If you have come to the conclusion that Sawallisch and charisma don’t go together, these recordings should make you think again. In particular, the Wagner extracts left me wondering how different our perspectives on recordings of that composer might have been had Walter Legge and EMI signed up Sawallisch for the first stereo Ring in the mid-1950s.
The playing of the Philharmonia has everything to do with it, of course, and the excellent remasterings underline the extent to which, even in close-up sound with the woodwind particularly prominent, every line has its own distinctive character. Siegfried’s Rhine Journey may be launched too hectically for all the textural detail to tell as it would in a modern recording, but the vitality and precision with which it proceeds is perfectly matched by the eloquence of the phrasing, and the Funeral March which follows is as intense and well-shaped as any of its myriad rivals, the sombre yet glowing colours of Wagner’s orchestration astonishingly immediate. Similarly, nothing could be further from the homogenized blandness of so many present-day performances of the Tannhauser and Meistersinger Overtures than these vivid yet beautifully sustained readings.
Sawallisch’s ability to combine the warmest lyricism with well-pointed rhythmic articulation is no less evident in the Strauss suite. If you play this first, the sound, with prominent piano, may seem dry and confined, but the ears soon adjust, and the sheer good humour and affectionate attention to detail of the reading carries all before it. What more could anyone ask?'