BaL 14.12.13 - Wagner's Parsifal

[Thropplenoggin]

I concur. Slarty and Draco's posts are wonderful examples of what makes these boards far more intellectually engaging than a copy of latter day Gramophone .

My only gripe is that 'Kna' '51 and '62 never seem to come down in price.

Could someone please provide a link to the best version of his '64 account?

--

EDIT. This must be the one you mean: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Parsi...ch+parsifal+64

[slarty]

I concur. Slarty and Draco's posts are wonderful examples of what makes these boards far more intellectually engaging than a copy of latter day Gramophone .

My only gripe is that 'Kna' '51 and '62 never seem to come down in price.

Could someone please provide a link to the best version of his '64 account?

link to 1951 (less than 7 quid)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parsifal-Geo...rds=B0065VTHDO
this is a cheap knock-off, but decent never the less - for under 7 pounds!!!

link to 1964 (29 pounds)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Parsi...knappertsbusch
This is the Orfeo with lots of production info - official release - excellent.

Can't find a cheap version of the 1962 except in the Great Wagner Operas from Bayreuth -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Great-Operas-Bayreuth-Festival/dp/B00159679S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1387202862&sr=8-4&keywords=Great+Wagner

which is going for 47 pounds for 33 discs - all the Philips/DGG stereo performances
1961 Holländer
1962 Tannhäuser and Lohengrin and the 1962 PARSIFAL
1966-67 RING Karl Böhm
1966 Tristan
1974 Meistersinger

A Ridiculous price for 33 discs when the cheapest at the moment for the Parsifal alone is 25 pounds or so.

[Thropplenoggin]

link to 1951 (less than 7 quid)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parsifal-Geo...rds=B0065VTHDO
this is a cheap knock-off, but decent never the less - for under 7 pounds!!!

link to 1964 (29 pounds)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Parsi...knappertsbusch
This is the Orfeo with lots of production info - official release - excellent.

Can't find a cheap version of the 1962 except in the Great Wagner Operas from Bayreuth -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Great-Operas-Bayreuth-Festival/dp/B00159679S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1387202862&sr=8-4&keywords=Great+Wagner

which is going for 47 pounds for 33 discs - all the Philips/DGG stereo performances
1961 Holländer
1962 Tannhäuser and Lohengrin and the 1962 PARSIFAL
1966-67 RING Karl Böhm
1966 Tristan
1974 Meistersinger

A Ridiculous price for 33 discs when the cheapest at the moment for the Parsifal alone is 25 pounds or so.

Thanks, Slarty. A very helpful reply.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Can't find a cheap version of the 1962 except in the Great Wagner Operas from Bayreuth -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Great...s=Great+Wagner

Sadly, madly, the Parsifal in this set is Levine's Bayreuth Digital recording, not Kna's.

[Thropplenoggin]

I wonder if there is any difference of remastering quality between the cheap version of the '51 slarty links to above, and the one on Naxos Historical?

[slarty]

Sadly, madly, the Parsifal in this set is Levine's Bayreuth Digital recording, not Kna's.

Sorry about that. I forget about Bayreuth after around 1983 .

As to the other question about the quality of the cheapie against the Naxos, I was told that it was similar.......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sorry about that. I forget about Bayreuth after around 1983 .

I think that's wise

[waldo]

Ah, the golden age!

While we're at it, I really hope they bring back the old currency one of these days. These twenty pence pieces are an awful fiddle in the palm of your hand.........

[Steerpike]

Wasn't it Camelot (the musical) that Coward likened to "Parsifal but without the laughs"?

My memory is that it was Pelléas and Mélisande, which I reckon is just about right on both counts.

(Tin helmet, get coat etc )

[Richard Tarleton]

The other candidate seems to be Pfitzner's Palerstrina - some discussion here

[slarty]

Presto's contents list reports that the Parsifal is Levine's not Kna's

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/sea...euth+Festival+

Am, I already made my Mea Culpa for this faux pas, but for you , I'll gladly repeat it. sorry.
I'd completely forgotten that Philips made another later Parsifal.

[amateur51]

Am, I already made my Mea Culpa for this faux pas, but for you , I'll gladly repeat it. sorry.
I'd completely forgotten that Philips made another later Parsifal.

I've deleted my tardy post slarty - can't have you working overtime or the lawyers'll be in

[Karafan]

Sorry Petrushka, missed your question until now.
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!

Bravo, Slarty! Well said (agree with every word!).

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

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....

This is Stefan Herheim's Bayreuth production which was to have been preserved on DVD (a colleague had written liner notes, I believe) but ran into a dispute with the Wagner sisters, who pulled the plug on the project because, as I understand it, they refused to agree to some re-patching. I haven't seen the full production, which I knew was drifting around on Youtube somewhere, so am saddened it has now disappeared.

Edit: Someone seems to have found a way around any rights issues on YT by posting the audio with a series of stills from the production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTaQu7ivsRM

[Karafan]

... yes, after Slarty's and Draco's posts it's hard to resist the temptation!

Yield at once, I say!

I have the '64 Kna and it is a real tour de force from all involved. A desert-islander if ever there was one! Treat yourselves (it is Christmas, after all!).