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Wagner: Overtures, Preludes & Aria by André Cluytens

André Cluytens

Classical - Released January 23, 2022 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Wagner by Otto Klemperer: The Ring Without Words, Wesendonck Lieder, Overtures, Preludes

Otto Klemperer

Classical - Released November 24, 2021 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Wagner: Wesendonk Lieder; Tristan & Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod

Jessye Norman

Classical - Released July 1, 1976 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Wagner : Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90

Wolfgang Sawallisch

Full Operas - Released May 18, 2018 | Orfeo

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason
An enemy of fashion and glitz who shunned cocktails and society dinners, Wolfgang Sawallisch was a humble, retiring man whose life was wholly dedicated to music and music alone. Behind what might seem like a well-worn cliché of the "honest man", he was surely one of the greatest artists of his generation. An exceptional pianist, he would sometimes accompany his friend Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau through memorable nights dedicated to Schubert's great cycles. A conductor, he knew the whole repertoire by heart, not only working with an orchestra but also taking to the piano with all the singers. He was a Kapellmeister in the most elevated sense of the term. Between 1971 and 1992 he made his hometown’s Munich Opera (Bayerische Staatsoper) one of the greatest stages in the world, offering performances of an utterly exceptional standard. The gradual seizure of power by producers would put an end to a collaboration which had produced so many unforgettable nights. Sawallisch went on to enjoy a kind of Indian summer as a conductor in his final years, at the head of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he encountered huge success. First and foremost a performer of Wagner, Wolfgang Sawallisch first made his mark on Bayreuth in his youth, when, in 1962, he conducted landmark performances. The archives of the festival are full of recordings which are slowly being released, whose almost-identical distributions on different dates have sown confusion. Sawallisch conducted Tristan and Isolde with the legendary couple Birgit Nilsson/Wolfgang Windgassen several times, for the festivals in 1957, 1958 and 1959, well before the sensational version conducted by Karl Böhm. This new release covers the night of 26 July 1958 (so it is not a cover of the version released by MYTO of the show on 21 August of the same year). The doomed lovers are given an exceptional treatment under the electrifying baton of a young Sawallisch. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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The Unreleased Masters

Jessye Norman

Classical - Released March 24, 2023 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

Jessye Norman was always protective of her art and the sound image she projected, no different with these unreleased recordings. However, with the approval of her loved ones, they’re now being released post-mortem.This new release (which is available in a lavish, physical limited edition) features three of Jessye’s recordings done between 1988 and 1998, when she was at the height of her career. There are substantial excerpts from her extraordinary performance of Tristan und Isolde recorded with Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, featuring tenors Thomas Moser (Tristan) and Ian Bostridge (the young sailor) and soprano Hanna Schwarz (Brangäne).The rest of the programme consists of live recordings conducted by James Levine and Seiji Ozawa. With the former, Jessye Norman sings Strauss's Four Last Songs and Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder in a recording that favours orchestral richness to the detriment of the voice. This may explain why the American singer chose never to release this recording, even though her hedonistic interpretation of Strauss's farewell to life is still striking. The album ends with a recital complete with orchestra, tailor-made for the diva in 1994 in Boston. It features two cantatas: Berenice che fai by Haydn and Phaedra, written by Benjamin Britten for Janet Baker. Nestled between the two, you’ll find a stunning rendition of Berlioz's The Death of Cleopatra. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Stephen Gould

Opera - Released September 1, 2012 | PentaTone

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As the conductor for PentaTone's ambitious project to record all of Richard Wagner's music dramas, Marek Janowski has delivered a fine live concert version of Tristan und Isolde that has received critical praise for its strong cast and extraordinary sound quality. Janowski draws out some exciting playing from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the multichannel super audio recording gives the ensemble the depth and fullness that is absolutely vital in Wagner's richly scored music. The cast is assured and vocally capable, but the star is soprano Nina Stemme, whose Isolde is vividly rendered and strong enough to carry the performance through to the Liebestod, setting standards of expressive power and stamina for the other singers to match. Considering the difficulty in finding vocalists who can handle Wagner's demanding roles, the performances by Stephen Gould as Tristan, Johan Reuter as Kurwenal, and Kwangchul Youn as King Mark are certainly better than average, and satisfying for the purposes of this concert performance. While this recording does not rank among historic Tristans for the thrills of a fully staged production, or for any legendary artists in the main roles, this is still an admirable effort that promises even greater things for the remainder of PentaTone's series.© TiVo
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Franz Liszt: Schubert & Wagner Transcriptions

Jean-Nicolas Diatkine

Classical - Released May 27, 2022 | Solo Musica

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Some of Jean-Nicolas Diatkine's singer friends have ended their careers, but their magic is irreplaceable in his eyes, or rather in his ears. He misses them, just as he misses the Schubert, Schumann and Brahms songs they sang. Well, there is only one person who can compensate for this loss, and his name is Franz Liszt. The main aim of transcriptions was to make orchestral works known to a wider audience, at a time when there were far fewer orchestras, and public access to symphony concerts was very limited. But Liszt gives transcriptions a new meaning: he puts the orchestra into the piano, since his style is particularly suited to outsized extravagance. Thus he opens up unprecedented pianistic possibilities, where virtuosity is no longer mere exhibitionism but rather transformed into the art of illusion. His arrangements of Wagner are so convincing that they become his own personal creations. Laurent Bessières, piano tuner at the Paris Philharmonic, suggested for this recording a Schiedmayer piano of 1916 made in Stuttgart, which he had completely rebuilt in collaboration with Antoine Letessier-Salmon, director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and Stephen Paulello, piano maker and inventor of the strings that bear his name. This instrument has almost never been used in concert, however excellent work by Laurent Bessières convinced us to try it out in this very special repertoire. © solo musica
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Wagner: Orchestral Works by Hans Knappertsbusch

