42. Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde
Live from the 1966 Bayreuth Festival with Karl Bohm and Birgit Nilsson
“I am not made like other people. I must have brilliance and beauty and light. The world owes me what I need. I can’t live on a miserable organist’s pittance like your master, Bach.”
- Richard Wagner
It was bound to happen. At some point, I would need to focus attention on Richard Wagner’s music and on some of the extraordinary recordings that have been made of his music, especially his operas. At number 42 on our list of the top 50 classical recordings of all-time is a recording of Wagner’s groundbreaking opera Tristan und Isolde recorded live at the 1966 Bayreuth Festival in Germany by the Deutsche Grammphon label. The Bayreuth Festival Orchestra is conducted by Karl Bohm, with soprano Birgit Nilsson in an incendiary performance of Isolde and Tristan sung by Wolfgang Windgassen. The stellar cast is rounded out by Christa Ludwig, Martti Talvela, and Eberhard Waechter. Tristan und Isolde is arguably Wagner’s greatest opera, and for me this is the greatest recording the opera has ever received.
Richard Wagner
German composer Richard Wagner was born in 1813 in Leipzig, Germany and died in 1883 in Venice, Italy. Wagner remains one of the most important, influential, and controversial composers in the history of classical music. In addition to composing, Wagner was also a theatre director, conductor, and polemicist. Wagner is remembered primarily for his operas, or as he liked to call them “music dramas”. In addition to writing the music for his operas, unusually and astonishingly he also wrote the libretto for each. Wagner’s music is known for its rich harmonic textures, complex themes, and his extensive use of leitmotifs, defined as musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements. Wagner is credited with contributing new ideas in music such as shifting tonal keys, his further development of chromaticism, and his innovative use of language. His opera Tristan und Isolde is often considered to be the beginning of modern music.
Wagner’s biological father died when he was six months old, and after his mother would marry the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. Wagner most likely believed Geyer was his biological father. There is speculation that Geyer was part Jewish, but the evidence is scant. Geyer’s career in theatre undoubtedly had a strong impact on his stepson, and Wagner even took part in some of the same performances.
Of all the great composers, Wagner was one of the latest bloomers. Although he was quite taken with Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz at a young age, he really didn’t begin taking a more significant interest in music until 1828 when he attended a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony “Choral” at the Gewandhaus Leipzig. Wagner was indelibly impressed by this experience, and Beethoven became a lifelong inspiration. Other musical experiences that were formative include hearing Mozart’s Requiem, and a performance by dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient. Later recalling this moment Wagner wrote, "When I look back across my entire life I find no event to place beside this in the impression it produced on me," and claimed that the "profoundly human and ecstatic performance of this incomparable artist" kindled in him an "almost demonic fire."
Wagner entered the University of Leipzig in 1831. He began taking composition lessons, but his teacher was soon so impressed with his talent that he claimed he could not teach him anything further. Wagner was like a sponge, quickly learning everything he was taught and picking up music theory and composition extraordinarily quickly. He was largely self-taught, eventually giving up other pursuits entirely to devote himself to music. His early Symphony in C major was performed in Leipzig in 1832, and he began work on an early opera which he never finished. In 1833, Wagner obtained a post as choirmaster in Wurzburg and the same year he completed his first opera titled Die Feen (The Fairies) which had to wait until after his death for its first production.
In 1834, Wagner briefly held a position as the music director of the opera house in Magdeburg. During this time he wrote Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. However the opera house ran out of money and Wagner was soon bankrupt. Meanwhile, Wagner had fallen for one of the leading ladies in Magdeburg by the name of Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer. They soon moved together to Konigsberg, where Planer helped him secure a position at the theatre. They were married in 1836, although in 1837 Planer allegedly left Wagner for another man. After Wagner obtained a position in Riga (then Russia, now Latvia), he and Minna reunited. However, it continued to be a stormy marriage.
Adding to the couple’s woes was the fact that Wagner had accrued tremendous debt. This was a pattern throughout Wagner’s life, as he continually would flee from creditors as he moved from place to place. He was irresponsible when it came to money, and believed that money should not be important to true artists. Because he was being pursued to pay his debts in Riga, he and Minna fled to London and then on to Paris in 1839. Scholars believe this journey served as the inspiration for Wagner’s opera Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman).
