Wagner: Tristan und Isolde at Music Hills.com

Music CD 1

Tristan und Isolde: Act 1: Prelude
Tristan und Isolde: Act 1: Scene 1: 'Westwarts Schweift Der Blick' (Isolde, Bragane)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 1: Scene 2: 'Frisch Weht Der Wind Der Heimat Zu' (Tristan, Kurwenal)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 1: Scene 3: 'Weh, Ach Wehe! Dies Zu Dulden' (Isolde, Brangane)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 1: Scene 4: 'Auf! Auf! Ihr Frauen! Frisch Und Froh!' (Kurwenal)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 1: Scene 4: 'Herr Tristan Trete Nah!' (Kurwenal)

Music CD 2

Tristan und Isolde: Act 1: Scene 5: 'Tristan! - Isolde! - Treuloser Holder!' (Tristan, Isolde, Brangane,
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Prelude
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 1: 'Horst Du Sie Noch?' (Isolde, Brangane)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 2: 'Isolde, Geliebte! - Tristan! Geleibter!' (Tristan, Isolde)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 2: 'O Sink Hernieder, Nacht Der Liebe' (Tristan, Isolde)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 2: 'Einsam Wachend In Der Nacht' (Tristan, Isolde)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 2: 'Lausch, Geliebter! - Lass Mich Sterben!' (Tristan, Isolde)

Music CD 3

Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 2 (Continued): 'Doch Unsre Liebe, Heisst Sie Nicht Tristan Und - Isolde?' (Tristan, Isolde)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 2: 'So Starben Wir, Um Ungetrennt' (Tristan, Isolde)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 3: 'Rett Dich, Tristan!' (Kurwenal, Brangane, Marke)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 3: 'Tatest Du's Wirklich? Wahnst Du Das?' (Kurwenal, Brangane, Marke)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 2: Scene 3: O Konig, Das Kann Ich Dir Nicht Sagen' (Kurwenal, Brangane, Marke)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 3: Scene 1: [Massig Langsam] (Kurwenal, Tristan)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 3: Scene 1: (Man Hoert Einen Hirtenreigen) (Kurwenal, Tristan)
Tristan und Isolde: Act3: Scene 1: 'Kurwenal! He! Sag, Kurwenal!' (Kurwenal, Tristan)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 3: Scene 1: 'Hei Nun! Wie Du Kamst?' (Kurwenal, Tristan)

Music CD 4

Tristan und Isolde: Act 3: Scene 1 (Continued): 'Noch Losch Das Licht Nicht Aus' (Kurwenal, Tristan)
Tristan und Isolde: Act3: Scene 1: 'Noch Ist Kein Schiff Zu Sehn!' (Kurwenal, Tristan)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 3: Scene 1: 'Bist Du Nun Tot? Lebst Du Noch?' (Kurwenal, Tristan)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 3: Scene 2: 'O Diese Sonne! Ha, Dieser Tag!' (Tristan, Isolde, Kurwenal)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 3: Scene 2: ' Ha! Ich Bin's, Ich Bin's, Sussester Freund!' (Tristan, Isolde, Kurwenal)
Tristan und Isolde: Act3: Scene 3: 'Kurwenal! Hor! Ein Zweites Schiff!' (Brangane, Marke)
Tristan und Isolde: Act 3: Scene 3: 'Mild Und Leise Wie Er Lachelt' (Brangane, Marke)

Music reviews of Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Music Review: Best Modern Recording!
Rating: 5 Stars

Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is titanic. It is monumentally difficult for the singers and a revolutionary work of musical drama. The orchestral role in the drama is for the first time elevated to match that of the singers. The mastery with which Wagner approached his material is astounding. As a result, more than in most operas, the conductor of Tristan is of paramount importance. Kleiber is masterful in this reading. From the opening notes of the Prelude, the atmosphere drips with longing Kleiber is neither too languorous, nor too rushed in this music. He allows the phrases to shape themselves naturally. During the climaxes he whips the orchestra up to a frenzied pitch, but is still able to change moods on a dime. The dark opening of the third act alone is worth the price of this CD. Not since the Furtwangler recording, have I heard this work so completely bleak and understated. Most conductors try to emote in every measure of the third act prelude. Kleiber lets the music be and the effect is even more powerful.

The singing is mostly good on the CD. Rene Kollo's voice shows some strain, and indeed his career was only to last a few more years. But he is still a marvelous singing actor, something that is much more important in this role than often thought. Margaret Price is a wonder.... fierce in the first act and radiant in the last two. Her "Liebestodt" (a misnomer if ever there was one...Wagner called it the Verklarung) is every bit as powerful as Flagstadt. Fischer Diskau is virile, as the Kurneval role calls for if not quite as much as in his first recording, and Birgitte Fassbaender's Warning in the second act is ravishing...Brangane's one moment to really shine in the opera. As King Marke, Kurt Moll is fine, but I've rarely heard anyone do a Marke as affecting as Rene Pape's recent Marke at the Met. Moll's Marke comes across as an impotent nice guy, but doesn't have the depths of heartbreak that Pape has shown are present in the role.

There are many, many competitive versions of Tristan to be had. However, in modern recordings I would recommend this above even the von Karajan Tristan, partly because Kleiber is a more exacting conductor than von Karajan ever was, and partly because the Dresden players are just not the sloppy musicians the Berliners can be. (It's not often said aloud, but it's true...take a score of any work and following along with a von Karajan/Berlin performance. You'll see how truly sloppy it all is. Sometimes the interpretations mitigate this...but not always.) So if you want just one Tristan, and you want modern sound, this is the disc to get. Hence five stars. But keep in mind...there are not enough stars at Amazon to award the Furtwangler recording!