Barenboim's La Scala Walküre on DVD

Nina Stemme (soprano) – Brünnhilde

Vitalij Kowaljow (bass) – Wotan

Simon O’Neill (tenor) – Siegmund

Waltraud Meier (mezzo) – Sieglinde

Sir John Tomlinson (bass) – Hunding

Ekaterina Gubanova (mezzo) – Fricka

Danielle Halbwachs (soprano) – Gerhilde

Carola Hoehn (soprano) – Ortlinde

Ivonne Fuchs (mezzo) – Waltraute

Anaik Morel (mezzo) – Schwertleite

Susan Foster (soprano) – Helmwige

Leann Sandel-Pantaleo (mezzo) – Siegrune

Nicole Piccolomini (contralto) – Grimgerde

Simone Schroeder (contralto) - Rossweise

Orchestra of La Scala, conducted by Daniel Barenboim
Recorded at La Scala, Milan, 7 December 2010

The legendary 1992 Barenboim and Kupfer Bayreuth Ring is a hard act to follow – right at the top of most rankings of filmed Ring cycles and probably one of the best recorded cycles period. But the 2010 Ring cycle at La Scala, conducted by Daniel Barenboim and produced by Guy Cassiers, was very well received and Arthaus are to be thanked for bringing the cycle out on DVD and Blu Ray with very fine sound and picture.

Cassiers’s staging of Die Walküre is imaginative and engaging, deepening the drama rather than detracting from it. Hunding’s hut is more psychodrama than habitation, which is absolutely fine in my book – the only feature is the sword left by Wotan in the tree trunk. Acts II and III are also uncluttered, with skillful use of video projections and an unusual but successful representation of the forest through thin hanging strips. The horses are represented statically through statues, while color changes within a predominantly blue and green color scheme are used to good effect.

John Tomlinson represents the main continuity with the 1992 cycle. Then he was an inspirational Wotan. Here he sings the much more modest character role of Hunding and sings it very well indeed. So well, in fact, that he rather overshadows Vitalij Kowaljow’s Wotan. The singing from the other two principals besides Hunding in Act 1 is very strong. Simon O’Neill is a fine Siegmund, at the lyrical end of the spectrum but rock solid. The everlasting Waltraud Meier (who sang Waltraute in the 1992 cycle) is a wonderful and passionate Sieglinde. The duet in Scene 3 is dynamically conducted and very successful. The partnership continues to work very well in Act II, where Meier is very moving as Sieglinde and O’Neill is absolutely at his best in the duet with Brunnhilde while Sieglinde sleeps.

To the extent that the cast has a weak link it is Kowaljow, but he gets much better as the evening progresses. At the beginning of Act II he lacks depth and presence and Ekaterina Gubanova’s Fricka seems to get the better of him. She is certainly more forceful, although herself lacking some expressive nuances. Kowaljow warms up in the second scene, particularly in the long soliloquy. He couldn’t really be described as a tragic hero, but by Wotan’s Farewell at the end of Act III he is sounding majestic.

Nina Stemme’s Brunnhilde comes into Act II firing on all cyclinders and manages to raise Vitalij Kowaljow’s game. Stemme acts very well, capturing Brunnhilde’s loss of certainty and lack of comprehension during the initial encounter with Wotan and then her grappling with the consequences of being more faithful to Wotan’s wishes than he himself is able to be. Stemme has a fine voice and can modulate it expressively. She and Meier are very superior singers indeed.

Daniel Barenboim cements his reputation as an outstanding Wagnerian. The timings suggest slow tempi, but the music flows dynamically and dramatically. This Walküre is highly recommended. It does not scale the heights of the 1992 Bayreuth recording, but it is an intelligent production with an outstanding conductor and some of today’s finest Wagner singers.  

