Which Parsifal will you play this weekend? There are no wrong answers!

[umslopogaas]

Thanks Beef Oven, I was sort of sure there was levity in there somewhere, but I had a momentary lack of levitation and couldnt detect it. I'm not, as far as I know, the least little bit Italian, so forgive my lack of comprehension. And indeed, the singers do not seem to know much German, or at least if they do, they dont sing it very accurately!

[EdgeleyRob]

Which Parsifal will you play this weekend? There are no wrong answers!

None (I haven't got any Parsifals).

[Flosshilde]

#18 Beef Oven, "... the singers have a poor grasp of German ..." Er ... on my Virtuoso 3 CD set they are singing in Italian. Are we talking about the same performance? Mine is Callas, Panerai, Modesti, Baldelli, Christoff and Lopatto, Orch. and Chorus of Radio Italiana, Rome, cond. V. Gui in 1950. The CDs were released in 1989.

I did wonder if it was in Italian - did Callas ever sing Wagner in German?

[Beef Oven]

Which Parsifal will you play this weekend? There are no wrong answers!

None (I haven't got any).

Get yerself one quickly!

[Beef Oven]

Thanks Beef Oven, I was sort of sure there was levity in there somewhere, but I had a momentary lack of levitation and couldnt detect it. I'm not, as far as I know, the least little bit Italian, so forgive my lack of comprehension. And indeed, the singers do not seem to know much German, or at least if they do, they dont sing it very accurately!

By the way, thanks for introducing me to it. I love Callas and I had no idea there was such a recording. To get it on a download for three and a half quid was a real bonus!!

Edit: Didn't realise I had some promotional download credits so I got it for thirty bob!!!!

[teamsaint]

By the way, thanks for introducing me to it. I love Callas and I had no idea there was such a recording. To get it on a download for three and a half quid was a real bonus!!

Edit: Didn't realise I had some promotional download credits so I got it for thirty bob!!!!

result ! I did the same with the Rias Schoenberg etc set.

So I didn't have to be Parsimonious.
or whatever.

[umslopogaas]

#33 Flosshilde, Callas in German? Maybe, but not in my collection, I just checked the database and there is nothing by Callas in German. But its not impossible that she did give it a go. Anyone got any information?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Which Parsifal will you play this weekend? There are no wrong answers!

None (I haven't got any Parsifals).

Could pay a lot more for a performance a lot worse than this, Edgy:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Parsifal/dp/B0031GZ2SK/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364423541&sr=301-1

[Alison]

An off air recording of Haitink Covent Garden December 2007 will do me nicely.

[ostuni]

As fhg suggests, that Kna 51 recording is an extraordinary bargain in this mp3 version - but beware the serious blips in Act 3, as pointed out in the 2nd review. It's now a few weeks since I saw the NY Met version in the cinema, so I feel ready for another listen: I think I'll also choose the recent Janowski version, for exactly the same reasons as Julian S in #20. Not on Karfreitag, though - that's my final Bach Passion of the season.

[EdgeleyRob]

Could pay a lot more for a performance a lot worse than this, Edgy:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Parsi...23541&sr=301-1

Noted,thanks fhg.

[Richard Tarleton]

I listened to HvK the other day. Good Fridays can get a little sedentary, by the time you've also listened to Gesualdo's Tenebrae....and no I'm not religious but it seems a good time to listen to it

[umslopogaas]

#33 Flosshilde, I just remembered a review of all Callas's commercial recordings by John Steane in Gramophone April 1997. None of Wagner (interestingly he doesnt list the Parsifal referred to above). They are mostly Italian composers, one or two French, but no German.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

#33 Flosshilde, I just remembered a review of all Callas's commercial recordings by John Steane in Gramophone April 1997. None of Wagner (interestingly he doesnt list the Parsifal referred to above). They are mostly Italian composers, one or two French, but no German.

She also reorded the Liebestod (? Amor'morte?) from Tristan & Isolde in 1949. Not "official" studio recordings (which might be why they're not in Steane's list) but EMI issued the Tristan in the '90s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPFggnOW5eU

[umslopogaas]

Thanks fhg. I suspect the reason the Parsifal is not in Steane's list is that it isnt a commercial recording either. The notes are short on detail, but the fact that its performed by the Orchestra and Chorus of Radio Italia, Rome, suggests it might have been lifted from a radio broadcast.