It is rather extraordinarily more than twenty years since I last heard Sir Simon Rattle conduct Wagner (Parsifal at the Proms) so this ‘An Evening of Wagner’ was a great opportunity to hear him in this music. Effectively a homage to Götterdämmerung – with Siegfried Idyll thrown in for good measure – it is absolutely clear that Rattle’s Wagnerian instincts are near faultless on many levels, clearly well-honed in Munich where he has been recording Der Ring des Nibelungen with his Bavarian orchestra. High on drama, often visceral on impact, with near faultless orchestral execution, this was Wagner which touched the heavens. Calibrated to be narratively logical, only some of the singing took the gloss off what was high octane Wagner – some of the best I have heard in London in recent years in fact.
Götterdämmerung has in many ways, despite its effective drama and most compelling action, often eluded me in a way that Siegfried never has. In many ways some of the greatest music of The Ring is to be found in the last of the four operas, and there is a pronounced orchestral timbre to it which isn’t always encountered elsewhere; hence why Götterdämmerung is so easily transferred to the concert hall. Opening with ‘Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey (Prologue)’, Rattle treated the music as a mini tone poem with gorgeous textures from the strings (divided violins, magnificently evocative) – if one wanted the red glow of sunrise then it was here to listen to it. As the music swelled intensely, daylight broke – and swept into the scene of Brünnhilde and Siegfried in their rapturous love scene, as full of potency and ardour as one could have wished for.
It was inspired to play the orchestral scene linking through to Waltraute’s plea to Brünnhilde rather than just segue directly into it – continuity was everything here. This pivotal scene has Waltraute visiting her sister alone on the rock where she brings news from Valhalla: Wotan has returned to Valhalla, his spear shattered and his power waning. He has ordered the ash tree to be felled, and its branches piled up around Valhalla as firewood. Waltraute tells her sister that she can lift Alberich’s curse by returning the ring that she wears to the Rhinemaidens and tries to convince Brünnhilde that she should relinquish the ring for the benefit of the gods. Her plea falls on deaf ears. Now mortal, Brünnhilde refuses to part with the ring given to her by Siegfried. Despondent, Waltraute leaves and a storm rises up in the forest.
This long scene was ravishingly done by the American mezzo Elizabeth DeShong as Waltraute who had the velvety, plush tones of a stentorian Wagnerian heroine: her chest register was magnificent, pitch perfect, and in the long monologue “Höre mit Sinn, was ich dir sage!” delivered the kind of compelling narration which made her electrifying to listen to. Less sure of herself, more often overwhelmed by the orchestra (or simply fading in and out from time to time) was the German soprano Anja Kampe’s Brünnhilde; if not quite asleep on the rock, she often sounded as if she had barely woken from slumber so fragile was some of her singing – and intelligence of diction matters and Kampe was a poor second to the exquisite clarity of expression which DeShong was so careful to sing. Rattle and the LSO were magnificent.
After the interval came two orchestral pieces of an entirely different scale: Siegfried Idyll and ‘Siegfried’s Funeral March’. One of the most famous of all Christmas presents, Siegfried Idyll (written for just 13 instruments) was given a sublime performance – just set back enough on the stage to resonate with warmth of tone and beguiling fantasy. Some performances can draw out this music to unfathomable lengths – but Rattle and his players kept the music pacing nicely along at some 17 or so minutes (perhaps a tad swift for some, but ideal for this writer). At the other extreme, Rattle and the LSO gave a towering performance of ‘Siegfried’s Funeral Music’ that had visceral, devastating power to it. With pyroclastic force horns and brass were astonishingly gripping in their cumulative force and the LSO strings had uncommon depth (especially the cellos and basses). If this is music that should make you shudder, then the performance here worked – and it was resolute in doing so.
Anja Kampe returned for the final work on the program, ‘Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene’. Here she was remarkably more secure than she had been for Waltraute’s Plea – the voice both larger, and her pitch more on key. Intelligence of diction was still a problem for me, however – even if some words (“keiner Eide”, for example) were almost over-emphasised. Still, there was no doubting the projection of the role, although she sometimes relied more on the score than one might have wished for. The last bars – that great orchestral swell that closes the opera – were tremendously done by Rattle and the LSO.
A memorable concert, not least for the outstanding conducting of Simon Rattle and the sublime playing of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Marc Bridle
An Evening of Wagner:
Excerpts from Götterdämmerung and Siegfried Idyll.
Anja Kampe (Brünnhilde), Elizabeth DeShong (Waltraute), London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
Barbican Hall, London, 24 May 2026
Photos: © Mark Allan