Haenchen's Parsifal from La Monnaie (BelAir DVD)

 

Richard Wagner, Parsifal

Parsifal : Andrew Richards
Kundry : Anna Larsson
Gurnemanz : Jan-Hendrik Rootering
Amfortas : Thomas Johannes Mayer
Klingsor : Tómas Tómasson
Titurel : Victor von Halem

Orchestra and Choir of La Monnaie
Conductor : Hartmut Haenchen

Stage Director : Romeo Castellucci

Recorded live in HD on 20 February 2011

BelAir DVD BAC 097 (also available on Blu Ray)

The Haenchen and Castellucci Parsifal from the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels has generated controversy and fierce debates between proponents and detractors. On viewing this CD it is not hard to see why. Castellucci’s production is strikingly original in many ways. Particularly so because it turns its back on the Christian symbolism that is at the heart of the opera and foregrounded in every production I can think of. There is hardly any Christianity here at all – no Holy Grail, and a crowd of men and women in working clothes walking on a treadmill for most of Act III instead of knights seeking their sacrament on Good Friday.

It is ironic that the overture to Act I is played against the backdrop of a huge portrait of Nietzsche, since Nietzsche reacted violently to the Christian themes in Parsifal and launched an excoriating attack in The Case of Wagner on what he described as a work of “perfidy” and “vindictiveness”. Or perhaps, on second thoughts, it is not ironic at all – rather a clear marker that the production will ignore those aspects of the drama that caused Nietzsche so much grief.

 Act I opens in darkness, slowly revealing a forest that in turn reveals Gurnemanz, squires, and Amfortas all dressed in similar leaf outfits, blending almost completely into their surroundings. The Ceremony of the Grail takes place in what looks very much like an indoor marijuana plantation, tended by a few agricultural workers wearing overalls. The vegetation eventually reveals itself to be the Knights of the Grail!

Act II is pretty out there. Klingsor’s flower maidens wear very little and are then tied up and suspended from the ceiling by Klingsor (and a doppelgänger). One flower maiden spends much of the act completely naked on a pedestal and looking as if she is about to give birth in the direction of the audience. Everyone is wearing their clothes in Act III, but they are unusual clothes for the drama. No armour for Parsifal, for example – just an open-necked short and a pair of slacks.

It would be easy to poke fun at this production (and I haven’t event mentioned the python that appears in the overture, apparently coming out of Nietzsche’s ear, and then reappears triumphantly held high in Act III – or the dog that makes some cameo appearances). But the striking thing is that it actually achieves what I assume it is trying to achieve – that is, strip away much of the baggage that has become attached to Parsifal so that we can listen to it again with fresh ears and focus on aspects of the drama that often get obscured in standard renditions.

The conducting greatly helps here. Harmut Haenchen is a very good Wagnerian. I greatly appreciated his Amsterdam Ring (released on DVD by Opus Arte in 2008). Haenchen’s approach to this Parsifal is grounded in a conviction that performance practices in Parsifal have strayed far from Wagner’s original conception. Haenchen’s studies of the notes taken by Wagner’s musical assistants (including Hermann Levi and Felix Möttl) suggest to him that modern conductors may be taking up to an hour longer in Parsifal than Wagner intended.

Haenchen may or may not be right about Wagner’s intentions. The important point is that his tempi work very effectively. He gives the drama a driving pace and maintains momentum magnificently. Both Transformation Scenes are powerfully conducted, as are the overtures. In many ways the orchestra pit is the real star of this production.

One of the very interesting and challenging features of Parsifal is how the principals each evolve and grow during the drama. This is well captured by the two principals. Andrew Richard’s Parsifal is a real find. He acts the brash adolescent well in Act. By Act III he has gained depth, maturity, and gravitas. Both Richards and Anna Larsson sing very well in their Act II duet. Larsson starts out weary and somewhat lost in Act I. She struggles convincingly in the thrall of Klingsor in Act II and by Act III has acquired a degree of inner peace.

 Jan-Hendrik Rootering is less convincing as Gurnemanz. His singing is somewhat unidimensional and he does rage better than regret or melanchology. This works better in Act III than in Act I and unfortunately it is Act I where Gurnemanz really needs to shine. Of the other three main characters, Tómas Tómasson is a fine Klingsor, with the right air of malevolence and command in Act II. Victor von Halem (Titurel) and Thomas Johannes Mayer (Amfortas) are solid and certainly carry their weight.

This DVD of Persifal is highly recommended. Haenchen’s conducting is outstanding and his musical interpretation distinctive. Some of the singing is exceptionally fine and none of it is weak. The production is unorthodox but very thought-provoking.

