Search - Wagner, Karl Elmendorff, Bayreieth Festival :: Wagner: Götterdämmerung (Recorded Live at the 1942 Bayreuth Festival)

An historic Gotterdammerung

Erik Aleksander Moe | Oslo, Norway | 06/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Review written June 22, 2001

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This Gotterdammerung performance is some of the best I've heard. Set Svanholm as our hero is extremely good. He is heroic sounding and is never strained in the entire performance. Both of the male villains (Egmont Koch and Friedrich Dalberg) are also extremely good. Dalberg's Hagen isn't as terrifying and deep and Ivar Andresen or Emanuel List, but he is still glorious.



Martha Fuchs's tone isn't ideal for Brunnhilde, but her understanding of the text makes her as good as any of the best. She has a hard time with these high notes, but the lower notes are sung perfectly. Camilla Kallab as Waltraute and the 1st Norn is a little unsteady, but is also extremely good in Waltraute's long monologue in Act 1.



The chorous is good. But it is the conducting by Karl Elmendorff that really makes this a definitive recommendation. His pacing, balance of the orchestra and singers are something you don't hear from lesser conductors. Other conductors of lesser quality, like Solti, tend to bombard us with orchestral sounds that overshadows the solists. This is not the case with conductors of Elmendorff's calibre (e.g. Toscanini, Furtwangler, Walter, Knappertsbusch).



As for the sound. For a broadcast from 1942, is the sound extremely good. It does not have any noticable noises. The Music and Arts people have removed the noices that normally puts one off on recordings of this age. I have found out that the sound recorded from Bayreuth performances are almost always excellent. Even the Tristan und Isolde (also under Elmendorff) from 1928 issued by Preiser has a sound that is remarkable.



This one is highly recommended for anyone interested in an historic Wagner recording.



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Added December 19, 2004

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It is worth mentioning that this is probably the only recording where the original horns made to Wagner's specifications are used in the calling of the vassals. They have the most wonderfully exciting sound. The horns were unfortunately destroyed at the end of WW2."