‘Tristan’ Downplayed: John Warner offers his verdict on the West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s 90th birthday celebrations

Review of Tristan und Isolde, conducted Fisch, Perth, 2018 (ABC Classics, 3 CDs).

July 2020, Volume 14, Number 2, 75–8.

Few works have been recorded more extensively than Tristan und Isolde. From historical curiosities such as the wax-cylinder extract from the Met in 1903, to a whole array of ‘classics’ since Furtwängler’s great 1952 studio recording threw down the gauntlet, listeners are spoilt for choice. New recordings therefore need to be something special to have a hope of standing out. This new release from Asher Fisch and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra certainly seems, on the surface, unlikely to rival the likes of Böhm, Kleiber or Furtwängler – titans from the other side of the world, and from a golden age of Wagner recordings; and maybe it won’t, but that’s not to say it isn’t something special.