Decca’s first digital studio recording of a Wagner opera, preserving the long-matured work of a legendary Wagnerian conductor.

By the time this recording was made in the winter of 1980–81 over the course of two extended sets of sessions, the Welsh National Opera had given 18 performances of Tristan und Isolde with this cast, most of them under the watchful eye and inspirational baton of Sir Reginald Goodall. The conductor had undertaken many preparatory rehearsals with individual members of the orchestra – the harp, even the bass clarinet – in order to achieve a properly Wagnerian synthesis of music and text.

The cast was English but exhaustively coached by Goodall in every nuance of the text. Particular praise, both of the recording and the associated performances, was reserved for the youthful and lustrous Isolde of Linda Esther Gray, in both her physical and vocal appearance.

TRACK LIST / ARTISTS

RICHARD WAGNER
Tristan und Isolde

Tristan: John Mitchinson
Isolde: Linda Esther Gray
König Marke: Gwynne Howell
Kurwenal: Phillip Joll
Brangäne: Anne Wilkens
Melot: Nicholas Folwell
Ein Hirt: Arthur Davies
Ein Steuermann: Geoffrey Moses
Ein Junger Seemann: John Harris

Chorus of Welsh National Opera
Julian Smith, chorus master
Orchestra of Welsh National Opera
John Stein, leader
Anthony Negus, assistant conductor
Reginald Goodall