Karl Bohm – Wagner – Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90 (1966/2017/2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Captured live at Bayreuth, here’s a Tristan that seethes with passion. Böhm is magnificent in the pit, dramatic and vital, and Windgassen and Nilsson are quite simply glorious in the title roles.

“…the performance glowes with intensity from beginning to end, carried through in the longest spans. Birgit Nilsson sings the Liebestod at the end of the long evening as though she was starting out afresh, radiant and with not a hint of tiredness, rising to an orgasmic climax and bringing a heavenly pianissimo on the final rising octave” (Penguin Guide)

“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 characterises strongly, and her voice with its cleavingpower 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.

Orchestra and chorus are at their finest. Over several seasons of conducting the work at Bayreuth, Barenboim has thoroughly mastered the pacing and shaping of the score as a unified entity. Even more important, he has peered into the depths of both its construction and meaning, emerging with answers that satisfy on almost all counts, most tellingly so in the melancholic adumbration of Isolde’s thoughts during her narration, in the sadly eloquent counterpoint ofbass clarinet, lower strings and cor anglais underpinning King Marke’s lament, and in the searingly tense support to Tristan’s second hallucination.

Tracklist:

1. Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Heinz Tietjen, Max Lorenz – Prelude (Live)
2. Birgit Nilsson – “Westwärts schweift der Blick” (Live)
3. Birgit Nilsson – “Frisch weht der Wind der Heimat zu” (Live)
4. Birgit Nilsson – “Weh, ach wehe! Dies zu dulden” (Live)
5. Birgit Nilsson – “Auf! Auf! Ihr Frauen!” (Live)
6. Birgit Nilsson – “Herr Tristan trete nah!” – “Begehrt, Herrin, was Ihr wünscht” (Live)
7. Birgit Nilsson – “Tristan! – Isolde! Treuloser Holder!” (Live)
8. Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Heinz Tietjen, Max Lorenz – Prelude (Live)
9. Birgit Nilsson – “Hörst du Sie noch?” (Live)
10. Wolfgang Windgassen – “Isolde! Geliebte! – Tristan! Geliebter!” (Live)
11. Wolfgang Windgassen – “O sink hernieder, Nacht der Liebe” (Live)
12. Christa Ludwig – “Einsam wachend in der Nacht” (Live)
13. Birgit Nilsson – “Lausch, Geliebter!” (Live)
14. Birgit Nilsson – “Doch unsre Liebe, heißt sie nicht Tristan und – Isolde?” (Live)
15. Wolfgang Windgassen – “So starben wir” (Live)
16. Wolfgang Windgassen – “Rette dich, Tristan!” (Live)
17. Martti Talvela – “Tatest du’s wirklich?” (Live)
18. Birgit Nilsson – “O König, das kann ich dir nicht sagen” (Live)
19. Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Heinz Tietjen, Max Lorenz – Prelude (Live)
20. Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Heinz Tietjen, Max Lorenz – “Man hört einen Hirtenreigen” (Live)
21. Erwin Wohlfahrt – “Kurwenal! He!” (Live)
22. Eberhard Waechter – “Hei nun! Wie du kamst?” (Live)
23. Wolfgang Windgassen – “Noch losch das Licht nicht aus” (Live)
24. Eberhard Waechter – “Noch ist kein Schiff zu sehn!” (Live)
25. Wolfgang Windgassen – “Bist du nun tot?” (Live)
26. Wolfgang Windgassen – “O diese Sonne!” (Live)
27. Birgit Nilsson – “Ich bin’s, ich bin’s” (Live)
28. Erwin Wohlfahrt – “Kurwenal! Hör!” (Live)
29. Birgit Nilsson – Mild und leise wie er lächelt (Live)
30. Wolfgang Windgassen – Rehearsal Of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde Prelude To Act III And First Scene (Live)