Wagner - Parsifal / Knappertsbusch

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Music reviews of Wagner - Parsifal / Knappertsbusch

Music Review: ALLKUNSTWERK
Rating: 5 Stars

Half a century ago I first saw Knappertsbusch recommended as the finest musical director of Parsifal, I find the recommendation still current, and I go along with it. He takes Parsifal for itself and he lets the spirit of it take him over. It is solemn, slow-moving and absorbed in its own alternative universe. In a way Parsifal is like Klingsor's garden writ large -- the magic creation of a warped personality with powers beyond the normal and the natural. In two senses it is easier to integrate than Tristan or the Ring -- the characters make no earthy pretence of being human beings needing detailed delineation but are as fantastic as Verdi's Manrico or even the statue in Don Giovanni, and whether for that reason or just through his own development as a craftsman Wagner gets a better blend of the vocal and orchestral lines where before the voice-parts often seemed like something written across the orchestra's painted canvas. As always, Wagner treats the voices with consideration (very unlike Verdi!). In particular Hotter, who in Beethoven's 9th hardly seemed able to sing in tune, has no problem in coming across as a grave, commanding Gurnemanz. But they are all good, there is no overacting by the leading singers, and if you listen hard you may pick out the great voice of Gundula Janowitz in an early role as the first Flower Maiden.

This is not Lent, and so should be a good time to acquire a great Parsifal at a less than penitential price. The sound shows its age a bit, but this performance never will.

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