Wagner from Furtwängler and Flagstad

Richard Wagner in 1871

Continuing a series of conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler in programs of famous works, today we hear him and the Vienna Philharmonic in the music of Richard Wagner.

The program concludes with (and switches orchestras for) the final scene of Götterdämerung, with soprano Kirsten Flagstad as Brünnhilde. The Philharmonia is the orchestra for this famous recording.

These overtures, preludes and other excerpts are all what are sometimes called "bleeding chunks," an epithet that seems to have driven them from the concert hall. Well, I happen to love these pieces as the brilliant works they are. And these Furtwängler recordings are among the finest of their kind.

It is often said that Furtwängler's live performances were more powerful than his records. The critic Andrew Porter referred to this in his obituary for the conductor:

His monument, so far as the gramophone is concerned, is the complete Tristan und Isolde. Fidelio, the Beethoven and Brahms symphonies, will be treasured; the Mozart, the Schubert and the Haydn discs are valuable. But something of the incandescence that one knew in the concert hall and the opera house is gone from them. In the Tristan it remains, and also in those Wagner extracts, the final scene from Götterdämmerung with Flagstad and the Philharmonia Orchestra, recorded at the same time as Tristan, and the Rhine Journey and Funeral Music with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. It is to these records that we shall turn first when we wish to show our children what manner of great conductor he was.

And it is to many of those records that we turn today. 

Die Meistersinger: Prelude and Dance of the Apprentices

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) is famed as Wagner's only comedy. Set in the 16th century Reformation, it concerns the guilds of the time, with the Mastersingers devoting their talents to music.

The Prelude is an intricate piece of music that stands marvelously well on its own (as do most of the works in this program). Of this performance, W.R. Anderson in The Gramophone wrote: "Our friends [i.e., the conductor and orchestra] at their best, I think: scarcely a twinge, and above all, dignity, breadth, and a reproduction conveying full tonal virility and blend. The reverberation period of the chamber seems just right."

Ad in The Gramophone, 1950

This transfer comes from a German EMI (Electrola) reissue "Unvergessen (Unforgettable) Wilhelm Furtwängler." The LP was processed in the label's then-popular synthetic stereo, which I have turned into mono. The sound is quite good for 1949.

The Prelude is accompanied by short and delightful "Dance of the Apprentices" from Act III. This is followed in the opera and on most concert programs by the "Procession of the Masters." But not here - the dance was used as a fill-up on the 78 set and apparently there wasn't room for the Masters to promenade on that particular side.

Lohengrin Prelude; Tannhäuser Overture

Furtwängler's 1954 recording of the Prelude to Lohengrin is coupled here with his 1952 traversal of the Overture to Tannhäuser. These are splendid performances of what used to be concert staples. Denis Stevens wrote in The Gramophone that they are "well played and excellently recorded, and there is an impressively wide dynamic range in the Tannhäuser Overture, where the woodwind engages our attention by its splendid ensemble work."

Ad in The Gramophone, 1955

Stevens also makes me happy by casting aspersions on the LP's bedmate, Liszt's Les Preludes (not included here): "One of Furtwängler's most remarkable qualities was his ability to lend an air of epic majesty even to the relatively meretricious productions of certain 19th century composers who should have known better."

Siegfried Idyll

Let me call in Wikipedia to set the scene of this Romantic masterwork: "Wagner composed the Siegfried Idyll as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870, by a small ensemble of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen (today part of Lucerne), Switzerland. Cosima awoke to its opening melody."

The composer wrote the piece for a small ensemble, later publishing a version for an orchestra of 35. I suspect Furtwängler (like many conductors) employed a larger ensemble for his 1949 recording.

Lionel Salter was taken with the performance in The Gramophone: "The immediate thing which strikes one about this recording is the sensuous beauty of the string tone, warm and caressing, pure and beautifully controlled. The violins in the Vienna Phil. not only have perfect unanimity ... but they are obviously all real artists."

Note: this now contains the complete performance. Originally I inadvertently posted a truncated version. Thanks to dgrb for his note about this!

Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's Rhine Journey and Funeral Music

The program notes of the Los Angeles Philharmonic set the scene: "'Siegfried’s Rhine Journey' functions as an orchestral interlude between the Prologue and Act I of Götterdämmerung, as Brünnhilde sends Siegfried off to seek new adventures, riding her horse and carrying her shield toward the Rhine and his fate. The music progresses from the near silence of the dawn (in the brass) to moments of intense string writing that gives way to the 'Hero' motive as Siegfried sets out on his river journey."

Ad in The Gramophone, 1949

Götterdämmerung is of course the final opera in Wagner's so-called "Ring cycle" - more formally Der Ring des Nibelungen. And Siegfried here is not Wagner's son, he is the son of Siegmund, the mortal son of Wotan, king of the gods. Brünnhilde, Siegfried's lover, is the immortal daughter of Wotan and Erda, the goddess of earth, wisdom and prophecy.

More from the LA Philharmonic: "Following his murder at the hands of Hagen, the death knell of 'Siegfried’s Funeral March' opens with funereal timpani as Siegfried’s body is placed on his shield and carried off by the vassals. The music vacillates from deep mourning and rage-filled outbursts to the majesty of the 'Hero' motif, brought out in bold relief at the center of the movement."

Alec Robertson in The Gramophone on this performance: "Siegfried’s Journey is not so brightly recorded as on Toscanini’s disc and seems a little foggy at the start: but the noble performance of the Funeral Music, in which the conductor dispenses with the ritardandos that very slightly marred his earlier 78's recording, is better recorded than before, and is, indeed, excellent. Be warned to listen to these pieces first of all. The Closing Scene is so tremendous that nothing can be heard after it for some considerable time!"

This comment leads us on to the end of this program, below.

Götterdämmerung - Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene

Wilhelm Furtwängler and Kirsten Flagstad

The LA Phil annotator again: "Upon removing the ring from Siegfried’s finger, Brünnhilde orders his funeral pyre to be built and launches into the 'Immolation' aria. The fire spreads to Valhalla, bringing about the death of the gods and the destruction of the old order, accompanied by many of the leitmotifs heard throughout all four operas."

As I mentioned above, this is a renowned recording. Alec Robertson's comments in The Gramophone: 

This magnificent recording of the Closing Scene from Die Götterdämmerung awakens the keenest regret that steps were not taken to record the whole of The Ring before Kirsten Flagstad’s retirement. Brünnhilde was her finest part and one with which she identified herself more completely than she was always able to do with Isolde, wonderful though her singing of that part was. But we must be thankful for what we have. There is the superb complete recording of Tristan: and now with the great singer in as fine a voice, Furtwängler and the orchestra as inspired as in that set, and a recording as worthy of them all, there is this outstanding issue. As the first bars sound, one feels the thrill that heralds a great performance: and it is indeed, and superlatively, that.

The download includes texts and English translations of the scene.

The LPs above were made for the German market; the notes are entirely in that language. I've included Google Translate versions of each back cover, which provide English versions.

LINK to the complete Furtwängler Wagner program

More from Furtwängler and Flagstad

One of the finest vocal compositions of the 20th century was the set of Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. We are fortunate to have an exceedingly beautiful and touching live recording of the first performance, given in 1950 by Flagstad, Furtwängler and the Philharmonia Orchestra in the Albert Hall. The problem is that the only surviving copy of the recording was a set of battered transcription disks, which have been transcribed several times over the years.

I have now revisited and improved the gritty sound on my copy of the recording, which I first offered in 2018. The results can be found in the original post here, together with a more modern recording of the songs featuring soprano Elisabeth Söderström.

Lauritz Melchior - 1942-43 Performances

The lighter side of the great tenor Lauritz Melchior (1890-1973) has been featured here on several occasions (see below). Today we hear from him in the métier that made him famous - opera - along with a selection of songs, primarily from his homeland, Denmark.

These materials come from a pristine 1972 LP reissue kindly supplied to the blog by my friend Matthew Tepper and transferred by me.

The material primarily derives from 1942 studio sessions for Columbia, with the addition of a few live recordings from Buenos Aires in 1943. Much of this material has not been otherwise reissued, including most or all of the non-Wagnerian items.