The couple would settle in Paris from 1839 until 1842, during which time Wagner would do some writing and would also complete the opera Rienzi. With the advocacy of composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, Rienzi was premiered at the Dresden Court Theatre. Wagner was prompted to return to Germany, and so he and Minna moved to Dresden. Wagner was greatly relieved to return to Germany, writing "For the first time I saw the Rhine—with hot tears in my eyes, I, poor artist, swore eternal fidelity to my German fatherland." Wagner’s nationalistic feelings came to the fore. Rienzi was staged to considerable acclaim in 1842. Wagner would continue to live in Dresden for the next six years, eventually being given the post of Royal Saxon Court Conductor. During this time, his operas Die fliegende Holländer and Tannhauser were also premiered. However, in Dresden, Wagner became associated with left-wing politics, and this was not well received. Wagner had close ties to several Socialist partisans and radicals. In 1849, there was an uprising in Dresden and many of the revolutionaries were arrested. There was a warrant for his arrest, and so Wagner fled once again, this time settling in Zurich.
Wagner would spend the next 12 years in exile from Germany. Shortly he would produce the opera Lohengrin, and begged his friend Franz Liszt to have it staged. Liszt directed the premiere in August 1850 in Weimar. Even so, this was a grim period for Wagner. He had no regular source of income, and even though he was promised a small pension by a friend, he ruined this plan by having an affair with a friend of this friend. Meanwhile, his wife Minna fell into a deep depression and Wagner himself was unwell and for a period wrote little music. However, he did some writing, including a treatise on “The Artwork of the Future” where he described his ideal Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art”), which would unify music, song, dance, poetry, visual arts and stagecraft. In 1850, he would also write “Judaism in Music”, which was the first of his writings to express his antisemitic views. Wagner accused the Jews of creating shallow art with the goal of making money rather than creating genuine works of art.
Before leaving Dresden, Wagner had begun drafting some ideas which would eventually become his massive Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle of four operas. Although initially just one opera, while in Zurich he expanded the plans for his “opera as drama” to include an extended background of the hero. After spending two more years writing the libretti, what resulted were the four operas Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Wagner made a public announcement:
“I shall never write an Opera more. As I have no wish to invent an arbitrary title for my works, I will call them Dramas ...
I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel). ...
At a specially-appointed Festival, I propose, at some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of three days and a fore-evening”
While Wagner spent much of the 1850s on the Ring cycle, in 1857 he put it aside for a time to work on a new idea: The tragic love story of Tristan und Isolde based on the Arthurian love story Tristan and Iseult. The inspiration for Tristan und Isolde seems to also have its roots in Wagner’s interest in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and especially his book The World as Will and Representation. Wagner would later consider being introduced to these writings the most important moment of his life. Given the struggle of his life, it is perhaps not surprising that this philosophy appealed to Wagner, especially because it presents a pessimistic view of life. One important concept that came from Schopenhauer changed the course of Wagner’s work was the idea that music held the highest place in the arts as an expression of the world’s essence…that being blind, impulsive will. Scholars point out that prior to his discovery of Schopenhauer, Wagner believed that the music was subservient to the drama. After Schopenhauer, Wagner’s work changed so that the music was given the primary role in his musical dramas. Thus, we hear in Tristan und Isolde and Wagner’s later operas including the latter half of the Ring cycle more developed and sensuous music, and indeed some of the greatest music Wagner composed.
Around the time Wagner was working on Tristan, he began an affair with a poet named Mathilde Wesendonck. The Wesendoncks were great admirers of Wagner, and from 1853 they began to give him financial support, which included building a cottage on his estate that he could use for working. Wagner for his part became infatuated with Mathilde, and in 1858 his wife Minna intercepted a letter of his to Mathilde. Wagner decided to leave Zurich and head to Venice, where he rented an apartment. Minna returned to Germany. Wagner now considered Minna a burden, and an obstacle to his peace of mind. However, he continued his correspondence with Mathilde and her husband, confiding in Mathilde about his work on Tristan und Isolde, “Child! This Tristan is turning into something terrible. This final act!!!—I fear the opera will be banned ... only mediocre performances can save me! Perfectly good ones will be bound to drive people mad."
