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The Telegraph, 22 Feb 2013 |
By Rupert Christiansen |
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Wagner: Die Walküre, classical album review |
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Although
it’s hard to imagine a stronger line-up of currently active singers, this
recording of Wagner's Die Walküre lacks bloom and vividness, says Rupert
Christiansen.
This is a frustrating release. It’s hard to imagine the
second episode of Wagner’s Ring cast with a stronger line-up of currently
active singers than the one here, and most of them deliver superb
performances: Nina Stemme, in particular, is a magnificent Brünnhilde,
emphasising the humanity of a woman discovering the meaning of love rather
than the fierce Amazon. She stands in powerful contrast to the awesomely
implacable Wotan of René Pape, and together they make something greatly
moving at the end of the renunciations in the third act.
Jonas
Kaufmann is a consummate Siegmund, and Ekaterina Gubanova makes a regally
persuasive Fricka. Only Anja Kampe’s wayward if impassioned Sieglinde
disappoints: she develops a quavering intonation under pressure.
But
the fundamental problem is the conductor Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky
Orchestra, who offer a listless and even flaccid interpretation, lacking in
muscle and energy. It’s as though they’re being forced to play music in a
foreign language they only partially understand, with the result that the
opera’s moral grandeur never registers as it so emphatically does in Mark
Elder’s recent Hallé recording (despite its inferior cast).
The
recording lacks bloom and vividness: one longs for the electric brilliance
of John Culshaw’s 1966 Decca recording with Solti – and in most respects
that would remain my first recommendation.
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