Wagner is rising in the East!

Respected French publications Diapason and Télérama have lavished high praise on Die Walküre − the first release of Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Valery Gergiev on the Mariinsky label.

“Wagner is rising in the East,” announced the reviewer of Diapason, “An incredible number of years have passed since we last awarded a recording from Wagner’s tetralogy the Diapason d’or. A miracle has occurred in St Petersburg, where the generosity of a Japanese-Italian countess has allowed the Mariinsky Theatre to surpass the boldest of expectations. At the same time, a giant such as Universal can offer nothing but a recital – with the same Jonas Kaufmann – to mark two hundred years since Wagner’s birth.

“Wagner sounds almost ‘Tchaikovsky-like’ in Gergiev’s Walküre. The silky waves of the strings that wash over the burgeoning loving passion in Act I in a starry glow, the light that never lets the drama become a tragedy, the avoidance of tense basses and the blinding culminations give this Walküre an elated character which will leave no-one unaffected.

“There is nothing cosmic here, it’s more music than metaphysics, the grandiose form acquires merit in every moment. The theatre and vocals are triumphant. Because, following a tragic dearth of Wagnerian voices in recent years, they are back!

“Mikhail Petrenko’s rich bass voice together with his stage movements and precise diction give his Hunding a characteristic mystery. Ekaterina Gubanova’s majestic Fricka stood apart for her particular nobility and the divine quality with which she defies René Pape’s Wotan. Possibly this Wotan is ‘too human’, but he has an astonishing gift for declamation in the recitatives in Act I, and when the time comes to bid farewell to Brünnhilde the singer demonstrates miracles of legato and softness of tone, making all the emotions of the suffering father vibrate, and Gergiev succeeds in making this farewell extremely refined. In Act I Anja Kampe perfectly embodies the role of Sieglinde thanks to her precision of song and diction and the emotional nuances she creates.

There are two jewels that dazzle in particular: Jonas Kaufmann, who brings together all his finest performing skills as Siegmund, and the Brünnhilde of Nina Stemme which has already gone down in history have been immortalised! If but for them alone we will long gain pleasure from this Walküre.

Gilles Macassar of Télérama wrote that “The fauvist colours, volcanic orchestra and hitherto unknown drama of the atmosphere... Gergiev’s Walküre is enchanting in its luxuriousness. And if, at the start of this celebration of Wagner, the recording of Wagner’s Ring by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Marek Janowski had the advantage by a long chalk then now it is becoming utterly clear that the leader at the finish line will be Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre from St Petersburg. His recording of Parsifal, released in 2010, already heralded the orchestral palette here, the pure and sharp colours so far from the mystical haze and blurred contours consecrated by tradition. In Die Walküre, the first day of Wagner’s tetralogy, Gergiev uses the same fauvist palette of strong colours – the thunder with which the plot begins sets the tone for the entire opera. The drama in the sound atmosphere, more muted in the lyrical episodes and coming to the fore in the warring scenes, is unparalleled in any recording of Der Ring. Valhalla, Wagner’s Olympus, takes on the fateful image of the Moscow Kremlin, Wotan that of a mighty tsar and the Dostoevsky-like noir in the spirit of Crime and Punishment intensifies the conflict of the god of gods with his lawful wife Fricka and his beloved daughter Brünnhilde. Half a century ago, von Karajan’s interpretation created a sensation with its Schubert-like intimacy and the pastel shades of the orchestra. Gergiev’s version, enchanting in its luxuriousness, will also prove ‘an event’, albeit of a completely different kind. Its success will be guaranteed by the choice of the singers: of the full range of Wagnerian voices, Gergiev has selected the very best. First and foremost that is Jonas Kaufmann’s “Werther-like” Siegmund – we have not heard such a  Spring Song since the times of Canadian singer Jon Vickers in von Karajan’s recording.”