This is old-fashioned, hot-blooded
Wagner, with plenty of passion, lots of power, and, best of all, flowing tempos. One might have thought that the only way to get such performances these days one would have to pull out aging
Furtwängler recordings, but in fact these performances are by
Mark Elder with Manchester's
Hallé orchestra. And though the accounts here might not be quite in the same league as
Furtwängler's with the Berliner or
Wiener Philharmoniker, this 2009 disc is still supremely -- and for its time -- uniquely beautiful. As they've amply demonstrated in their earlier recordings of
Elgar and
Strauss,
Elder and the
Hallé have forged an exemplary musical partnership especially adept at hyper-expressive late-Romantic music. And with its aching emotionality, probing spirituality, and thrusting sensuality, there is no late-Romantic music more hyper-expressive than
Wagner's. Here,
Elder and the
Hallé pour on the lush colors, the rich textures, and the warm tone in excerpts from Parsifal, Der fliegende Holländer, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Tristan und Isolde, the latter with the heart-quickening contribution of soprano
Anja Kampe. But, as noted above, the best thing about
Elder's interpretations are the tempos. Effortlessly flowing and endlessly supple but inevitable,
Elder's
Wagner sounds utterly natural, completely unaffected, and absolutely right. Anyone who has been following
Elder and the
Hallé's later recordings will surely want to hear this disc, along with everyone who reveres
Wagner's music.