WAGNER. Die Walküre Acts I & III. Kirsten Flagstad. Wiener Philharmoniker Hans Knappertsbusch Sir Georg Solti

Transcription

1 Eloq uence WAGNER Die Walküre Acts I & III Kirsten Flagstad Wiener Philharmoniker Hans Knappertsbusch Sir Georg Solti

2 The Decca/London recordings of Kirsten Flagstad are the astonishing last chapter of a performing career that began more than four decades earlier. Unknown in most of Europe and the rest of the world until she was 39, Flagstad had made her singing debut in The first period of her career, from , found her studying in Oslo and Stockholm, and performing an extensive repertory of mostly leading roles in opera and operetta: everything from Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus to Minnie in La Fanciulla del West. Encouraged by her second husband, she sang at the Bayreuth Festivals of 1933 and From there, she auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her sensational Met debut as Sieglinde in Die Walküre on 2 February 1935 was the beginning of a second career as, arguably, the most important singer in the world. She abandoned this in 1941 to return to her husband and spend the remainder of World War II in Nazi-occupied Norway. The war years, when she refused to sing for the Germans and only performed in Sweden and Switzerland, were followed by a difficult return to her professional career in Europe and the United States. Prevailing over organized opposition, she became once more a singer around whom opera companies could build seasons. Flagstad s fortieth anniversary concert in December 1953 came within months of the decision of EMI, her long term recording company, not to make further recordings or to release her from her contract. The Decca/London recordings, beginning two and a half years later in March 1956, reveal a voice as miraculous as ever, and a musical intelligence eager to explore completely new repertory. It is a body of work more substantial than the life s output of most singers. For Flagstad, the recordings are a glorious finale to a remarkable career, with the voice recorded satisfactorily for the first time. This edition, on Decca s Eloquence imprint, also includes titles never before released in any format. Robert Tuggle Director of Archives Metropolitan Opera

3 RICHARD WAGNER ( ) Die Walküre Acts I & III CD ACT I 1 Vorspiel Wes Herd dies auch sei, hier muß ich rasten 6 39 Siegmund, Sieglinde 3 Des seimigen Metes süßen Trank 4 43 Sieglinde, Siegmund 4 Müd am Herd fand ich den Mann 5 18 Sieglinde, Hunding, Siegmund 5 Friedmund darf ich nicht heißen 2 58 Siegmund, Hunding, Sieglinde 6 Ein starkes Jagen auf uns stellten 3 27 Siegmund, Hunding, Sieglinde 7 Ein trauriges Kind rief mich zum Trutz 3 18 Siegmund 8 Ich weiß ein wildes Geschlecht 5 20 Hunding 9 Ein Schwert verhieß mir der Vater 5 44 Siegmund 0 Schläfst du, Gast? 0 52 Sieglinde, Siegmund! Der Männer Sippe 5 35 Sieglinde, Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond 3 09 Siegmund Du bist der Lenz 8 09 Sieglinde, Siegmund $ Siegmund heiß ich und Siegmund bin ich 4 03 Siegmund, Sieglinde Siegmund Set Svanholm, tenor Sieglinde Kirsten Flagstad, soprano Hunding Arnold van Mill, bass Wiener Philharmoniker Hans Knappertsbusch CD ACT III 1 Hojotoho! Hojotoho! 6 52 Gerhilde 2 Nach dem Tann lenkt sie das taumelnde Roß 1 08 Waltraute 3 Schützt mich und helft in höchster Not! 3 30 Brünnhilde 4 Nicht sehre dich Sorge um mich 2 09 Sieglinde 5 So fliehe denn eilig und fliehe allein! 3 08 Brünnhilde 6 Steh, Brünnhild! 4 56 Wotan 7 Hier bin ich, Vater Brünnhilde 8 War es so schmählich, was ich verbrach 3 18 Brünnhilde, Wotan 9 Als Fricka den eignen Sinn dir entfremdet 6 28 Brünnhilde, Wotan

