Joseph Keilberth - Bayreuth 1954 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Joseph Keilberth (1908-68) was, according to Brigitte Fassbaender, Inchthe most aesthetic, most natural, most serene of all conductorsInch. Martha Mödl Inchalways found him the greatestInch, for Hermann Prey Inchhe was and is the trend-setting musician of my singing lifeInch and for Inge Borck simply Inchthe singer's conductorInch. He was an exemplary incarnation of the ideal virtues of the German Kapellmeister and died far too early at the conductor's podium during a 'Tristan' performance. His recordings of works by Reger, Pfitzner and Hindemith are legendary for the transparent and vital realization of their complex structures. Among the archival treasures of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra (now the WDR Symphony Orchestra), unsurpassed recordings of complex 20th-century masterpieces (1923-62) have been selected for this double album, decisively enriching the orchestral repertoire. Album 1 features the Concerto grosso for double orchestra and piano, the singular pioneering work by Heinrich Kaminski, the mystical master of the new polyphony, as well as Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling's Partita, which timelessly transforms the Bachian tradition. On album 2, two recording premieres by Karl Höller (1907-87) are followed by late Hindemith, Keilberth's favourite composer Agnes Giebel sings the 6 songs from 'Ein Marienleben', and Anton Heiller, the soloist of the premiere performance under Hindemith, plays in the late organ concerto.

Album Tracks 1. Wagner Tannhauser

A priceless collection of Hans Knappertsbusch's opera recordings made for Universal Music labels, including the legendary live Parsifal performances of both 1951 and 1962, the Vienna studio Die Meistersinger of 1950-51, the Munich Fidelio of 1961, as well as operatic excerpts and highlights. For singers such as Birgit Nilsson, Jon Vickers, George London and Hans Hotter, Knappertsbusch was the supreme Wagnerian. Audiences at the 1951 Bayreuth Festival were enraptured by the many beauties of his Parsifal - not only it's patience but it's steady unfolding, as if in a ritual, and the Decca recording became the first complete set of the opera on LP. Reissued on CD by many different labels, it returns to Decca here in the company of the 1962 account from Bayreuth, quicker and more flexible and perhaps even more attuned to the human drama of Wagner's final opera. Perhaps no one has conducted Parsifal more frequently than Knappertsbusch over 200 times during a career that spanned just over half a century. His Wagner interpretations gained their unique authority from his study of the operas at Bayreuth under the direction of Hans Richter and the composer's son, Siegfried. His career was centred around performing all the mature music-dramas at the State Operas of Vienna and Munich, and latterly at Bayreuth. He had a bond of particular affection with the Vienna Philharmonic, and recorded albums of Wagnerian excerpts with them throughout the 1950s, including the Wesendonck Lieder and the First Act of Die Walküre with Kirsten Flagstad. The complete studio recording of Die Meistersinger, from 1950-51, belies the idea that Knappertsbusch did not respond to a studio environment; it remains one of the most heart-warming accounts on disc. The same broad vein of humanism runs through his Fidelio recording with the Bavarian State Opera from 1961 and a strong cast led by a still youthful