Naxos reissues Georg Tintner's Bruckner cycle

Georg Tintner's Bruckner cycle played a key role in getting Naxos taken seriously as a record label, rather than as a producer of low-price CDs. Naxos have recently re-released the entire cycle in an attractive 12-disc box and at a super-bargain price. The cycle was originally released in 2002 in Naxos’s White Box series, but has been hard to obtain for some time, and so this is a welcome reissue.

The box contains a very useful booklet with 32 pages of notes by Tintner himself, including an analysis of each symphony, a chronology that contextualizes the symphonies, and a discussion of Tintner’s often idiosyncratic choice of editions. Disc 12 in the set is lecture that Tintner gave to the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, including a detailed analysis at the piano of the slow movement of the Seventh. This lecture was not included in the original White Box issue and is an insightful and moving account of Tintner’s deep engagement with Bruckner’s music – reminiscent of the wonderful discussion accompanying Benjamin Zander’s Telarc recording of the Fifth Symphony with the Philharmonia.

Generally speaking, Tintner’s instinct is to go with Bruckner’s original thoughts. He stresses Bruckner’s deep insecurity and desire to be performed, stating in the booklet: “although adversaries did him harm, his friends and admirers hurt him more”. In some cases it is hard to disagree. For example, he plays the Third Symphony in the 1873 Nowak edition and increasingly many conductors are taking the same view (a relatively recent example is Norrington with the Southwest German Radio Symphony). It is a terrific performance. The Second too has been very well received. 

But Tintner can also go spectacularly wrong, as with the choice of the original, 1887 version of the Eighth, which ends with a fortissimo climax as opposed to the wonderful an devastating pianissimo ending of the 1890 version. I’m not sure that Tintner really believes that the 1887 version is musically superior (I hope not!). In the liner notes he makes the guarded comment that the original version “shows an almost primitive spontaneity”.

Tintner does not always go with Bruckner’s original thoughts, though. He is very clear that he considers the1880 version of the Fourth superior to the earlier 1874 and 1878 versions – although, confusingly, the major difference between the 1878 and 1880 versions is the replacement of the Volkfest finale in the 1878 version by a new finale in the 1880 version and the new finale recapitulates a substantial quantity of thematic material from the original 1874 version. It’s all rather murky!

It may not be a coincidence that the finest performances (to my ear) in this cycle are those where there is a single familiar canonical version. The Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth are not reference performances, but they are all very good indeed, and reveal Tintner’s characteristic strengths as a Bruckner conductor. His performances are well articulated. They clearly bring out the structure of the music without any tendency to grandiloquence. For that reason in many ways Tintner offers an excellent entrée to Bruckner for non-Brucknerians. For dedicated Brucknerians, on the other hand, this set not only has some very fine performances, but also offers a rare opportunity to traverse the symphonies more or less as Bruckner originally conceived of them.  

The Gramophone Guide to the Best Wagner Recordings

Here is Gramophone's verdict on Wagner's recorded legacy. There are some surprising choices – would you take Solti and the Copenhagen Ring as your two top selections, for example, over Furtwängler or the many magnificent Rings from post-War Bayreuth? Or Placido Domingo and Nina Stemme over Ludwig Suthaus and Kirsten Flagstad in Tristan und Isolde? But Mike Ashman's survey of recordings of the Ring is useful and insightful, and there is plenty to think about here. Even the most dedicated Wagnerian will find some major gaps in their collection.

Barenboim's 2010 Bruckner 6

Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 6 (original version)

Staatskapelle, conducted by Daniel Barenboim

Accentus 202176 (DVD – also available as Blu-Ray)

Daniel Barenboim has been the music director of the Berlin Staaskapelle since 1992. In the 2010 season he conducted the orchestra in a mini Bruckner cycle comprising the six mature symphonies beginning with the 4^th. All six symphonies were recorded live in a single week and are slowly being released on DVD and Blu-Ray. The current disc is the fourth to come out. Only the 8^th and 9^th are still to be released.

This performance, recorded in a single take in the Berlin Philharmonie on June 22, 2010, is the quickest of Barenboim’s three recordings of the 6^th symphony – 52’50”, as opposed to 58’08” with the Chicago Symphony in 1977 and 54’46” with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1994.

