4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the greatest-ever Meistersinger, March 6, 2010
This review is from: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Schoffler Alsen Bohm (4 CD Box Set) (Preiser) (Audio CD)
This is a serious contender for the greatest operatic recording ever made, and one of the reasons is the astounding difficulty of doing even a good performance of this opera, which in all other recordings fails to sustain, throughout the work's 4+ hours, a continuity of tension and of a sense of forward-motion. Karl Bohm was unsurpassed at achieving such archetectonic unity; and he surpassed himself in this recording, which was the only complete recording he ever made of this joyous masterwork.
The recording starts off with a performance of the famous Prelude, in which Bohm far surpasses any of the other recordings he made of it (such as his widely available Vienna Philharmonic studio recording of Wagner overtures and preludes). From the very first note of this overture, to the opera's glorious final chorus, Bohm and his flawless cast and orchestra convey a joyous nobility, which no other recording of this work comes close to matching.
I would give this performance at least an A+ grade, and no other performance would get an A or even an A-. I'd give a B+ to about 5% of the recorded performances of this work, so I don't think I ought to mention any other performance by name, so outstanding is this performance by Bohm, his orchestra, and cast.
If you know Bohm's Meistersinger performances via any of his recordings of excerpts from this opera, then you'll be surprised here to find that the only recording he ever did of the complete opera was far superior to any of them. Even the miking, and the sound quality, are good in this recording. (Actually, the miking is terrific.)
There is, in my opinion, simply no need for any other recording of this opera, and I don't think that there ever has been since this recording of of this fiendishly difficult-to-conduct work was made in November and December of 1944. All other performances of the work have, in my opinion, been just disappointments, even when the conductor was a great one. Meistersinger unfortunately defeated all conductors, except for Bohm, in this recording, really the only performance to have.
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