Wagner Arias

Melchior was famed as the greatest Wagnerian tenor of the 20th century. The two selections on this album make it clear why that was so. His entrance in the Prayer from Rienzi is startlingly powerful; not so much for its volume but for the clarity and impact of Melchior's voice. The second piece is just as strong - "Lohengrin's Arrival."

Astrid Varnay and Herbert Janssen

Reviewing this reissue in Stereo Review, George Jellinek wrote, "The Lohengrin scene (released here for the first time) omits the chorus and presents Astrid Varnay below her best form and Herbert Janssen in the uncomfortable low tessitura of the King, but Melchior’s contribution is strong and finely sustained."

1943 ad

Varnay (1918-2006) was a Swedish-born American soprano. Janssen (1895-1962) was a German baritone. Both were distinguished figures, as was the conductor, the young Erich Leinsdorf (1912-93), then at the Metropolitan Opera and soon to become the music director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Verdi's Otello

Melchior was primarily known for his Wagner performances, but he also was a notable proponent of Verdi's Otello.

The four performances on this disk are from two sources: the 1942 Leinsdorf sessions in New York with a recording orchestra, and live 1943 performances with the Orchestra of the Teatro Colón led by Juan Emilio Martini. Although the cover notes are at pains to manage expectations about the sound from Argentina, it isn't bad at all. (The studio recordings, from New York's Liederkranz Hall, are all excellent.)

Erich Leinsdorf

Jellinek's comments: "The four Otello excerpts document the firm command Melchior had of a role he was prevented from performing by backstage maneuverings at the Met, and Janssen gives a better account of himself as Iago."

Schubert Songs

The LP's second side is devoted to songs recorded in 1942 with accompanist Ignace Strasfogel, a Polish émigré who also was a conductor and composer. 

Ignace Strasfogel

Melchior's selections were Schubert's Dem Unendlichen and Ständchen, K889. Jellinek: "The Melchior sound is ideal for the majestic Schubert hymn Dem Unendlichen; the tempo he chose for Ständchen is curiously fast yet not ineffective."

Danish Songs

The critics dismissed the songs from Melchior's homeland as "not particularly memorable," although "pleasant" and "amiable". (I can't imagine what they thought of Two Sisters from Boston.) The LP's notes apologetically mentioned that the tenor had insisted on recording these numbers. Columbia does not even give the composer's full names.

The first two songs are by Peter Heise (1830-79) - Lille Karen and Vildt Flyver Hog (Hawks Fly over Land and Sea). Columbia identifies the first as a folk song, but I believe this is the Heise setting.

The following two are by composer-critic Sophus Andersen (1859-1923): Der flyver så mange fugle (So many birds are flying) and Nu brister i alle de kløfter (Spring is coming).

Peter Heise, Peter Lange-Müller, Sophus Andersen

Finally, three songs by composer-pianist Peter Lange-Müller (1850-1926): Kornmodsglansen ved Midnatstid (generally translated as Summer Lightning, although the literal translation is "The grain countershines at midnight"); Skin ud, du klare Solskin (Bright Sunshine, literally "Shine on, you good Sunshine"); and the serenade Renaissance.

Columbia provided no texts nor translations, so I have cobbled together the same for the songs that I could find, even resorting to Google Translate for a few. Otherwise, the download includes the usual scans, reviews and photos, plus a 1972 interview with Melchior.

LINK

The Lighter Side of Melchior

The "lighter side of Melchior" recordings I mentioned above have just been remastered, and a new album added.

The new item is an album of songs from Melchior's first film, Thrill of a Romance from 1945, in which the Heldentenor is transformed into a gigantic Danish Cupid bringing together famed aquatic thespian Esther Williams with war-hero Van Johnson. The tenor takes on everything from Schubert to Victor Herbert to a pop song. Thrill of a Romance also starred the Tommy Dorsey band, so as bonus items I've added three commercial recordings of their songs from the film.

