Wagner: Gotterdammerung

Recorded live in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall over two evenings in May, 2009, this concert recording of Wagner's Götterdämmerung easily stands among the work's three or four finest on disc. For starters, it is sumptuously yet naturally engineered, with voices and instruments in ideal perspective, and there's realistic depth and definition to the orchestral image no matter how texturally complex or threadbare. As with Reginald Goodall, Mark Elder's tempos are slow, but they never, ever drag because the conductor's strong inner rhythm fuels the carefully coaxed and painstakingly balanced linear strands. This is mainly apparent in orchestral interludes. In Siegfried's Rhine Journey, for example, notice the churning string accompaniment's pronounced dynamic gradations, and the rarely heard leitmotivs that bubble to the surface. The myriad tempo changes and drawn out rests in the hunting scene leading up to and including Siegfried's dying words are taken on faith as they often are not