Tír Na HiFi

Didn't get to 2nd movement yet, listening session was cut short. This evening hopefully.

And I'll definitely impose upon your hospitality again soon, even if it ruins my system for a few days afterwards.

Beautiful playing!

Since Parsifal is a popular topic these days, I have just received and heard this live 2011 recording.
Marek Janowski is recording all 10 mature Wagner operas for Pentatone. The Lohengrin was disappointing in spite of tenor Klaus Florian Vogt who sang the title role, I especially didn´t like Janowski´s conducting who seemed unsympathetic to the piece to start with.
He does much better with Parsifal. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra is a good band, and since the Berlin Rundfunks offer unlimited rehearsal time, it is well drilled too. Granted that it´s not the Berlin Philharmonic or the Dresden Staatskapelle the playing is very pleasing.
None of the singers is a Wagner star, but they acquit themselves well. Franz-Josef Selig, the Gurnemanz has a fine voice, so far I have heard him on records more often in Bach than in Wagner, but he is never less than competent. The tenor Christian Elsner has a fine voice, but not nearly as fine as Jonas Kaufmann´s or Klaus Florian Vogt´s, his main rivals in the role.
The better known singer is mezzo Michelle DeYoung who sings the complicated role of Kundry. The best singing in the set comes in Act 2 after the kiss, when the temperature raises a degree or two.
I bought this Parsifal because I read some good reviews in Amazon, and have to say that it´s a well conducted and sung performance. Can it compete with classics as the Knappertsbusch or the Karajan? Of course not, those are in a different level of excellence, but it can compete with the recent Jaap van Zweden version on Challenge Classics. Personally I prefer the van Zweden for the truly distinguished playing of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic playing (do you notice that most new opera recordings use radio orchestras?) and his more starry cast: Klaus Florian Vogt, Katarina Dalayman and Robert Holl, but the Janowski is good and deserves to be heard.

Many thanks for that, Jose.  That Parsifal is one I've been considering.  Janowski's series has on Pentatone has been receiving some fine reviews in general.  How does Evgeny Nikitin's portrayal of Amfortas compare with his fine performance for Gergiev?  One of the best performances I've seen/heard of this demanding role in recent years is Michael Volle's under Bernard Haitink from the Zurich Opera in 2007 (currently available only on a DG DVD).  I don't know if you've seen this, but it's a very rewarding version.  Haitink hasn't conducted much Wagner in recent years but, in my opinion, the orchestral playing here is a treat.  Patient, controlled, nuanced and very refined music-making which lays bare the countless inner details of Wagner's extraordinary score.  The singers are good, too, with Christopher Ventris taking on the title role and the ever-reliable Matti Salminen as Guernemanz.  Yvonne Naef does not challenge Waltraud Meier's Kundry, but hers is a different interpretation, not as primal as Meier,  but rather more restrained in her approach and very successful. The production is okay, not particularly inspiring, but it does not interfere in any way with the onstage action.  I suspect that if DG were to issue this as a CD, it would receive more attention.  Just like Haitink's recordings of Berlioz's Le Damnation de Faust and Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, this is a significant addition to his recorded canon.

Recent listening (a break from Wagner LOL!!!)....

This evening, some Schubert....





As always the Richter was beautifully played....






....and on this one the singing of Ian Partridge was delightful.

mcq wrote:Many thanks for that, Jose.  That Parsifal is one I've been considering.  Janowski's series has on Pentatone has been receiving some fine reviews in general.  How does Evgeny Nikitin's portrayal of Amfortas compare with his fine performance for Gergiev?  One of the best performances I've seen/heard of this demanding role in recent years is Michael Volle's under Bernard Haitink from the Zurich Opera in 2007 (currently available only on a DG DVD).  I don't know if you've seen this, but it's a very rewarding version.  Haitink hasn't conducted much Wagner in recent years but, in my opinion, the orchestral playing here is a treat.  Patient, controlled, nuanced and very refined music-making which lays bare the countless inner details of Wagner's extraordinary score.  The singers are good, too, with Christopher Ventris taking on the title role and the ever-reliable Matti Salminen as Guernemanz.  Yvonne Naef does not challenge Waltraud Meier's Kundry, but hers is a different interpretation, not as primal as Meier,  but rather more restrained in her approach and very successful. The production is okay, not particularly inspiring, but it does not interfere in any way with the onstage action.  I suspect that if DG were to issue this as a CD, it would receive more attention.  Just like Haitink's recordings of Berlioz's Le Damnation de Faust and Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, this is a significant addition to his recorded canon.

<Yvonne Naef does not challenge Waltraud Meier's Kundry, but hers is a different interpretation, not as primal as Meier>

No one challenges Waltraud Meier as Kundry, hers is an interpretation that defines the role, and she is the reason why the Baremboim recording is an essential. I have the Haitink/Zürich dvd and agree that it´s very beautiful, long breathed and well played.
I don´t know if you would like to invest in the Janowski. I can tell you that it´s very competent, a sound, well thought and well realized performance, but in general I liked the van Zweden better. Katarina Dalayman may not be the seductress that Meier is, but she does have an important voice, and Klaus Florian Vogt is far more interesting than Elsner. Nikitin sings well, but there are better Amfortas elsewhere, my own favourites are Jose van Dam in the Karajan recording, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, because you really feel empathy with their suffering.

fergus wrote:Recent listening (a break from Wagner LOL!!!)....

Good for you Fergus, Belshazzar is a very great oratorio, and the Archiv recording is certainly one of the best things that Pinnock ever did.