Wagner's Lohengrin: Kempe or Solti?

[Petrushka]

Lohengrin is the only mature Wagner of which I've never had a recording and only once heard it at all: a Bayreuth relay sometime in the 70's.

I'm now looking to add the work to my collection and have narrowed my choice to either Kempe on EMI or Solti on Decca both with the Vienna Philharmonic.

The recently reissued Kempe has a price advantage and a classic cast but the drawback is a libretto that appears to be on a CD ROM only whereas I want it in booklet form. The Solti will clearly be in modern sound but can Domingo and Norman do the business?

Opinions welcome please even if others recommend something completely different.

[Beef Oven]

Answer = Kempe. That was easy.

.

[Richard Tarleton]

Kempe

Superb cast, VPO, and Kempe. I'd get the libretto some other way!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Kempe (any day as far as I'm concerned) and this:

http://www.rwagner.net/libretti/lohengrin/e-t-lohen.html

... Kubelik is bloody good, too:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Lohengrin-Richard/dp/B0000012Y1/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_img_1_TYH0

[Guest]

Solti by a mile. With him, it's the start of a drama. For RK, it's beautiful music.

[Beef Oven]

Solti by a mile. With him, it's the start of a drama. For RK, it's beautiful music.

Stick-waver!

[BeethovensQuill]

Im going to say Kubelik as well, great recording.

[Parry1912]

Karajan was the BAL choice and very fine it is.

[Beef Oven]

Karajan, Kempe or Kubelik. All great. Solti, no!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It isn't my favourite Wagner opera. I have Solti's recording, which is fine, but I suspect the conductor himself may have left this one until last because he didn't rate it as highly as the others?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Karajan was the BAL choice and very fine it is.

It is indeed. I prefer Kempe and Kubelik but would be very happy if the Karajan were ever to be the only version that came with me to a desert island.

[Keraulophone]

Stick-waver!

Rudolf Kempe also used one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvPl1OPfDcE

You may beef about his Lohengrin, but Sir Georg Solti was, of course, one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century - just like Herr Kempe.

[Flosshilde]

Both?

[Beef Oven]

Rudolf Kempe also used one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvPl1OPfDcE

You may beef about his Lohengrin, but Sir Georg Solti was, of course, one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century - just like Herr Kempe.

I would not be unhappy if my Solti recordings, especially The Ring, were eaten by the dog.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Kempe (any day as far as I'm concerned) and this:
http://www.rwagner.net/libretti/lohe...e-t-lohen.html

Or, better still:

Kempe and this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lohengrin-English-National-Opera-Guide/dp/0714544485/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359817521&sr=1-2#_

£9.83 for the discs, £9 for the book (including full texts and translations, essays, Music examples - and a discography telling you that Kempe hasn't been surpassed ) = £18.83.
(That's £9.26 cheaper than the Solti on its own!)