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Wagner: Tristan und Isolde | 
 enlarge | Creators: Richard Wagner, Herbert Von Karajan, Bayreuther Festspiele Orchester, Gerhard Stolze, Gerhard Unger, Hans Hotter, Hermann Uhde, Ira Malaniuk, Ludwig Weber, Martha Moedl, Ramon Vinay, Werner Faulhaber
Label: Opera D'oro
Category: Music
List Price: $28.98
Buy New: $16.14
You Save: $12.84 (44%)
New (13) Used (9) from $10.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 109105
Format: Box Set
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.9
UPC: 723723377326
EAN: 0723723377326
ASIN: B00000DCSA
Release Date: October 20, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Same day shipping. Free Upgrade to 1st class mail for all CDs. Professional packaging material. Friendly customer service.
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Act One: Prelude | | • | Act One: Westwaerts Schweift Der Blick - Jungen Seemanns | | • | Act One: Frisch Weht Der Wind Der Heimat Zu - Jungen Seemanns | | • | Act One: Wie Lachend Sie Mir Lieder Singen - Isolde | | • | Act One: Auf! Auf! Ihr Frauen! - Kurwenal | | • | Act One: Begehrt, Herrin, Was Ihr Wuenscht - Tristan |
Disc 2
| • | Act One: War Morold Dir So Wert Un Wieder Nimm Das Schwer - Tristan | | • | Act Two: Prelude | | • | Act Two: Hoerst Du Sie Noch? - Isolde | | • | Act Two: Isolde! Geliebte! - Tristan | | • | Act Two: O Sink Hernieder, Nacht Der Liebe - Beide |
Disc 3
| • | Act Two: Doch Unsre Liebe, Heisst Sie Nicht Tristan - Isolde | | • | Act Two: Ritte Dich, Tristan! - Kurwenal | | • | Act Two: Tatest Du's Wirklich? - Marke | | • | Act Three: Preludio | | • | Act Three: Kurwenal! He! Sag' Kurwenal! - Hirt | | • | Act Three: Wo Ich Erwacht, Weilt' Ich Nicht - Tristan |
Disc 4
| • | Act Three: Noch Losch Das Licht Nicht - Tristan | | • | Act Three: Ich Bin's Ich Bin's - Isolde | | • | Act Three: Kurwenal! Hoer! Ein Zweites Schiff - Hirt | | • | Act Three: Mile Und Leise Wie Er Laechelt - Isolde |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Unbearable sound June 21, 2008
This live performace is without doubt one of the most intense and moving of all Tristan recordings ever made. But in this particular issue the sound is unbearable with distortions in all climaxes and at all higher notes. Try to find another issue.
 Live broadcast from Bayreuth with a 1952 dream cast October 22, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
SOURCE: Live performance from the 1952 Bayreuth Festival broadcast by Bavarian Radio.
SOUND: Opera d'Oro, as always, is economical with facts and details about its products. Judging from what I hear, my guess is that the ultimate basis for this version was recorded off the air under somewhat less than ideal conditions. This supposition is supported by the fact that rival versions are crowing about being new re-masterings of the original Bavarian Radio tapes.
I think the technical qualities of the recordings of "Parsifal" and "Meistersinger" made at the previous year's festival are better than they are on this 1952 set, but the 1951 "Meistersinger" is a compilation assembled from parts of performances and rehearsals and I strongly suspect that is equally true of the "Parsifal." They were made by EMI technicians under the personal direction of the great Walter Legge. In 1952, the Bavarian Radio engineers, faced with capturing a single live performance on the wing, couldn't match Legge and EMI. They, perforce recorded some annoying audience noise, accepted some occasional distortion (mostly involving Moedl) and placed their microphones in such a way that the orchestra is more distanced than it should be.
There are a few sonic oddities. The offstage voice of the young sailor, for example, sounds extraordinarily echo-y for someone who is supposed to be on the deck of a ship in mid-ocean. From time to time, voices briefly take a nosedive in volume as singers turn away from the microphones or wander into sonic dead spots.
All that said, I find the sound here to be satisfactory for what it is: a historical record of the quite remarkable performance that took place in Bayreuth six decades ago.
CAST: Tristan - Ramon Vinay (tenor); Isolde - Martha Moedl (soprano); King Marke - Ludwig Weber (bass); Kurwenal - Hans Hotter (baritone); Melot - Herman Uhde (tenor); Brangaene - Ira Melaniuk (mezzo-soprano); Steersman - Gerhard Stolze (baritone); Young Sailor - Werner Faulhabler (tenor); Shepherd - Gerhard Unger (tenor).
CONDUCTOR: Herbert von Karajan with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus.
DOCUMENTATION: No libretto. Bill Parker provides a short essay on the history of the opera and brief summary of the plot by act. Track list which does not show timings.
