
First the good news: Christian Thielemann and the orchestra create a rousing climax at the end of the finale. Now the bad news: the prior
This is one of the best-played, least-gripping Tristans I’ve ever encountered. It isn’t often that by the fourth note of any grand piece of music
SACD multi-channel format neither adds nor detracts from this mediocre performance, which sounds just as badly balanced, texturally clogged, and slackly phrased no matter what
Let’s just say that Christian Thielemann puts the “hell” back into Ein Heldenleben. In fact, many juicy and not very nice words came to mind
Thomas Quasthoff’s voice is one of remarkable agility, color, and emotional range, and on this CD, which primarily contains music from operas very few people
Given his recordings to date, Christian Thielemann seems to be positioning himself as a German repertoire specialist. This may be a mistake, since he seems