4 0 So tatest du, was so gern zu tun ich begehrt 4 02 Brünnhilde, Wotan! Wohl taugte dir nicht dir tör ge Maid 4 16 Brünnhilde, Und das ich ihm in Stücken schlug! 4 19 Wotan, Brünnhilde Leb wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind 4 58 Wotan $ Der Augen leuchtendes Paar 6 38 Wotan % Loge, hör! Lausche hieher! 4 45 Wotan Brünnhilde Kirsten Flagstad, soprano Wotan Otto Edelmann, bass Sieglinde Marianne Schech, soprano Gerhilde Oda Balsborg, soprano Ortlinde Ilona Steingruber, soprano Waltraute Grace Hoffman, mezzo-soprano Schwertleite Margaret Bence, contralto Helmwige Claire Watson, soprano Grimwerde Frieda Roesler, soprano Total timing: Roßweiße Hetty Plümacher, contralto Wiener Philharmoniker Sir Georg Solti The reader of John Culshaw s two books about his experiences of the record industry comes away with a refreshing sense that, given a hairsbreadth of difference in luck and determination, many of the classic recordings whose existence we take for granted might never have come into being at all. The present issue is a case in point. It also has a niche in the wider history of recording, and this is due partly to its connections with one of the great achievements of its time, the first complete recorded Ring cycle. It too had Solti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, with John Culshaw as producer; it also gained lustre from the presence of the great Wagnerian soprano Kirsten Flagstad ( ), one of the supreme singers of the 20th century. Flagstad s career dates back longer than is commonly remembered. She came to international prominence in 1935, yet her debut had been made as long ago as December What appeared to be the final phase of her career was entered with a return to the international scene in Once more her Isolde and Brünnhilde were heard in the world s opera houses, her magnificent voice little affected by age. She determined to sing for the last time in public in December 1953, with a farewell performance of Götterdämmerung given in Oslo and broadcast on Norwegian Radio. This event was to provide the link with John Culshaw, and so with the recordings which formed such an inspired coda to her great career. In Ring Resounding, Culshaw tells how he first met Flagstad to discuss the release by Decca of the Götterdämmerung broadcast. He had already heard her in a concert performance of the third act of Die Walküre, in which the sonority and majesty of her singing had surpassed all possible expectations. Chance began to play its part when Culshaw was sent to Vienna. Having been greatly impressed by a performance of Die Walküre conducted by Solti, he began to make plans for a complete recording of the work, bringing the famous singer and the young conductor together. Though he had not thought ahead to the complete Ring, Culshaw saw in retrospect that in preparing for Die Walküre he and his team were cutting their teeth. Eventually, only two acts were recorded. Culshaw was fearful that she might refuse to attempt the opening of Act II. So it was and nothing would induce her to try. In May 1957 Solti conducted Act III with Flagstad as Brünnhilde and that October Knappertsbush conducted Act I with Flagstad as Sieglinde.

5 Kirsten Flagstad as Sieglinde in Die Walküre, The Metropolitan Opera, New York, 1935 PHOTO: KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD MUSEUM Culshaw later wrote: We threw ourselves into Walküre Act III with abandon, little realising that what we were actually doing was a dress rehearsal for Das Rheingold and the rest of the Ring, which was to occupy us on and off for the next seven years. In the event, Flagstad s part in the complete Ring was restricted to the Rheingold Fricka, but the dress rehearsal is available to occupy us on and off to eternity. John Steane John Culshaw on recording Die Walküre Act III With this recording of Die Walküre, Act III, we tried to break some of the conventions of opera in the studio. Our object was to counter the criticism that studio opera often lacks stage atmosphere and to achieve the best of two worlds the advantages and facilities of studio recording plus the excitement, continuity and drama of opera in the theatre. The first requirement was a stage. One existed in the hall in Vienna where this recording was made, but it was both too small and too limited in acoustical qualities. A huge extension was therefore built out from the footlights into the hall itself a kind of apron which gave the artists plenty of space for movement. In front of this, on the floor level, sat the orchestra, which was thus placed in the same relation to the stage as it would be in an opera house, but without the sound limitations and discomforts of an actual theatre pit. A day or two before the first session the artists assembled and we put the idea to them. In this recording they were to act their parts more or less as they would in a stage production. The Valkyries had even been provided with an imitation stage mountain, which provoked a member of the Vienna Philharmonic to ask why we hadn t also ordered horses. The artists liked the idea of trying to recreate stage conditions, though they had some questions. Wasn t there a chance that, now and then, we might lose one of the voices in an orchestral crescendo? Yes, we said, in just the way that voices get lost, now and then, in an opera house. If we had a lot of stage movement, especially in the opening scenes, wouldn t there be too many incidental noises for a recording? We said we thought the Wagner public would accept a few incidental noises rather than having the Valkyries stand round a microphone with the resulting lack of dramatic excitement. On the first session the artists rehearsed their stage movements up to the entry of Wotan.

