Madame Flagstad has never sounded better in her favorite role, wonderful supporting cast also!

This performance may well have been a test for the radio engineers in preparation for the next performance on the 4th, the one broadcast as part of the famous 1950 La Scala Ring. Furtwängler and his forces are magnificent though I think the "official" recording sounds just that much more confident. The miking has improved (some of the upstage action here sounds a little off-mic though still audible). One minor difference: Hagen's final "Zurück vom Ring!" is heard here, albeit faintly. In the other performance Weber either doesn't sing it (it was sometimes cut) or he was drowned out by the orchestra (I think the former more likely). The singing, taken for granted at the time, is superb. Flagstad is not the most fiery of Brünnhildes, but the sheer beauty and security of voice are overwhelming. All right, she ducks the high C at the end of the Dawn duet (a note she still had); who cares? Lorenz is past his vocal prime and his rhythm tends to be careless, yet he projects the character of Siegfried at every moment. He ducks the top C in Act Two though he does manage the one in Act Three. Weber and Hermann are superb as is Konetzni. The Norns are superb (this is how they should sound) and the Rhinedaughters charming (Gabory would sing Wellgunde for Furtwängler in his 1953 RAI recording). The orchestra is good, a number of musical fluffs aside. The sound is incredibly good with crisp detail and clarity.Even if you've heard the later performance, this one is worth hearing too.

Ecouter pour la première fois un Götterdammerung dirigé par Furtwangler avec Flagstad et Lorenz. Qui n'en aurait rêvé Vous l'avez fait ! Un gigantesque merci !