Wagner: Parsifal

“…a great Parsifal from a conductor who had lived with it for years...” Gramophone Magazine, Janurary 2008

“The (to date) 11 released recordings of Hans Knappertsbusch's Parsifal performances at Bayreuth between 1951 and 1964 constitute a unique record of one conductor's work on a favoured score in a single theatre. By 1942 'Kna' had logged up over 90 performances in a number of venues of a work he first led when he was 25, but after 1951 he would only conduct it in Bayreuth. Technical gremlins in Bavarian Radio's transmission of the 1964 first night led to its being replaced by a recording of the present performance, the last night of the run. It was not only Kna's last ever Parsifal, it was to be his last ever public performance.
Thirteen years of performances saw changes to Knappertsbusch's shaping of the score which were as subtle but as continuous as those taking place in the seminal Wieland Wagner stage production which it accompanied. Compare the original 1951 recording (Decca, now Naxos): if the basic tempi remain slow, the pulse is much more sharply defined and the much-commented weight has been replaced by a colourful plasticity which is almost Debussian. Also, rather like an extended version of Walküre Act 1, there is now only one real climax in the whole interpretation.
'Be off with you now and let's have a good Good Friday Spell', the conductor apparently told Hans Hotter in an interval conversation – and they did, with a monumental strike (shattering timpani, shining brass, thrilling precision from Gurnemanz) at the launch of the scene on the holy meadow.
The performance is also vital for its preservation of Jon Vickers's Parsifal. In his second appearance on the Green Hill the Canadian tenor mixes great strength and great beauty of voice to an almost platonic ideal in the tricky Act 2 dialogue with Kundry. Here what can sound like sermonising becomes passionate, convincing rhetoric. Hotter's Gurnemanz, in its range of inflections and illuminating line readings a close cousin of his Wotan, has ripened too since the widely circulated Philips reading of 1962.
Thomas Stewart took over Amfortas this year from George London, reaching frightening heights of persecution mania in his last confrontation with the brethren in Act 3.
As with the predecessors in their 'official' Bayreuth series, Orfeo has denied us some of the 'live' atmosphere with its scrubbing and cleaning up of the original radio recording. It is also transferred at rather a low volume. However, forced into a ridiculous choice between 'Kna' Parsifals, this stands alongside the 1954 version (Archipel, his return to the Green Hill after an enforced year off) as the ranking interpretations from this maestro.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The (to date) 11 released recordings of Hans Knappertsbusch's Parsifal performances at Bayreuth between 1951 and 1964 constitute a unique record of one conductor's work on a favoured score in a single theatre. By 1942 'Kna' had logged up over 90 performances in a number of venues of a work he first led when he was 25, but after 1951 he would only conduct it in Bayreuth. Technical gremlins in Bavarian Radio's transmission of the 1964 first night led to its being replaced by a recording of the present performance, the last night of the run. It was not only Kna's last ever Parsifal, it was to be his last ever public performance.
Thirteen years of performances saw changes to Knappertsbusch's shaping of the score which were as subtle but as continuous as those taking place in the seminal Wieland Wagner stage production which it accompanied. Compare the original 1951 recording (Decca, now Naxos): if the basic tempi remain slow, the pulse is much more sharply defined and the much-commented weight has been replaced by a colourful plasticity which is almost Debussian. Also, rather like an extended version of Walküre Act 1, there is now only one real climax in the whole interpretation.
'Be off with you now and let's have a good Good Friday Spell', the conductor apparently told Hans Hotter in an interval conversation – and they did, with a monumental strike (shattering timpani, shining brass, thrilling precision from Gurnemanz) at the launch of the scene on the holy meadow.
The performance is also vital for its preservation of Jon Vickers's Parsifal. In his second appearance on the Green Hill the Canadian tenor mixes great strength and great beauty of voice to an almost platonic ideal in the tricky Act 2 dialogue with Kundry. Here what can sound like sermonising becomes passionate, convincing rhetoric. Hotter's Gurnemanz, in its range of inflections and illuminating line readings a close cousin of his Wotan, has ripened too since the widely circulated Philips reading of 1962.
Thomas Stewart took over Amfortas this year from George London, reaching frightening heights of persecution mania in his last confrontation with the brethren in Act 3.
As with the predecessors in their 'official' Bayreuth series, Orfeo has denied us some of the 'live' atmosphere with its scrubbing and cleaning up of the original radio recording. It is also transferred at rather a low volume. However, forced into a ridiculous choice between 'Kna' Parsifals, this stands alongside the 1954 version (Archipel, his return to the Green Hill after an enforced year off) as the ranking interpretations from this maestro.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The pre-eminent conductor of Wagner's final opera is highly persuasive, and though the soloists do not quite match his 1951 ensemble there are exceptional contributions, notably from Hotter.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2006 ****

“...arguably the finest live recording ever made in the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth, with outstanding singing from Jess Thomas as Parsifal and Hans Hotter as Gurnemanz. Though Knappertsbusch chooses consistently slow tempi there is no sense of excessive squareness or length, so intense is the concentration of the performance.” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“Windgassen sing[s] with warmth as well as power and mak[es] other Heldentenors seem rough by comparison...the orchestral texture is full and pleasing, the sense of atmosphere is palpable, voices come over well, and the chorus is well caught.” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“Communion, musical and spiritual, is what this intensely beautiful Karajan set provides. The playing of the Berlin Orchestra is consistently beautiful, near to the atmospheric ideal. A superb achievement.” Penguin Guide

“...in its glowing beauty, Karajan's Parsifal comes closest to the ideal of Schopenhauerian or Buddhist renunciation of will that the opera itself may strive towards.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010

“In most respects this is the most perfect, atmospheric Parsifal yet committed to disc or cassette. Admitting the vocal imperfections, few as they are, the set attempts an artistic, or at least technical superiority which it fairly achieves.” Gramophone Magazine, 1981

“Karajan's Parsifal seems to grow in stature as an interpretation on each rehearing; on its CD transfer it appears to have acquired a new depth, in terms of sound, because of the greater range of the recording and the greater presence of both singers and orchestra. As in practically all cases, CD offers a more immediate experience. Karajan's reading, a trifle stodgy in Act 1, grows in intensity and feeling with the work itself, reaching an almost terrifying force in the Prelude to Act 3 which is sustained to the end of the opera. Moll's Gurnemanz is a deeply expressive, softly moulded performance of notable beauty. Vejzovic, carefully nurtured by Karajan, gives the performance of her life as Kundry. Hofmann's tone isn't at all times as steady as a Parsifal's should be, but he depicts the character's anguish and eventual serenity in his sincere, inward interpretation. Van Dam is a trifle too placid as Amfortas, but his singing exhibits admirable power and fine steadiness. Nimsgern is the epitome of malice as Klingsor. The choral singing doesn't have quite the confidence of the superb orchestral playing, which has both qualities of Keats's imagining of beauty and truth in abundance.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010