Hans Knappertsbusch

Classical - Released October 27, 2022 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Richard Wagner

Opera - Released January 1, 1999 | Opera d'Oro

This live recording of Tristan und Isolde, from the 1974 Bayreuth Festival, conducted by Carlos Kleiber, is notable for its energy and impetuosity, and its occasionally astonishing speed. Moments that in many performances can sound ponderously momentous here have a fleet recklessness that seems far more appropriate both musically and dramatically. The ending of the Prelude, taken much faster than usual, is a thrilling analog for the heedless passion that's soon to overtake the protagonists. Kleiber holds the singers and orchestra together for his wild ride, and for all his rhythmic flexibility and unpredictability, his reading has a sense of naturalistic inevitability. While this is not a dream cast (the very possibility of assembling such a thing for a performance or recording of Tristan is probably a chimaera), all the soloists are fully convincing dramatically, even if they are not vocally the most memorable singers ever to take on these roles. Catarina Ligendza is an appealingly young-sounding Isolde, and she also has the power to negotiate the role's huge demands. Helge Brilioth's heroic Tristan is sung with strength and fervor. Largely due to Kleiber's vision and his ability to carry his performers along with him, this revelatory performance of Tristan should be of interest to anyone who loves the opera.© TiVo
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The Wagner Project

Matthias Goerne

Classical - Released November 24, 2017 | harmonia mundi

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The Art of English Horn

Dominik Wollenweber

Classical - Released October 15, 2021 | Supraphon a.s.

Hi-Res Booklet
"The English horn needs a soft, round vibrato ... We are among those who can move people to tears", says Dominik Wollenweber about his instrument. Let us not be misled by the humble conduct, and the absence of laudatory articles and glossy photographs. Wollenweber is one of the world's finest cor anglais players. Claudio Abbado has even labelled him the "best player of all time". Since 1993, Dominik Wollenweber has been with the Berliner Philharmoniker, members of which keep him company throughout the present recording. Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, the orchestra accompany Wollenweber in Sibelius's wonderful tone poem The Swan of Tuonela. It is difficult to imagine an album dedicated to the English horn without the Largo from Dvořák's New World Symphony or without the solo from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. On the other hand, Bach's Concerto in G major and Schubert's Impromptu No. 3 may come as a surprise, while Jean Françaix's Quartet is simply bound to lift the listener's spirit. If you love the English horn's singularly dark velvety colour, which otherwise can only be heard rather as a gleam of a gem stone on the large canvases of symphonic pieces, then this album is definitely for you. And those who have yet to discover the beauty of the cor anglais will undoubtedly savour the musical menu drawn up by a true master of the instrument. © Supraphon
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Wagner: Extraits orchestraux

Otto Klemperer

Classical - Released September 2, 2002 | Warner Classics

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Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90

Vienna State Opera Orchestra

Opera - Released May 6, 2022 | Orfeo

Booklet
Although the premiere in 1865 was not to be at Vienna State Opera but at Munich’s court theatre (June 10th), Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde was performed more than 400 times at the House on the Ring since its premier in 1883. This live recording from June 2013 under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst presents Nina Stemme as Isolde – her debut in that role at Vienna State Opera –, Peter Seiffert as Tristan (who was honoured Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera the same month the recording was made), Jochen Schmeckenbecher as Kurwenal, Stephen Milling as König Marke and Janina Baechle as Brangäne. © Orfeo
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Wagner Overtures and Preludes

Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Classical - Released August 30, 2019 | Sony Classical - Sony Music

Hi-Res Booklet
Leading the Frankfurt Radio orchestra, the hr-Sinfonie Orchester, conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada is performing and recording the great repertoire of symphonic music. His 100% Wagner programme brings together a selection of overtures and preludes. No singing: just orchestral music. Siegfried is absent here, as is the Tetralogia, along with the preludes from the third acts of Parsifal and Lohengrin. But as a whole, the record – a single disc, unlike Marek Janowski's double album for PentaTone – is well-put together.Heading the German outfit, Orozco-Estrada blazes a new path among the operas of the great Builder of Bayreuth. The programme moves through the pieces in chronological order of composition. The Flying Dutchman starts the proceedings, followed by Lohengrin and Tristan and Isolde forms a bridge to the high point that is Parsifal. Then the clock turns back, as Tannhäuser leads us on at last to Rienzi. It's a daring move to finish on this work from Wagner's youth! That said, the listener will recognise the value of this precious overture. Of course, in the middle of the score, the rolling snare drums herald the rather pompous tone of the final military march, punctuated with cymbal crashes. But that shouldn't overshadow the passages of great beauty which recall  – and come on, you've just listened to it – Tannhäuser, in particular the combination of the choral pilgrims' motif against a barrage of strings.The Flying Dutchman, the first work to break with opera in the same manner as Meyerbeer, greets us in medias res, in Wagner's dramatic laboratory, where wonderful worlds are born. Impeccable brass and agile strings, an interplay of finely-balanced volumes, structures and textures: the orchestra buffets the Dutchman, sets Lohengrin aflame, rumbles around Tannhäuser and demonstrates how these pages contain all the ingredients – thematic, dramatic, lyrical – of the drama, in embryo. We will wait faithfully for a complete Wagner with these superb musicians in the pit! © Elsa Siffert/Qobuz
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Maazel Conducts Wagner

Lorin Maazel

Classical - Released April 27, 1998 | RCA Red Seal

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Pierre Boulez Edition: Mahler & Wagner

Pierre Boulez

Classical - Released January 29, 2016 | Sony Classical

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Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Acts II & III) [Live]

Staatskapelle Berlin

Opera - Released April 9, 2012 | Andromeda