With Germany lifting their ban on Wagner, he returned to his homeland in 1862 and settled in a small town near Wiesbaden. Although he and Minna attempted a reconciliation, it was not to be. Minna departed him for the last time, although he continued to support her financially until her death. Wagner tried mightily to have his Tristan und Isolde performed in Vienna, but after some rehearsals it was left unperformed and was considered “impossible” to sing. Wagner began work on his only comic opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and meanwhile King Ludwig II rose to the throne in Bavaria at the age of 18. Ludwig was an admirer of Wagner, and a homosexual, and wrote to Wagner that he wanted him to move to Munich. Ludwig was not shy about expressing his personal adoration for Wagner, and of course Wagner was perfectly okay with pretending to have mutual feelings. Ludwig paid off Wagner’s debts and offered to have Tristan, Die Meistersinger, and The Ring cycle all staged.
After more difficulties, Tristan und Isolde was finally staged in Munich in 1865. The conductor for the premiere was Hans von Bulow, and his wife Cosima had given birth to a daughter named Isolde. However she was the daughter of Wagner, and not her husband. Cosima was 24 years younger than Wagner, and herself the daughter of Countess Marie d'Agoult and composer Franz Liszt. Wagner and Liszt were friends, but nonetheless Liszt disapproved of his daughter’s involvement with Wagner. The affair with Cosima was indiscreet to say the least, and when it became known Wagner lost favor with the court in Munich. Ludwig was reluctantly forced to ask Wagner to leave Munich. As a consolation, Ludwig moved Wagner to a villa near Lucerne, Switzerland and premiered Die Meistersinger in 1868 in Munich. Even though Ludwig also insisted on presenting the first two operas of Wagner’s Ring cycle in Munich as well, Wagner continued to pursue his dream of having his own opera house where his works would be celebrated and performed.
After Minna’s death in 1866, Cosima pleaded with Hans von Bulow for a divorce, which he refused to grant. Finally, after Cosima had given Wagner two more children Eva and Siegfried, von Bulow relented and the divorce was granted in June of 1870. Wagner and Cosima were married in August 1870. The marriage would last the rest of Wagner’s life.
In 1871 Wagner moved to Bayreuth, the proposed site of his new opera house. The town council approved a section of land for the project, and the foundation stone was laid. However, since Ludwig pulled his funding for the project, there were significant delays. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus (or “Festival Theatre”) was finally opened in 1875 after Ludwig changed his mind and donated the remaining funds, with plans for the first festival to be held the following year. Wagner and Cosima were moved into an adjoining house specially built for them. Included in the new opera house in Bayreuth were a few other innovations begun by Wagner: dimming the house lights for performances and placing the orchestra in the pit below the stage, out of sight of the audience. The first performance at Bayreuth was Das Rheingold in August of 1876, and that year saw the first complete performance of the complete Ring cycle performed in sequence. Some of the attendees included Kaiser Wilhelm I, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, Anton Bruckner, Camille Saint-Saens, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The composer Edvard Grieg said the works were “divinely composed”, but the French newspaper Le Figaro declared it “the dream of a lunatic”. Wagner’s friend Friedrich Nietzsche was bitterly disappointed in what he heard, and concluded that Wagner had been carried away by his exclusive German nationalism. On a practical level, the festival ran up a huge debt and together with living expenses, Wagner and Cosima were still very short of money.
Over the next four years Wagner spent much time in Italy due to ill health. He worked on his final opera Parsifal, and spent time worrying about how he would finance its production and keep it at Bayreuth. In his later years, especially in the 1880s, Wagner would write further political polemics and much of it would repudiate the liberal views he held as a young man. He wrote "Religion and Art" (1880) and "Heroism and Christianity" (1881), both of which reflected his increasing interest in Christianity. It is thought this was due more to his identification with German nationalism, which was aligned with Christianity, than to actual devotion. Wagner would also continue his antisemitic commentaries. Another Bayreuth Festival was held the following year, primarily to premiere Parsifal, and by that time Wagner was in poor health. There were 16 performances of the opera between May and August. After the festival, Wagner would travel to Venice to convalesce. He died in February 1883 in Venice at the age of 69.
