I still have a severe aversion to bleeding chunks of Wagner, which seem the worst way of listening to this composer's music, indeed the negation of what he was trying to achieve. At the same time, it must be remembered that he himself approved of the linking of the Tristan Prelude to the Liebestod and performed it that way in the concert hall. To me it always seems like hearing a Prologue and denouement without the drama in-between. However, to judge from the frequency of their issue, the public seems to enjoy these extracts from the music dramas when performed by favourite conductors and singers. Here, following quickly on Norman and Karajan for DG we have Norman and Tennstedt for EMI, it seems a more than worthwhile partnership, the two artists sharing a kind of incandescent involving approach appropriate to the music.
Although I would not say I prefer their account of the Tristan extracts to those on the DG / Salzburg disc, I find this new version just as intense and impassioned, and the recording, finely produced by James Mallinson, to achieve an ideal balance between voice and orchestra, is marginally superior to its rival. Norman's Liebestod differs hardly at all in terms of tone or interpretation, though here she seems in slightly fresher voice.
The Immolation from Gotterdammerung finds Norman well parted. Although she hasn't sung this music on stage, she has obviously thought herself into its inner meaning: the quieter passages are sung both with warm tone and feeling and with a Lieder singer's care over the weighting of the text. Only in the dosing passage does one note that perhaps Norman could not quite sustain the whole role on stage as she wants something of strength in the highest register of her voice. Tempos tend to be measured here, but both conductor and soprano sustain them gratifyingly, and the orchestral contribution is much superior to that on the rival EMI version with Behrens and Peter Schneider.
Although the Dutchman Ballad inevitably lacks context and therefore atmosphere, Norman sings it with the same blazing truthfulness heard from the 'pit', and her Elisabeth is as simply sincere as I recall it being years ago at Covent Garden. She phrases the Prayer with the gentle plangency it deserves. Admirers of Norman needn't hesitate.'