This is one of the finest, clearest, best diction, measured emotion versions I've ever heard of this magnificent work. It has much to relate to the believer.
This recording is gloriously conducted by an outstanding Wagnerian conductor, it has superb orchestral and choral renditions and some of the best German singers in most of the parts. Frick, Grúmmer, Wunderlich and Fischer-Dieskau are difficult to equal or surpass in any other recording. What is the weak point then? Well, Hans Hopf is well below the standards for the demanding role. It is true his part is maybe the most difficult Wagner ever wrote for a tenor, even harsher than Siegfied or Tristan. Few tenors have then and now managed to deliver a decent portrait of the troubled minstrel. But Hopf is clearly below the average: his emission is unnatural, the voice ugly, the phrasing is poor, it is scarcely musical all throughout, etc. He is just mediocre in his best moments, the rest is even worse. Would EMI have engaged a better tenor for the part, this would have likely been the reference recording of Tannhäuser. As it stays, that honor goes to Solti, Sawallisch or even Sinopoli. All in all, a recording to be enjoyed and treasured despite a major weak link.
PERSONAL TIMESTAMPS: Movement I - The Abduction of the Bride (Ingrid's Lament) 0:07 Peer Gynt's leitmotif 0:13 Slow passage in between 0:19 Peer Gynt's leitmotif repeated 0:25 Slow passage in between, now "Andante doloroso" instead of "Andante" 0:29 Ingrid's theme (lament melody) 1:32 Perfect cadence of Ingrid's theme 1:44 Ingrid's theme repetition, more intense 2:47 Fourteen-bar extension of the repetition of Ingrid's theme/the lament melody 3:29 Return of Peer Gynt's leitmotif, closing the movement Movement II - Arabian Dance 4:07 Introduction of melody 1 4:25 Introduction of melody 2 4:40 Reintroduction of melody 1 and its development (A minor) 5:24 Introduction of melody 3 (dancers at an Arabic oasis) 5:40 More active repeat of melody 3 (A major) 5:59 (four-note motif evoked, with the prominent tonality of the Arabic mode) (A minor) 6:15 Return of melody 3, its repeat and a short extension 6:58 Sudden return of melody 2 and subsequent melody 1 Movement III
So, is this a commercial recording? Or is it a live recording? It’s certainly not Karajan, as is advertised here. The last few minutes sound amazing with those accented triplets in the strings. Celibidache does that too, but at waaaaaaaaay too slow a tempo. But in this performance, you get the same great effect without having to slow it down.
I love Bruckner and I particularly love this symphony. There's this "cathedral architecture" about his works and then there are the simplest of motifs which grow and evolve into great counterpoint and massive climaxes. I find the music in the last few minutes stunning.