By most accounts, on a personal level Wagner was a rather loathsome man and possessed some of the most unpleasant human characteristics. Harold Schonberg in The Lives of the Great Composers says,
“There was something messianic about the man himself, a degree of megalomania that approached actual lunacy…he radiated power, belief in himself, ruthlessness, genius. As a human being, he was frightening. Amoral, hedonistic, selfish, virulently racist, arrogant, filled with the gospels of the Superman and the superiority of the German race…”
Wagner was a controversial figure during his lifetime, and that has continued to the present day. Wagner’s thoughts and writings on the Jews reflected common trends of the day in 19th century Germany. Some scholars give examples of Jewish stereotypes present in his operas. Despite this, throughout his life Wagner had Jewish friends and colleagues. In his final years, Wagner became interested in the philosophy of Arthur de Gobineau. Gobineau believed that Western society was doomed because of the miscegenation between superior and inferior races. Whether Wagner took up these beliefs, or incorporated them into his operas, is a matter of debate.
Still other interpretations of Wagner exist, notably those claiming that his art was influenced by his early socialist leanings, and that there are socialist ideas present in some of his operas. There are several leftist authors that have identified Wagner as part of the left-wing German bourgeois radicalism in the mid-19th century born out of Karl Marx’s writings. If Wagner was a revolutionary while younger, it is clear he became more of a reactionary in his older age, wanting to uphold the order that he had once railed against.
It is well known that Wagner and his music were appropriated by the Nazis during the Third Reich. Hitler was a great admirer of Wagner, and identified strongly with the vision of German nationalism and identity portrayed in Wagner’s operas and writings. Hitler even glorified Wagner in some of his speeches, and regularly attended concerts at Bayreuth from 1923 onwards. However, it is unclear how much of Wagner’s own ideas and beliefs made it into Nazi ideology. It may be concluded that the Nazis used Wagner for their own ends as needed, but discarded anything that didn’t fit their narrative. Many scholars have noted that although Wagner’s music was used at some Nazi events, and while Bayreuth was a convenient backdrop for Hitler’s culture wars, many of the other Nazi party leaders did not share Hitler’s enthusiasm for Wagner and did not particularly enjoy sitting through some of Wagner’s exceptionally long operas. Parsifal was even identified by some Nazis as overly Christian and pacifist. Whether it is fair to Wagner or not, he will continue to be associated with Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich to some degree.
In terms of Wagner’s influence on music, his importance cannot be overstated. His middle and later periods introduced new ideas about harmony, leitmotifs, and operatic structure. Wagner’s music from Tristan und Isolde onward paved the way for modern music by introducing “atonality” turning traditional tonal theory on its head with the so-called “Tristan chord”. The Tristan chord is a chord made up of the notes F, B, D♯, and G♯. It looks like this in musical notation:
The chord appears in the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, and recurs as the leitmotif representing Tristan. The importance of the chord is not so much for the combination of notes themselves, which had been used before, but rather the chord’s relationship to what comes before and after it. Without getting into lots of music theory, the chord is unusual in that, based on what listeners were used to hearing up to that point in time, it was not the expected chord to be played at that time. It is somewhat “atonal” and not what you expect to hear traditionally.
At the time in Germany, there was a divide in music between those that aligned themselves with Wagner and those aligned with Brahms. Wagner represented a forward-looking push toward modernism, while Brahms was seen as looking back and respecting the long tradition in German classical music. But Wagner inspired devotion from many other composers such as Bruckner, Franck, Massenet, Strauss, and perhaps most importantly Mahler. Mahler adored Wagner, sought to meet him, became one of the most acclaimed conductors of Wagner’s music, and extended many of Wagner’s ideas in his own compositions. Debussy and Schoenberg both advanced the cause of atonalism following Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal. The movement in realism in Italian opera known as verismo also owes a debt to Wagner. Songwriter Jim Steinman, who wrote songs for pop and rock acts such as Air Supply, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, and Celine Dion, claimed inspiration from Wagner.
Furthermore, Wagner also made contributions to the art of conducting. His essay “About Conducting” advanced the notion that the conductor was not present just to maintain orchestral unity, but could also re-interpret the work at hand. In his own conducting, Wagner was more flexible in his tempos and phrasing than most conductors of the time. Wagner also advocated questionable practices, such as re-writing the music of others. But Wagner was a major inspiration for a new generation of conductors, including the legendary Wilhelm Furtwangler.
