Richard Wagner Edition (25CD Box Set)

A quarter-century of postwar Bayreuth recordings. This survey of Wagner’s mature operas, excluding the Ring, takes the listener from Parsifal in 1951 under Hans Knappertsbusch, through to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Silvio Varviso in 1974. The casts were often youthful, but coached by the Festival co-director Wieland Wagner into an intense engagement with text and music. Performances here by Wolfgang Windgassen, Hermann Uhde, Ludwig Weber, Birgit Nilsson and others reach a special level of long-breathed intensity almost impossible to sustain under studio conditions.

The featured conductors on the set are Hans Knappertsbusch, Joseph Keilberth, Karl Böhm and Wolfgang Sawallisch. CD25 of the set includes a previously unpublished radio interview with Irene Dalis and George London, the Kundry and Amfortas in the 1962 Parsifal with Knappertsbusch, as well as a rehearsal of the Böhm Tristan.

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A quarter-century of postwar Bayreuth recordings, made live at the Festspielhaus by Decca, DG and Philips: this is an absorbing history in sound of Wagner interpretation featuring several albums of timeless authority.

This survey of Wagner’s mature operas, excluding the Ring, takes the listener from Parsifal in 1951 under Hans Knappertsbusch, through to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Silvio Varviso in 1974. Both the 1951 Parsifal and Lohengrin from two years later, under Joseph Keilberth, were captured in ‘ffrr’ mono by the legendary Decca team of engineers under the supervision of John Culshaw. Decca continued to work at Bayreuth until 1955, capturing Der fliegende Holländer, also under Keilberth, in a superb example of Decca’s early stereo sound.

The casts were often youthful, but coached by the Festival co-director Wieland Wagner into an intense engagement with text and music. Performances here by Wolfgang Windgassen, Hermann Uhde, Ludwig Weber, Birgit Nilsson and others reach a special level of long-breathed intensity almost impossible to sustain under studio conditions.

None of the conductors involved had worked at Bayreuth before the war. Keilberth, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Karl Böhm all engaged with Wieland in finding a new, flowing but dramatically inflected style in Wagner. Something of this New Bayreuth style also infuses Knappertsbusch’s 1962 Parsifal with a unique combination of mystery and rapture. The set includes a previously unpublished radio interview with Irene Dalis and George London, the Kundry and Amfortas in that performance.

Like Knappertsbusch’s Parsifal, the Tristan und Isolde under Böhm in 1966 was rapidly recognised as a classic of the gramophone and has hardly been out of print since then, but it is reissued here with the rehearsal sequence included on the final LP of the original set. This ‘Original Covers’ box also includes a booklet essay by Peter Quantrill which explores the history of post-war Bayreuth and the circumstances of each recording.

Many recordings are now legendary, praised then as now:

“an almost perfect realization of Wagner’s last, strangest and deepest thoughts” The Record Guide on Knappertsbusch’s 1955 Parsifal

“Arguably the finest live recording ever made in the Festspielhaus” Penguin Guide on Knappertsbusch’s 1962 Parsifal

“Extraordinarily well recorded” High Fidelity on Keilberth’s Lohengrin

“The sound is really astonishing” High Fidelity on Keilberth’s Fliegende Holländer

“Böhm’s flow and surge are completely captivating.” Opera on Record on Böhm’s Tristan und Isolde.

TRACK LIST

CDs 1–4

Wagner: Parsifal

1951 RECORDING

Wolfgang Windgassen; George London

Martha Mödl; Ludwig Weber

HANS KNAPPERTSBUSCH

CDs 5–8

Lohengrin

1953 RECORDING

Wolfgang Windgassen; Eleanor Steber

Hermann Uhde; Astrid Varnay

JOSEPH KEILBERTH

CDs 9–10

Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer

1955 RECORDING

Hermann Uhde; Ludwig Weber

Astrid Varnay; Joseph Traxel

JOSEPH KEILBERTH

CDs 11–14

Wagner: Parsifal

1962 RECORDING

Jess Thomas; George London

Irene Dalis; Hans Hotter

HANS KNAPPERTSBUSCH

CDs 15–17

Wagner: Tannhäuser (Dresden version)

1962 RECORDING

Wolfgang Windgassen; Eberhard Wächter

Gerhard Stolze; Anja Silja; Grace Bumbry

WOLFGANG SAWALLISCH

CDs 18-20

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

1966 RECORDING

Wolfgang Windgassen; Birgit Nilsson

Christa Ludwig; Eberhard Wächter

Martti Talvela

KARL BÖHM

CDs 21–24

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

1974 RECORDING

Karl Ridderbusch; Klaus Hirte

Jean Cox; Hannelore Bode

SILVIO VARVISO

CD 25

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde – Rehearsal

Karl Böhm

Wagner: Parsifal (1962) – Audio Documentary*

Irene Dalis; George London

*PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED

ARTISTS

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Joseph Keilberth

Hans Knappertsbusch

Wolfgang Sawallisch

Karl Böhm

Silvio Varviso