GREAT RECORDINGS phase 15

WAGNER: DIE WALKÜRE ACT 1 & ACT 2, Scenes 3 & 5
Lotte Lehmann, Lauritz Melchior & Emanuel List
Wiener Philharmoniker
Bruno Walter

3 45832 2
(Angel: 3 45835 2)
Recorded 1935
Mono/ADD
79 minutes

Back >>

‘Not to be missed by anyone who wants to know how Act 1 (and two scenes from Act 2) of Die Walküre can sound when performed with the skill, dedication and enthusiasm shown by all concerned in these classic 1935 recordings. Lehmann’s Sieglinde remains unsurpassed and it is hard to imagine Siegmund being better performed than by Melchior. Walter draws gloriously full, rich sound from the superb VPO.’
(The Gramophone)
Awards: Diapason d’Or & Timbre de Platine d’Opéra International, France

In the early years of the gramophone, Wagner’s operas were little represented in the catalogues, with only Tannhäuser available in its entirety. Even complete acts were hard to come by. But one outstanding recording did appear before the outbreak of the Second World War: Act 1 of Die Walküre made in Vienna in 1935 and conducted by Bruno Walter (1876–1962).

This recording’s classic status is due not only to Walter, the finest Wagner conductor of the age, and the superb Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, but also to the casting as Siegmund and Sieglinde of two singers who were incomparable interpreters of these roles: the Danish-born Heldentenor Lauritz Melchior (1890–1973) and the German soprano Lotte Lehmann (1888–1976).

Siegmund and Sieglinde are the mortal twins fathered by the god Wotan in his attempt to redeem the gods of Valhalla. The second of the four parts of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen is basically their story. In June 1935, Walter, Lehmann and Melchior recorded not only Act 1 of Die Walküre but also the two scenes from Act 2 in which the twins appear together. It is not clear if there was a plan to complete the opera at some future date, but in any case politics intervened.

Act 2 was ‘completed’ in 1938 in Berlin, with Bruno Seidler-Winkler taking over from the exiled Bruno Walter, the Berlin Opera Orchestra replacing the Vienna Philharmonic, and only Melchior surviving from the original cast. As such it can hardly be seen as a satisfactory continuation of the project launched in 1935. But what we are left with, when the 1935 recordings are put together (as they are here for the first time on CD), is ‘pure Wagnerian gold’ and a fine testament to an extraordinary combination of great artists: Walter, Lehmann, Melchior and the VPO.