Melchior's follow-up was the 1946 film Two Sisters from Boston. I transferred the Victor album of songs from that movie more than a decade ago, and have now improved the sound and processed it in ambient stereo. As I wrote then, the film "plunders Liszt and Mendelssohn to concoct noisy cod arias that Melchior attacks with some enthusiasm." This time, the bonus is Jimmy Durante's songs from the film - no Liszt of Mendelssohn and quite a contrast to Melchior. (Jimmy's arias are offered separately in a recent post on my singles blog.)

Also newly redone is Melchior's recording of Romberg's famous operetta The Student Prince with Jane Wilson and Lee Sweetland. This 10-inch album comes from 1951. The orchestrations are by Victor Young, who also conducted the ensemble.

Dobrowen Conducts Haydn, Borodin and Wagner; Also, Six Ambient Stereo Remasters

Here is a second serving of music conducted by Issay Dobrowen (1891-1953). This is a follow-up to a recent post of works by Russian composers. Today we broaden the focus to include the music of Haydn and Wagner, along with Borodin. All recordings are with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Also new today - six more remasters of classical recordings in ambient stereo. But first, the Dobrowen discs.

Haydn - Symphony No. 104 (London)

Dobrowen's 1946 recording of Haydn's Symphony No. 104 may be the only symphony he recorded from the classical era that was released. He did set down Beethoven's fifth symphony the day before this Haydn work, but that performance remains unissued. He also accompanied Artur Schnabel in two Beethoven concertos.

The Haydn is well played by the then-new Philharmonia, which had just begin recording a year before. (Its first date was led by Walter Susskind, the second by Constant Lambert.) Dobrowen's performance is not particularly romanticized, as was common practice earlier in the century. He makes the minuet of the third movement rather like a peasant dance, in keeping with the theme of the finale, which is derived from a Croatian folk song, and the first movement, which has folk-like elements.

The sound (from Abbey Road Studio No. 1, as with all these recordings) is quite good, its impact enhanced by ambient stereo processing.

Borodin - Prince Igor, Overture and Polovtsi March

Haydn's symphony, his last, dates from 1794. Almost a century later we are in a different sound world with music from Borodin's opera Prince Igor, premiered after the composer's death in 1890. The excerpts here begin with the overture, which in actuality was composed by Glazunov making use of themes from the opera.

The Polovtsian music, too, required the assistance of another composer, in this case Rimsky-Korsakov, who orchestrated it. Here we have the March. It is often coupled with the Polovtsian Dances;  Dobrowen did record the Dances, but I don't have a transfer of that set. The conductor's other Prince Igor selections are vividly characterized, in keeping with the Russian romantic music contained in the first Dobrowen collection.

The Borodin recordings date from 1949 and again benefit from good sound. You can hear another take on the music via Walter Susskind's 1952 recording.

Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Prelude to Act I

Wagner began working on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1868, which is about when Borodin started on Prince Igor. It became Wagner's only comic opera; also the longest opera in the standard repertoire.

Perhaps recognizing the lighter nature of the proceedings, Dobrowen takes swift tempos throughout his 1947 recording of the Prelude to Act I. This music is often given a much more weighty performance (which it can well stand). The light treatment is accentuated by the recording, which in this RCA Victor LP transfer had very little bass. That aspect of the recording is not helpful in this music, which has important lower brass lines. I rebalanced the sound to alleviate this problem, with some success.

Quite a few posts featuring the vintage Philharmonia Orchestra have appeared here lately. It's natural and perhaps unfortunate to write about symphonic performances as if they were the work of one person, the conductor, instead of 100 professionals. So let me just mention that the recordings of this period are graced by the presence of the Philharmonia's then-famous wind principals, depicted below. (The photo is circa 1950.)

Sidney Sutcliffe, oboe, Gareth Morris, flute, Dennis Brain, horn, Cecil James, bassoon, Harold Jackson, trumpet, Frederick Thurston, clarinet

The catalog of Dobrowen's recordings is relatively slim. EMI had pegged him as an accompanist, and he was adept at handing those assignments. He assisted such artists as Ginette Neveu, Bronislaw Huberman, Solomon, Boris Christoff, Kirsten Flagstad as well as Schnabel. Otherwise, he may have been seen as a specialist in Russian music. That said, his earliest recordings, dating from 1929, were of Grieg, Dvořák and Sinding.

