Much as I revere Wagner generally and this great work in particular, I am not the Complete Wagnerite. I do not seek any hypothetically `perfect' Tristan, but this is not just for the obvious reason that in such a long music drama it would be unlikely that my ideas and those of any imaginable performers would coincide totally. It is largely because I have long suspected that Furtwaengler's great recording from the 1950's was going to be as near to my idea of perfection as I was ever likely to come. However the interpretation of Tristan did not stop for all time with Furtwaengler. For advice on newer versions I consulted

Doctor and Sage, and heard much Argument
About it and about.

What I found, and what you will find if you carry out the same exercise, is that there is next to no consensus among the Wagner cultists. Unless you want to own every version you will have to rely on faith or guesswork, and that has been my own basis for acquiring Boehm's 1966 Bayreuth version by way of supplementing and counterbalancing the Furtwaengler classic. I already own and admire Boehm's Ring, so that was one recommendation. Another was that an account with Windgassen and Nilsson as the principals, plus Ludwig as Brangaene, Waechter as Kurwenal, Talvela as Marke and even the youthful Schreier as the sailor, was hardly likely to be a bad one. The approach to the recording was promising as well. Much as Brahms used to hear his Wagner one act at a time, so Boehm recorded his Tristan in the same way, in order that his performers could give full value to each act without having to hold anything back. For me it does not supplant much less surpass Furtwaengler, but there is no way I can rate it as less than a 5-star account in is own right.

Shaw described Tristan as `music for grown-ups'. The senior statesman among the cast is obviously Marke, King of Cornwall, and in this role Talvela's great dark voice is surely ideal. This is the best Marke I have ever heard, moving to the point of being harrowing. For the rest of the story, we are dealing indeed with torrential adult passion, but it must be one of the briefest affairs in all drama. The drama and the passion are here in torrents all right, but for some reason the voices of the principals sound to me just a little `mature' in not quite the right way. My own concept of Tristan and Isolde and their fateful one-night stand is of youngsters, not of thirtysomethings. However just as singing it is as superb as you would expect. Ludwig is again the best Brangaene I know, absolutely lovely in her song from the battlements. Waechter does not disappoint either, but it would have been a big ask for him to equal the young Fischer-Dieskau in the Furtwaengler set. It is probably true that the main performers are unsurpassed in their depiction of the subtle changes in the characters' mental states, but this for me is not as important in Tristan as in, say, Otello. This is not Shakespearean drama with the participants fully responsible for what they do, it is an ancient legend in which their actions are largely controlled by what the old interpretation would have called magic and on a modern view we might think of as mind-altering drugs. More significant for me is that the voices in this recording, although individually and collectively superb, are not so well differentiated from one another as are those of Furtwaengler's cast.

The recorded quality gives me no cause for complaint, although I noted with mild surprise that effects of distance are not captured anything like so well as in Furtwaengler's 50's production, which I actually own on LP. Likewise the Bayreuth orchestra is very good, if not the equal of the Philharmonia in its mighty heyday. Read with a little caution anything you may be told regarding allegedly fast speeds taken by Boehm. It is certainly true that he is significantly faster in the first prelude than Furtwaengler, and this makes a strong impression that perhaps persists longer in the listener's mind than it should. I'm not sure that there is all that much to choose thereafter in the matter of speed. In particular Furtwaengler is by no means tardy in the passionate outpourings in act II, nor does Boehm in any way rush the pensive and gloomy start of the last act. More important to me is the orchestral tone, which from Boehm is more - what's the word? - robust, with less melding of the orchestral timbres where I might have wanted more of that in the manner of Furtwaengler.

Fine stuff altogether. Great singing, a comprehensive grasp of the rich and complex score from the director, very good recorded sound, a wonderful Liebestod to finish with. Fine stuff as I say, but equal to Furtwaengler's set? Not in a hundred years.

I've heard many of the Tristans which reviewers have referred to, most notably Reiner's 1936 recording with Flagstad and Melchior, Furtwangler's 1952, and for modern comparison, Pappano's with Domingo, and while I'm always receptive to new interpretations, at the moment (well since 1966) this recording trumps all. How can there be anything more moving than Ludwig's call to the lovers for caution as day approaches "Habet Acht, Habet Acht !" or Windgassen's besieged lover, or for the ultimate erotic and tense (almost obscenely so) leibestod, Nilsson is superb. I agree with one of the reviewers that she can lack subtlety, and Flagstad offers more insight in Act 2, but you can't have it all, and I'll take drama and tension for my Tristan any day.

My personal favorite for many, many years, has been Goodall's lush and gorgeous recording, with Linda Esther Gray as the single most beautiful Isolde ever to be committed to tape, analogue or digital. I resisted Bohm's recording simply because it was so popular and the shorter, quicker running time turned me away. How can you rush through Wagner's extraordinary scoring??

