It was Donald Tovey who first coined the phrase “bleeding chunks”, referring to the often unsatisfactory practice of excerpting Wagner’s operas out of context. German conductor Thomas Guggeis’s rather neat solution here was to stitch them together into a relatively seamless whole. It certainly worked well in the second half of this Wagner and Strauss program, the London Philharmonic segueing effortlessly from Tannhäuser into Lohengrin and on to Die Meistersingers von Nürnberg.
Guggeis, whose Wagnerian credentials are impeccable, was an urgent presence, his eloquent body language and balletic arms conveying his every musical wish. If it was a little distracting at times, the results spoke for themselves. In the Tannhäuser Overture, the burnished brass of the Pilgrims hymn contrasted with skittish violins and woodwind in the Venusberg music. Sensual strings were coaxed to an orgiastic climax replete with crashing cymbals and clacking castanets before Guggeis crouched low to tease out a balmy post-coital epilogue.
The subsequent Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin featured radiant violins and a sonorous brass chorale. The Meistersingers Overture was crisp and confident, with an ardent sweep to the love music. It was a pity the brass smothered the violin figurations towards the end, taking the top off of an otherwise fine account.
The first half was less fluid. Of course, the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde comes pre-stitched, as it were, a 17-minute musical odyssey that tops and tails four hours of opera to create a surprisingly effective tone poem. Opening with an impeccable pianissimo, Guggeis crafted the music’s twin peaks with persuasive attention to dynamic detail.
While Strauss’s Four Last Songs don’t exactly mirror Tristan, they share common themes of transcendence and memory. Renée Fleming is an experienced hand, having first recorded them in 1996. The voice retains much of its creaminess, even if the acrobatics in the opening Frühling (Spring) seem more of a stretch these days. She was at her finest spinning the long lyrical lines of Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep) and in the resigned musings of Im Abendrot (At Sunset), where her communicative gifts reached out to touch the soul.