Tristan und Isolde
We have discussed Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde quite a bit already, but it is also worth relating some additional background and the synopsis. Tristan und Isolde is an opera in three acts set to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. Wagner completed it between 1857 and 1859, but it was not premiered until 1865. Considered one of the pinnacles of opera, Tristan und Isolde was groundbreaking in its use of chromaticism, tonal ambiguity (beginning with the “Tristan chord” as was mentioned), and suspended harmony. Many musicians and musicologists see Tristan und Isolde as a turning point in classical music directed toward the 20th century and modernism.
The rediscovery of German medieval literature had a profound impact on German romanticism of the mid-19th century, including von Strassburg’s Tristan. The story has existed since the 12th century in different forms, with different variations. After Wagner’s friend Karl Ritter had attempted to dramatize the story, Wagner decided to follow suit. However, after also being influenced by reading Schopenhauer, Wagner decided to boldly emphasize the more tragic aspects of the love story. In a letter to Franz Liszt, Wagner wrote:
“Never in my life having enjoyed the true happiness of love I shall erect a memorial to this loveliest of all dreams in which, from the first to the last, love shall, for once, find utter repletion. I have devised in my mind a Tristan und Isolde, the simplest, yet most full-blooded musical conception imaginable, and with the ‘black flag’ that waves at the end I shall cover myself over – to die”.
Tristan und Isolde has the following roles and voices:
Tristan (tenor) a Breton nobleman, adopted heir of Marke
Isolde (soprano) an Irish princess betrothed to Marke
Brangäne (soprano) Isolde's maid
Kurwenal (baritone) Tristan's servant
Marke (bass) King of Cornwall
Melot (tenor) a courtier, Tristan's friend
A shepherd (tenor)
A steersman (baritone)
A young sailor (tenor)
Sailors, knights, and esquires
Synopsis
As Jonathan Burton writes for the Glyndebourne Opera:
Act I
Tristan is bringing the Irish princess Isolde to Cornwall to be married to his uncle, King Marke. The voice of a young sailor is heard, pining for his Irish maiden. Isolde complains to her maidservant, Brangäne, that Tristan is ignoring her, and sends Brangäne to ask Tristan to come to her. Tristan politely but coldly refuses to leave the helm; his servant Kurwenal is less polite, and sings a mocking song about Morold, an Irish knight killed by Tristan.
Brangäne tells Isolde how Tristan reacted to her request. Isolde explains why she cannot forgive Tristan: she had been betrothed to Morold. In the course of the fight that had ended in Morold’s death, Tristan was gravely wounded; he sailed to Ireland, where he was nursed back to health by Isolde, who recognized him despite his false name of ‘Tantris’. She had been about to kill him in revenge, but he gazed into her eyes and her feelings towards him softened. He pledged his loyalty to her, and in return she kept his true identity a secret. Now she feels cheated because he has returned to Ireland to woo her, not for himself but for King Marke, his elderly uncle, with whom she is to be united in a loveless marriage. Tristan himself shows no sign of affection towards her.
Brangäne suggests that the spark of love might be ignited by a magic potion from a collection of remedies given to them by Isolde’s mother, a wise woman with a knowledge of herbs and spells. In her despair, Isolde chooses another remedy: a deadly poison.
The coast of Cornwall is sighted. Kurwenal rouses Isolde and Brangäne; Isolde must get ready to meet her husband, King Marke. She refuses to disembark until Tristan has come to her to seek forgiveness for an unatoned wrong. Isolde asks Brangäne to prepare the poison draught so that the ‘drink of atonement’ will result in their deaths.
Tristan comes to Isolde and explains that he had remained aloof during the voyage out of respect for another man’s bride. Telling him that his murder of Morold is still unavenged, she invites him to share a drink of atonement.
He realizes that she intends to poison them both; but Brangäne has secretly substituted a love-draught for the poison, and Tristan and Isolde instead find themselves passionately in love. As the ship enters harbor, Tristan and Isolde are oblivious of the sailors’ cries and the imminent arrival of her husband.
Act II
Isolde has arranged an assignation with Tristan. King Marke is away on a hunting expedition; as evening falls, Brangane can still hear the horns in the distance. She warns Isolde that she and Tristan are in danger; she fears that Tristan’s treacherous friend Melot has arranged the hunt as a trap. Ignoring Brangane’s misgivings, Isolde begs her to extinguish the torch as the prearranged signal to Tristan. Impatiently she herself puts out the light, sending Brangane to the watch-tower to stand guard.