Well - I was wrong. I finally grabbed this warm and rich remastered set, and listened to it in one sitting, and was knocked sideways. Nothing is lost in the intense playing like I thought it would be, all the nuances, Wagner's downright experimental scoring, everything can be heard, and without a tiny hint of audience noise. Each disc is a complete Act and each one feels like a complete drama.

The voices are rip roaring great and they cut through the music as if the drama were really happening. I think Goodall's will always have a #1 place in my heart, mostly because Esther Gray's Liebestod is the most moving and beautiful on record, but this Tristan, with a cast that just cannot be surpassed, will always be there for me when I need to clear the air.

It is with this recording that one finally understands how dangerous, how new, Wagner's "music of the future" really was.

For all you Wagner haters out there; please listen to these five excerpts of this recording and you will be convinced otherwise:
1. Christa Ludwig's Brangane: Act II - "Einsam Wachend in der Nacht..."
2. Birgit Nillson's & Wolfgang Wingassen's Isolde & Tristan: Act II - "O sink hernieder..."
3. Wolfgang Windgassen's Tristan: Act III - " Dunkt dich dass, Ich weiss es anders..."
4. Eberhardt Wachters Kurwenal: Act III - "O wonne, nein, ..."
5. Birgit Nilsson's Isolde: Act III - "Mild und leise..."
Thanks

It is very hard to try to write a recommendation for a perfect recording of Tristan und Isolde, since each set has its own set of pros and cons. However, of all the Tristans I have listened to, Karl Boehm's recording made at 1966 in Bayreuth seems to be the one that I come back to the most. There was a time when I could not appreciate Boehm's conducting because I felt that he rushed through the lucid and erotic qualities of the score. When I listen to this now, with fresher ears and having listened to the majority of Tristan recordings on the market, I find that his conducting gives Tristan an electricity that cannot be found in other recordings. There is a passion and energy that you can find in Boehm's conducting that you cannot hear in Karajan's or Solti's interpretations, and this set definitely tops Berstein's and Kleiber's recording in many respects. The orchestra plays beautifully under his direction, just as they did in the Ring for Boehm exactly a year later. I would say that the conductor's reading of the score is full of energy, passion, eroticism, forward propulsion and movement, and pathos. The conductor's somewhat Mozartian/ classical treatment of the Romantic and chord-saturated score gives it a lift and an elegance without sacrificing the Wagnerian ethos that make it so special. I would say that this is the most masterfully conducted Tristan, and adding to that the special Bayreuth sound and you have one of the most orchestrally captivating experiences you'll ever hear.

However, the one factor that places this Tristan above all other recordings is the amazing cast assembled in this massive project. Birgit Nilsson, in my opinion, is the greatest Isolde...period. Her first act Isolde is a powerhouse of rage with the jealousy, love, revenge, sadness, resignation and all other of Isolde's character aspects that make her such a complex heroine. Her second act Isolde is meltingly tender, and she is able to scale down her voice to make the love duet sound like silk. Her third act Liebestod is an apotheosis of years of learning this role, and only Nilsson can sing it with the rapture and beauty that it deserves. I was wrong to find her too steely. Not many voices like hers come in our lifetime, and how lucky we are that she came during a time when voices can be captured in their greatest performances.

Below this towering standard is the Tristan of Wolfgang Windgassen. Although he does not have the beautiful timbre of Placido Domingo, the haunting voice of Vickers, or the reticent ease of Lauritz Melchior's voice, he offers drama and intensity that would never be matched by any tenor before or after him. His phrasing is exemplary, and his intelligence makes his Tristan one of the most compelling accounts on record. In fact, after Vickers, he is perhaps the most intense Tristan ever to have sung the part, albeit the fact that his voice is taken to its limits in the third act delirium. I don't know how I would live without his Tristan, as Birgit herself said that "Wolfie" saved her many a time when she got lost in the extremely exposed and difficult lead roles.

The supporting cast is perhaps the best on records. Christa Ludwig is the most beautiful and theatrical Brangaene, and Eberhard Waechter is a youthful, yet testosterone induced Kurwenal. You must hear Ludwig's calls from the tower...I think that alone is the price of this landmark recording. Their respective interaction with the leads is a must-hear--especially Ludwig's interactions with Nilsson in Act I. Martti Talvela sings the part of King Marke with a nobility and the kind of gravitas I've only heard again in Rene Pape, and he should be referred to as a reference for this short, yet pivotal role. The smaller parts in this opera are taken by Peter Schreier, Gerd Nienstedt, and Claude Heater--all of whom are great Bayreuth artists.

Of course, you must still hear other recordings of Tristan. I could recommend Karajan's 1952 Bayreuth account, or Kleiber's 1976 La Scala, or Pappano's studio recording with Domingo. You should also try Reiner's set with Flagstad and Melchior, but for the complete Tristan experience, this set is the one that you should return to if you want to hear a true Wagnerian epic taking place in your living room. Bravi tutti!