Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Arnold van Mill :: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE PREVIOUS REVIEWER IS TALKING ABOUT

L. Mitnick | Chicago, Illinois United States | 10/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having heard this recording within the last week or so, I cannot understand what the previous reviewer could be eluding to. To start with, he's basing his "review" on the sound samples provided by Amazon. Bad mistake!!! This is a live Bayreuth "Tristan and Isolde" with a very young Birgit Nilsson, who was already on the cusp of international divadom, and Wolfgang Windgassen, who was still in his prime. These two great artists would nine years later make the critically acclaimed "Tristan" with Karl Bohm on DGG. Nilsson was only three years away from making her first London/Decca recording of her Isolde under Georg Solti. What is heard here are two Wagnerian superstars in a youthfully blazing rendition of the great score. Audience noises? Perhaps a few, but after all, this is a live performance, and performances are seen by HUMAN BEINGS, who sometimes cough, and move around in their chairs. The chairs in Bayreuth happen to be made of wood. So what's the big deal???? It's an excellent performance, with Nilsson in superlative voice and Windgassen as well. True, Nilsson added much refinement and polish to her Isolde in the nine years that followed, but had she not, she'd still be acclaimed, on the basis of this performance alone, as the greatest Wagnerian soprano of her time. Truly, she, along with Kirsten Flagstad, was the greatest Wagnerian dramatic soprano of the twentieth century. End of story."