Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Erich Leinsdorf, Leopold Stokowski & His Symphony Orchestra :: Wagner: Wesendonck-Lieder; Act 3 of Siegfried

A fine example of Farrell in Wagner

Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 10/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These recordings have been a little overshadowed by the one Farell made later with Bernstein and which won a Grammy award in 1962, but they find her here in freshest voice and already, in her late twenties, a mature Wagner interpreter and the finest Wagnerian never actually to sing a Wagner rôle on stage. The voice is huge and handsome, soaring over those sustained arcs of melody with unfailing legato and steadiness of line, a rich, velvety middle and the ability to punch out the top notes in a manner comparable only to that of Nilsson. She can sing softly, too, but the sound is always floating on a big cushion of diaphragmatically supported breath. Her tone is rich throughout the range of the voice and one remarks especially its depth in the lower reaching passages. She even repeatedly trills in the last track. It is is good to hear the Old Magician, Stokowksi, give the Wesendonck Lieder the full Romantic treatment; his tempi and phrasing are very flexible. He painstakingly coached Farrell for months, line by line, and the results are beautiful. I still want to hear Baker, Ludwig and Norman in these songs but Farrell's is a worthy interpretation. Her partner in Act 3 Scene 3 of "Siegfried" is Set Svanholm, clean and virile of voice, reminiscent of Windgassen, with perhaps more intrinsic beauty of tone and yet the same slight whine which bothers some. He responds to the text as only an experienced Wagnerian can and holds his own against Farrell's bigger resources in that volcanic finale; "Erwache" and "Sei mein" ring out splendidly. The clean, undistorted mono sound is remarkably good for 1947 and 1949 respectively; the re-mastering has virtually eliminated all hiss and left the sound full and brilliant. Leinsdorf is on his best behaviour even if he cannot quite emulate the propulsion Solti generates in this music. I have yet to hear the later Bernstein recording I referred to earlier, which is currently hard to obtain, but I doubt whether Farrell could have been in better vocal form for Bernstein, even if the orchestra and sound must undoubtedly be better. Every enthusiastic Wagnerian should own this disc."

Eileen Farrell, Young and Glorious in Wagner

Lynn in Dallas | Dallas, TX USA | 07/03/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Eileen Farrell is that great paradox, an indisputably great Wagnerian soprano who never sang in a complete Wagnerian opera onstage--or in a recording studio, for that matter. This CD gives us a tantalizing sample of what she might have been able to give the world, if Wagner had played a bigger part in her career. Both of these recordings were captured very early in Farrell's singing life. The "Wesendonck Lieder" recording dates from 1947, when she was 27, and the final scene of "Siegfried" from two years later. Although larger, heavier voices tend to mature later than lighter ones, Farrell seems fully ready for the challenges of Wagner by this time. The voice is already very powerful, and the slight brassiness and tremulousness which sometimes intruded into her upper range in her later years is nowhere in evidence here. The voice is simply glorious, from top to bottom.



Listeners owe a debt of gratitude here to Leopold Stokowski. He heard the young Farrell sing on the radio, contacted her, and offered her the opportunity both to study and to record the songs with him, becoming her Wagnerian godfather, so to speak. The "Wesendonck" reissued on this CD was the fruit of that collaboration, one of Farrell's first major recordings. Farrell made another version of the "Wesendonck Lieder" fifteen years later with Leonard Bernstein (not easy to find these days), and it is interesting to compare the two. I am frequently an admirer of Stokowski's work, and actually prefer his somewhat slower, more lyrical, more poignant stereo Everest version of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony to Bernstein's more famous one. With the "Wesendonck", however, the balance is very much in Bernstein's favor. Stokowski paces the songs quite slowly, with much rubato, and the momentum falters at time, accentuated by some rather odd phrasing. Bernstein does not rush, but there is a stronger pulse, and more of an "innerlich" quality to both his and Farrell's interpretation. Although Farrell's voice in 1947 is somewhat fresher, the moderate range of the "Wesendonck" does not cause any problems for Farrell in 1962, and her tone is a bit warmer, as well as better reproduced in Columbia stereo. The New York Philharmonic is also decidedly superior to Stokowski's unnamed orchestral forces.



My main reason for buying this CD was the "Siegfried' scene. I heard Farrell, then in her fifties, sing a stunning concert performance of this scene in New Orleans in the early 1970s, with Jess Thomas as her Siegfried, and this recording, made more than two decades earlier, seems to be the only way of remembering what she could make of it. And marvelous she is, too, with a technique that could actually deliver the trills that Wagner wrote, as well as a sterling high C at the end. It does sound like a concert performance, no doubt--"Heil dir, Sonne" seems an address to a public meeting rather than a sigh of wonder--but Farrell warms up to give a deeply felt interpretation by the time of "Ewig war ich, ewig bin ich", all the way to a thrilling end. Her Siegfried, Set Svanholm, sings better here than I have heard him on other recordings, with more clarity and less pushing. Curiously, he seems to be more closely miked than Farrell, who sometimes seems to be a bit off in the distance, perhaps a way to keep Farrell from drowning out her smaller-voiced partner. Erich Leinsdorf conducts the Rochester Philharmonic reasonably well, but a bit too slowly for the full drama to build. And, of course, 1940s recorded sound, while serving the voices well enough, is not capable of conveying the full richness of Wagner's orchestration.



All in all, this CD is a wonderful way to highlight Farrell in her absolute prime, slightly weighed down by less inspiring conducting and a good but not great tenor. Still, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the Wagnerian soprano voice. If you only know Farrell from her admittedly wonderful work in other repertoire, you owe it to yourself to experience her in this music.





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