6 Then, after a couple of short tests, we went ahead with one of the enormously long takes which soon became characteristic of this venture: in this case it was 23 uninterrupted minutes, a feat of concentration made possibly only by the superb cooperation of the singers, conductor and 125 members of the Vienna Philharmonic. Thus the whole recording went through. Faulty detail of the kind which occurs in any operatic performance might or might not be capable of correction in a subsequent short take, but the deciding factor was always the same was the overall dramatic result reasonably close to the theatre? After the first session, eight enthusiastic Valkyries agreed that it was. Madame Flagstad and Mr. Edelman likewise acted their parts in the knowledge that aural as well as visual perspective is important in opera, and that it must not change according to the scene and mood. In so far as it is possible to capture these changes of perspective in a recording, we did our best. Opera is a difficult plant to cultivate outside its natural environment of the theatre, but in this recording we believe it flourished. DECCA Act I Some months after making Walküre Act III we reassembled in Vienna to make Act I, with Flagstad in the part of Sieglinde and with Hans Knappertsbusch as the conductor. (We sought in this way to make it quite clear to the public that the two Acts were not intended to be parts of a complete Walküre.) Nothing could possibly have been further from the tension of Act III. For one thing, although it was interesting and moving to have Flagstad sing a part which she had performed infrequently on the stage, the truth was that she was altogether too matronly and mature to be a dramatically convincing Sieglinde; for another, there was our dear, enchanting, irresponsible friend, Knappertsbusch. He received a huge round of applause from the Vienna Philharmonic when he walked out for the first session. Ten minutes earlier, in his dressing room, he had doused himself and me and anyone else in range with eau-de-cologne, while demanding: How much have I to do? I had shown him the scheduled sixteen minutes. In three hours? said Kna, looking incredulous. What do we do for the rest of the time? I said we could go on if we had time, if the singers did not get tired. Tired? he said. She won t get tired, she s built like a battleship! Hans Knappertsbusch PHOTO: DECCA Sir Georg Solti PHOTO: DECCA

7 Very reluctantly, he rehearsed for a few minutes, on the pretext that we needed to check our microphones. Then we did a take which was pretty chaotic, but which was worth hearing back for analysis. Kirsten and Set Svanholm and Arnold van Mill trooped into the control room. Kna sat outside smoking a cigarette. Tell me what s wrong when you ve heard it again, he said. Then he grinned: Of course, you ll say it s too slow everyone says I m too slow. In vain did I try to get him into the control room to listen to points of balance and intonation which needed his attention. He would take every possible suggestion any recording director cared to make, and would faithfully do his best to carry out what he had been told: but, personally, he was not involved. The truth was that Knappertsbusch took very badly to recording conditions, and, no matter what we did, the genius which he so certainly revealed in the theatre refused to come alive in studio conditions. He never complained. He told the funniest obscene stories I have ever heard. Everybody loved him. But the essence of Knappertsbusch simply refused to show itself. He needed the smell of greasepaint and the waft of air from backstage. He needed the uncertainty of the theatre, and the comfortable feeling that in the theatre you can, as a conductor, take huge risks in the knowledge that if something ends in disaster only a minority of the audience will realise it at all, while the orchestra will know what it was about and will be forgiving. None of this applies to recording, and the resulting inhibitions were too much for him. A year later, there was a moment when he was recording a Strauss waltz, as usual without rehearsal, and at one of the many repeats half of the orchestra went on while the other half went back. The resultant mess lasted only four bars, after which the piece was on the rails again. At the end he called out to me, Can you use that? We don t need it again, do we? I told him what had happened. He said, Scheisse do you think anyone else will know? John Culshaw Ring Resounding (Secker & Warburg) The Flagstad Recitals Volume 1 Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Wolf, Strauss, Sinding Edwin McArthur (2CD) The Flagstad Recitals Volume 4 Songs for Sunday Bach, Handel, Sacred Songs Sir Adrian Boult (2CD) Kirsten Flagstad The Decca Years The Flagstad Recitals Volume 2 Grieg, Sibelius, Alnaes, Eggen, Lie McArthur Fjeldstad (2CD) Kirsten Flagstad sings Norwegian Hymns Sigvard Fotland (2CD) The Flagstad Recitals Volume 3 Wagner, Mahler Boult Knappertsbusch Fjeldstad Solti (2CD) GLUCK: Alceste Geraint Jones (3CD) The classic Flagstad recordings on DECCA. Includes previously unpublished material.

8 PHOTO: KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD MUSEUM Kirsten Flagstad s birthplace in Hamar, Norway, is now the Kirsten Flagstad Museum Kirsten Flagstad Museum Situated in the town of Hamar, Norway, is the birthplace of Kirsten Flagstad. It was in this house, Strandstuen, that she was born on 12 July The house, now the Kirsten Flagstad Museum, was opened to the public in In this small, intimate museum you can hear the story of her life and enjoy walking through the old, historic building with Flagstad s wondrous voice in your ears. The Museum houses many items of interest: a large photo gallery, costumes and other stage paraphernalia as well as personal artefacts all commemorating the life of this magnificent singer. Recording producers: John Culshaw, Erik Smith Recording engineers: James Brown, Gordon Parry (Act I); James Brown (Act III) Recording locations: Grosser Saal, Musikverein, Vienna, Austria, May 1957 (Act III); Sofiensaal, Vienna, Austria, October 1957 (Act I) Eloquence cover photograph: Kirsten Flagstad as Brünnhilde in Wagner s Die Walküre, The Metropolitan Opera, New York, 1935 (courtesy: Kirsten Flagstad Museum, Hamar, Norway) Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-Homji Art direction: Chilu Tong Booklet editor: Bruce Raggatt With special thanks to Robert Tuggle, Annika Emilia Åsen and the Kirsten Flagstad Museum for their generous assistance with this project

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