I am not really going to just push any one recording as being the Holy Grail here, but I have decided to put together some thoughts about the older recorded literature of die Walküre. Before I go on, I should add that I am not in the slightest bit interested in any tedious nostalgia over the "good old days". Older historical recordings are worthy of study primarily because they capture a style of period performance practice that is closer to that of Richard Wagner's time, and represent a performance practice more in tune with his music. You can also follow the development of modern performance practices such as increasingly slower tempi, starting around the 1930s. These slower tempi have become unquestioned orthodoxy today, despite the incessant complaints about dragging tempi in Wagner's own writings. Then, after the 1940-50s, the Wagnerian period practice of introducing unmarked tempo modulations is also abandoned.
It is too easy to dismiss much of what is found on historical recordings as being unfashionable and mannered. However, musicians from Wagner's day, would also find our modern performance practice equally mannered when imposed on the music of their day - constant slow dragging tempi, a stiffly unvaried tempo, unvaried continuous vibrato, and a failure to achieve a seamless flowing cantabile line ("endless melody") in favour of a smoother, plushly vibrato laden sostenuto.
It is too easy to dismiss much of what is found on historical recordings as being unfashionable and mannered. However, musicians from Wagner's day, would also find our modern performance practice equally mannered when imposed on the music of their day - constant slow dragging tempi, a stiffly unvaried tempo, unvaried continuous vibrato, and a failure to achieve a seamless flowing cantabile line ("endless melody") in favour of a smoother, plushly vibrato laden sostenuto.
Friedrich Schorr/Staatsoper Berlin - Leo Blech: Wotan's Farewell
A perfect example of Wotan's Farewell played with the sort of wide tempo modulations described by Wagner can be found on this remastering from Hänssler. The advantage of this particular download is that it is in FLAC format. There is another remastering available from Preiser Records, but you can only download it in MP3-320 format (Preiser seriously need to make their recordings available in FLAC format). The advantage in the Preiser issue is that it also contains an equally instructive, forward flowing rendition of Zur Burg führt die Brücke from Das Rheingold.
The "faster" tempi are all realised with total aplomb, without the slightest hit of rushing, though the tempo is allowed to fluctuate widely in the Wagnerian manner, and is slowed down quite considerably where they feel the music calls for it. They end up on a very expansive tempo. Some will object when unmarked tempo modulations are introduced, but if you read Wagner, it is clear that he expects you to intuit these modulations. It is correct period playing style, and to object to them is like objecting to the introduction of unmarked decorations in the music of Bach.
Bruno Walter - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
The first of these historical recordings is the famous recording by Bruno Walter with the Vienna Philharmonic of the first act of die Walkure. The tempi are old-school: effortlessly flowing - fast without ever feeling fast. This contributes to the expressive urgency of the impact. Never do you find the sort of modern dragging tempi that have crept into Wagner performance since this time. Loritz Melchior and Lotte Lehmann make for a remarkable pairing.
Karl Elmendorff - Staatskapelle Dresden
The second historical recording of great note is one with Karl Elmendorff and the Staatskapelle Dresden. Max Lorenz sings the part of Siegmund. The sound is quite good for its age. I also find that Elmendorff has an exceptional feeling both for shaping the line in Wagner's work, as well as in his sensitivity in bringing out the beauty of the orchestral writing. It is highly reminiscent of the sort of thing that you hear from the likes of Karl Muck and Siegfried Wagner. These conductors never indulge in the bombastic exaggeration of harsh brass sound.
Elmendorff's tempi can often be a bit broader, in the modern manner, although this is certainly not the case in Act I. His Wotan's farewell from Dresden with Josef Herrmann has a touch of modern slowness, but is saved by Elmendorff's wonderful feeling for phrasing Wagner's lines. It is a pity that the Dresden recording is mostly only of Act, and even then it is incomplete.
Here are some examples of his conducting (in rather indifferent sound) at Bayreuth and with the Berlin Staatsoper:
Fritz Reiner Act II San Francisco Opera, 1936
Reiner was a conductor steeped in the Austro-Hungarian tradition of music. Even his minimalistic conducting style was something he copied off Arthur Nikisch, Furtwängler's predecessor as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the recording was acoustic. It sounds pretty dreadful. The act is also incomplete. However, the music making is quite exceptional. Once again, tempi are old-school - on the effortlessly fluid side of things, without the sort of modern dragging tempi that later came to be dubiously accepted as befittingly "echt deutsch" for Wagner. It is a shame that that the other two acts were not recorded for posterity.
Arturo Toscanini Act I Excerpts from die Walküre - NBC Symphony with Loritz Melchior
I must say I fought shy of Toscanini's Wagner for a long time. There was a time when all you had to do was mention his name and you would have instantly seen issue forth much lengthy vitriol from me.
