From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Re: Wagner's Ring: Solti still unrivalled?
Organization: University of Delaware
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 13:40:27 GMT

In article <OHL.92Jul29004119@ips105.desy.de> ohl@ips105.desy.de (Thorsten Ohl) writes:
>>>>>> On 28 Jul 92 21:27:24 GMT, conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad) said:

>[ Boulez' Ring: ]

>tho> And without doubt (at least for me), Boulez' conducting more than
>tho> makes up for some problematic vocal performances.

>Jon> I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that one element can "make
>Jon> up for" another that's below minimum acceptable standards.

>Agreed.  But because there is no such thing as a ``perfect recording''
>-- some come close, though --, sometimes one has to be satisfied with
>one side of the coin ... (and read about the other side in the score :-).

Sure.  Maybe I'm just nitpicking about semantics.  But I would rather
rephrase such statements to recognize both the good and bad in a
performance, each to be perceived as such.  We can certainly enjoy
flawed performances (indeed, that is generally all we're going to get),
but to say that the bad parts somehow "don't matter" (which writers
often do) contributes over time to an erosion of standards, and the
operatic world we have now, with a host of young sopranos who imagine
that their volume or involvement or something "makes up for" their
appalling vocalism.  I may have been unfair in picking on you for
happening to use this wording, which always sets me off.

>BTW: What do you think of the recently rereleased Boulez Parsifal?  I
>can't really say that I'm satisfied with the singing ...

Me neither.  Only Franz Crass (Gurnemanz) and Thomas Stewart (Amfortas) 
really command their roles vocally, and (a) they're still not terribly
interesting and (b) these roles have been well taken on most of the
other recordings too.  Again Gwyneth Jones is the worst offender, and I
get very upset when I read commentators saying that the agony she's
inflicting on herself somehow matches the character's agony.  No, folks,
it ain't the same.  I also find Boulez's conducting less convincing than
what he did later for the Ring.

>Jon> A fourth video RING is on the way, by the way.  
>Jon> This is the Kupfer/Barenboim Bayreuth production, taped this
>Jon> summer and last after a 5-year run.  I saw it in its first year,
>Jon> and found it the most human, touching rendition I've seen, though
>Jon> not without its own idiosyncracies.

>Did you like Barenboim's conducting?  I only heard excerpts from this
>Ring, so I shouldn't judge.  However what I heard was incredibly slow
>and didn't convince me.  

I did not find Barenboim's conducting ideal, but it didn't bother me
especially.  (It DID bother other people -- I saw Speight Jenkins being
very vocal about how he hated it at intermission.)  It probably worked
better in live circumstances, where tension and suspense can be
generated, than it would just listening to it.

>Neither did Bruennhilde ...   

Whom did you hear?  Anne Evans has taken it over lately, and I haven't
heard her.  I saw Deborah Polaski's second cycle in the first season
(1988), which was better than the one broadcast.  A strikingly beautiful
big voice, problematically handled.

>But Siegfried
>Jerusalem was probably never better than in this production.

Seeing him do the young Siegfried in 1988 was quite astonishing.  Here's
I'd written Jerusalem off as a "nice lyric tenor with no top," and he
comes up with an honest-to-God Siegfried, at least under Bayreuth
conditions.  I was one of the "cheer to the bitter end" crowd that
night.  And how depressing to have to continue with Reiner Goldberg in
Goetterdaemmerung; more basically endowed for the role, but quite unable
to capitalize on his advantages.

>[ ... Dohnanyi/Cleveland Ring ... ]
[Gabriele Schnaut]

>Jon> I found her Ortrud impressive when I saw it in 1988.  She sounded
>Jon> like a good loud dramatic mezzo to me, though, not a soprano on a
>Jon> Bruennhilde scale.  And certainly not one to be immortalized on
>Jon> disc.

>I have not heard her since she changed the ..... (<- fill in the
>english word for the german ``Fach''), 

Oddly enough, it's "Fach."  Really.  We have no better word for it.

>but I know that this has been
>planned for quite some time.  It's risky, but it might work.

Here's hoping.....They're sinking a lot of money into this one.

But a Siegfried?  Having recorded it so recently, Jerusalem and Goldberg
are presumably unavailable.  Kollo again?  William Johns?  The
alternatives aren't inspiring.

Jon Alan Conrad
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical