Richard Wagner - Parsifal - Hotter, Ludwig, Frick - Solti 1972 - Original recording remastered4CDs - ADD - Decca 2002
Rene Kollo, Hans Hotter, Rotraud Hansmann, Marga Schiml, Gillian Knight, Christa Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gottlob Frick, Zoltan Kelemen, Herbert Lackner, Lucia Popp, Heinz Zednik, Ewald Aichberger, Anne Howells, Kiri Te Kanawa, Robert Tear, Alison Hargan
Performed by Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti
Wagner coined a blockbuster word to describe Parsifal's genre -- Bühnenweihfestspiel, or a "festival play to consecrate the stage." In this, his last work, Wagner returns to the Christian mythology that occupied his imagination earlier in Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. But Parsifal is fundamentally different from the earlier more simplistic, heroic works. Parsifal tries to put the church into the theater, instead of simply giving church themes a theatrical dressing. Parsifal is probably the least accessible Wagnerian opus -- the dreamy 19th-century view of Christian mysticism being especially hard for a 20th-century intellect to come to terms with. But those who invest in the effort of understanding the score will be rewarded with a sense of the mystic communion. Though Kollo is sometimes overwrought as the Grail Knight, Fischer-Dieskau is an extremely pitiable and sympathetic Amfortas, and a generally excellent cast carries the day with Frick as Gurnemanz being the highlight. Solti conducts the Wiener Philaharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic) with mystic solemnity. --Christian C. Rix
Find all details at DECCA
Listen to the tracks at Amazon (old Polygram publishing). This Box at Amazon
