Customer Reviews

Wagner - Parsifal / Knappertsbusch

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

One of the absolutely finest performances of any opera you are EVER likely to hear. All the singers are fantastic, with voices to die for. Here, they give their prodigious best. The sound is clear, including the choruses and the orchestra. A little audience noise appears here and there, but if you can't overlook that in a performance like this, then why are you bothering? The other reviewers cover the individual accomplishments much better than I can- listen to them, because they got it right on the money. Hotter, Thomas, Talvela and all the others sound both god-like and very vulnerable and human. The cast is unbeatable. This is possibly the finest recording ever made of any opera. I never thought I'd say anything good about Parsifal, but this recording was a revelation of the power and majesty and humanity of this latest of Wagner's operas. Buy this!

It's the definitive recording; better than '51. Unfortunately, the original Phillips five LP set was an audio debacle: maybe one of the worst (most shallow) pressings ever released by a major label. I have that original set as proof. But it was later remastered, and the sound just shimmers. The Act One Vorspiel, remarkably urgent for Kna, glows, the balances just right. Hotter considers this his best recorded performance, with few traces of the asthmatic struggles he suffered 3 years later in the Solti "Walkure." George London has a raspy edge, a vocal bite that works perfectly: "Erbarmen -- ach Erbarmen!" Neidlinger is his usual maniacal self. While Jess Thomas and Irene Dallis are surprisingly marked-down, introverted, yet psychologically perfect for the marked-down ambience of the Festspielhaus.

I have eight versions of Parsifal on CD and another two on video tape, but none of the others comes close to this recording (I have it on an earlier Philips release). The cast is perfect, the conducting is superb and the Bayreuth orchestra is, as always, top-notch. If you only own one Parsifal recording, this is the one to have.

I have gone through eight - nine recordings of Parsifal. Boulez, Levine, Kna '51, Karajan, etc. When I first heard this recording it was obvious that this was the best. In a huge opera like Parsival there's always mistakes, audience noise and other stuff that annoys the listener. But in this recording there surprisingly little of anything like that. In the prelude few coughs can be heard and that's it. The tempi of Kna is pedestrian as always but not as bad as in the '51 recording. Kna is consistent throughout the score, keeping the form of the opera intact. The Bayreuth orchestra is just brialliant. Clear, sonorous, well balanced - there is no 'soltiness' in horns in this recording.

The cast is excellent. Though Parsival is supposed to be the central character in the opera, to me Gurnemanz of Hans Hotter is the real centerpiece of this performance. Wonderful, deep voice of Hotter is commanding and loud but exact - a perfect Gurnemanz. Jess Thomas as Parsival is great, I especially like the performance of the second act, even though I would have liked to hear Jon Vickers in this recording. Talvela's voice as the dying king Titurel is heart-breakingly beautiful -- and this was his debut in the Bayreuth. Kundry, flower maidens, Klingsor, the supporting cast everyone is up to their role. Neidlinger as Klingsor and London as Amfortas are both professional but maybe not rising to their best performances in these roles. Don't get me wrong though, both are excellent and worth five stars.

Knappertsbusch 1962 live recording of Parsifal at Bayreuth is unbeleivable. The sound is surprinsingly excelent. The cast is great (specially Hans Hotter and George London). But the pace, the emotion, the insightful reading by Kna are simply unique. Listening to this recording of Parsifal will make you rediscover this great work. Don't miss it!

I'm often skeptical of rave reviews and generally end up feeling disappointed once I have a chance to listen. This recording is an exception. The sound is excellent for an older recording and the performance is spectacular. In fact, I just can't stop listening to these four CDs of Wagner's Parsifal. Knappertsbush does a fine job conducting the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. The cast is phenomenal. Just put the CD in your stereo, sit back and close your eyes, and you're transported to the wonderful sound of the Bayreuth opera house. I've been recommending this recording to all my Wagner-loving friends. What a find!

This is easily the Parsifal to recommend. Aficionados will want to try some of the many other Kna recordings, and there are other fine performances out there, but this is surely the best combination. This is one of recordings that truly brings out the unique sound of the Festspielhaus and its blending of voices and orchestra. The cast is uniformly top-flight, with special honors to the poetic Gurnemanz of Hans Hotter. Listening to Parsifal requires a good Gurnemanz, and while Hotter may get slightly wobbly near the top of the staff, he makes up for it with his complete control of phrasing. London is a tortured Amfortas, Dalis a sonorous Kundry (a role which benefits from her mezzo timbre), and Thomas sings Parsifal with a much-appreciated ease in voice. Any Parsifal depends heavily on its conductor, and here Kna was the king. Most of the opera is at a slow tempo, and it takes a real understanding of the score not to lose the line. The tempos may actually be very slow, but they never feel slow and dragging. In summary, if you want to know Parsifal, it might be good to see a video first (to get some idea of the essential visual aspect), but get this recording.