Tristan arrives; as the lovers are rapturously reunited, they contrast the hateful brightness of day with the welcoming darkness of night. Brangane’s warning voice is heard. Tristan and Isolde sing ecstatically of the wonder of their love; they will remain undivided forever, even in death.
Kurwenal rushes in, telling Tristan to flee; but it is too late for the lovers to escape the arrival of King Marke, who enters with Melot and the hunting party. King Marke is not angry, but shocked and saddened. He recounts that, after the death of his first wife, it was Tristan himself who had urged him to marry again and undertook to win him a worthy bride, bringing back Isolde for him from Ireland. Deeply hurt, he asks why Tristan, his dearest and most trusted friend, has now brought this shame and dishonor upon him.
Tristan has no answer for King Marke, but instead asks Isolde to follow him to the dark realm of death. Tristan turns on Melot, who has betrayed him because he too loves Isolde; they draw swords, and Tristan allows himself to be wounded.
Act III
Kurwenal has brought Tristan home to his ancestral castle in Brittany, where his wounds have not healed and he lies unconscious. Realizing that Isolde is the only person who might be able to restore him to health, Kurwenal has sent a ship to fetch her from Cornwall. A shepherd plays a mournful melody on his pipe; Kurwenal instructs him to watch the sea and play a cheerful tune as soon he sights an approaching ship.
Tristan wakes; Kurwenal tries to explain what has happened, where he is and how he got here. Aware that he has been brought back from the realm of night, Tristan longs to see Isolde again. Kurwenal tells him he has sent for her to heal his wounds; Tristan thanks him for his loyalty. In his delirium, he thinks Isolde’s ship is already approaching, but only the mournful tune of the shepherd’s pipe is heard. Tristan reflects on the significance of its sad music, which has haunted him throughout his life. At last the shepherd plays a merrier tune; Kurwenal confirms that Isolde’s ship is on the horizon, and watches as it is brought safely into harbor. As Kurwenal goes to fetch her, Tristan exultantly tears the bandages from his wounds. Isolde arrives; Tristan tries to greet her, but dies in her arms. After vainly attempting to revive him, she sinks unconscious beside his body.
The shepherd announces the arrival of a second ship, bearing Melot, King Marke and Brangane. Kurwenal hurries to defend the castle against the intruders. Ignoring Brangane’s protestations, he stabs Melot to death, but is himself wounded in the fight with Marke’s followers, and dies at Tristan’s feet.
Brangane tells Isolde that she has confessed to King Marke that she gave Tristan and Isolde the love-potion; King Marke has forgiven them, and has hurried here to give Isolde to Tristan with his blessing. Gazing ecstatically at Tristan’s body, Isolde feels herself united to him in death, in the highest bliss of unending love.
The initial reaction to Tristan und Isolde was unfavorable, with some calling it repugnant or distasteful. Richard Strauss famously said of Tristan that it "would kill a cat and would turn rocks into scrambled eggs from fear of its hideous discords." While at first dismissive of the opera, Strauss would later conduct it at Bayreuth, calling it the most wonderful day of his life.
The conductor Bruno Walter heard his first Tristan und Isolde in 1889 as a student:
“So there I sat in the topmost gallery of the Berlin Opera House, and from the first sound of the cellos my heart contracted spasmodically.... Never before has my soul been deluged with such floods of sound and passion, never had my heart been consumed by such yearning and sublime bliss... A new epoch had begun: Wagner was my god, and I wanted to become his prophet.”
Schoenberg, Proust, and Nietzsche all praised the opera, and how much it moved them. Tristan und Isolde has grown in popularity ever since. Isolde’s famous Liebestod is used in the soundtrack of the third episode of the first season of The Crown.
The Recording
Finally we arrive at the recording of Tristan und Isolde which appears on our list of the top 50 classical recordings of all time. Bearing in mind that staging or recording Tristan und Isolde is a massive undertaking, and there does not exist a perfect performance or recording of this epic score, the live recording from the 1966 Bayreuth Festival with Birgit Nilsson as Isolde and Wolfgang Windgassen as Tristan under the baton of Karl Bohm on the Deutsche Grammophon label stands out.
First I should say I usually find the conducting of Karl Bohm on record to be rather boring. Bohm had a wide repertoire, but focused mostly on Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert. He was reliable and solid, but for me often didn’t bring any great insights to his interpretations. His Mozart recordings are especially fine, and he made some other excellent recordings. However, Wagner seemed to bring out the best in Bohm, and especially with this recording of Tristan und Isolde.