Most of all, I disliked his Parsifal, which was the slowest on record until Levine came along. He makes Knappertsbusch sound like a speed demon. Recently, I have found myself coming full circle in my opinion of Toscanini, although I am still unconvinced by his dragging Parsifal. What I like most is his constant cantabile in the line (endless melody), coupled with what are mostly very forward flowing tempi (except in Parsifal, which he drags his way through). The cantabile may have a slightly Italianate bel canto quality, but I find it immensely attractive. It is not terribly unlike the approach of Muck or Siegfried Wagner. Indeed Siegfried was favourable in his judgement of Toscanini's Wagner.
What is more, in Wagner at least, I find myself preferring Toscanini to Furtwängler. I never thought I would ever write what I just wrote, but after decades of struggling over this one, as a once blindly uncritical Furtwängler devotee, I must say I just have to be honest with myself here: Toscanini's level of insight into Wagner's scores is quite remarkable. Far from being un-German, Toscanini's tempi are more like those found in an older generation of conductors like Felix, Mottl, Richard Strauss, Oskar Fried, Karl Muck, Leo Blech, Siegfried Wagner, Albert Coates, as well as Bruno Walter (who started his conducting career in the nineteenth century with Mahler). Beecham is another English conductor who commanded effortlessly flowing Wagner tempi in his 1930s recordings.
Sadly, I must say that I am strongly suspicious of some (not all just some!) of those who dismiss Toscanini's Wagner as being un-German. Toscanini was vehement in his opposition by the attempts of the fascists to falsely appropriate this liberal minded composer for themselves. In the accusation of being "un-Germanic" and Italianate, I cannot but fear that this represents payback from the far right for Toscanini's opposition to them. This lot obviously not only think that the stereotype about Wagner as a proto-fascist ideologue, who wrote brassy bombast as heavy as Prussian artillery, is an Eternal Truth, but that interpreters must remain unquestioningly obedient to this dogma.
I should add that there are also some quite lengthy recordings of Toscanini rehearsing parts of Act I, which make for fascinating listening. Toscanini often sings the lines to show the orchestra the phrasing. Listen to his style of phrasing - it is very much how you might expect Caruso to phrase them, with the use of portamento to give the phrases a flowing cantabile at a faster tempo. You can see that it is a way of preventing faster tempi from introducing staccato accents that disrupt the legato.
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt Act I die Walküre, Orchester Symphonie des Norddeutschen Rundfunks, Hamburg, 1953
This can be found from Preiser (who always do a remarkably good job of their transfers). Schmidt-Isserstedt is a superb Wagner interpreter. As with Bruno Walter in Vienna, tempi are never allowed to drag. With Svet Svanholm and Birgit Nilsson taking leading roles, the results are simply outstanding.
The real crying shame was that Schmidt-Isserstedt also recorded for Decca. He recorded a complete Beethoven symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic for them. Why John Culshaw overlooked Schmidt-Isserstedt for the Culshaw Ring cycle, in favour of an inexperienced and insightless Wagner conductor in the form of Solti shall always remain a complete mystery.
Wilhelm Furtwängler - die Walküre (Complete) Vienna Philharmonic
This brings me to my final historic recording - the 1954 Vienna Philharmonic recording with Furtwängler. Despite there being moments of beauty, I am sorry to say, after years and years of living with this recording, and telling myself that I have to love it because it is a Furtwängler, that I don't. The tempi are too dragging, in the manner that started in the 1930s, came to dominate by mid-century, and persist to this day. Nor does Furtwängler have the feel for the lines like Elmendorff, who is a far better Wagner conductor overall. Amongst conductors addicted to slow tempi, I even prefer Klemperer's New Philharmonia recording of Act I.
It leaves me feeling a bit sad. I've also tried to worship at the foot of the Rome radio recording and the La Scala recording - all to no avail. For once in my life, Furtwängler largely - though not entirely since he is not without his moments of brilliance - leaves me cold. I had hoped that a new 24/96 remastering in SACD format by Japanese EMI would change things, and the sound is now almost audiophile quality, but it isn't enough to bring me to really love this interpretation. Furtwängler did a somewhat better Tristan, but his Ring leaves me cold, and after a couple of decades of trying I now officially declare that I have given up trying to convince myself otherwise. Confession time over.
Furtwängler took a Schenkerian approach to his scores, but Heinrich Schenker was a fanatical life-long critic of Wagner. His polemics arose from his inability to come to grips with the music's tonal instability and chromaticism. This may explain why Furtwängler never really came to grips with Wagner either, and why, precisely in those compositions where Schenkerian analysis remains valid, Furtwängler remains far more insightful.
It makes interesting comparison to listen to Furtwängler after Leo Blech:
It makes interesting comparison to listen to Furtwängler after Leo Blech:
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