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Conductor's first Bayreuth appearance, just days before his epic Ring cycle
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Following a number of requests, we decided to add this recording of Parsifal to our 1953 Krauss series, following the huge success with his Ring cycle, reissued here over the last few months - "...this enterprising remastering by Pristine Audio goes a long way towards countering those objections [on grounds of sound quality] and will for many permit this famous cycle to take its place at the head of a long line..." (MusicWeb International). I noted an improvement in sound quality through the Ring cycle - one assumes that after each performance the engineers would have had opportunity to fine-tune both their equipment, its location and its settings. The Parsifal concert, which predates the Ring by a couple of weeks, would not have had that advantage. (I should note here that the date is based on detective work by a number of experts, who agree that it is most likely a recording of a transmission by Bavarian Radio, who broadcast the first performances of all of the Bayreuth Festival at that time in the 1950s - though he did conduct the opera twice more with the same cast, on 2nd and 15th August.) Thus technically we're more or less at the same stage of development as Das Rheingold, with a sound which is at times not as up-front as might be liked. The recording was also quite hissy in places, and for lengthy periods suffered from a high-pitched whine, rumbling bottom end, mains hum and other assorted faults, all of which I've endeavoured to either cure or alleviate considerably. I will refrain from commenting on the performance itself beyond a personal if rather uninformed view that I enjoyed it - I'm sure far more experienced and erudite commentators will no doubt bring great experience to bear over the next few weeks, and excerpts from the critics will be added to this page as they become available. However I do feel adequately qualified to make specific note of the remarkably swift pace at which Krauss moves in this, his first concert appearance at a Bayreuth Festival: I used as musical and tonal reference the 1973 Decca recording of the opera with Solti - this also served as a template for my track markings (always a tricky job when music is as lengthy and continuous as here). Placing the two recordings side-by-side it was immediately apparent that there was a huge time discrepancy. Solti comes in a full 25 minutes longer than Krauss at 4hr 20min to Krauss's 3hr 55min. The swifter pace here is to be found throughout the opera - almost every track (and we've selected the same in points for each of the 47 tracks here as with the Decca CD issue) comes in quite a lot shorter, yet there are no (apparent) cuts or changes to the score (naturally - this is of course a Bayreuth production!). A quick scan of other recordings shows this to be perhaps one of the swiftest Parsifals ever recorded - checking out the information in my Gramophone Good CD and Download Guide I find the next fastest to be Knappertsbusch's 1962 recording - widely regarded as the benchmark - which is some 15 minutes slower at 4hr 10min. Thereafter we have Karajan (1979/80) at 4hr 16min, the aforementioned Solti, and slowest of all, Thielemann (live, 2005) at 4hr 22min. How this will play with the experts I will be very interested indeed to see - but if you like your Wagner crisp, swift and with a superlative cast, many of whom went on to deliver one of the finest Ring Cycles of all time, then this recording is surely one for your consideration.
Click here to view additional notes and links For a full biography of Wagner, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner See also our other Ring Cycle operas at Pristine for more performer notes.
Ramón Vinay notes from Wikipedia
Ramón Vinay (August 31, 1911 [some sources say 1912] – January 4, 1996) was a famous Chilean operatic tenor with a powerful, dramatic voice. He is probably best remembered for his appearances in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's tragic opera Otello.
