Originally posted by waldo
View Post
-
White cat in a snow-drift?"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
-
-
Originally posted by Caliban View Post
"The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
-
My limited experience of the work has been of heavy , dreary performances of an unappealing story .
Listening to the BAL the Kubelik sounded refreshingly different - but whoever said it was a performance for those who don't like Wagner might be right - I struggle with all but Tristan and Die Walkure .Comment
-
Wasn't it Camelot (the musical) that Coward likened to "Parsifal but without the laughs"?Comment
-
-
Had second thoughts about a snooty post and couldn't seem to delete it. The dots are what remained of my invective.Originally posted by Caliban View Post
As for Parsifal, I have been after this Kubelik set for ages, but not willing to fork out forty quid just yet. Currently split my listening between Thielemann (wonderful set, though Waltraud Meier is in full scream mode most of the time), Karajan (fabulous singing) and Barenboim (maybe his best Wagner recording). Haven't got much joy out of the sacred cow sets of the golden past (including Kna): far too much wobbly shouting for my liking. In my Kna set (1962, I think), Hotter sounds as if he has just run for the bus and is ready to keel over, one hand pressed to his wheezing, old-man chest.
As for videos, I have never seen a better or more moving version than the 2012 from Bayreuth. The whole thing was on youtube in HD for quite a while, but seems to have gone now.......maybe it is out there somewhere. Anyway, here is a taste....Comment
-
Thanks, Vinteuil. I will have a look......Comment
-
Sorry Petrushka, missed your question until now.Originally posted by Petrushka View Post
The 1964 Bayreuth performance has been in my collection for a very long time. Long before Orfeo issued it in excellent broadcast sound. (Mono - BR did not go into stereo broadcasts until 1966).
This was Kna's last ever performance at Bayreuth (13 August 1964), and it is as if he knew it. Although he died in October 1965, he was too ill to return that year.
So this is his final statement and in many ways it is his best. Certainly as far as Act 3 goes. I don't think there is a performance with more commitment in all his years at Bayreuth than this - Messrs Hotter, Vickers and Stewart are with him all the way. (I have every Parsifal broadcast on from 1951 to 1964 so can compare)
Hotter sings magnificently as he did in the 1962 (Philips) performance, but he is also carried along with the feeling of something extraordinary taking place - It is without doubt his finest portrayal of Gurnemanz under Kna.
The next great sadness (and joy) is that this wonderful performance was the final appearance ever of Jon Vickers at the Bayreuth Festival. He declined to return in 1965 as Eric, and with the death of Wieland shortly after, his reason to return was gone. Was there ever a better interpreter of this role? I doubt it. I saw Vickers sing this role in the 60s at CG and under Goodall also at CG, and the short life of the CG Heritage CD release of the Goodall was the only other recorded example of Vickers in this, one of his signature roles. The searing pain of his "Rette mich...." in Act 2 having been kissed by Kundry has never been equaled.
His singing with Hotter in Act 3 is reason enough to buy this CD set. One will never hear their like again. The other great interpreters of the role (Windgassen, King and recently Kaufmann) do not stand comparison against him
Thomas Stewart sings superbly as Amfortas and Barbro Erikson as Kundry is the only member of the cast not to reach the heights on this evening. She is not bad, in fact, we would be glad of having her around today rather than what was heard at CG last week.
So to sum up. It is a performance for the ages. It all happened live, with no inserts ect for mistakes as was the case with the 1951 and 1962 Bayreuth commercial issues (As great as they are).The orchestra and chorus perform as one comes to expect at a Bayreuth Festival. Wilhelm Pitz was the greatest C/M Bayreuth ever had.
No one had a better understanding of this Opera than Knappertsbusch, who began his Parsifal quest assisting Hans Richter and Siegfried Wagner at Bayreuth after WW1.
How anyone, no matter his or her own preferences, can dismiss this man's interpretations, is beyond me. He began conducting the work in the 1920s at Munich, while the composer's wife and son were still around to pass on First Hand, the composer's own intentions, so I consider this to be as authentic as it gets! It really is Historically informed!Comment
-
Many thanks for your eloquent and erudite review of Kna's final Parsifal, slarty - a minor masterpiece in itself
Comment
-
Well, I'm listening to the Kubelik on R3 now, and:
[a] to my ears Weikl's Amfortas suffering? Angry yes, maudlin, yes, but suffering? Hmm.
[b] No reaction from chorus on opening the coffin of Titurel to find him truly dead. A small point, I suppose. In Schirmer we have: 'alles in einen jahen Weh ruf aus"
[c] James King's intonation slips notably here and there, AND unusually, he does not follow the score marking pp for the orchestra at 'offnet den schrein', but belts it out ff. Most Parsifals I have heard float the final E. A matter of choice?
For me, this comes nowhere near the rapt commitment of Kollo/Chorus/ Vienna Boys /VPO under Solti.
Have the Kna 1951, and 1964 Orfeo: on Kubelik King is not in any shape or form anywhere near Vickers's class as Parsifal nor Kollo's understated intensity for Solti, ditto Weikl as against Thomas Stewart and esp D-Fieskau, and Hotter's avuncular, troubled old man Gurnemanz is deeply moving as is Frick for Solti.
The more I listen to other versions, the more nonplussed I am by the BAL final verdict.Last edited by DracoM; 16-12-13, 13:18.Comment
-
Barenboim's Teldec set was the choice when Parsifal was last assessed. It didn't seem to figure on this occasion.
It's a performance that has given me much pleasure over the years but Holle's Gurnemanz isn't of the quality of the others mentioned. And I find the sound quality no more than adequate. Before I changed to cds, Karajan was my choice; a better Gurnemanz and better recording quality.
I've just been listening to the Kubelik extract on Cowan's programme; it sounded light-weight to me.Comment
-
Many thanks to Slarty and Draco for their detailed and helpful posts. I have the Karajan and probably don't want another, but you have set off in me a yearning for the Kna 64!Comment
-
... yes, after Slarty's and Draco's posts it's hard to resist the temptation!Originally posted by silvestrione View PostComment
Comment