I posted something on this a while back in the 'other place', asking what others thought of this recording, but I was probably a bit precipitate as it had only just come out. So, for what it's worth, here are some thoughts.

While I enjoyed much of the recording, the overall impression was somewhat underwhelming. Runnicles' conducting is exciting and tempi are fairly swift, but I felt that the performance never really caught fire until the 'liebesnacht' in Act Two. In comparison to Furtwangler, Jochum, Bohm and Pappano, Runnicles' conducting seems a touch 'surface bound'.

Brewer as Isolde has many splendid moments and she (with Stemme) is probably the best modern Isolde around. I have admired her on disc and in the concert hall, especially in Strauss and Wagner. But am I alone in missing Varnay's sense of verbal acuity, Nilsson's pealing top notes, Flagstad's middle register warmth and Leider's intensity, in her Isolde? It might be argued that any modern singer is likely to pale into insignificance beside these great ladies, but although Brewer is accurate, musically scrupulous and engaged, I want to be overwhelmed by an Isolde, both aurally and intellectually, and this didn't really happen with Brewer's interpretation.

John Treleavan is a singer who has come in for a lot of criticism in the press for his ROH Siegfrieds, and listening to various broadcasts, I'm not surprised. But, I have to admit that I found more to enjoy in his Tristan than I expected. His diction is good, and he inflects words and colours longer passages with skill. This is especially the case at the end of Act Two. His Act Three monologues are well sung (although of modern Tristans, Clifton Forbis on DVD, and heard live, does them with double the intensisty and with steadier tone). This last point is my main problem with Treleavan's Tristan - the basic sound of the voice. To these ears, it's unsteady with a wide vibrato that verges on a wobble a la Rene Kollo at the end of his career. Compared with Suthaus, Vinay, Windgassen, Vickers and Domingo's estimable singing (the last named a bel canto Tristan), Treleavan can't really compete.

The rest of the cast is fine, with Peter Rose a decent Marke, Dagmar Peckova and involved if lightweight Brangane, Boaz Daniel a sturdy Kurwenal and Jared Holt standing out as Melot as he does in the Pappano set.     

What do others think? How does this recording rate?

It's an interesting point Reiner. I suppose the question is: when does rubato become scooping? The Prelude to Act Three is a case in point. I was recently listening to Erich Kleiber's reading at the Teatro Colon in 1938. His Act Three Prelude is definitely an example of the subtle use of rubato (and portamento too) to great expressive effect. By comparison the same passage in the Runnciles recording does seem mannered. I wonder when expressive effects like rubato and (especially) portamento started to get a bad name? I always think of the Adagietto in Barbirolli's recording of 'Mahler 5' where the string portamentos are such an integral part of the interpretation.

Hi Tam

In fairness to Runnicles, I should probably say that I bought his "Four Last Songs" recording on the basis of other work he has recorded, and was bitterly disappointed by comparison - he is certainly capable of first-rate performances under the right conditions.

I haven't yet heard Brewer, so I will save that experience to look forward to, after your glowing report!  I agree there is a world shortage of big Wagnerian sopranos currently.  I have a viewpoint somewhat skewed by my location, but after hearing her in Valkyrie, I would now put Gogolevskaya up there among the contenders.  Her initial outings in Wagner were hampered by truly appalling productions (so bad that Gergiev fired the Director within 10 minutes of the curtain coming down on the premiere) and the vicious and destructive backstage atmosphere which went along with them.  Also, we should remember that there's no tradition of Wagner at all in Russia - the works were all banned after WW2, and have only crept into the repertoire at all in the last ten years - so she's had no-one to mentor her through these roles.  (In some ways this is refreshing - her Brunnhilde is sung in a completely different way to any Bayreuth-trained singer, much closer in style to bel-canto, and in many ways I feel this is what Wagner had actually wanted - more lustrous and beautiful, without the "barking" sound sometimes heard at Bayreuth).   But there's another "big Russian" girl to watch for, and she is coming your way very soon    

You'll never have heard of Svetlana Sozdateleva.  She has handled her career extremely carefully, preferring to learn big roles in smaller opera houses away from the sharp pencils of the critics. She is actually an orchestral violinist who switched disciplines, so she's only been singing professionally for five years.  She has a slightly odd biography - most people start as "Fourth Herald", or "Flosshilde" etc... Sveta's first professional role on any stage was in the title role of LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK   (For which, btw, she won the Golden Mask Award - in which the Bolshoi & Mariinsky soloists were favoured to win).

