This classic performance of Tristan und Isolde from the 1952 Bayreuth Festival has seen a number of incarnations on CD. That's not surprising, given the sound quality, which is unusually clean, full, and well-balanced for a live recording of that era, the high standard of the orchestral playing, and the star turns from the principals. Herbert von Karajan leads a performance that avoids extremes and interpretive idiosyncrasies, but which is exceptionally supple, sensitive to the singers, and surgingly urgent. All the singers ...
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This classic performance of Tristan und Isolde from the 1952 Bayreuth Festival has seen a number of incarnations on CD. That's not surprising, given the sound quality, which is unusually clean, full, and well-balanced for a live recording of that era, the high standard of the orchestral playing, and the star turns from the principals. Herbert von Karajan leads a performance that avoids extremes and interpretive idiosyncrasies, but which is exceptionally supple, sensitive to the singers, and surgingly urgent. All the singers perform with consummate skill and commitment; this is clearly an ensemble fully at ease with the opera's fearsome demands. Martha Mödl's Isolde is womanly and passionate; she fully throws herself into the role and persuasively conveys Isolde's transformation from furious adversary to tender lover. Her tone is full and earthy, but can also be meltingly warm and intimate. She has the solidity to make the low-lying parts of the role powerfully menacing, and the lightness to soar when...
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Add this copy of Tristan & Isolde Bayreuth 1952 to cart. $181.65, like new condition, Sold by Griffin Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Stamford, CT, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Melodram.