At times in the first movement the structure gets a little muddied by the pace, but Barenboim keeps the train on the tracks and brings the movement to a rousing close, followed by a particularly fine rendition of the wonderful coda. The Adagio is well-shaped and manages to sound expansive, despite the pace. Barenboim does more than justice to one of Bruckner’s most ravishing slow movements. The Scherzo is very dramatic, as might be expected. Even by Bruckner’s standards the Finale of the 6^th is somewhat disjointed, with a large number of different motifs and frequent changes of tempi. But Barenboim succeeds in molding it together and bringing out the inner logic of the movement.

This is a very good performance, although not quite a great one. The filming adds to, rather than detracts from, the music and it is interesting to watch Barenboim understated movements and conducting style. Accentus have released a 5 minute sampler video on YouTube. It can be found here.

Janowski's Götterdämmerung

Richard Wagner, Götterdämmerung

Siegfried, Lance Ryan

Brünnhilde, Petra Lang

Hagen, Matti Salminen

Gunther, Markus Brück

Gutrune, Edith Haller

Alberich, Jochen Schmeckenbecher

Waltraute, Marina Prudenskaya

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra

Conducted by Marek Janowski

In 1983 Marek Janowski conducted the first all-digital Ring cycle with a strong cast including Theo Adam (Wotan), Rene Kollo (Siegfried), Jeannine Altmeyer (Brunnhilde) and Jesse Norman and Siegfried Jerusalem as the Walsung twins. Now, thirty or so years later, this recording of Götterdammerung closes Janowski’s 3-year traversal in concert performances of Wagner’s major music dramas, all released by Pentatone as SACDs in handsome packaging and with libretti. The 1983 Ring has consistently been well regarded and many Wagnerians recommend it as one of the best studio recordings, particularly since it has been released in a bargain set by Sony. Unfortunately, on the evidence of this concert performance of the final installment of the tetralogy, the new Ring does not come close to the achievements of the 1983 predecessor (which I reviewed here a year or so ago).

The real problem with this new Gotterdämmerung is the singing of the two principals. Lance Ryan is a very disappointing Siegfried. Reputed to be one of the leading heldentenors of the moment and Ryan will be singing Siegfried at Bayreuth this summer. But he certainly seems to have had an off day on March 15, 2013 (when this performance was recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie). He wobbles badly in the very first duet in Act 1 and has real difficulty projecting his personality in Act 2 – it is hard to imagine him imposing his will on the Gibichung vassals. Not until “Brunnhilde, Heilige Braut” in Act 3 do we get a glimpse of what Ryan might be capable of. 

Petra Lang seems more naturally a mezzo-soprano, and the role of Brunnhilde is something of a stretch at times. She takes a while to get into the role in Act 1. Clearly out-acted by Marina Prudenskaya’s Waltraute in the Scene 3 duet, she starts to act a little more in the last part of the act when Siegfried reappears as Gunther. She too is weak in Act 2. Things pick up in Act 3. The Immolation scene is much better characterized. But she is still short of the vocal power and expressive range required for the powerful Brunnhilde. Like Ryan she strains at key moments – e.g. when she sends the ravens home to Valhalla.

The other main characters are much better. Matti Salminen’s Hagen is the only constant across the two iterations and he gives a characteristically fine performance. Hagen’s “Hier sitz ich zur Wacht, wahre den hof” is the highlight of Act 1 and the Act 2 duet with Alberich (well sung by Jochen Schmeckenbecher) is very powerful. Markus Brück’s Gunther and Edith Haller’s Gutrune are above average and really carry the main scene in Act 2.

Janowski reveals himself once again to be a first-rate Wagner conductor. His conducting is searching in Siegfried’s Funeral March and finely paced at the finale. The Prelude to Act 2 also stands out. Unfortunately the quality of the singing lets him down and I would find it hard to recommend this set, particularly since it is significantly more expensive than the entire 1983 Janowski Ring.

Chailly's Bruckner 6 in the Digital Concert Hall

Here is a sampler of the excellent performance of Bruckner's 6th by Riccardo Chailly archived in the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall. This is tremendous Bruckner playing and conducting. Well filmed too.