Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120010 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-14
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Original recording remastered

Album Description
"Knappertsbusch's expansive and dedicated 1962 reading is caught superbly in the Philips set, arguably the finest live recording ever made in the Festspeilhaus at Bayreuth, with outstanding singing from Jess Thomas as Parsifal and Hans Hotter as Gurnemanz...its spiritual quality and the sound has undoubtedly been further enhanced in the remastering for CD."--The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs "This is not merely one of Philips's Great Recordings but also one of the greatest sets of all time. Every time one returns to it, its inspiration and distinction seem to have been enhanced, its all-enveloping eloquence the more evident. Its overriding advantage over all other recordings of the work is Knappertsbusch's masterly traversal of the score, even more aware of dramatic impetus, long line and Wagnerian import...There have been much-admired Parsifals in more recent times but none of these studio-made sets quite catches the immediacy and inevitability of this moving and elevated version, now sounding freshened in its remastered form. At mid-price, a very special experience is in store for any newcomer to the work."--Gramophone Cast GEORGE LONDON Amfortas MARTTI TALVELA Titurel HANS HOTTER Gurnemanz JESS THOMAS Parsifal GUSTAV NEIDLINGER Klingsor IRENE DALIS Kundry Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele Hans Knappertsbusch, conductor

Customer Reviews

Not just the greatest Parsifal, but the greatest possible Wagner
This is a really good recording of an outstanding performance. I have been enjoying it for quite a long time and I am certainly sure that this is the greatest Wagner ever recorded on disc (even better than the excellent, if in my opinion a bit overrated, Furtwangler's 1952 Tristan)
The strongest points of this performance are Knappertsbusch, Hotter and London.
Nothing to say about Knappertsbusch that has not been already said. No other conductor achieved the results Knappertsbusch did in Wagner, particularly in Parsifal.
George London's Amfortas is very well sung, transmitting all his pain and suffering, although I rather prefer him in the 1951 recording (Bayreuth/Knappertsbusch)
But the pinnacle of this performance is the glorious Gurnemanz of Hans Hotter. It cannot be deeper. Perhaps Hotter had not the most beautiful voice (though I love his timbre), but he was enormously expressive and certainly had the capacity to transmit the feelings as no other baritone or bass-baritone has had in recent history. He deeply moves me every time I hear him, be it in a Bach cantata, a Schubert song or, as in the case here, featuring Gurnemanz.
The rest of the cast is just correct. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Bayreuth Festival are superb, as always.
The recording engineering is very fine if one takes into account that it comes from 1962. Yes, there are some noises from the audience, but who cares about it when the whole performance is so close to the excellence?
Absolutely recommended.

I just don't get it?
Transcendent, mystical, profound, the essential...I have read those words thrown around a lot in regards to this recording of Parsifal, and being new to the piece I thought...wow I can't go wrong...well I can and I did. I am trying to get into this recording and....well I can't. Everytime I want to disappear into the sonic landscape, the boxy, muddle, ill defined sound of this recording along with extraneous ambient noise pulls me right back out. Being such a subdued piece in so many places the ambient noise becomes annoying. I own the '53 Krauss Ring and in that context all of the noise doesn't bother me, perhaps it has something to do with extraordinarily wide range of dynamics in that cycle. Anyway, I have know doubt that this was an evening for the ages and that this concert would have left its attendees stunned and moved, but within my living room and from a piece such as this I need much higher fidelity than this...and for those who can listen past the noise then more power to you. I cannot and I'll learn in the future to listen before you buy.

Outatanding performance, flawed recording.
From a purely musical standpoint this performance is outstanding. Still, the music is continuously spoiled by audience noise, mainly coughing, that add an unwelcome instrument to the orchestra. If modern technology can be used to filter that kind of noise, it wasn't surely used here, to the detriment of the recording.