WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde (The Duet Scenes) – Deborah Polaski, Isolde/ Johan Botha, Tristan/ Vienna Singverein/ Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Bertrand de Billy, conductor – Oehms Multichannel SACD OC 626, 76:27 ***1/2:
This is some of the most vivid SACD sound I have ever heard! Bertrand de Billy has of course been making a bit of a splash with his recent Wagnerian DVDs, some of the first done in ultra-modern sound, and here we get a sample of what the fuss has been all about. As a theme for this release he has coupled the “duet” scenes from the first and second acts. I am not sure I like it—divorced from the opera as a whole, and without a really consistent reason for being, these pieces truly are “bleeding chunks” and serve more as a documentary than as a consistent listening experience.
The sound too, though quite full of presence, is a little glaring in places, sort of clinical, like the sound that many analog lovers used to complain about when CDs first came out. De Billy has a provocative way with the music, no question; he is a confirmed Wagnerite of the highest order. Botha reminds me of a young Rene Kollo, without quite the maturity that Kollo brought to these roles early in his career. Polaski has been on the scene for many years, and the voice is not quite what it once was, affecting in the quieter moments, but somewhat strained when full blown, but it would be premature to declare her unfit for Isolde.
So all in all a serviceable release with much interest, but quite frankly I would have preferred the whole opera. Polaski starred in the Barcelona DVD, and so here rerecords with the Vienna Radio Symphony. Not bad, not great, but good.
— Steven Ritter
