Schorr (who was 51 in 1940) was coming to the end of his career, and while he still brings all the majesty and dignity required, the voice sounds somewhat worn at full volume. His "Leb'wohl" can be heard in all its glory in a 1927 recording on Preiser Friedrich Schorr Sings Wagner. A still young, still great Hotter can be heard singing "Leb'wohl" (also on a Preiser recording Hans Hotter) made in 1942, when he was 33 years old, along with some very interesting items from Falstaff, Otello, Aida and Meistersinger.



For those of us who came of age in the hinterlands, where our only inexpensive exposure to great opera was the Texaco Saturday afternoon matinee broadcasts from the Met, the included comments by Milton Cross are a nice nostalgic reminder.



Most enthusiastically recommended.







"