Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Erich Kleiber, Colon Theater Orchestra (Buenos Aires) :: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

ZERO STARS! UNLISTENABLE!!

Milan Simich | 05/16/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is just unlistenable. Transfers are from warped discs, broken discs, discs with different sound levels, even allowing for stage action...DO NOT GET!"

Wow! Highly Dramatic! Beautiful! Soft! Dreamy! Sensual! But

Impostazione | New York City Area | 12/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The sound quality of Historical Performances on CD or otherwise is expected to be representative of the time and place from which the performance derives. This recording is from Buenos Aires in 1938, and considered as such, it is valuable, adequately presented, and it is worth listening to.



Now on to the performance!!



What a spectacular performance! Ok, I must confess that old Anny "Diesel" Konetzni is my favorite Isolde. She is said to have been "the most powerful Isolde" of the time said Treptow, Suthaus, and Max Lorenz, the sublime Tristan on this set. What they did not mention was the remarkable beauty of her voice and sensuous quality that even Crespin can not match. There is simply never a hard edge....EVER... While she lacks the insight of Varnay or the so called perfection of the Flagstad, no matter how high your turn up the volume, her tone never falls hard on the ear. High C was not in her technique, but I would give away a thousand high C's for one of Anny's middle notes. Imagine a combination of Milanov, Crespin, and Nilsson, thats Anny! Her Liebestod is purely sung and very unique.



So, this recording shows why the Germans found Max Lorenz the ideal Wagner tenor. He was supreme among the Wagnerians. What insight, youth, and power! On the cover he sports a fashionable pose. His performance is just as stylish.



On top of this, there is the beautiful Brangaena, and the lower men's voices please well enough. Kleiber did a fine job too. This is a Tristan to play as you sleep! Sensual Overload!"

Avoid this at all costs

Reginald Shepherd | Pensacola, FL USA | 12/17/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Too often in reviews of "historic" classical recordings, all attention is focused on the performance and little or none on the sound quality. But I was not at this performance in Buenos Aires in 1938--all I know of it is what I hear on this recording.



I know from other and better recordings that Anny Konetzni and Max Lorenz were great singers, and both (especially Konetzni) are woefully underrepresented in the CD catalogue. But the sound on this release is so poor that one can hardly tell what they are like as performers. It is literally painful to listen to this. Something of such abominable sound quality should never have been released--it's unconscionable that Archipel is actually charging money for it.



There is a 1942 radio recording on Preiser of Anny Konetzni singing Act II of Tristan und Isolde with Joachim Sattler (who though underrated is no Max Lorenz); there's a lot of crackle, but the music and singing come through without distortion. Lorenz is partnered with Paula Baumann on a very clear 1949 radio recording of Tristan und Isolde available on Myto and Archipel. Preiser has issued a 1943 Lorenz Tristan und Isolde with Paula Buchner that's beautifully sung and played but has several moments of serious sound distortion.



Any of these choices is preferable to this abomination of a recording."