WAGNER 

Götterdämmerung

Recorded 1953  

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer:  Andrew Rose

Siegfried Ludwig Suthaus

Gunther Alfred Poell

Hagen Josef Greindl

Brünnhilde Martha Mödl

Gutrune Sena Jurinac

Waltraute Margarete Klose

First Norn Margarete Klose

Second Norn Hilde Rössl-Majdan

Third Norn Sena Jurinac

Alberich Alois Pernerstorfer

Woglinde Sena Jurinac

Wellgunde Magda Gabory

Flosshilde Hilde Rössl-Majdan

Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della RAI

conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler

Downloads include full scores of prologue and each act

Short Notes  

Of the four recordings which make up this stunning Ring cycle, it is perhaps the final instalment, Götterdämmerung, which seals its greatness. By the time Furtwängler, soloists and orchestra reached this point they were clearly utterly absorbed in the music drama and world of Wagner's masterpiece, performing as one to produce a performance of perhaps unsurpassed brilliance.

In this 32-bit XR remastering the sound quality here is positively marvellous - an astonishing transformation of previous issues which has to be heard to be believed.

Notes on the transfers:

The final instalment in Furtwängler's superb Italian Radio Ring, Götterdämmerung offers for much of its duration perhaps the finest sound of the entire cycle. With each act being recorded on a different day, one notices slight changes in quality, and for me the best of the lot technically, from Das Rheingold onwards, is to be found in the second act here. From a musical point of view it is also interesting to assess how Furtwängler and the Italian orchestra increasingly gel through the performances, and listening to Götterdämmerung leaves little doubt that by this point all the musicians, soloists and conductor were performing with a single, unified vision and purpose.

However, this does not mean to say that Götterdämmerung didn't through up a whole heap of technical difficulties to be addressed. As with all the Ring operas I found hundreds upon hundreds of thumps, like someone stamping on a wooden stage. Götterdämmerung was no exception, though inexplicably not all of the acts in all of the operas suffered this, and here Act Two escaped.

Tape hiss too was barely noticed during Act 2, though a major issue throughout Act 3 and here quite variable. Act 2 suffered other short noise problems which, although simple enough to deal with singly, involved again hundreds of individual, manual interventions and many hours of work. The greatest difficulty, though, was reserved for the final act of the entire Ring - extensive sections of repeated treble dropout at approximately quarter-second intervals, repairable only by hand-selecting each section and boosting it sufficiently to smooth it out - a hugely tedious and time-consuming task. Curiously I noticed the same problem afflicting the first 45 minutes or so of the EMI CD transfer of Act 1, yet it was happily absent from EMI's original 1972 LPs used here.

Overall, the end result I hope more than justifies the time and effort spent in restoring it and remastering it. The transformation here with XR remastering has been quite amazing to hear and hugely rewarding - one embarks on lengthy projects such as this without any firm idea of how much success (or otherwise) one might be fortunate enough to witness. To paraphrase Furtwängler's words slightly, and echo them back to the conductor with perhaps some similar feelings after spending several weeks almost entirely immersed in Wagner, "I hope he would have been satisfied with me"!
Andrew Rose

Review EMI 2011 CD issue, MusicWeb International 

"...It is cruel to consider that within two years of the sonic limitations of this mono broadcast Decca produced the beautiful bloom of their stereo Bayreuth Ring (Testament). Three years after that John Culshaw was in the studio of the Vienna Sofiensaal producing Georg Solti's Rheingold, which in terms of both sound engineering and the conductor's artistry is the reverse of Furtwängler's Ring. Oddly, EMI has not taken the opportunity to re-master the 1990 CD sound, which remains constricted and dry. If only EMI invited an engineer like Andrew Rose (Pristine Audio) to dust off RAI's tapes! And voices can be balanced too forward whereby the Rheinmaidens are seemingly beside Wotan's elbow at the end of Rheingold and Mödl's closeness to the microphone in the Immolation makes her sound more effortful than she probably was. Nevertheless, the orchestra has greater presence than the 1954 studio Walküre. The RAI drums are more thunderous as Siegmund claims Nothung and the strings have greater body. However the RAI players can't match the Vienna Philharmonic's sheen as Wotan kisses away Brünnhilde's godhead in Act III. There is also better orchestral detail than in the 1953 Krauss Bayreuth broadcast and, I was surprised to find in Act III Siegfried, than the 1955 stereo Keilberth! Proof that Furtwängler was right in thinking Wagner should have trusted conductors rather than limit the orchestra using Bayreuth's unique sunken pit? ...

