Let me begin by saying that this is a set worth getting. Listeners who follow the orchestra closely in operatic performances – not to mention those who don’t yet have a recording of Tristan und Isolde – will benefit from owning a copy. Even aficionados with a large library of Wagner’s operas will find that this performance stands out for a variety of reasons, among them its being a concert (rather than staged) version, recorded live.

This CD set is one in a series of Wagner’s operas, from Holländer forward, released by Pentatone in celebration of the composer’s bicentenary. Physically, the case and booklet are durable (if not beautiful) stiff paper, and should last many years assuming the glue binding the booklet to the case holds up (mine did not). The booklet itself contains the German libretto and a serviceable English translation (though there are no translations into other languages). Performer biographies, plot synopsis and background information by Steffen Georgi make up the remaining material.

Speakers of American English may find the writing stilted, a factor both of Fiona J. Stroker-Gale’s translation and Georgi’s original German. The material itself varies in quality. Perhaps the best section is the historical information on Wagner’s relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck, and Wesendonck’s influence on the composition of Tristan und Isolde (though it is odd that the poems she wrote for Wagner – poems he set to music as ‘warm-up’ sketches for Tristan – are not mentioned). The explanation of the music is less convincing, being disjointed, incomplete, and, at times, incorrect (e.g., the explanation of Wagner’s concept of ‘endless melody’, which should be more about persistent motivic salience than avoiding stopping points).

The cast of singers hails from all over the world, though most have extensive performance experience in Germany and the Wagnerian repertory. Given their diversity of linguistic backgrounds, it was a pleasant surprise that the singers’ diction was excellent across the board; listeners who understand German will have little difficulty following the text throughout most of the recording.

Stephen Gould (Tristan) and Nina Stemme (Isolde) sing the title roles. Gould’s tenor voice is strong and pleasant throughout, though the tone spreads, and pitch becomes shaky at times when he reaches the top of his range. Stemme’s soprano has a lovely, rich quality in the middle of the treble staff, becoming more spinto at the top of the staff and above. All this said, the singers’ voices work well, both together (especially the Act 2 duet) and alone. In fact, the strongest parts of their performances are the lengthy solo sections in Act 3 – Tristan’s delirium and Isolde’s transfiguration. It may be that the concert setting of this recording removed some of the sense of drama one would expect from a staged version. Tristan’s delirium and Isolde’s transfiguration, however, basically are concert performances, even when done in the context of a staged version. During them, there is little call for action or interaction and, as such, it is unsurprising that they come off so well in the context of this recording.

The other roles include Michelle Breedt (Brangäne), who has a powerful, penetrating chest voice at the bottom of (and below) the staff, but like Stemme, becomes pressed in the high register. Johan Reuter (Kurwenal) and Simon Pauly (Melot) both exhibit characteristic Wagnerian baritone voices (with Pauly perhaps better cast in roles with a slightly lower tessitura). Kwangchul Youn is a stand out as King Marke. His huge, dark bass reminds one of Eric Owens; it’s not hard to imagine Youn making a fantastic Hunding, Hagen or Fafner. That said, Youn does best in forte passages, sometimes losing focus in softer lines. Among the minor roles, Clemens Bieber as the Shepherd has a clear, pleasant voice, but, sadly, Timothy Fallon’s vibrato obscures the pitches comprising the opening sailor’s song. Finally, Eberhard Friedrich deserves praise for the male chorus of the Berlin Radio Choir, which is terrific throughout.

The real star of the show, however, is the orchestra. The Preludes to all three acts are delivered cleanly, particularly the Prelude to Act 1, a brisk rendition that manages the rare feat of executing the opening ‘Tristan-chord’ passages in tempo. Listeners familiar with deeply emotive Wagner recordings from the early and middle twentieth century (one thinks of Solti’s, among others) may find that, in Janowski’s hands, depth of expression has been replaced by technical precision. That said, there are sensitively performed, moving passages – particularly the Prelude to Act 3. On the other hand, listeners bothered by some of the tuning discrepancies, recording quality, and ensemble ‘hairs out of place’ of earlier recordings will no doubt delight in the clarity and consistently good intonation of this one.

A number of the instrumentalists stand out from the ensemble, among them the principal oboe, the clarinets and the low strings. The stopped horn in the first few minutes of Act 2 is more in tune than any performance I’ve heard. And the English horn soloist in Act 3 deserves special mention: Expressive of the forlorn setting, the player’s large, dark tone conjures perfectly the old shepherd’s tune ringing forth from the ruined castle on Brittany’s shores. (One wonders, then, why the decision was made to substitute trumpet for onstage English horn later in the act when Tristan spots Isolde’s ship.)

Maestro Janowski clearly deserves much of the credit here. He manages to coax some truly stunning blending out of Wagner’s innovative – though treacherous – orchestration. One needs only hear the combination of violin and clarinet in the Prelude to Act 3 to realize this; the two instruments are almost indistinguishable. Moreover, only a top-notch musician could manage such a seamless timbral transition from the horns of King Mark’s hunting party to the inward-directed ‘underscoring’ of Isolde’s sound world at the beginning of Act 2 (just after Brangäne’s ‘Ich höre die Hörner Schall!’)

One must also praise Janowski for his pacing in the Act 2 love duet, whose driving, sexual passion needs a different tempo and sense of metric flow than does the same music when it returns at the end of Act 3. The spiritual sublimation that closes the opera is something Janowski handles beautifully. Given his leadership on this recording, I’m interested to hear others from the series, particularly nuanced orchestral passages like the Prelude to Lohengrin, the end of Götterdämmerung and the Prelude to Act 3 of Parsifal.