The recordings in this post were sourced from my collection and needle-drops on Internet Archive. Coming up is Dobrowen's recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, in a splendid performance, again with Solomon, with whom the conductor had an evident rapport.

Ambient Stereo Remasters

As before, the links below take you to the original posts. Download links are near or at the end of the comments. We start off with three M-G-M classics from the 1950s, by request.

Lenore Engdahl Plays Griffes. The late pianist Lenore Engdahl did not make many records, but this one is a gem, consisting entirely of piano music by the American impressionist Charles Tomlinson Griffes. This excellent recording dates from 1955.

Music by Paul Bowles and Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Paul Bowles was equally well known as a writer and composer. Here we have two of his best works, along with Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Letters from Morocco, based on Bowles' correspondence to her.

Copland and Weill Suites; Contemporary American Piano Music. Arthur Winograd conducts Copland's Music for Movies and a Weill suite of his own devising. Also, pianist Andor Foldes turns up with contemporary (c1940s) music by American composers.

Swanson - Short Symphony, Diamond - Rounds. Two of the best and best-regarded works by their composers on this vintage American Recording Society release - Howard Swanson's Short Symphony and David Diamond's Rounds. Dean Dixon and Walter Hendl conduct.

Solomon Plays Bliss and Liszt. Another in the series devoted to pianist Solomon. The first recording of Arthur Bliss' bravura Piano Concerto, along with Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia. Sir Adrian Boult and Walter Susskind lead the orchestras.

Boult Conducts Vaughan Williams' A Pastoral Symphony. This Vaughan Williams symphony may be his greatest, and there is no better recording than this one, led by Sir Adrian Boult in 1953. Excellent sound.

Kletzki Conducts Wagner and Brahms

Here is a return to the work of conductor Paul Kletzki, who has appeared on this blog only once before, with the Israel Philharmonic in Mendelssohn's Third Symphony. Today we explore his work in more depth, with these two 1950s recordings of Wagner and Brahms, both with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Kletzki (1900-73) worked quite a bit with the Philharmonia in the 1950s, making recordings for EMI, the source of today's two LPs. Born in Poland, he made his early career in Berlin, primarily as a composer, before moving on with the ascension of the Nazis, first to Italy, then to Switzerland, where he became a citizen. During this time he became known for his conducting. His initial recordings were in Berlin in 1932. He began his association with EMI in 1946. Later on he became the director of the Dallas Symphony and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Wagner - Music from Tannhäuser and Tristan und Isolde

These Wagner recordings, dating from June 1953, were made in London's Kingsway Hall. Although mono, the sound is quite good. [Note (October 2023): the sound has now been refurbished in ambient stereo.]

Kletzki programmed the Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser along with the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, two glorious pieces of music that Kletzki handles beautifully.

Andrew Porter in The Gramophone was laudatory: "[Kletzki] is astonishingly versatile and does extraordinarily well whatever he turns his hand to." However, he also thought that in the Prelude and Liebestod there wasn't sufficient ecstasy, a verdict shared by the American Record Guide's Peter Hugh Reed. The latter added, though, "Those who like their Wagner played with less emotional stress will do well to investigate this excellently recorded disc with its evidence of musical care and veracity."

Ad in The Gramophone, February 1954 (click to enlarge)

Wagner - Siegfried Idyll, Träume; Brahms - Haydn Variations

The two Wagner pieces in this program are a contrast to the previous pair in that they were written for chamber forces, not the full orchestra of Tannhäuser and Tristan. However, it's possible that Kletzki has expanded the scoring for this recording. 

The Siegfried Idyll was a present to the composer's wife Cosima upon the birth of their son Siegfried. It is tender and loving music, handsomely done here. The critic Paul Affelder wrote, "Kletzki is not a showy conductor. He allows the music to sing, to emerge frankly and naturally, and in so doing serves it best."

