There is not much I can add to the informative reviews already submitted. I just want to add that I did enjoy this performance very much because of the excellent conducting of Klobucar. He does not get as much credit as he deserves. I also enjoyed Kmentt and Helmsley in their roles. Bailey was also fine but I keep comparing him to Schoffler and I prefer Schoffler. Also, Dernesch is a little too stringent to my taste for Eva-give me Janowitz or della Casa any time.The sound is very good as we expect from Bayreuth. So, don't be afraid to buy this version even if you have others by the usual suspects-eg, Karajan, Solti, etc..

A fine performance in warm, mono sound. A brief section of music is missing in Act 3 (just after Beckmesser finishes his song to Sachs's confirmation that the song is not by him), but it doesn't spoil enjoyment of the performance overall. Bailey and Dernesch are splendid. Hemsley's dead serious dead-pan delivery of his song in Act 3 is very funny.

Wonderful to be able to hear this again after so long, it was as good as I recall and sound quality very good considering. For me the important thing is being able to re hear these performances again and again....

It is a great thing to have Norman Bailey singing Hans Sachs, probably his greatest role, at Bayreuth, the Mecca of Wagnerian singing. I remember seeing him in this role at ENO back in the early seventies alongside Thomas Hemsley as Beckmesser. They were particularly great in their scene together in Act two. Bailey can be a little gruff in his delivery but he always had just the right voice for this role. His performance in the Solti Meistersinger remains my all time favourite. I remember hearing Dernesch at the Scottish Opera singing the role of the Marschellin in Der Rosenkavalier and it is hard to come by performances from except for Karajan, for whom she was a favourite soprano. It's great to have another recording to add to her discography and I think she is wonderful in the part of Eva. Overall a great cast well led by Klobucar. I would recommend this performance to anyone interested in performances from Bayreuth well recorded by Bavarian radio or just performances of Meistersinger, one of my all time favourite operas. I never tire of it and nor will you.

Nice conducting, very good singers. Kmentt, Dernesh, Bailey and Ridderbusch really excellent. There are some interesting singers and known names also in small roles: Rundgren as Nightwatchman, Esser as David, Kollo as Vogelgesang, Johns as Moser, Nienstedt as Kothner and Feiersinger as Zorn.

Finally a fresh Dernesch recording (there is precious little else around aside from the Karajan classics)! I cannot deny I am a fan of this singer and therefore not totally objective. But here, even detractors will have to concede, she is in peak form, clean and precise, and before any fatigue showed in her high register; in terms of weight and volume, absolutely perfect for Ewa. And already with that incredibly warm timbre (with melancholy inscribed in it) which would stand her in good stead a few years later and make her (as far as I am concerned) the ideal Isolde.The rest of the cast I would say is excellent, with Waldemar Kmentt just displaying his usual uneven voice production (some notes, especially in the low and medium register, come out uglier and gruffer than others); but, as a medium-weight tenor (not a heldentenor thank god), he conducts himself admirably.The sound of the recording is indeed excellent.