Till Now today..!!!..the cd's not reached my adress...!!@.so ..i can't get a Review!!!

I won't say that this performance is superior to the better known one issued by DG several years later, but this one does have elements the other one doesn't. Meyer is a less vocally opulent Brangane than Ludwig, but one no less intense. Her Watch is one of the most beautiful I've heard. Hotter does not make the buttery sounds Talvela does; it matters not a jot. His authority is unsurpassed. It's also interesting to hear Neidlinger sing role that isn't Alberich or Klingsor. His Kurvenal is very humane and touching. A young Hermann Winkler makes a heart-rending Shepherd, Erwin Wohlfahrt an insolent, securely sung young Sailor.Nilsson is in excellent form, the top Bs and Cs blazing like meteors in the night sky. She and Bohm stub their toes a bit as Isolde drinks the potion (he wants to move on, she wants to linger), but they are as one in the concluding Liebestod. As another reviewer mentions, her final note is out of this world. Windgassen partners Nilsson like a champion. His Act Three is devastating, the "Wie schon bist du!" matching Melchior's in sheer finesse.The sound is excellent without any glitches that I could hear. Tristan fans need to have this in their collections!

Karl Bohm is scrupulously faithful to Wagner's markings yet, for much of Act I, his performance is curiously straitlaced. He is, however, a man with a plan. Once the potion takes effect restraint is abandoned and the intensity doesn't let up for the rest of the opera, reaching frightening heights in Act III. 'Abandon' is not to be taken for a lack of discipline for Bohm has the Bayreuth troops in a vice-like grip, although he is not above indulging Birgit Nilsson when she latches onto a good high note.Anyone who thinks Nilsson a dispassionate performer should hear her lament over the dead Tristan. Though she never seems to break a sweat from Isolde's demands, she is the complete mistress of the role's interpretive demands. By comparison, Wolfgang Windgassen has a poetic sensibility but less-heroic instrument. Nilsson sounds like she could blast him out of the water with one deep breath -- and nearly does on occasion. Windgassen turns out to have been saving himself for Act 3's crazy demands and a good thing too, as Bohm gives no quarter.Kerstin Meyer's curdled tone is something of an acquired taste but she colors Wagner's text with a Lieder singer's specificity. Gustav Neidlinger's soldierly Kurwenal must have been in the cavalry, judging by his ability to consistently outrun Bohm's speedy beat. The two are very much at odds in Kurwenal's Act 1 song and the baritone is what the kids call pitchy. Hans Hotter wobbles fearsomely but his Marke walks the tightrope between a profound emotional wound and regal dignity. The mono broadcast sound is nothing much; you want Nilsson/Windgassen/Bohm 1970 (OD 10876-3) for sonics or 1962 (OD 10071-3) for performance. Still, this recording packs a powerful thrill for those who seek a headlong plunge into Tristan.

Nowhere else can you find such rare broadcast recordings. Production standard very high. Cannot blame OD for the odd burst of bad radio reception in the originals. The quality of the performances far outweighs these niggles.

This is a superb performance in excellent sound. I tend to agree that Windgassen sounds rather narrow of tone next to Nilsson but he's honest and often moving. Kerstin Meyer, of whom I had no clear impression before, sings most beautifully as Brangäne and Nilsson is extraordinary. We think of her as shining steel but as her auto-biography proudly states, Wieland Wagner thought that she was "the loving Isolde" and that is what we have here: yes, there is fury in Act One but also an underlying tenderness and pain and the final note of the Liebestod (approached without a breath) has to be heard to be believe. Compulsive conducting from Böhm that sweeps you through an epic journey. Wonderful.

Fundamental edition. First of all, the HiFi sound recording: full, full-bodied, round, free, deep, powerful, with voices hovering naturally in the unlimited, demoralized space of the great hall of the Festspielhaus. Then the interpretation of these Wagnerians, here at the absolute top of their day, in the central phase of their collaborations in this iconic work in Bayreuth. So thank you to OperaDepot for such wonderful remastering (I took the Flac format and I recommend it) and above all thanks for having made this live untraceable elsewhere. I forgot: the choir of the Festival directed by the great Pitz is also excellent. Among other things, this is already the fifth "Tristan un Isolde" that I take from OperaDepot and four of them have the steel voice of Birgit to which I raise my ideal cup of centenary party!