Listening to this year's rather bland Bayreuth Parsifal
(conducted by Christian Thielemann) one can easily be forgiven for welcoming
this reissue back into the catalogue - this time at mid-price in Philips
50 great recordings series. It is still a stunning achievement - quite
magnificently played - with a cast it would be impossible to equal today.
Listen to Hans Hotter as Gurnemanz and, to quote Robin Holloway, you
have a singer who is 'all encompassing and makes every other Gurnemanz
seem generalised'. The detail in his singing is astonishing - febrile,
warm, golden in tone and sung with the complete mastery that was evident
in his singing of Wotan. It is the finest performance of the role on
record and an unforgettable experience.
But this Parsifal was always special for the
singing. George London is a fabulous Amfortas (as he almost
was on the first post-war Parsifal in 1951) and is nowhere better
than in conveying the anguish of his suffering, although eleven years
later on his assumption of the role has attained even greater depths
of understanding. Jess Thomas gives Parsifal real bite and Irene Dalis
(a magnificent Ortrud at Bayreuth in 1962) is a committed Kundry and
not nearly so wearing as some on record. Her Kundry must be seen as
a formidable exercise in stamina given that at some of the 1962 performances
she was suffering from a throat infection - and replaced by Astrid Varnay,
at one performance during Act II.
However, it is Knappertsbusch who really carries this
performance. Compared with his Parsifal of 1951 (one of the most
spacious on record) this 1962 recording (very near the tempi of the
first performance under Hermann Levi) has a sense of architecture that
is almost seamless in its structure. The Prelude has fluidity like a
rolling river, the Good Friday Music a perfect sense of communion and
contemplation. Listen to his conducting of the Transformation Music
on disc two (tracks two and three) and the sense that this is a conductor
who understands the flow of this music is unmistakable (among latter
day Wagnerians Simon Rattle adopts a similar approach). Elsewhere (the
Kundry/Parsifal scenes in Act II or the Gurnemanz/Parsifal scenes in
Act III) he achieves a tautness of tension that has unrivalled colouring
in the orchestration. Hear any recording of Parsifal from Knappertsbusch
(and there are at least six that have been available) and the overriding
impression is of a collage of iridescent beauty - perfectly judged and
perfectly balanced. At 3'30'' into disc two (track 3) the high arching
string sound is blended with a sonorous projection of the choir that
is just fabulous. It has much to do with that unique Bayreuth acoustic
but Knappertsbusch's sense of dynamics is unerring (hear Boulez or Cluytens
and you get a rather different soundscape). The broad tempos help -
and this is why Kna was such a great conductor of this opera. Listen
to the horn figuration on disc two, track 8 (1'02'' onwards) and how
it emerges from pianissimo wind and string writing to set the perfect
dynamic balance. Such beauty of texture makes it even more unfortunate
that we do not have a Toscanini performance preserved on record from
pre-war Bayreuth - for his was the broadest of all.
The original Philips LPs from this set had a gorgeous
warmth to the sound yet this sets remastering gives the performance
an entirely different aura. Coupled with Deryck Cooke's magnificent
essay on the symbolism of Parsifal the discs are indispensable. Along
with Furtwängler's Tristan (due for mid-price release on EMI in
September) this is one of the great Wagner recordings of the last 50
years.
Marc Bridle
See also review
by Tony Duggan