Search - Wagner, Stokowski, Houston Symphony Orchestra :: Die Walkure / Parsifal

A Wagner feast

Robert J. Cruce | Muskogee, OK United States | 09/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a spectacular aural feast. Leopold Stokowski always took a special interest in recording technique and here are some of the best recorded performances he left us. "Lush" almost doesn't go far enough in describing the sound of Wotan's farewell. Wagner himself sanctioned some of the kinds of excerpting or amalgamation of sections of his operas for concert performance, so forget about criticizing Stoky for this. What he wanted was to use any means necessary, technical and artistic to bring the excitement of Wagner to the public. His success has meant we get treasures such as this marvellous CD. You'll thank yourself for buying this disc."

Shockingly good!

davidissimo | Chapel Hill, NC | 08/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don't be put off my the prosaic and somewhat tasteless cover (derived presumably from original artwork), this recording is even better than I had hoped, and better still than intimated in the reviews entered below. There is nothing tasteless about Stokowski's arrangements; the format is of the usual opera-without-words bloody-chunks variety, sounding mostly like Wagner's original orchestrations with instrumental substitutions for the voices (e.g., oboe and bassoon doubling for Wotan's tunes in the the Walkure snippets). The chimes resounding magically in the Good Friday Spell sound real enough to me, not precisely what is typical of the Wagner festival in Bayreuth, but quite ethereal in their effect; and not, as suggested below, the ersatz output of a synthesizer.These are intensely musical, gorgeously phrased, passionate interpretations. And what is more, the AAD recording dating from 1959 and 1960 is positively stupendous, with smooth transcients, virtually no distortion, a wide frequency range (read, DEEP bass) ,and precious little mechanical noise (i.e., hiss). Little wonder! It's another enduring audiophile production by the infamous Seymour Solomon.Bathe in its glory!"

Wordless Wagner

Brian H. Williams | Manteca, CA United States | 06/04/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For those who can not sit through an entire Wagner opera, here we have Stokowski-Wagner. Stokowski re-orchestrates the vocal parts for orchestra, so what you have here is the best opera for orchestra. It practically proves that Wagner could have written symphonies if he wished. Stokowski elicits lush orchestral qualities from Houston, and the results are sumptous. Reccomended to those who are not opera fans, but enjoy the melodies from opera."