Marek Janowski Wagner Opera Cycle series

“Janowski's casting aims at getting an audible distinction between each voice...Both women have the measure of their words...while Robert Dean Smith - apparently a late substitute - continues to develop with a passionate assault on the fiendish title-role. Swift tempi and light orchestral/choral textures...complete a potentially exciting live performance...but the lack of understood drama behind Janowski's conducting gets in the way.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2013

“Janowski keeps the score, which has some longueurs, moving and builds up impressive climaxes in each act...Prudenskaya, though her enunciation is vague, is adequately sexy...Stemme sound[s] too heroic for the part...but she makes an impression. All told I would say that this is the best recording since that made in Bayreuth in 1962.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ****

“this finds [Stemme] at her glorious peak, making much more of the text than in her previous recordings. She now stands proud as the leading Isolde and Brünnhilde of her generation and an interpreter to rank with her greatest predecessors on disc...[Gould] is probably the darkest-voiced contemporary interpreter of the exhausting part, and he is tireless and touching, if not always tonally alluring.” Sunday Times, 4th November 2012

“Tristan confirms Nina Stemme as the Isolde de nos jours. She and Stephen Gould are at their best in the Act 2 love duet, which obliges them to sing lyrically. Gould’s Tristan is otherwise rough and ready.” Financial Times, 5th January 2013 ***

“Janowski demands heroic efforts in speed and intensity. He favours a swift performance, and in this live Tristan that means more excitement than emotion. Soprano Nina Stemme is the ranking Isolde of our time; she has a beautiful voice and paces herself perfectly. But I can't hear much passion in the delivery.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 ***

“It is something of a miracle that a recording of Tristan and Isolde as accomplished as this one can emerge from a single concert performance…It is highly dramatic, tremendously well sustained and very well recorded, so that the mighty structure and the richly blended textures emerge with unusual clarity and immediacy.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013

“The shimmering “holy” textures of [the Act I prelude is] evidence of the sonorous string culture of this Berlin band, as remarkable as that of its Rattle- and Barenboim-led rivals. Janowski is a master Wagnerian, but his swift tempi and propulsive momentum are the antithesis of Barenboim’s more spacious Wagner.” Sunday Times, 15th July 2012

“As early as the Prelude the quality of the audio shines: the separation of the strings is spotless and crystal-clear...the music, as it should, shimmers in mid air. And so it goes throughout the performance...[Vogt’s] singing is outstandingly beautiful and sensitive, and you get used to the small-but-gleaming sound after a while...Lohengrin is supposed to be otherworldy, and Vogt’s sound certainly is.” Classics Today

“Janowski has matured into the most reliably impressive Wagner conductor of our time...[Vogt] has a lovely voice, though it occasionally sounds thin; but he is expressive, intelligent and convincing. So is his Elsa, soprano Annette Dasch. The villains match them, especially mezzo-soprano Susanne Resmark as Ortrud, who calls on the pagan gods with thrilling panache...I await the rest of the Pentatone series with impatience.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 *****

“This is a Lohengrin to be listened to in Bruckner mode: revel in the sound of chorus and orchestra and put up with the voices, though I am sure some will react differently to Vogt's Lohengrin.” International Record Review, September 2012

“[Dasch] is the ne plus ultra in slim-sounding, girlish Elsas. But it sounds and works so beautifully...[Vogt's] understanding of the part triumphs, there is much lovely quieter singing and he is able to bring special atmosphere to the Grail narration...Resmark is pushed at times by the tessitura...but gives such a firecracker Ortrud that no one should care...There's a terrifyingly long list of worthwhile Lohengrin recordings, to which this newcomer is a serious competitor” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012

“the set is beautifully engineered, and the presentation immaculate” The Guardian, 29th March 2012 ****

“It has spontaneity of something which has sunk so deeply into the performers' minds and souls that they can throw caution to the wind and still be accurate...Elsner is a wonderfully sensitive and expressive Parsifal...But the strongest performance of all is the Amfortas of Evgeny Nikitin...If Janowski's planned cycle...continues like this, it will unquestionably be the finest modern traversal on disc of Wagner's achievement.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 *****

“The strongest contributions come from Evgeny Nikitin’s Amfortas and Eike Wilm Schulte’s Klingsor.” Financial Times, 26th May 2012 ***

