Search - Gwyneth Jones :: Sings Wagner

Good operatic recital from a seasoned Wagnerian

Vincent Lau | 06/02/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While few would disagree that Gwyneth Jones has been one of the major protagonists on the Wagnerian stage in the second half of the 20th Century, her huge voice, intrinsically quite beautiful but is often afflicted by a wobble that can surface all of a sudden and thereby ruin the vocal line, is difficult to record in the narrow confines of the recording studio without sounding rather abrasive. She is therefore in the opinion of this reviewer slightly under-represented in the catalogues, as record companies would usually opt for singers whose vocal production is more amenable to the sensitivities of the microphone. Nevertheless, the engineers at Chandos have generally done a good job in this all-Wagner recital (although the balance between voice and orchestra does sound a little unnatural at times to these ears). While the full splendour and power of Dame Gwyneth's instrument may not have been a hundred per cent faithfully captured, the voice sounds steady and gleaming in most places. Elisabeth's Greeting Aria from Tannhauser is very well sung, the soft middle section beautifully introspective. Better still is the lyrical "Allmacht'ge Jungfrau" from the same opera, where the singer reminds us of her shattering portrayal of the role in Gotz Friedrich's Bayreuth production in the 70s (which, happily, is available on video). As far as the singing is concerned, it is meltingly tender and extremely affecting. Dame Gwyneth voice sounds a bit over-sized in Elsa's Dream, and it may be because of this that she has never tackled the role of Elsa on stage. However, the vocal production is smooth and the effect is atmospherically evocative. Like the case in ¡§Allmacht'ge Jungfrau¡¨, she is able to scale down her voice to accommodate this delicate piece. It is good to have her account of Isolde's Liebestod (although, subsequent to the release of this recording, a complete TRISTAN UND ISOLDE with Jones has been made commercially available on laser disc, at least in Japan) and one has to admire Jones's surging tone at its climax. The high point of this CD is definitely the excellent rendition of Brunnhilde's Immolation. While the interpretation here as a whole is very similar to her live account in the now legendary Bayreuth Centenary RING production, she is vocally even more secure here and her stamina is quite amazing (even though the delivery is a trifle less urgent than in that live performance). One only has to listen to this track to realise that, whatever the vocal flaws, this singer is definitely one of those few true daughters of Valhalla. Unfortunately, the support given by the Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonie Orchestra under the baton of Roberto Paternostro is not that inspiring. Indeed, the playing sounds perfunctory throughout. It is therefore all the more regrettable that Chandos has seen fit to include here a most mediocre performance of the Prelude to Act I of TRISTAN instead of giving us more singing from Jones. Anyway, this is still a good album from a seasoned Wagnerian and is therefore worth acquiring."

Dame Gwyneth in best , biggest voice in Wagner traversal

Vincent Lau | 01/11/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Dame Gwyneth Jones is much like the little girl who had a curl smack in the middle of her forehead: when she's good, she's very, very good, but when she's bad she's horrid. Alas, too many fans have come to write the ear-splitting Jones off as uniformly horrid, but that's calumny. This disk shows her in total control; of course, it has the look of a "vanity" project, where retakes may have been plentiful (at times her voice seems as though it originated in an acoustic different from the orchestra's). But she traverses the major Wagner roles with all the big chunks (Liebestod, Immolation Scene) intact. Fans unwilling to invest in a complete Wagner recording with Jones should sample this disk; for my money, she's a far more interesting Wagnerian than, say, Hildegard Behrens. (By the way, don't overlook Jones' Medea, now out on a Double Decker)."

A fine album from a seasoned Wagnerian

Vincent Lau | 01/28/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I believe that Dame Gwyneth has always presented a dilemma to record producers. While she's a most involving and dramatically thrilling Wagnerian soprano, her huge hochdrammatische sopran voice (which can sometimes be afflicted with wobble) appears to be rather elusive to the delicate recording machines in the studio, which cannot capture the full splendour of her voice but may instead highlight its flaws. She therefore usually sounds best when captured "live" in the opera house when the spacious surroundings can smooth out her stentorian but basically not unbeautiful tone to a better recorded effect. In this studio project, however, Dame Gwyneth is in rather fine form and presumably she has, with the help of Chandos's technicians, scale down her voice so that it would neither overwhelm the microphones nor sound too abrasive. And she offers here some fine singing and characterisations of 4 Wagnerian heroines. Nevertheless, the acoustics at times seems rather inconsistent and the orchestra doesn't really provide worthy support for this impressive and characterful singer. One therefore would regret the inclusion of the purely orchestral Prelude to TRISTAN and would much prefer to hear more from Dame Gwyneth instead. Anyway, it's still on the whole a nice recording and admirers of the singer (as well as other Wagner fans) need not hesitate."