Description:

A recording was released by DG a few years after this performance from Bayreuth with almost the same cast.  It is very interesting to hear this performance as it finds the singers in even better form.  After four hours of singing Birgit Nilsson somehow manages to spin one of the most delicate f sharps at the end of the Liebestod.  Remember, there was no team of engineers for this recording so one is hearing the genuine article.   Wolfgang Windgassen sounds like a man coming undone in Act III but fortunately his voice stays together.  His aria  “Und drauf Isolde”  is incredibly beautifully rendered with the help of Karl Böhm.  Eberhard Waechter proves that he is one of the best Kurwenal’s in the history of recorded sound.  The sound is excellent.

OD 10071-3