Wagner: Parsifal - King, Jones, Crass, Stewart, McIntyre, Ridderbusch; Boulez. Bayreuth, 1970
$32.95
Description:
Pros:
- This performance is an interesting companion to the DG studio release. It was the broadcast of the 1970 season, whereas the studio release was a composite of all the performances that season.
- You could not hope to find a more ideal Parsifal than James King, who brings stentorian heft as well as burnished lyricism to the role.
- Franz Crass' smooth bass brings fatherly warmth to Gurnemanz' music.
- Pierre Boulez' swift reading of the score might not be to everyone's taste, but what you lose in Wagnerian expansiveness you make for in a lighter approach that seems to favor the singers.
Cons:
- None to mention.
In Stereo
OD 11762-4
Listen to a Sample:
The Other 1970 PARSIFAL
After some detailed comparative sampling, I’d suggest this is essential – not just as an appendix to the DG issue of the same year but as, in at least one perspective, preferable to it. Although it’s not a matter of Live vs Studio, it’s nonetheless true that the contrast is between a single performance that is flawed but intense and a composite from several performances that is satisfyingly precise but rather less exciting. My guess is that not much of DG derives from 2 August. Crass behind and rushing to catch up in the Act I Verwandlungmusik; Stewart rough and approximate when revealing his wound in Act III; King not quite on the beat in a couple of places: these moments were obviously unusable. Yet both King and Stewart are in great voice, and the latter, completely inside his role, much more intense in his big moments than on DG. Even Crass (beautiful voice, dull interpreter) shows more emotion in Act III here than on DG – though his habit of skimping dotted notes at brisk tempos introduces a parlando element into his narratives. On DG Jones is superb in the last 10-15 minutes of Act II; here on 2 August there is extra electricity, and she is nothing short of sensational. It’s a wonderful combination of technical discipline and dramatic self-abandonment in a singer – exactly what’s required for Kundry in Act II – and it should provoke comparison with Mödl for Clemens Krauss (at similar tempos) in 1953.
