Recorded on April 16, 1939, this note-complete second act of Tristan is completely new to my ears. The sound occasionally overloads at forte but otherwise is surprisingly vivid if scratchy at times (the start of “O sink…”; much of track 7; bits of tracks 11 & 14), with most orchestral niceties audible and voices realistically forward. John Barbirolli’s conducting is the great surprise. It’s exciting, forceful yet sensitive, alert to every tempo and mood change, with the expectation music wonderfully nervous and the night music almost hypnotically lovely. Tempos are very swift at first and also near the close of the Love Duet—the act takes 71 minutes, and the early parts of the duet are correctly languid and sensual. The New York Philharmonic is marvelous—you wish the sonics were even better.
Aside from Kirsten Flagstad, the singers are virtually unknown today. Eywind Laholm’s real name was Jon Edward Johnson and he was an American, born in 1894. He changed his name because there was another, more famous tenor named Edward Johnson, who later became the Met’s General Manager. Laholm sang extensively in Germany and was Hitler’s favorite tenor. He returned home before the outbreak of “total war” and sang somewhat successfully, if briefly, at the Met. He’s an interesting voice one would like to hear more of. He’s not quite a real Heldentenor but the voice seems to be of a good size, his pitch is dead-on, and he phrases sensitively and with feeling for the text, if at times his pianissimos sound more like crooning.
Enid Szantho, whoever she is, has a dark coloration to her good-sized tone, and she’s a solid, sympathetic Brangaene. And whoever John Gurney is (he sang small parts at the Met in the ‘40s), he’s a wonderful King Mark. At Barbirolli’s sensibly quick tempos he gives us a truly sad, shocked portrayal.
Flagstad fans will be disappointed. The instantly recognizable tone is there, but you wonder why, this early in her career, she omits both high Cs at Tristan’s entrance. Then there is the problem of her delivery: she sounds beautiful but bored; while Laholm is being expressive and shading his words, she is merely pouring out acres of grand sounds. She is far better under Fritz Reiner in 1936. One presumes that she was the raison d’être for this concert; it’s a pity she had so little interest in it. In other words, this is an oddity and is worth hearing for Barbirolli’s conducting and for the interesting-enough Tristan of Hitler’s pal, Laholm.