COMMENTARY: The Bayreuth Festival was reborn in 1951 under the joint direction of Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner, the composer's grandsons. They were, unlike their English-born mother, deemed to be free of the taint of Nazidom, despite their former close relationship with the man they had called "Uncle Wolf." The Festival was beset by problems arising from an impoverished treasury and the need to take on new forms of production in order to confirm the break with the ... deplorable past. To balance its problems, the Festival luxuriated in the presence of two resident conductors of enormous stature, Hans Knappertsbusch and Herbert von Karajan--and positively reveled in the emergence of a generation of Wagnerian singers who can only be described as fabulous when compared to the current unimpressive crop.
This recording dates from the second year of the revived festival, before the titanic egos of the two conductors had collided with the equally bloated egos of the Wagner Brothers to create permanent rifts. The cast, led by Vinay (1911-1996), Moedl (b. 1913), Weber (1899-1979) and Hotter (1909-2003) are a Wagnerian dream team. And the other roles are filled with performers of impressive stature, too.
Of the great post-war generation of Wagnerian singers, the performers on this set were not the best singers, as such, but--in my opinion, at least--very much the best actors. If you want the best singing, go to the Flagstad or Nilssen versions. If you want a perfectly realized music drama, this is your set.
Chilean Vinay, the once and future baritone, is a totally convincing Tristan, conveying the pain and passion of the role to perfection. Moedl is a precise match for him. To my mind, she does more than sing Isolde, she becomes Isolde. Weber and Hotter were performers of vast authority.
No opera house in the world today could hope to match this cast--or even come close.
This is a historic recording in adequate (but no more) mono sound. Nevertheless, the overall performance is so good, that it is worth five solid stars. When the mood strikes me to hear "Tristan und Isolde," this is the set that I put on the player.
 A great performance but .... September 12, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the same 1952 live Bayreuth performance that we have seen in various incarnations on different labels - but in a poor transfer. Better to buy either the new Orfeo label edition, which is good but three times the price, or the bargain Membran set (available on Amazon UK) which is a good, clean transfer with minimal distortion. This performance will never be a sonic extravaganza in whatever issue you acquire it, and you have to endure some very annoying, persistent coughers who belie the reputation for attentiveness enjoyed by Bayreuth audiences, but its limitations are well worth accepting in return for an incandescent assumption of their roles by the two great principal singers in top form. There is something peculiarly immediate and vibrant about Modl's assumption of the role of Isolde which puts the magisterial but bland Flagstad in the shade and even outdoes Nilsson in the famous live Bohm performance. She has a Callas-like manner of getting to the heart of the role by a specially intelligent inflection of the text and affecting use of her lower register combined with some thrilling (if slightly "scooped") top notes. Vinay's baritonal tenor is both heroic and tender; the exchange between the lovers just after their discovery in flagrante by the king is particularly moving. Ludwig Weber is past his best and a bit wobbly, but knows how to wring the heart and Hotter, typically woofy and heavy on the vibrato, nonetheless creates a vivid character in his Kurwenal. Despite the limited sound you can hear how Karajan caresses the music without dragging it out or distorting the pacing of the work; he really is good here, free of the later affectations and mannerisms. Uhde turns in another typically incisive vignette as the vicious, obsessive Melot. Malaniuk is just average as Brangane but sings strongly and expressively where it counts in her offstage warnings during the great love duet. This recording takes its place alongside my other favourite "Tristans": the old Reiner/Beecham with Flagstad and Melchior (the latter still unbeatable), the later Furtwangler, the Bohm DG live, the Knappertsbusch set with Treptow and Braun and the last and latest Pappano, in lovely sound and preserving a performance of lieder-like intensity and burnished tone by Domingo.
A great performance now remastered to its original sonics August 22, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm not here to praise this famed Tristan, which opened the 1952 season at Bayreth and also marked Karajan's last summer at the festival. Everything about it deserves the praise lavished by others. I just wanted to note, for those who haven't discovered the fact, that the official master tapes have now been released on Orfeo, ending fifty years of pirate pressings, some good, ome not so good. Lovers of the opera will want to buy the best sound they can find, despite the temptation of Opera d'Oro's bargain price.
THE Most Satisfying Tristan recording available August 5, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
There is no recording of this opera that offers a more involved performance than this. Conductor, orchestra and singers are all at their peak. Vinay is overwhelming; his anguish in Act III heart-breaking. Ludwig Weber's sorrow, as Marke in Act II,is palpable and beautifully sung. Modl's Isolde is rich-voiced and passionate.
Prior reviews from the late 90's and early 2000's cite poor sound which is not evident on the copy I just bought (8/06). I can't imagine any lover of this opera being disappointed. This is the version I'll now listen to.
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