DIE WALKÜRE - BRUNO WALTER 1935

Searching for the perfect Wagner opera recording can be a frustrating endeavor. With so many elements at play in a Musikdrama - especially in the Ring operas - there’s almost always something left to be desired. You often find yourself wishing things were just a little different: a different singer in a particular role, a different tempo in a key passage, or simply better sound quality.

And yet, for all my love of pristine hi-fi sound, many of my favorite recordings are historical ones. One that stands out is Die Walküre conducted by Bruno Walter. This 1935 studio recording has that rare quality of feeling nearly perfect. Even the mono sound holds up remarkably well. The CD remaster suffers from none of the usual distractions—no hiss, no distracting artifacts—just music that breathes.

​The one major drawback is that only the first act was completed in those 1935 sessions. Originally, the recording was scheduled to take place in Berlin, but with the rise of the Nazis, that became impossible. For Jewish artists, Germany was no longer an option. Walter, along with Lauritz Melchior (Siegmund) and Lotte Lehmann (Sieglinde), relocated to Vienna, where they recorded the first act and parts of the second. The rest of the second act had to wait until 1938, when it was completed in Berlin under Bruno Seidler-Winkler, as Walter had already fled Europe for America. The third act followed years later, recorded in 1945 under Artur Rodziński. The result is a kind of patchwork Walküre.
 
It’s the first act, under Walter, that earns a solid five stars. A close personal friend of Gustav Mahler, Walter possessed an intuitive understanding of this music that makes it endlessly rewarding to revisit. Melchior and Lehmann, as the Wälsung twins, may be the most convincing pair I’ve heard to date. Lehmann, in particular, is magnificent. Her voice overflows with compassion. She offers her fugitive brother the solace he seeks - and, in doing so, gives the listener something just as precious: the sense that opera recordings like this don’t just document great performances - they offer something close to salvation.

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