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Wagner - Tristan und Isolde | Australian Eloquence ELQ4829496

Wagner - Tristan und Isolde

Label: Australian Eloquence

Cat No: ELQ4829496

Barcode: 0028948294961

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 4

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 15th March 2019

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Artists

John Mitchinson
Linda Esther Gray
Gwynne Howell
Phillip Joll
Anne Wilkens
Nicholas Folwell
Arthur Davies
Geoffrey Moses
John Harris
Chorus of Welsh National Opera
Orchestra of Welsh National Opera

Conductor

Reginald Goodall

Works

Wagner, Richard

Tristan und Isolde

Artists

John Mitchinson
Linda Esther Gray
Gwynne Howell
Phillip Joll
Anne Wilkens
Nicholas Folwell
Arthur Davies
Geoffrey Moses
John Harris
Chorus of Welsh National Opera
Orchestra of Welsh National Opera

Conductor

Reginald Goodall

About

Decca’s first digital studio recording of a Wagner opera, preserving the long-matured work of a legendary Wagnerian conductor. By the time this recording was made in the winter of 1980-81 over the course of two extended sets of sessions, the Welsh National Opera had given 18 performances of Tristan und Isolde with this cast, most of them under the watchful eye and inspirational baton of Sir Reginald Goodall.

The conductor had undertaken many preparatory rehearsals with individual members of the orchestra – the harp, even the bass clarinet – in order to achieve a properly Wagnerian synthesis of music and text.

The cast was English but exhaustively coached by Goodall in every nuance of the text. Particular praise, both of the recording and the associated performances, was reserved for the youthful and lustrous Isolde of Linda Esther Gray, in both her physical and vocal appearance.

The recording was undertaken by Decca with appropriate sensitivity to the renowned spaciousness of the Goodall style, using long takes – up to 40 minutes at a time – to preserve the unhurried but ineluctable flow of the conductor’s work at its finest. Goodall himself was pleased with the result: ‘I felt, there’s a statement,’ he remarked to Opera magazine in October 1981 after he had heard and approved the finished tapes, ‘something finished; an experience’. Goodall had been present at the EMI sessions in 1954 for the definitive Tristan of an earlier generation, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Goodall’s own achievement has been counted by many critics a worthy and comparable successor to that classic of the gramophone.

‘What will come as a surprise to many is the passion and excitement that the conductor brings to the score – it is an incandescent reading ... John Mitchinson sounds a true Heldentenor Tristan, very much like Ludwig Suthaus in the Furtwängler recording ... Gwynne Howell’s moving and finely sung King Mark would be an asset to any performance of Tristan.’ – Opera magazine, October 1981

‘This may not be the definitive Tristan; but it is difficult to imagine a more beautiful one ... The orchestra is instantly of international calibre ... The singing is every bit as good ... Linda Esther Gray is an outstanding Isolde ... Every note is performed with rare fidelity.’ – The Musical Times, April 1982

‘I believe this to be one of the most important Wagnerian recordings ever made, one that future generations will label “historic” ... this is a truly great performance, engineered with marvelously free and open sound and a very natural perspective ... the result is as close to Wagner’s total concept of musical drama as it may be possible to come.’ – Fanfare, November 1995

Cast:
- Tristan: John Mitchinson
- Isolde: Linda Esther Gray
- König Marke: Gwynne Howell
- Kurwenal: Phillip Joll
- Brangäne: Anne Wilkens
- Melot: Nicholas Folwell
- Ein Hirt: Arthur Davies
- Ein Steuermann: Geoffrey Moses
- Ein junger Seemann: John Harris

Recording location: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wales, 17–21 November 1980 & 19–23 January 1981
Original Decca LP release: D250D5

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