This odd collection presents studio-made Columbia recordings from 1952 of Dutchman excerpts with Rysanek and Sigurd Björling, a 1948 HMV Immolation Scene with Flagstad and Furtwängler, and the final scenes from Walküre with Nilsson and Björling from Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks, taped in 1953. In short, despite the less-than-full sound, we get a feast of great singing. Rysanek is utterly devoid of vocal problems, her voice all of a piece, with the top as thrilling as ever. Her Senta may not be as deep and loony as it later became, but it’s a great Wagner portrayal nonetheless. Björling joins her in the second-act duet, and his Dutchman is noble and reserved, the voice never one of the juiciest but still marvelously expressive. And he’s a Wotan to reckon with as well, singing with heartfelt anger and grief while never overstating his case. He uses dynamics–many levels of pianissimo–to express the god’s complex feelings.
The young Nilsson is less formidable than we’re accustomed to, but at this point in the opera that’s just what is called for. Her reading here can’t compare with her own in later years, let alone with, say, Flagstad’s, but it’s fascinating to hear her in first flush. And the Immolation Scene must be one of the greatest (I believe Flagstad recorded it five times in the studio, and there are several from live performances): womanly, dignified, positively even of voice from bottom to top, each phrase molded gracefully and dramatically, with Furtwängler at his most elastic. This is a superb collection of great Wagner singing.
