Wagner-Gala - Studer, Meier, Jerusalem, Terfel - AbbadoCD - DDD - 76'29
Deutsche Grammophon 439768-2, released 1994
Performer: Cheryl Studer, Bryn Terfel, Waltraud Meier, Siegfried Jerusalem
Conductor: Claudio Abbado
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
1. Tannhäuser, opera, WWV 70: Overture
2. Tannhäuser, opera, WWV 70: Act II: Dich teure Halle grüß ich wieder
3. Tannhäuser, opera, WWV 70: Act III: Wie Todesahnung Dämmerung deckt die Lande...O du mein holder Abendstern
4. Lohengrin, opera, WWV 75: Act II: In ferner Einsamkeit des Waldes/Um Gott was klagest du mich an
5. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, opera, WWV 96: Act I: Prelude
6. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, opera, WWV 96: Act II: Was duftet doch der Flieder
7. Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), opera, WWV 86b: Act I: Dich selige Frau/Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond/Du bist der Lenz nach dem ich verlangte
8. Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), opera, WWV 86b: Act III: Walkürenritt
This New Year's Eve concert is a notable improvement on its Strauss predecessor of 1992-at least as far as the singing is concerned. Cheryl Studer is heard in the two roles that brought her Wagnerian renown at Bayreuth in the 1980s. Her Greeting to the Hall of Song is as elating and sincere as it should be, sung with dignity and strength. Her Elsa, in the Act 2 encounter with Meier's scheming Ortrud, is even better, indeed a model of Wagnerian singing at its very best-lovely tone allied to refined dynamic and verbal shading, all exemplified in her sympathetic solo ''Du armste kannst wohl nie ermessen''.
The great discovery here, although not an unexpected one, is Terfel as a Wagnerian bass-baritone confirming all one dared hope of him in this field. His reading of Wolfram's song to the evening star, with an almost ideal welding of tone, line and words, deserves to be equated with those of, say, Husch and Fischer-Dieskau. This is deeply expressive, wholly natural singing of an artist coming into his prime. Terfel also has the ideal voice in weight and timbre for Sachs, one made for the part and the variety of colour and dynamics he brings to the Act 2 monologue is already remarkable. I sincerely hope he tackles this role before he essays the more dramatic Wotan. -- Alan Blyth, Gramophone [5/1994]
Listen to some examples at Amazon
