Frida Leider sings Wagner
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Richard Wagner, Leo Blech
Label: Pearl
Magazine Review Date: 11/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 66
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: GEMMCD9331
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Der) Ring des Nibelungen: Part 4, 'Götterdämmerung' |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Richard Wagner, Composer |
| (Der) Ring des Nibelungen: Part 4, 'Götterdämmerung', Movement: Schweigt eures Jammers |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Berlin State Opera Orchestra Elfriede Marherr-Wagner, Mezzo soprano Frida Leider, Soprano Leo Blech, Composer Richard Wagner, Composer |
| (Der) Ring des Nibelungen: Part 4, 'Götterdämmerung', Movement: Starke Scheite (Brünnhildes's Immolation) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Berlin State Opera Orchestra Elfriede Marherr-Wagner, Mezzo soprano Frida Leider, Soprano Leo Blech, Composer Richard Wagner, Composer |
| (Der) Ring des Nibelungen: Part 4, 'Götterdämmerung', Movement: Mein Erbe nun nehm' ich zu eigen |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Berlin State Opera Orchestra Elfriede Marherr-Wagner, Mezzo soprano Frida Leider, Soprano Leo Blech, Composer Richard Wagner, Composer |
| (Der) Ring des Nibelungen: Part 4, 'Götterdämmerung', Movement: Fliegt heim, ihr Raben! |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Berlin State Opera Orchestra Elfriede Marherr-Wagner, Mezzo soprano Frida Leider, Soprano Leo Blech, Composer Richard Wagner, Composer |
| (Der) Ring des Nibelungen: Part 4, 'Götterdämmerung', Movement: Zurück vom Ring (orchestral finale) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Berlin State Opera Orchestra Elfriede Marherr-Wagner, Mezzo soprano Frida Leider, Soprano Leo Blech, Composer Richard Wagner, Composer |
| Tristan und Isolde, Movement: Wie lachend sie (Isolde's Narrative and Curse) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Berlin State Opera Orchestra Elfriede Marherr-Wagner, Mezzo soprano Frida Leider, Soprano Leo Blech, Composer Richard Wagner, Composer |
| Tristan und Isolde, Movement: Mild und leise (Liebestod) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Frida Leider, Soprano John Barbirolli, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra Richard Wagner, Composer |
| Parsifal, Movement: Ich sah das Kind (Herzeleide) |
Richard Wagner, Composer
Frida Leider, Soprano John Barbirolli, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra Richard Wagner, Composer |
Author:
On June 7th, 1938, between 8.30 pm and 9.35 pm the London Regional Programme of the BBC relayed part of Gotterdammerung from Covent Garden: for those who are interested in such things, it came in between a play about the Brontes called The Quiet House at Haworth and a recital by Reginald Foort at the Theatre Organ. The cast included the distinguished names listed above- the Chorus Master, Robert Ainsworth was aiso credited and so, more surprisingly perhaps, was the Producer, Charles Moor. Furtwangler conducted. But it was the name of the Brunnhilde which attracted the attention of two of the singer's admirers who felt that, magnificently as she was still performing, her time was not going to last for ever and that something of this magnificence should be preserved. Years later a copy made privately found its way into Edward J. Smith's ''Golden Age of Opera'' series in America, and a part of the performance also appeared on an Acanta LP (nla). Its transcription here from the original source provides a most valuable service, not just to the memory of a supreme artist but also to the documentation of that wonderful period in the history of the house when the Wagner nights were so frequently the very stuff of which a lifetime's love of opera is made.
It was Leider's last performance in London. She had arrived in 1924 with many of the singers who were to give such lustre to the German part of the Grand Seasons, Lauritz Melchior among them. He and Herbert Janssen are marvellously well caught here, as is the Hagen, Wilhelm Schirp, a massively dark and sonorous bass not singled out for special comment by critics at the time and never heard at Covent Garden again. For Leider herself the transcript adds another dimension to what we know of her studio recordings: the stage presence is felt here, intense and dominant just as written accounts and the memories of old-timers relate. The voice, still perfectly firm and of beautiful quality in the middle register, retains much of its thrilling vibrancy on the upper notes, and with Furtwangler conjuring up a concentrated flame from the orchestra the cries of ''Betrug! Verrath!'' have in them the very essence of Wagnerian greatness.
To Pearl, then, much gratitude for the issue. As a note added to the list of contents points out, there is ''brief but heavy distortion... for a few seconds, inherent in the original recording'': it is sudden and alarming (rather like the noise you could make, a year or so after the date of this performance, by blowing resolutely into your gasmask), but soon over. I wish the company had found some of the lesser-known of Leider's recordings to make up the rest of the programme, and that having chosen the Gotterdammerung Immolation and Tristan Narrative they could have got the speeds and pitches right (both run about a semitone high). Still, these too are fine performances: classics of the gramophone, and I believe that this is their debut on CD.'
It was Leider's last performance in London. She had arrived in 1924 with many of the singers who were to give such lustre to the German part of the Grand Seasons, Lauritz Melchior among them. He and Herbert Janssen are marvellously well caught here, as is the Hagen, Wilhelm Schirp, a massively dark and sonorous bass not singled out for special comment by critics at the time and never heard at Covent Garden again. For Leider herself the transcript adds another dimension to what we know of her studio recordings: the stage presence is felt here, intense and dominant just as written accounts and the memories of old-timers relate. The voice, still perfectly firm and of beautiful quality in the middle register, retains much of its thrilling vibrancy on the upper notes, and with Furtwangler conjuring up a concentrated flame from the orchestra the cries of ''Betrug! Verrath!'' have in them the very essence of Wagnerian greatness.
To Pearl, then, much gratitude for the issue. As a note added to the list of contents points out, there is ''brief but heavy distortion... for a few seconds, inherent in the original recording'': it is sudden and alarming (rather like the noise you could make, a year or so after the date of this performance, by blowing resolutely into your gasmask), but soon over. I wish the company had found some of the lesser-known of Leider's recordings to make up the rest of the programme, and that having chosen the Gotterdammerung Immolation and Tristan Narrative they could have got the speeds and pitches right (both run about a semitone high). Still, these too are fine performances: classics of the gramophone, and I believe that this is their debut on CD.'
Frida Leider sings Wagner
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