MUSICALAMERICA.COM
February 11, 2002

MASUR RETURNS IN TRIUMPH
By Shirley Fleming

Kurt Masur could hardly have chosen a more impressive agenda for his return to the podium of the New York Philharmonic on Thursday, after a three-month absence to undergo a kidney transplant. He had set the dates for the concert performances of major segments of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" long before he knew of the necessity for his absence, and there were some who wondered if he would be able to make it back in such relatively short time after serious surgery. But he did, appearing thinner but energetic; he stood, as usual, during the nearly two-hour concert, which had no intermission.

His players must have been glad to have him back, for the orchestra has never sounded better – unified, radiating tonal sheen, responsive to pinpoint gradations of dynamics and shifts of color. Individual instrument solos came through distinctly without puncturing the overall fabric of orchestral sound, and the entire performance – the Preludes to Acts I and III, the entire Act II, and the "Liebestod" – surged ahead with scarcely a pause for breath. Each episode was carefully shaped, and the performance as a whole, from the minutely gauged opening chords of the Act I Prelude to Isolde's culminating scene, was cohesive yet expansively laid out. (Thomas Stacy's lengthy, unaccompanied Act III English horn solo, it must be said, was a star turn.)

Deborah Voigt took hold of the role of Isolde on Thursday with all the vocal power and intensity one would expect. There seemed no limit to her resources, and even after the lengthy outpouring of earlier episodes, the "Liebestod" piled climax upon climax in unexpected magnitude. In the face of such forcefulness, her Tristan, the experienced Wagnerian Stig Andersen, seemed somehow diminished – not quite the lover for such a powerhouse. His tenor did not project well initially, but he gained in strength as the performance progressed, and the two singers settled comfortably into their duets, striking a nice balance in volume and expressiveness.

Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana, heard in the Met's "Parsifal" as Kundry, proved a commanding and emotionally involved Brangane, projecting easily both from the stage and later from the rear balcony as she keeps watch from the Scene 2 "turret." The veteran bass-baritone Theo Adam, while no longer in vocal prime, nevertheless gave a moving account of King Mark's distress in one of the opera's longest monologues, and Thomas Studebaker's brief contributions as Melot gave promise of fine things to come when he takes on Siegmund with Chicago Lyric next season.

But overall, the night belonged to Kurt Masur and his orchestra. It was a triumphant return for the conductor, and though he will appear on the podium frequently between now and the end of May, when he leaves his post, this "Tristan und Isolde" will probably linger in the ear as his most significant farewell.