Search - Richard Wagner, Hans Knappertsbusch, Hans Hotter :: Wagner - Parsifal / Knappertsbusch

A miracle at Bayreuth

D. J. Edwards | Cheshire, CT United States | 02/04/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Not much more can be added that has not been stated in previous reviews. All that can be added is affirmation of what has been said. This is a masterful performance and all the more so for having been live. I don't think any opera house now or in the future can surpass the cast, chorus, orchestra and conductor, simply because they perform as a seemless ensemble of a pressentation of what is a musical miracle. Kna's performance is beyond classic with all the nuance, shading of color, and sound that is beyond discription. All the majesty, spiritual splendor of this masterful work is present. Hotter gives the performance of a lifetime, a timber that is as rich as the music he sings with heartfelt tone and depth of soul Thomas as Parsifal is melifluous and beautiful in tone and heartfelt in delivery. Dalis is stunning as Kundry, dramatic and shattering as is called for. As Amfortas, London delivers the role with all the anguish and pain of a man who suffers from human weakness and loss. All the performers sing effortlessly and for over four and a half hours of singing this is a wonder in itself. I owned the original LPs which were good, then the first cd set and now the recent incarnation which brings out all the magnificence of the Bayreuth acoustics. Recent Met Parsifal's were excellent but you can only hear them once. We have this performance to cherish as long as there are cd players."

Best Bayreuth sound

Klingsor Tristan | Suffolk | 08/16/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"How do you pick among the growing list of Knappertsbusch readings of this opera from Bayreuth?



Knappertsbusch practically owned the Grail Domain at Bayreuth through the 50s and the first half of the 60s. It was his favourite venue, where he could work, unseen by the audience, in his shirtsleeves under the unique Bayreuth hood that hid him from sight. Any or all of his performances (and more and more of them seem to pop up on disc all the time) are worth hearing.



This one from 1962 sits high on the list. There is a magnificent Gurnemanz from the great Hans Hotter, an impressive Amfortas from Thomas Stewart and a truly malign Klingsor from Neidlinger. Jess Thomas could be a very good actor on stage (I've never seen a Walther who looked more as though he was making up his Prize Song as he went along in Sachs's workshop in Act 3 of Meistersinger). The voice, though, could be a bit tight in its production for my taste. The weak link, and a crucial one, in this performance was Irene Dalis. She's just not a patch on the white-hot Marha Modl in Kna's 1951 performance.



Ah yes. There's the rub. That 1951 performance is something very special. Wagner did not call Parsifal an opera: he called it a Stage Dedication Play. And, at the festival that re-opened Bayreuth after the War, that's exactly what Kanppertsbusch gave us. Even slower speeds, even more intense concentration. And with a cast that always matches, often betters that of '62.



The one thing this recording does have over that older one is the sound, the most accurate representation you'll hear in your living room of the unique Bayreuth sound. And remember, this was the one piece that Wagner wrote with the experience of that sound in his mind. For that as well as for a great (though not the greatest) interpretation, this recording is well worth trying.

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The best of Bayreuth

Jim Player | Rochester, NY, USA | 01/09/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the ever growing world of live recordings from the Bayreuth Festival, this 1962 Parsifal is probably the best as a whole. In no other recording is the unique Bayreuth sound so well captured as it is here (it's too bad that the recordings of Lohengrin and Tannhäuser from the same year (both also on Philips) aren't available domestically!) Knappertbusch was THE supreme conductor of Parsifal, and his performances were one of the highlights of the festival for years. Here he is flawless, leading with perfect pacing and balance, setting the standard for how it should be done. Though this performance is a full 20 minutes shorter than his equally famous 1951 reading, tempos are hardly ever rushed (there are one or two spots where I wish he had eased back just a hair). With a better orchestra than in '51, a chorus at it's legendary best, and far better engineering, Kna pretty much broke the mold on what the perfect Parsifal should be!In the title role, Jess Thomas sings with restraint and intelligence, the top notes ringing out perfectly without the typical steely baritonal tenor voice we hear so often. He is surely one of the finest Parsifals on record, although top honors belongs to Jon Vickers two years later.Irene Dalis may not be the most profound or tortured of Kundrys, but vocally she is up for the task and does just fine.George London is superior dramatically to his '51 performance, albeit with some strain from a bit of wear and tear.Neidlinger is, as John Egolf wrote, "his usual maniacal self"...but what can one expect from a lusty self-castrated grail knight forced into exile with Kundry as his sole companion??The supporting roles are all taken by a who's who of veteran singers...Talvela, Stolze, Janowitz, Silja, Nienstedt et al., and all of them are wonderful!Top honors surely belongs to the great bass-baritone Hans Hotter, here at what turned out to be the mid point of his career. Anyone who has heard Hotter substantially in live recordings knows how varied his singing could be due to his respiratory ailments, but here he is at his Bayreuth best. Unfairly criticized for being a baritone singing a bass role (he had been singing roles such as Boris, the Grand Inquisitor and Marke all through the 50's), Hotter gives, as Deryk Cooke says "the performance of his life", adding the abundance of vocal color and nuance that only a master of German Lied could offer. This is truly on of the best Gurnemanz's on record.The chorus is as about ideal as one could hope for, and they are so perfectly recorded by the Philips engineers.With all the Bayreuth Parsifals appearing on CD, there may be a few better moments here and there, but as a whole, between performers and technicians, there will probably never be a better recording."