The second Wagner item on this program is connected to both Tristan and, in a way, to the Siegfried Idyll. It is an orchestral transcription of Träume, the last of the five Wesendonck Lieder, settings of poems by Mathilde Wesendonck. The composer originally wrote them for voice and piano, and later added a version with chamber orchestra. The arrangement without voice was done to serenade Wesendonck outside her window, as Wagner was later to do for his wife with the Siegfried Idyll.

Paul Kletzki

The composer was working on Tristan at the same time as the lieder, and the music of Träume is related to Tristan. In the recorded arrangement, the vocal part is given to violin, here played by Hugh Bean, the concertmaster of the Philharmonia.

It has been speculated that Wagner and Wesendonck were lovers (she was the wife of his patron Otto Wesendonck). Brahms' Haydn Variations were related to his own love for Clara Schumann, the wife of Robert Schumann, and it too was probably not conceived as an orchestral work. Brahms wrote it for performance by Clara and him, but also transcribed it into the orchestral guise in which it is usually heard today.

The given name of the work is the Variations on a Theme of Haydn, but it sometimes called the St. Antoni Variations because it was based on a melody called the "St. Antoni Chorale" found in one of Haydn's wind partitas. Today the theme is thought probably to have been written by one of Haydn's students.

These recordings date from August and September 1958 and are in excellent stereo. The Siegfried Idyll is a remake of a mono recording that Kletzki did for EMI in 1947.

A Wagner Concert from Pittsburgh and Reiner

My recent post of a Brahms concerto with Rudolf Serkin, the Pittsburgh Symphony and Fritz Reiner sent me looking through my files for other early Reiner recordings. The first one that came to hand was this "Wagner concert" from the first years of the conductor's tenure in the then-Steel City.

As sometimes happens, my friend Bryan of The Shellackophile blog had the simultaneous idea of posting the same set, and did so yesterday. I would urge you to go there to take advantage of Bryan's efforts, for several reasons: he does a great job on his transfers; he worked from the 78 set while I worked from the LP; he includes the very good graphics from the 78 album, which appear to be by Alex Steinweiss; and his download includes the Venusberg music, not included here.

Reiner caricature by
Olga Koussevitzky

Here are the LP contents and dates (all recordings were made in the Syria Mosque):

Die Meistersinger - Prelude (January 9, 1941)
Siegfried - Forest Murmurs (January 9, 1941)
Lohengrin - Prelude from Act 1 (November 15, 1941)
Lohengrin - Prelude from Act 3 (January 9, 1941)
Die Walküre - Ride of the Valkyries (February 25, 1940)

Similar to the Brahms, these excerpts display fine control, balance and orchestral discipline, if little glamour, delivered in boxy sound.

Reiner's later work in Chicago has been much discussed; I'll be posting a few more examples of what he was able to accomplish in Pittsburgh. If you want to learn more about the conductor, here's a good article with some familiar anecdotes and a few I hadn't heard before.

Music for Easter with Stokowski

I was casting about looking for records to present for Easter, and had hit upon a Robert Shaw set to transfer - forgetting that it is missing one of the records. But I also had this RCA Camden LP of "Music for Easter" at hand, so that's our selection for today.

For some reason, during the first part of the 1950s, RCA used pseudonyms for the orchestras featured on the budget Camden label. Here we have the "Warwick Symphony Orchestra", which actually is the Philadelphia Orchestra in famous old recordings led by Leopold Stokowski.

How did he make his hair do that?

Stoki was a very popular personality when these records were made. He not only appeared in a famous cartoon himself (Fantasia) but was well known enough to have been caricatured in another cartoon by Bugs Bunny. I have to admit that for this and other reasons, I am one of the snobs who have a hard time taking him seriously. Many people do, of course, and I yield to them for purposes of this post. (And, of course, who am I to make judgments, considering some of the silly stuff I have offered here.)

The cover says "Music for Easter" and comes complete with a Gothic cathedral facade, but this is not music you will hear in church. Instead we have the Act I Prelude and "Good Friday Spell" from Act III of Wagner's Parsifal, together with Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture.

The sound here is good, especially when you consider that the Rimsky goes back as far as January 1929. The Parsifal excerpts are from November 1936, when Stokowski was beginning his withdrawal from Philadelphia.

LINK to 2026 remastered version