WAGNER: Prelude to Die Meistersinger; Tannhauser Overture; Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Love-Death; Prelude to Parsifal; Parsifal–rehearsal excerpt – Munich Philharmonic Orchestra/Hans Knappertsbusch
HDTT HDCD153, 57:33 **** [also available on 96K DVD-R]:
German romantic conductor Hans Knappertsbusch (1888-1965) inscribed his Wagner with the Munich Philharmonic for the Westminster label (on 4-track tape) late in his career–curious, since he had been the Munich Opera music director as far back as 1922. But his theatrical energy endured, as did his tendency to inflated, sometimes ponderous tempos. The natural grandeur of the singing line, however, cannot be denied. The tape transfers from analog to digital conversion convey a potent, uncluttered signal in these recordings, which literally drip with Wagner’s sensual, potent resonance. That Knappertsbusch slows the tempos for Die Meistersinger tends to accentuate the internal polyphony among the woodwinds. The broadly fluid approach works wonders for the innately hedonistic themes in Tannhauser, from the pilgrims’ march to the bacchanalia on the Mount of Venus. The actual march figure, overly marcato, stands in dramatic relief against the ensuing, whistling figures in the flutes, oboe and strings. Always a master of orchestral transition, Knappertsbusch negotiates the tempo changes with seamless grace.
The Tristan Prelude indulges its tragic figures a grand leisure, spinning out its “stream of melody” across the cosmos. We recall that Kna’s London Records LP of excerpts from Tristan with Birgit Nilsson set the standard for the Prelude and Love-Death in its time. Here, the various motifs naturally divide themselves into melodic periods, much like Bruckner. The swelling climaxes, pointedly arched over a thunderous tympani roll, prove elastic and erotically tumescent at once, a moment of vicarious lust-made-aesthetics. Nice English horn and low bassoon effects. The horn, harp, and cello line for the Liebestod bristles with erotic anticipation and intoxication, the waves of the orchestra heaving as much as Joan Crawford’s heart in Humoresque. Wagner’s Parsifal became the Knappertsbusch calling-card, particularly at Bayreuth between 1951-1956. The fluid motion of this performance bespeaks long association with its exalted figures, several of which were lifted from Mendelssohn, sans apology. Transparent, illumined, rhythmically elastic, the music proceeds with a natural ardor of execution that any Wagner acolyte will long cherish. Despite a bit of pre-echo in the horns, the transfer gives us intensely vintage Wagner from a master. We can hear his deeply guttural prompts of the horn parts from the three-and-a-half minute rehearsal excerpt, then his nursing a fermata and crescendo from the strings. The sound bite here is even more visceral than the finished product!
–Gary Lemco
