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Recording from 1928 of Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde

The digitization projects at the Norwegian Institue of Recorded Sound now makes it possible to provide access to one of the historic recordings of Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde with some Norwegian singers in leading roles. The sound files provided are compressed mp3's, but the Institute has wave files of the same material for long term digital storage. The sound is not cleaned or restored.

Text: Dag Trygve Henriksen
Pubished: 17.11.2008

Go directly to the mp3 files

At the premier performance in Munich in 1865, Richard Wagner created msuic history. The Opera stands as a milestone beccause of the leitmotiv technique, the chromatic harmony and endless melodies. The opera represents a huge challenge to the performers when it comes to physical endurance because of the long melodic lines in the music and the lenght of the entire opera.

Label from one of the records in the set of 78's. Here side 28 with the Norwegians Gunnar Graarud as Tristan and Ivar F. Andresen as King Marke, plus Joachim Sattler as Melot. Listen to this record (mp3 file)

Tristan and Isolde soon became part of the international repertoire at the large opera houses worldwide, even thoug Wagner's musical language raised strong opinions. After sound recording became a possibility, recordings of tart of the opera were done. The first recordings lasted only a few minutes, the thought of recording an entire opera was therefore absolutely impossible. Among the first recordings, there exists several cylinders from the Metroplitan Opera, recorded in 1903. The following years, some parts were recorded, but never longer parts.

After the introduction of electric recording in 1925, it became possible to make recordings with better sound than the earlier recordings, so the thought of embarking on a complete recording showed up. But still, the long playing time of a Wagner opera, up to 5 hours, was a challenge. Then in 1928, the first larger recording of Tristan and Iolde were made in Bayreuth. The recording is not complete though, a large portion of the third act is cut. Act 2 served better, the large nightly love scene between Tristan and Isolde is almost complete.

At he Bayreuth Festival in 1928, several Norwegian singers had leading roles. On this recording of Tristan, we hear Gunnar Graarud as Tristan and Ivar F. Andresen as King Marke. In Norwau, this singer is still famous as the IFA-man because of the lozenge bearing his signature. This lozenge whichs was first sold in 1930 is still on of the best selling products of Norwegian Sweets Company Nidars Bergene. This recording is a monument of Norwegian Wagnerian song of the 1920's as well as a document of the Bayreuth Festival under the leadership of Richard Wagners son Siegfried Wagner.

The records were originally published by Columbia

Performers:

Listen to the opera from mp3 files
(The original recording is no longer covered by Norwegian and EU Intellectual Property Legislation)

Act 1: Act 2: Act 3:

 






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