Lady Macbeth Mtsenskogo Uezda (Helikon Opera, 2004, l-r Sergey/Anatoly Ponamerov,Sonetka/Svetlana Rossiyskaya, Katerina/Svetlana Sozdateleva)

Anyhow, she now feels ready to take on big works internationally, and I just saw her (two weeks ago) in the title role of THE FIERY ANGEL in Brussels (Richard Jones producing spectacularly well).  She is singing some performances of Verdi's Lady Macbeth at Glyndebourne this year,  all of the Glyndebourne tour, and then she goes to Opera North for a stint.  No Wagner in her future plans as yet, but she is slated to sing in FIDELIO in Moscow in 2008.  She is however, "currently attending intensive German language courses"

Hi Tam

In fact Runnicles has recorded Four Last Songs twice - once with Jane Eaglen (as mentioned above), and again with Brewer - I haven't heard the recording with Brewer.  Is that the one you have, or the Eaglen recording?  One advantage of the Eaglen recording is that as well as partnering it with the Wesendonck Lieder (which is better-performed than the Strauss, I'd say) they have somehow found space to get Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs onto the disk as a third item... and in fact it's the best thing on the disk

I thought Runnicles Beethoven 9 (with the Atlanta Symphony) is astoundingly good, an inspiring performance!  But the performance which really switched me on to Runnicles was his recording of Korngold's DIE TOTE STADT, which is revelatory...  it turns it into lyrical music (compared with other versions, who seem to be set on making it sound like Schoenberg).

BTW, I am now giving his Eaglen/Four Last Songs another hearing as I write - I realised the last two times were (i) in a car and (ii) on an aircraft,  and neither were perhaps the fairest circumstances

Hi Reiner,

I have the Brewer Four Last Songs (but I'm now curious to hear the other in comparison). Actually, it seems I was not correct when I said it was my only recording. I've just had another check and find that I have a recording from Schwarzkopf and Szell (with the Berlin RSO), but it was part of a number I inherited from a relative last year and one of the ones still on the to be listened to pile - shall have to give it a listen over the next couple of days. Should I keep the Norman on my to buy list regardless?


I'm really glad you enjoyed the Beethoven 9. I picked it last year and think it was one of the finest readings I've heard. The finale packs a wonderful punch (helped by Telarc's excellent engineers), but what I really love is the way he creates an underlying sense of tension through the opening movements. He's made a couple of other discs with the orchestra aside from the Brewer/Strauss, namely the Mozart Requiem (Levin ed.) which while nice enough lacks the zip of Mackerras's SCO reading and a rather interesting Carmina Burana which, while it lacks the punch of some is strikingly beautiful in the quieter moments, and soprano Hei-Kyung Hong (from whom I've heard nothing else) is extremely fine. He also gets some rather interesting textures (notably in the more famous passages such as O Fortuna).

I was actually first drawn to Runnicles by a couple of live concerts I've hear him in at the Festival here. In 2005 he gave the opening concert of Verdi's Requiem, and while the quartet wasn't perfectly balanced Violeta Urmana was wonderful. Better came from his Mahler 3 (which I always think is tough to bring off without the finale underwhelming). Not only was it fine in that regard, but by an accident of geography I was sitting quite far round in the circle so I was almost side on to the orchestra - when in the 3rd movement the horn was off-stage outside the circle doors the balance was just perfect and the effect one of the most magical I have ever experience in the concert hall (I wish my computer hadn't died soon after or I would have been able to tape it for a reminder - if anyone did, I'd love to know).

I've been meaning to pick up the Korngold (and some of his other opera recordings) for quite some time. Given what you say it has moved up the list some way!

regards, Tam