...The standout 'transformative' singer is Martha Mödl in her only complete Brünnhilde on record. Mödl was generous in her support of this Ring being licensed and released, even offering, if needed, for her royalties to be shared amongst other artists who may since have fallen on tough times. This generosity, combined with a clear inner conviction, informs her warm, human portrayal, far from the implacable god-like defences of Flagstad or Nilsson. Yes, Mödl scoops and swoops, and her vocal production is chesty, but like the kaleidoscopic colours within Mödl's dark mezzo-ish soprano, Mödl acts out a multi-faceted character. Here Brünnhilde journeys from the steady control of her opening "Hojotoho! Hojotoho!", the thrilling abandon ending the Siegfried and Götterdämmerung duets, more secure for Furtwängler than Keilberth in 1955, to the heroic last stand of the Immolation, all the more moving as Mödl makes it clear there is a rounded person about to make her ultimate sacrifice. Mödl's finest singing is in Act II scene 5 Götterdämmerung where, underpinned by Furtwängler realising a slow nervous pulse, she digs deep within her soul to grapple with the extent of Siegfried's betrayal, mixing stunned grief with emerging fury ("Ach, Jammer, jammer ..."). Singer and conductor raise such drama to Shakespearian pinnacles. ..."

MP3 Sample  Act 2 - Scene 3 & start of Scene 4     

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Recorded 1954

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer:  Andrew Rose

WALTON Façade   An Entertainment

Dame Edith Sitwell

Peter Pears

English Opera Company Ensemble

Anthony Collins conductor

WALTON Portsmouth Point   An Overture

WALTON Siesta

WALTON Scapino   A Comedy Overture

BACH/WALTON The Wise Virgins   Ballet Suite

 London Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Short Notes  

Façade was Walton's big breakthrough piece, conceived and first performed with Edith Sitwell, whose poems are read alongside the composer's radical music. In this definitive 1954 recording, Sitwell again provides narration along with Peter Pears, both exquisite in their precise and proper English diction, and in this XR remastering sounding more vivid and alive than ever.

Coupled with this is one of Sir Adrian Boult's finest 1950s recordings of Walton's overtures Portsmouth Point, Siesta and Scapino, and his ballet suite settings of Bach's Oratorios for "The Wise Virgins". All of this was captured brilliantly by Decca's legendary sound engineers in 1954 and it sounds appropriately fabulous here too, with added inner fine detail revealed by our 32-bit XR remastering process while the full sweep of the original remains perfectly preserved.

Recording Notes

The 1954 Decca recording of Walton's Façade is perhaps the closest thing we have to an authentic performance, not least thanks to the recitals from the author of the poems, Dame Edith Sitwell. Although Walton, an eternal fiddler and reviser of his works, was later to add further to his Façade numbers, the version here is the definitive version published with Sitwell in 1951, and unaltered until after her death.

If Decca's recording sounds just a little dim and dusty some 57 years later, this was easily lifted by an XR remastering which brings a new clarity and directness to these performances - they really burst into life!

The Boult recordings here are among the finest I've heard from the mono era - full-bodied, rich and deep (and I'm in danger here of describing a bottle of fine wine!), they're also bursting with vivacity and possess a fabulously clear top end. Pristine's 32-bit XR remastering has worked here on further definition of the fine inner detail, while leaving the overall impact of the original largely intact and unchanged.

Review Façade LP, The Gramophone, 1954 

"It was time for a new edition of what is now seen by all ("even by the firemen" as Dame Edith would say) as much more than a highbrow jape. Façade, popularised by the ballet made from the music, is now accepted and has weathered the indifference which usually sits on once ultramodern manifestations for a space after they have passed into history. The truth is the music and the poetic experiment in the use of melodrama (in the strict sense of the word) are both of lasting value, quite apart from the nostalgic smiles they will bring to the now greying Bright Young Things of the twenties, and also the amazement which the voices of these two intensely English narrators will occasion in the ladies' clubs of Maryland and the cultural unions of New South Wales. For that alone, for these examples of poetic diction by Dr. Sitwell and Mr. Pears, of whom the lightest criticism would be lèse-majesté, but who happily for the reviewer earn no rebuke, this issue is to be prized.

The other reason why a new edition is welcome is that with modern full frequency recording it is at last possible really to balance the music and the voices so that the words get through clearly and one does in fact listen to sound and sense in both departments simultaneously. There were still a few places where I would have liked to have by me the pamphlet of words priced at 9d. and obtainable from the Decca Company, but generally the texture is beautifully clear.

As in the older version, the author shares the narration: here it is Mr. Pears instead of the late Constant Lambert ; where the latter was inclined to shout, the former is inclined to sound nasal, even "coldified". Dame Edith's interpretation of her own It paterns " [sic. - from Gramophone's scans] of poetry which on the record's sleeve she compares with the transcendental studies in pianism by Liszt remains unique. No disappointment in any respect."

from The Gramophone, November 1954

MP3 Sample  Portsmouth Point   

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Note: Due to an unusually heavy workload (thank Wagner for that) this week's PADA Exclusive update is delayed until Monday. We expect it to be more from Kell and Smith (as below).