“The Parsifal strikes me as one of the finest on disc, easily the best of the past decade, with an avuncular, Sachs-like Gurnemanz in Franz-Josef Selig, an exciting Kundry in Michelle DeYoung, Evgeny Nikitin’s noble, anguished Amfortas (better than in 2010’s Gergiev/Mariinsky set) and, best of all, Christian Elsner’s ideally lyrical and heroic Parsifal.” Sunday Times, 15th July 2012

“Familiar tropes from previous concerts in this all-Wagner series resurface. Pacing is generally quite quick. Casting and characterisation are naturalistic, apparently written by Wagner. Gurnemanz (Selig) sounds like an inquisitive old squire rather than a retired Wotan waiting to unearth the secrets of the universe. Parsifal (Elsner) is a rough, innocent outsider instead of the chosen one in embryo.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012

“Janowski's approach is pointedly symphonic...[Elsner] proves an inspired choice as Parsifal, dark-toned yet lyrical...DeYoung delivers what is by some margin her most compelling performance to date...She pins you to your seat with her description of her alter ego laughing at Christ...All told, this is a Parsifal - in modern sound - to rank with some of the great performances on disc.” International Record Review, September 2012

“the first benefit that strikes the listener is the quality of the recorded sound... This is matched by a vivid performance from the orchestra, who have played Wagner brilliantly throughout this cycle so far...Selig is outstanding, anchoring the whole set with gravitas and weight. He sings not only with authority but with outstanding beauty...Nikitin is outstanding at evoking sympathy...DeYoung’s Kundry is outstanding because she gets inside both aspects of the role.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“these performances sound polished and well cast, revealing diaphanous beauty and detail in the orchestration...Parsifal is distinguished by Franz-Josef Selig’s majestic Gurnemanz” Financial Times, 5th January 2013 ***

“[a good Meistersinger] should show teamwork among the soloists and a good balance between the conversational style of much of the singing and the grandeur of the orchestral accompaniment. On that basis, this recording...is the most successful ever made. It is a phenomenal achievement of Marek Janowski to have welded his immense forces into such a virtually flawless unity, and to imbue it with incessant vitality and energy.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 *****

“a swift, light, comic reading of the score, more Lortzing than Tristan...Albert Dohmen sounded at home across the whole spectrum of Sachs's poetry, wistfulness and wit....Henschel essays a Beckmesser who can be all of pompous, weird, a credible vocalist in both serenade and prize song to Eva - and funny....Janowski's achievement is to have recreated a genuine comic feel for the piece.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“[Janowski] never imposes any superfluous heaviness on the score; his Meistersinger breathes naturally, brimming with compelling drama and homogenous humour...Dohmen exudes commanding authority tempered with avuncular softness, his gloriously rich and mellifluous voice never strained. Edith Haller's relatively light, creamy Eva is delightful...a winning Meistersinger that more than holds its own with any in the catalogue.” Graham Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 13th February 2012

“Die Meistersinger is essentially an ensemble piece, and Janowski never lets you forget this...Occasionally, in Sachs's big phrases, Dohmen has to push his voice, but, overall, his Sachs is one of the successes of the set...Another big success is Peter Sonn's youthful and verbally agile David...As Pogner, Georg Zeppenfeld sports one of the finest German basses of his generation and the most beautiful male voice on the set.” International Record Review, February 2012

“Recorded live in Berlin, the orchestra and the splendid Radio Chorus are the most impressive elements...The veteran Matti Salminen is still a formidable Daland, but Albert Dohmen’s intelligent Dutchman and Ricarda Merbeth’s committed Senta sound vocally worn and stretched.” Sunday Times, 11th September 2011

“Here is charm, wit and even kitsch alongside the spooky but never overdone drama. The recording is also first-rate in warmth, immediacy and clarity...the best all-round modern performance of the opera and a good nod towards the original-instrument version of this edition of the score we still need.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011

“Janowski's conducting is crisp and fleet-footed, shaping the music naturally and fluently...[Dohmen] is a warm anti-hero, but too soft-grained to sound demonically desperate. Matti Salminen's Daland is vocally worn but still amazing for his age. Vocal honours, though, go to Ricarda Merbeth's keen, nervy Senta, and the two tenors...also the clean-cut chorus, which is reasonably dramatically involved.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ****

“It is astonishing that veteran Matti Salminen...can still shine as Daland...but his is the star voice here. Robert Dean Smith gives good value, too, in the tricky role of Erik...Steve Davislim is something of a catch as a lyrically sung Steersman...Janowksi's conducting has a momentum and a sense of abstract theatre which can take the breath away. I won't be jettisoning my allegiances, however, to the older conductors' singers.” International Record Review, November 2011