Wagner Music - Farrell - Boston Symphony - Munch
Artist(s): Conductor – Charles Munch
Orchestra – Boston Symphony Orchestra
Soprano Vocals – Eileen Farrell
Recording Info: Recorded by RCA in Symphony Hall, Boston, November 25, 1957
Engineer – Lewis Layton
Producer – Richard Mohr
1 Gotterdammerung - Immolation Scene 20:13
2 Tristan Und Isolde - Prelude And Liebestod 17:42
Please Note: This release was edited in DXD PCM from a DSD256 Master
then the DXD edited master was used to generate the final DSD files using
Merging Technologies Album Publishing.
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Lacks lungs
Farrells' voice is not sufficiently big, powerful or present to carry off these heavy weight Wagner chunks. Good, sound, but no cigar, I'm afraid. Go to Solti's Decca 1964 Birgit Nilsson's for the echt-Brünnhilde, needless to say. Or, Kirstin Flagstad. Sweden and Norway rule.
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Burnished Ring
Eileen Farrell gives us power and splendor, the cream in her voice lending special beauty to the performance. Munch and the Boston Symphony are soaring alongside, with sonics to match.
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Suoerb Voice and Transfer
The American dramatic soprano Eileen Farrell (1920-2002) had a very large, opulent voice replete with generous natural vibrato, which should have meant she assumed the great Wagner and Strauss canon on stage, but for a variety of reasons, including her well-known dislike of opera house politics and shenanigans and Rudolf Bing’s antipathy towards her, all we have are LPs and more recently concert performances – where she was more at home – of excerpts (including a very badly played and conducted Urania CD of her and Jess Thomas in bits from Gotterdammerung with Bernstein and the New York Phil). On this 1957 RCA LP she was partnered by one of the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors, who combine beautifully transparent textures with, when needed, blazing power and gorgeous string tone in the Tristan Prelude at forward moving tempi, although the final chord of the Liebestod isn’t held for long enough. Farrell’s singing is understated and while she portrays real depth and solace as she asks her father Wotan to find peace at ‘Ruhe, ruhe, du Gott’ and presents a very human Brunhilde, nowhere does she have Nilsson’s command and projection with Solti (Decca) and Bohm at Bayreuth in 1966. Nevertheless, given the quality of the voice, the sound and the exemplary transfer, where the DSD256 has far more space, presence and impact than the RCA CD used for comparison, this is well-worth acquiring as a memento of a marvellous voice.
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