Leonie Rysanek, in an early outing as Kundry, asserts herself as one of the finest exponents of this role. Her wild voice soars like few other sopranos in this role, but she delivers more than just high-octane singing. She manages to capture the character's inner suffering, giving Kundry an inner dimension that you rarely hear. I was particularly moved by her delivery of Kundry's only line in Act III "Dienen... Dienen".

The rest of the cast ranges from solid to excellent. Leif Roar in particular is a first rate Amfortas.

Horst Stein's pacing is both musical and incredibly sympathetic to the needs of the singers. This is a single microphone recording and contains some extraneous noise from the audience, however the recording limitations give an honest sense of the experience of actually sitting in the house, and in particular the singular opulence of Rysanek's instrument.