Grow or Die

Alio Die knows the sound and this album is an acoustic cathedral, but it could also be the sound of an ancient forest or what is more pure has survived or escaped the implacable vortices of space-time. A pure, charming, superlative album, where Alio Die opens passages, planing, flying through. There is no uncertainty, no swelling, no cracking, the sounds emerge, appear and disappear within a solid soundtrack. Thanks to such dilated sounds the listener sees in the distance. It looks like through a crystal sphere, the trained ear reads messages that Alio Die has received from other worlds thanks to an accustomed sensitivity now capturing in every sound event the sacred and essential.

Recordings of Die Meistersinger do not grow on trees; more than any other of Wagner’s operas it almost defines “festival opera”. Its four-hour-plus length is just the start: Sachs is an incredibly long role, and the character is complicated (moreso, say, that Gurnemanz in Parsifal–another endurance contest–who is religiously tunnel-visioned); Walther’s biggest moment comes at the opera’s very end and simply cannot be anything but great; Eva is sweet without being cloying and while the role is lyrical, it’s not easy to pin down dramatically; Beckmesser must be foolish but not grotesque; the orchestra is huge, and if the chorus, orchestra, and soloists get through the first act finale with flying colors, they still have the second act’s, which is a true challenge for any conductor to keep both together and clear.