“DIE WALKÜRE : Wagner
Original Air Date: 02/17/1940
Cast: Leinsdorf; Flagstad, Lawrence, Branzell, Melchior, Huehn, List
Media: MOD Audio SID.18010744 Tags: Archive; 2018, Wagner
This performance was issued on Sony CD as part of the Wagner at the Met box in honor of the composer’s bicentenary in 2013. Sirius postings didn’t see the need for adding Branzell or List to the listing, but Fricka and Hunding are both important roles.
In this performance Flagstad moves up to Brunnhilde with Lawrence as Sieglinde. There is a 1937 broadcast with Lawrence as Brunnhilde and Flagstad as Sieglinde; Schorr is the Wotan and Olszewska as Fricka, and Althouse as Siegmund. That performance has not been on Sirius either, but also has the distinction of being conducted by Bodanzky.
Several things are unusual about this 1940 broadcast. It is uncut, primarily championed by Leinsdorf, and is Flagstad’s only Walkure Brunnhilde broadcast until her return 11 years later in 1951 under Stiedry. Melchior is in particularly resplendent voice and his long-held Walse cries in the first act are as much a taunt to Leinsdorf as anything. Julius Huehn’s Wotan ( he was 30 at the time of this broadcast (!!!!) wins high praise from Paul Jackson in his Met broadcast review.
[I listened to the third act this morning, and the sound is unusually good for this period, and Flagstad is simply glorious in the third act as the warrior maid. Don’t miss it on the two later broadcasts this week]
5/20/13 – No special brief needs to be made for this cast. The most unfamiliar name is probably Julius Huehn who started spelling the Wagner baritones from Schorr. Branzell and List are left off the Met
listing, but they are a major part of the Wagner wing at the Met. The
Met Database does not show this as having been previously broadcast on Sirius.”