A Calling-Card of Note: Roland Matthews welcomes a debut Wagner disc from James Rutherford

Review of James Rutherford sings Wagner: Overture, ‘Die Frist ist um’ (Der fliegende Holländer), ‘Blick ich umher’, ‘Wie Todesahnung […] O du mein holder Abendstern' (Tannhäuser), ‘Du fürchterliches Weib!’ (Lohengrin), Flieder and Wahn Monologues, Act III Prelude (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), ‘Ja! Wehe! Wehe! Weh’ über mich!’ (Parsifal), Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music (Die Walküre), conducted Litton, Bergen, 2014 (BIS, 1 hybrid SACD).

November 2014, Volume 8, Number 3, 79–81.

Admirers of the British bass-baritone James Rutherford will have been eagerly anticipating this recital disc which marks the singer’s first recording foray into Wagner. Not that he lacks for stage experience in this repertoire; as well as singing Wolfram and Kurwenal he has already scored a notable success on the continent in the role of Hans Sachs, becoming indeed the youngest singer in Bayreuth’s history to assume the part when he slipped – with commendable ease – into Katharina Wagner’s idiosyncratic production in 2010.