Wagner Gotterdammerung: Immolation Scene (Varnay, Windgassen, Bayreuth Festival-Keilberth)

[MingnonDunn]

Thanks to postings like this, Astrid Varnay has risen to my top 5 of all time sopranos. Thanks for the revelation.

[pt45g46]

Didn't the Berlin Philharmonic play excerpts from The Gotterdammerung during its last concert before the Red Army completed its encirclement of Berlin???  How appropriate.

[lewars1912]

Would have loved to have been there.

[egymagyar1111111]

what I can it is Nature Astrid deliver nobody could ever

[jamiemilan1]

Thanks very much for this! Simply great.

Impressive performance and recording - the soloists were great, the orchestra very vivid and of the right tempo, and the recording very clear - especially considering it's a 1950's recording!

[fastborzoi]

listened again, spectacular

[fastborzoi]

thank you for posting, I will find this fabulous rendition

[woahmcgee]

what kind of weak applause is that after one of the arguably best performances of the immolation scene?

[symyu]

@woahmcgee maybe because they cut the applause in the recording too soon? i could hear a roaring crowd at the very end of the fade out... too bad they always do that to live recordings :(

[TripeHoundRedux]

@symyu That and the placement of the mics; great for catching the performance, probably short changed the audience reaction a bit. Making allowances for that though, that sounds like a standing ovation to me.

[jimuk63]

@woahmcgee I think another explanation might be that initially the audience was just stunned at what they had heard and we must remember too that audiences were much more restrained 60 years ago. My memories of that time amount to little more than hearing polite but sometimes enthusistic clapping.

[thewagnerworld]

Diablos ! con este sonido ( eliminándole TODAS las impurezas ), tenemos el Hi-Fi, entonces, ¿ por qué diablos no lo hacen las discográficas y en cambio nos bombardean con los DTS y compañía?

[spinto12]

this woman is a goddess!  that dark-hued, almost mezzo in timbre soprano---love it.

[bridesheadrevisited]

And this is why I love YouTube! Thank you for putting this up. I didn't know there was a 1955 stereo recording. I was only aware of the 1953 mono recording.

[lewars1912]

02:18

[MastersoftheOpera]

This recording, along with Nilsson's Bayreuth Festival under Karl Bohm, are the definitive Ring cycles to own. I don't play favorites and love both Varnay and Nilsson. Varnay had a much darker voice than Nilsson, able to get into character, with a strong technique. She had better chest/lower register voice than Nilsson. Her Brunnhilde is the real thing! Nilsson was a force of nature and born to sing Wagner. Both of these ladies were the best Wagnerian sopranos of all time!

[RHYMEMAIDEN1]

Such a terrific recording! This is better than Furtwaengler. Varnay is astonishing. Keilberth also did my favorite recording of "Lohengrin."

[owenboi66]

Thanks for posting this.  I was thinking of buying the CD and there were no clips to hear on Amazon. It is quite magnificent. Amazing how you completely forget about age or the quality of the sound when the performance is this good. Thanks once again.

[symyu]

@owenboi66if you can find the link to the cd in the video description above

[TheWisemonkey8]

The best I have heard thus far Symyu! Varney is a musical Titan. Get in there!

[TheWisemonkey8]

So much power every time I listen to this I am simply amazed. What a juggernaut of a voice!

[Thespian01]

Definitely the best Ring cycle... much better than Solti's one. I strongly recommend everyone to have a look at it !

[DorEnErnil]

This is impossibly beautiful

[TheWisemonkey8]

Well it has to be said... this is the greatest recording of the immolation I have ever heard. I was playing this as loud as I possibly could this afternoon :). My neighbour popper her head over the preverbal garden fence and said and said that woman can singand cant she just!!! HA!!! Astrid Varnay the greatest Wagnerian soprano of all times!!! Great video. Give me some ideas for future videos. Great quality here!!! Beautiful. Kind and warm regards,

[samirfouad1]

For the years mentioned in these comments - I WAS there in Munich.

All great singers but I have to mention one that was the greatest Salome of her day: Christel Goltz. 3 recordings of her

as Salome and 3 of the best conductors at the time. And, I left the opera one evening after audience response for over half an hour. Does that say something?

Goltz not only a great voice but a great actress which operas by Strauss demand. Won't see one like her erver again. Thanks for these recordings

[dacotv]

MAGIC FIRE MUSIC * * * * * WONDERFULL

[kztakasaka]

Thanks for unloading of wonderful histrical treasure. I feel Varny is similar to todays Polaski.

The record sound is amazing, clear brass and dynamic. I saw Keilberth sketches and pictures in Dresden last year.

[sorobji]

That is, without a doubt, the most moving, the clearest, yet drammatic performance of the immolation scene I've heard in a long time. Nilsson may have had those steely penetrating high notes, but that lucious middle voice of Varnay is absolutely insuperable. And Keilberth!!! To have been there...

[VoiceClassical]

@sorobji For me the model Wagnerian soprano..

[Anibaal]

Impresionante Varnay. No me gusta la versión de Knappertsbusch, me parece que ese director interpreta a Wagner como demasiado pomposo y pesado, eso sumado al peso de la Varnay... me resulta insoportable. Acá Varnay está sensacional.

[LauritzMelchior]

Personalmente creo que la mejor inmolación en un ciclo completo del anillo es la de Varnay en 1953, con Krauss claro. Sin embargo el mayor festical vocal de la historia nos lo ha regalado Kristen Flagstad en el anillo de la coronación,.

[lilleeWAfot]

Wonderful Varnay!Wish I could transport myself back 54 years for this!

[symyu]

...i wish the same :P

[billyguns2]

TESTAMENT released the legendary 1951 Knappertsbusch GOTTERDAMMERIUNG after decades of Madame Schwrazkopf's refusal to give permission for its release; she is one of the Three Norns in that performance, which incidentally also has superb sound (I feel as though I'm inside the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.)

[symyu]

...simply amazing!

[symyu]

Keilberth's has a more real and natural feel to it...and add to that the wonderful Astrid Varnay to cap things off :]

[Lanark8]

There is no doubt that this performance is as great as Flagstad. Wonderful post my friend in music. WONDERFUL!!!

[billyguns2]

Thanks very much for uploading this amazing sounding excerpt from Kellberth's 1955 RING! I find it more exciting than Decca London's Nilsson/Solti GOTTERDAMMERUNG Finale. It took that company a long time to finally do a studio RING, and they chose Solti over Kellberth, Krauss, and Knappertsbusch. The Solti RHEINGOLD, of course, is legendary.

[symyu]

...Immolation Scene, starring Astrid Varnay...take2! :]