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Just listening to Victor Braun's Wolfram - yes; he has a fast vibrato but many predecessors had the same and he doesn't wobble - that's usually associated with a slow, laboured pulse -and his intonation and expression are fine. Likewise, I really like Dernesch as Elisabeth, just as I enjoy her Isolde for Karajan - she similarly has a fast
vibrato and her singing is vibrant and powerful - so sorry; I have to disappoint you by sticking to my guns.


Fair enough. For me, that pressed Vibrato ruins Wolfram. Or really any part. It's just not the kind of singing that I ever learned to abide. (In my head, especially if it gets pressed and even faster than Braun's, here, I call it the Erika Koeth-Memorial-Vibrato, based on her atrocious performance in the "Gala-Fledermaus" w/Karajan (Decca), where she sounds like an electrocuted sheep.)

If it weren't for the bloody glorious orchestral treatment of Solti's and the sound, it might just ruin the whole thing for me. (Sotin is a close call, too, but he also has real beauty to offer, in a few spots. Ditto Dernesch, come to think of it.) But then my Wolfram-tastes veer heavily in the direction of Christian Gerhaher. No vibrato whatsoever. Sung as if it were Lied. Hence my love (well, hardly the only reason) for the Konwitschny-Tannhaeuser.

Cheers & best,

Jens