# Finale: Gotterdammerung- Hore Mit Sinn: Ludwig and Fassbaender



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

For Woodduck





Wagner: Götterdämmerung, WWV 86D / Act 1 - Höre mit Sinn, was ich dir sage · Christa Ludwig · Wiener Philharmoniker · Sir Georg Solti 





Götterdämmerung, WWV 86D: Gotterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods) , Act I: Hore mit Sinn · Brigitte Fassbaender


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Ludwig was my first Waltraute, in the Solti *Ring*. So she was my model for the role.
While Fassbaender is interesting vocally and histrionically, I find her too raw-sounding and sometimes hollow.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

If Ludwig were given a closer, less resonant perspective I might well stick with her, but there are nuances in Fassbaender's interpretation, very clear in her more immediate sound picture, that I find truly startling and gripping. Every syllable comes alive. She makes me want to know her recorded output better (I know very little of it). Ludwig is great and has the more sumptuous voice, but Fassbaender (along with her superb conductor) really grabs me and makes the music and drama seem even more magical than I already know it is.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Fassbaender is a beautiful singer and in even such a role as Octavian I'd think that on any given day, she'd present a performance to be compared with Ludwig, but not here. As beautiful as her voice is, and to bring us back to the oft heard cry "as much as I'd love to hear her sing today, anytime any where" it is a more perfectly contained unit that, in music like this, does not offer the authority and majesty of Ludwig. I've long thought Ludwig a candidate for GOAT in her register and this piece of singing is a reason why. Majesty, humanity, beauty....when she melds in with those gorgeous chords late in the piece it's sublime. Her instrument, while being absolutely at the service of her artistic instincts, is not a contained unit. It's more open and finds its own perfection in a less obviously perfect form. I'd think she's be the Waltraute of Wagner's dreams.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> If Ludwig were given a closer, less resonant perspective I might well stick with her, but there are nuances in Fassbaender's interpretation, very clear in her more immediate sound picture, that I find truly startling and gripping. Every syllable comes alive. She makes me want to know her recorded output better (I know very little of it). Ludwig is great and has the more sumptuous voice, but Fassbaender (along with her superb conductor) really grabs me and makes the music and drama seem even more magical than I already know it is.


You surprised me with your choice, thinking along the lines that I cogitated when I listened to Fassbaender and posting my comments. Ultimately, I gave in to Ludwig’s sultrier sound, not forgetting the Vienna Philarmonic and Solti.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> You surprised me with your choice, thinking along the lines that I cogitated when I listened to Fassbaender and posting my comments. Ultimately, I gave in to Ludwig’s sultrier sound, not forgetting the Vienna Philarmonic and Solti.


I was a little surprised too. I'm really intrigued by Fassbaender now. Tsaras reminded us that she's known for her Lieder singing. No surprise there, given such sensitivity to words. I like her conductor better than Solti too, good though he is.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> I was a little surprised too. I'm really intrigued by Fassbaender now. Tsaras reminded us that she's known for her Lieder singing. No surprise there, given such sensitivity to words. I like her conductor better than Solti too, good though he is.


Fassbaender is also a surprisingly effective Azucena on the Giulini recording (from which the Plowright _Miserere _we were listening to was taken). 

I only saw her once live, as Octavian with Gwyneth Jones as the Marschallin and Edith Mathis as Sophie. Now that was a cast! She's certainly never dull.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

For futher comparison I sought out Ludwig's performance on the Karajan set, which I rather preferred. It's painted in subtler, less neon tones and reminds me that Ludwig worked with Karajan quite a lot over quite a lont period, making her first recording with him in 1955 (*Der Rosenkavalier*) and her last in 1980 (*Falstaff*). 

If the Karajan performance of Waltraute was up for comparison, I'd probably be giving Ludwig the palm, but as it is, and like Woodduck, I'm surprised to find something a little more immediate that grabs my attention in the Fassbaender performance.


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