In a century of recording, Deutsche Grammophon has recorded Wagner's Tristan und Isolde three times. The first was a live recording spliced together from separate performances at the Bayreuth Festival in August 1966 with
Karl Böhm conducting and
Wolfgang Windgassen and Brigitte Nielsen in the title roles. The second was a studio recording from 1982 with
Carlos Kleiber conducting the
Dresden Staatskapelle and Rene Kolo and
Margaret Price in the title roles. Both were then and remain now among the greatest recordings of the work and anyone who loves the ecstatic rapture of Wagner's hymn to love and death will love those performances.
Deutsches Grammophon's third recording of Tristan is this live recording from May 2003 with
Christian Thielemann conducting the Vienna State Opera Chorus & Orchestra and
Thomas Moser and
Deborah Voigt in the title roles.
Thielemann is an intense young man with a distinctive interpretive style and
Moser and
Voigt are the best of the younger generation of Wagnerian tenors and sopranos. But as much as one longs to embrace this Tristan, it is not possible. There are great moments and they are the big moments -- the drinking of the potion in Act One, the thwarted climax in Act Two, and the Liebestod of Act Three -- but too much of the performance goes nowhere and does nothing. After a lackluster Prelude, Act One meanders along with
Voigt screaming up a storm but signifying nothing. After a restrained Prelude, Act Three rambles through the love duet with
Moser and
Voigt, but doesn't get to the point until it is too late to do anything about it. After a reserved Prelude, Act Three grumbles along with
Moser mumbling until he comes alive only to die. Stick with
Böhm or
Kleiber.