The recording became an instant favorite as it features the great Birgit Nilsson in an intense and heartbreaking performance. Nilsson was the Isolde in the 1960s, bringing clarity and pathos to the role. The role of Isolde is very taxing, and on this recording remarkably she shows no sign of strain or compromise. She also sounds younger than Kirsten Flagstad on the classic 1952 Furtwangler recording, a real benefit in the role. She is partnered with the Tristan of Wolfgang Windgassen, 52 years old at the time. Even though his voice had lost some of its lustre, and he no longer possessed the heroic timbre the role requires, he still sings very well and brings a poetic and dramatic character to the recording. The contributions of the more minor roles, Christa Ludwig as Brangane, Martti Talvela as Marke, and Eberhard Wachter as Kurwenal, are equal to or better than any rivals. Talvela’s Marke is extremely well done and brings personality to the role. Wachter’s performance is strong and convincing.
This is an exciting reading, one of the fastest on record. But it feels exactly right to me. While one might occasionally want Bohm to let the power and poetry linger, he still brings out all the drama. Although the acoustic at Bayreuth does not provide the clearest detail, the orchestra plays exceedingly well for Bohm.
Gramophone magazine says of this performance:
“Böhm's recording is a live Bayreuth performance of distinction, for on stage are the most admired Tristan and Isolde of their time, and in the pit the 72-year-old conductor directs a performance which is unflagging in its passion and energy. He has a striking way in the Prelude and Liebestod of making the swell of passion seem like the movement of a great sea, sometimes with gentle motion, sometimes with the breaking of the mightiest of waves. Nilsson characterizes strongly, and her voice with its cleaving power can also soften beautifully. Windgassen's heroic performance in Act 3 is in some ways the crown of his achievements on record, even though the voice has dried and aged a little. Christa Ludwig is the ideal Brangäne, Waechter a suitably forthright Kurwenal and Talvela an expressive, noble-voiced Marke.”
For me it is Nilsson that raises this to one of the best recordings of all-time. The Swedish soprano’s voice was noted for its overwhelming force, reserves of power, and the gleaming brilliance and clarity in the upper register. Many listeners thought she was best heard in person, and she was often disappointed with how she sounded on recordings. This Tristan und Isolde certainly proves to be an exception to that idea. Nilsson’s longevity was also something amazing, and she claimed it was purely genetics. She was also a shrewd businesswoman, mostly negotiating her own fees and holding out until she was paid what she thought she was worth. Nilsson was also known for standing up to conductors. When on some occasion von Karajan urged a retake "but this time with more heart. That's the place where you have your purse", Nilsson replied, "I'm so pleased to find we have something in common." When Georg Solti, in Tristan and Isolde, insisted on tempos too slow for Nilsson's taste, she made the first performance even slower, inducing Solti to a change of heart. After a tiff with Hans Knappertsbusch, Nilsson reported: "He called me by a name that begins with "A" and ends with 'hole'".
Other recommended recordings
Wilhelm Furtwangler’s 1952 EMI (now Warner) recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London with the legendary Kirsten Flagstad as Isolde holds a special place in the history of Wagner recordings. Many still consider it the greatest recording of Tristan und Isolde, and it is a recording every Wagner devotee should have in their collection. Ultimately the mono sound and Flagstad’s matronly tone lowers its standing for me when compared to the Bohm version with Nilsson.
Carlos Kleiber’s recording with the Staatskapelle Dresden on Deutsche Grammophon from the early digital years of the 1980s is another competitive version. Margaret Price, not known for her Wagner, is an interesting choice but proves worthy of the selection. I also love the Marke as sung by Kurt Moll. The Tristan of Rene Kollo is not as distinguished, and the rest of the cast is not the equal of the Bohm or Furtwangler sets. But having Kleiber on the podium alone makes it something to hear.
Well, dear reader, I’ve done it once again. I’ve written too much. I apologize for the long post, but Wagner and Tristan und Isolde required more than usual.
Over the coming few weeks, I will be taking a break from the top 50 list to spend time with my family. However, look for a post covering the finest recorded performances of Christmas and Holiday pieces from classical music. Wishing you and your family a very Happy Holiday season.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgit_Nilsson