Biography The young Vinay was encouraged by his mother to learn to sing. He commenced his opera career as a baritone in Mexico in 1938. He later switched to tenor, making a second debut in 1943 and forging a successful international career after World War II . Vinay eventually returned to the baritone fold in 1962 and retired from the stage in 1969. Even as a tenor, however, his vocal timbre retained its dark, baritonal colouration. Born in Chillán, Chile, Vinay earned particular renown throughout the operatic world for his interpretation of the role of Otello. For a time, he made the part his own. Perhaps his most significant appearance as Otello occurred in 1947, in a radio broadcast of the opera under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. His colleagues on this occasion were Herva Nelli, Giuseppe Valdengo and Nan Merriman, together with the NBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. This performance was subsequently issued by RCA Victor on both LP and CD. In recent years, it has appeared on CDs issued by other companies, notably on the Guild label. Many critics consider it the best complete Otello ever recorded. A fine actor, Vinay was also the first tenor to sing the role of Otello on television. That was in 1948, in the initial telecast of an entire opera from the Met. He also sang Otello at La Scala, in Salzburg and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In all, he performed it hundreds of times. He is said to be the only opera singer to have sung both Otello and Iago (the baritone villain) in Verdi's tragic masterpiece during the course of a career. Vinay's overall tenor repertoire was comparatively ample. It also embraced heavy Wagnerian roles (he sang at the Bayreuth Festival in 1952-57), as well as Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Don José in Bizet's Carmen and Samson in Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila. Apart from Iago, the baritone parts which he performed included Telramund, Bartolo, Falstaff and Scarpia. He died in Mexico, aged 84.
Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Vinay
George London notes from Wikipedia
George London (May 30, 1920 – March 24, 1985, born as George Burnstein) was a Montreal-born concert and operatic bass-baritone. Son of a Russian Jewish family he grew up in Los Angeles. After extensive concertizing with tenor Mario Lanza and soprano Frances Yeend as part of the Bel Canto Trio in 1947-48, London was engaged by the Vienna State Opera, with whom he scored his first major success in 1949. In 1950 he sang the role of Pater Profundis in Mahler's Eight Symphony, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. He was among the most famous exponents of his four signature roles: Don Giovanni, Boris Godunov, Wotan, and Amfortas. He never recorded any role in Meistersinger, although recital performances of Hans Sach's monologues exist on record. In 1951 he sang at Bayreuth as Amfortas in Parsifal, and reappeared frequently in the 1950s and '60s as Amfortas, the title role of The Flying Dutchman, and Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen. He made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1951 as Amonasro in Aida, and sang over 270 performances, both baritone and bass-baritone roles, in such operas as Le nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute, Arabella, Tosca, Don Giovanni, Boris Godunov, Carmen, Otello, Parsifal, Tannhäuser, The Tales of Hoffman, Pelléas et Mélisande, and Faust. In 1964, he created the role of Abdul in Menotti's The Last Savage. He was the first American to sing the title role of Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War in 1960. He frequently performed in English: Broadway show tunes and "negro spirituals". Recordings of both are available. He recorded the Verdi Requiem with Richard Tucker and Lucine Amara, under Eugene Ormandy. During his Met career, in 1956, he appeared on Ed Sullivan's television program in an abridged version of Act II of Tosca, opposite Maria Callas, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos. A kinescope of that performance was preserved. Another black-and-white videotape of him in the same role, opposite Renata Tebaldi in a complete performance, is sometimes available. It was made late in his career and the paralysis of half his face is clearly visible. He recorded many of his roles for RCA Victor, Columbia Records, and Decca. In 1958, London performed the leading role of Wotan, in the groundbreaking recording of Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold, conducted by Sir Georg Solti, and produced by John Culshaw for Decca. A paralyzed vocal cord ended his singing career prematurely in 1967. In 1971, London established the George London Foundation for Singers, which gives grants to young opera singers early in their careers. $80,000 is given each year to the winners of an annual competition. In 1975, he directed the first Ring Cycle produced by Seattle Opera, creating its "Pacific Northwest Wagner Festival." From 1975 until 1977 he was general director of the Washington Opera (later the Washington National Opera). His voice was dark and powerful, larger-than-life, with penetrating high resonances. His musicianship and acting won him acclaim on three continents. He was tall and devilishly handsome. The immense talent of George London was celebrated twice before his demise. In the Carnegie Hall Concert of 1981, introduced by Beverly Sills performances were given by a long list of colleagues. In Vienna, 1984, the world's greatest singers of that era assembled to honor this great artist. He died in Armonk, New York after a long illness (a violent heart attack with brain consequences in 1977 left him half paralyzed until his death, which came after a third strong heart attack).
Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_London_(bass-baritone)
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