WAGNER_DIE WALKURE_Keilberth_Bayreuth1955_Testament_4CD

	£		34
	$		45

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Die Walküre - music drama in three acts (1870)
Astrid Varnay (soprano) … Brünnhilde
Ramón Vinay (tenor) … Siegmund
Gré Brouwenstijn (soprano) … Sieglinde
Josef Greindl (bass) … Hunding
Hans Hotter (bass-baritone) … Wotan
Georgine von Milinkovic (mezzo) … Fricka,
Maria Graf (mezzo) ... Rossweisse
Hilde Scheppan (soprano) … Helmwige
Gerda Lammers (soprano) … Ortlinde
Hertha Wilfert (soprano) … Gerhilde
Elisabeth Scheppan (soprano) … Waltraute
Jean Watson (mezzo) … Siegrune
Georgine von Milinkovic (mezzo) … Grimgerde
Maria von Ilosvay (contralto) … Schwertleite
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra/Joseph Keilberth
rec. live, Festival House, Bayreuth, 18 November 1955
TESTAMENT SBT4 1391 [4 CDs: 63:41 + 60:50 + 25:48 + 67:25]

Testament began its live 1955 Bayreuth Ring cycle with Siegfried in February 2006 and this Walküre is the second instalment. Rheingold is the next projected release before they leap-frog forward to Götterdämmerung. Chronologically this is a mess. Keilberth’s Ring would be better released complete.

Already there are glowing reviews for this 'new' Walküre. However, Wagnerians know Ring recordings are made of so many component parts that it is unusual to get everything in place. And so it is here. I'm afraid I need to point out some misgivings about this otherwise magnificent set.

Sound issues include flattened dynamics and shifts in perspective. I also wonder about Brünnhilde's last verses - Varnay sounds too far back. The microphones should have followed closer for these crucial lines. However, it is important to remember the historical context: these are fifty-plus year old recordings. Industry insiders at the time questioned the wisdom of Decca recording their studio Rheingold in stereo in 1957. Therefore for Kenneth Wilkinson and his team to tape these performances live two years earlier in hi-fi stereo was frankly courageous and far-sighted.

Otherwise the sound is theatrical and extraordinarily vivid. You will hear singers move about the stage, the bloom of the Festival House acoustic and deep richness in the engineering, preferable to the Wagner-lite Böhm Ring recorded in the same venue twelve years later. Witness the stirring basses and cellos in the opening storm, the clarity of woodwinds throughout and, most impressively, these recordings correct the over-emphasis on voices that undermines contemporaneous radio broadcast recordings from Bayreuth.

The glories of Wagner's orchestration are also revealed through Keilberth's sensitive ear. This conductor knows how to layer orchestral textures and reveal the narrative. For example, the pacing of Act I is well nigh perfect from the battering opening storm, the accumulating radiance of the 'Spring song' to passionate acceleration in the coda. The final scenes of Act II, my favourite in Walküre, benefit from a thrilling upward sweep in the Annunciation of Death and biting attack as Hunding is felled.

On to the singers. A swish from the wind machine and Ramón Vinay's truly great Siegmund enters. His opening lines are poetry itself, telling of a proud and powerful character nevertheless in despair and weary. Vinay has a glorious tenor with a warm and generous metallic tone. And his large heldentenor is also surprisingly sensitive. Just listen to his powerful rings of "Walse" followed by the most gently moulded phrasing as Siegmund discovers Nothung. Here he is supported by special conducting from Keilberth. Listen as the shimmering violins give way to gently pulsing strings and flowing horns, then thrillingly deepening basses (track 8 03:30 onwards). The bar-lines simply melt away as lines liquefy and sing. It’s absolutely beautiful and I had to push rewind and listen to these minutes again!

Astrid Varnay begins Act II with superlative battle cries. On paper she’d give way to Nilsson in Brünnhilde’s tomboyish opening but power, accuracy and quicksilver whoops are all in place. Later in the Annunciation of Death Varnay’s fruitiness is more apparent as she digs towards mezzo registers, reminding listeners that Varnay’s tone is an acquired taste. You will need to accept that Varnay swells into many notes.

There is no mistaking Brünnhilde’s father. Hans Hotter is an exemplary Wotan from cold command to the sorrow of a loving father. Hotter eats this formidable role. A tiny example: listen to the switch from shuddering inner resignation at the end of his exchange with Fricka to contrasting black-voiced command as Brünnhilde enters. The sheer depth to Hotter’s voice is like looking down into a deep well. The generosity of tone and absolute authority are unmatched from any Wotan I’ve heard.

A special mention for Georgine von Milinkovic’s Fricka. There is a lovely aerated quality that both softens and enriches her metallic tone and von Milinkovic’s diction is totally clear. Fricka’s opening lines are floated within long phrasing, gaining urgency as her confrontation with Wotan cumulates. You can hear why Wotan both loves and heeds this Fricka.