I remember this performance well. It was the first time I had seen Tristan und Isolde in the theatre and I was completely knocked out by it. Thank you, Andy, for the chance to relive the evening. I agree with the other reviewers about the quality of the conducting, but it’s hard for me to say much more about the performance as it has such memories attached!

This is worth hearing for the conducting in the third act, which is almost as perfect as it could be - and the playing is very good, also. As described, Nuotio is also almost the perfect Tristan, and the sonorous Bailey and the youthful, but characterful Fieldsend second him magisterially. I heard Gibson conduct this in London at the end of this tour and was also bowled over by Act III ( all the more remarkable as the previous night he and the orchestra had played a truly masgical Pelleas)- in the small Sadler's Wells Theatre, the singers did not have to push and Gibson kept the orchestra volume low, without shortchanging the climaxes. This meant that performance had the rich, warm sounding (and looking) Isolde of Dernesch, with no strain in top form then. Barlow here is fine, but ultimately ordinary. Ann Howard is also excellent. However, this is Gibson's performance, and he should be heard.

I enjoyed this performance very much. The sound is good and the conducting is organic and natural. The singers are all very good and it is great to have Barlow as Isolde. She was a very underrated singer in America. She is solid, expressive and feminine. I found her portal moving and very motivated. Nuotio is very good as Tristan. This is a very interesting recording and it is good to get to know singers that we would not know without such a document.

This excellent broadcast capture preserves a title pair who were obscure in their own day, best known for having come to the rescue of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Pekka Nuotio (Tristan) subbed for Wolfgang Windgassen in Tannhauser and Klara Barlow enjoyed a brief celebrity for signging several Isoldes that Catariina Ligendza canceled. Barlow is in gorgeous, feminine voice here, giving vengeance and love their proper due. She is a kind of Lieder-singer Isolde, bringing many imaginative shadings to the text. Nuotio, by contrast, seems to be in energy-conservation mode. He sounds smaller than Barlow in Act I and is interpretively neutral, leaving her pitching strongly shaped verbal gestures at a blank screen. He warms to his task in Act II and when the show is on his shoulders in Act III he rises to the challenge thrillingly. His voice owns cutting metal but is not unattractive. The supporting cast is mostly superior although William McCue is a Father Christmas sort of King Mark, not deeply disturbed by Tristan's betrayal. Ann Howard is a tart-voiced Brangaene, excellent with the text, and Norman Bailey's bluff Kurwenal is ideal. Alexander Gibson tends toward a literal reading of the score, so don't bother looking for interpretation. He paces himself like a singer, opening the throttle when the Liebestod is finally in view. Although the chorus is embarrassingly unkempt the orchestra is a goof one and Gibson draws a transparent sonority from them. Opera Depot's Nilsson/Vickers/Stein (OD 10683) and Nilsson/Windgassen/Bohm (OD 10876) as does its Varnay/Vinay/Jochum (OD 10938) one. Not coincidentally, they all feature strong Market -- Sotin, Talvela, Weber -- underscoring the importance of this role.

I enjoyed this Tristan immensely. As I did O.D.'s Siegfried and Strauss' Rosenkavalier conducted by Sandy. A rare individuality shines through in his conducting for me, as it did in his few commercial recordings. There must surely be a Scottish Opera Ring recording waiting to be found out there somewhere. That would be a treasure indeed.