# Tristan und Isolde - Covent Garden 1937 (Melchior, Flagstad, Beecham cond.)



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

I would appreciate some help on this. I'm thinking of buying the Immortal Performances restoration of the famous 1937 Beecham _Tristan_ with Melchior and Flagstad. It's very tempting, but the price is a bit steep for me, and while the performance is available online, I haven't found any samples from this particular edition.

Any of you have this set, or any of the other recent Immortal Performances releases? If so, can you comment on the sound quality, or how much of an improvement it represents over other editions of early live recordings?

Thanks!


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## interestedin (Jan 10, 2016)

I can't offer any help but I'm thinking about ordering it, too. Google told me to look here, I hope someone will comment on this..


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## Mark Farrington (Jul 21, 2021)

*Immortal performances beecham tristan*

If you want this performance - and what Wagnerian doesn't? - do not hesitate. This is perhaps the only adequate transfer of the 1937 Covent Garden TRISTAN, and it's far more than merely adequate. The pitch is dead-on; the "cracks" in certain sides have been repaired, without mucking up the sound; the ambience is stronger than in any other transfer of this performance. 
And you get two complete Act IIs ! This is a more passionate performance than the 1936 Reiner Covent Garden TRISTAN, great as that one is. Finally, this is one of Beecham's greatest performances ANYTHING - and that includes the 1937 MAGIC FLUTE, the 1956 LA BOHEME, and the live 1948 VILLAGE ROMEO & JULIET.



amfortas said:


> I would appreciate some help on this. I'm thinking of buying the Immortal Performances restoration of the famous 1937 Beecham _Tristan_ with Melchior and Flagstad. It's very tempting, but the price is a bit steep for me, and while the performance is available online, I haven't found any samples from this particular edition.
> 
> Any of you have this set, or any of the other recent Immortal Performances releases? If so, can you comment on the sound quality, or how much of an improvement it represents over other editions of early live recordings?
> 
> Thanks!


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## gvn (Dec 14, 2019)

Mark Farrington said:


> If you want this performance - and what Wagnerian doesn't? - do not hesitate. This is perhaps the only adequate transfer of the 1937 Covent Garden TRISTAN, and it's far more than merely adequate. The pitch is dead-on; the "cracks" in certain sides have been repaired, without mucking up the sound; the ambience is stronger than in any other transfer of this performance.
> And you get two complete Act IIs ! This is a more passionate performance than the 1936 Reiner Covent Garden TRISTAN, great as that one is. Finally, this is one of Beecham's greatest performances ANYTHING - and that includes the 1937 MAGIC FLUTE, the 1956 LA BOHEME, and the live 1948 VILLAGE ROMEO & JULIET.


Strong agreement with those comments. I've collected each of the successive CD releases of this performance (including the mismanaged EMI set that jumbled bits of Beecham & Reiner together), and to my ears the Immortal Performances transfer is far superior to the others, for precisely the reasons that Mark Farrington mentions. The greater accuracy of the pitching, and the greater body & presence of the sound, are particularly striking.

As it happens, my wife and I revisited both the Reiner (Naxos) and Beecham (Immortal Performances) sets in succession only a few months ago. Fully agree that the Reiner is in itself a great performance, with an incisiveness that made us reflect that the performance was contemporary with neoclassical Stravinsky. Fully agree, too, that the Beecham is more passionate, with more depth & breadth of emotional involvement. Moving from one to the other is like moving from a superb black & white photo to one in full color.

What a wonderful thing it is to be able to have seats today at two such performances recorded 80+ years ago!


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