or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
5 used & new from £8.26
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Wagner: Parsifal (highlights)
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images

Wagner: Parsifal (highlights)

~ Richard Wagner (Composer), Alfred Hertz (Conductor), Karl Muck (Conductor), Siegfried Wagner (Conductor), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra), et al.
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Price: £8.79 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 10? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
4 new from £8.26 1 used from £11.70

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Parsifal (Knappertsbusch, Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Orch.)

Parsifal (Knappertsbusch, Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Orch.)

~ Richard Wagner
4.5 out of 5 stars (4)  £12.88
Wagner: Die Walküre (Acts 1 and 2)

Wagner: Die Walküre (Acts 1 and 2)

~ Alfred Jerger
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £8.79
Ludwig (2 Disc Set) [1972] [DVD]

Ludwig (2 Disc Set) [1972] [DVD]

DVD ~ Helmut Berger
4.0 out of 5 stars (12)  £12.88
Wagner: Siegfried (Excerpts)

Wagner: Siegfried (Excerpts)

~ Dr. Emil Schipper
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £8.79
Max Lorenz: Wagner's Mastersinger, Hitler's Siegfried: The Life and Times of Max Lorenz (DVD plus CD) [2009] [NTSC]

Max Lorenz: Wagner's Mastersinger, Hitler's Siegfried: The Life and Times of Max Lorenz (DVD plus CD) [2009] [NTSC]

DVD ~ Maz Lorenz
£22.49
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Performer: Ingeborg Holmgren, Anny Helm, Minnie Ruske-Leopold, Hilde Sinnek
  • Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayreuth Festival Chorus
  • Conductor: Alfred Hertz, Karl Muck, Siegfried Wagner
  • Composer: Richard Wagner
  • Audio CD (28 Mar 2001)
  • SPARS Code: AAD
  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Label: Naxos Historical
  • ASIN: B000026C8I
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 167,050 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Cheap Books opens new browser window
www.AbeBooks.co.uk  -  Find all your books cheap & second hand at AbeBooks. 
  
 
Disc: 1
1. Parsifal: Orchestral Suite: Prelude To Act 1
2. Parsifal: Act I Transformation Music
3. Parsifal: Act III Transformation Music
4. Parsifal: Good Friday Spell
5. Parsifal: Act I: Prelude To Act I
6. Parsifal: Transformation Music
7. Parsifal: Grail Scene: 'Zum letzten Liebesmahle'
8. Parsifal: 'Durch Mitleid wissend, der reine Tor'
9. Parsifal: 'Wein und Brot des letzten Mahles'
Disc: 2
1. Parsifal: Act II: Flower Maidens Scene
2. Parsifal: Act III: Prelude
3. Parsifal: 'Heil mir, dass ich dich wieder finde!'
4. Parsifal: 'O Gnade! Hochstes Heil!'
5. Parsifal: 'So ward es uns verhiessen' - Good Friday Spell
6. Parsifal: 'Mittag: die Stund' ist da' - Transformation Music
7. Parsifal: 'Geleiten wir im bergenden Schrein'
8. Parsifal: 'Ja, Wehe! Wehe!'
9. Parsifal: 'Nur eine Waffe taugt'
10. Parsifal: 'So ward es uns verhiessen' - Good Friday Spell
On this CD:
  1. Parsifal
    Composed by Richard Wagner
    Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conducted by Alfred Hertz

  2. Parsifal
    Composed by Richard Wagner
    Performed by Bayreuth Festival Chorus, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra
    with Ingeborg Holmgren, Anny Helm, Minnie Ruske-Leopold, Hilde Sinnek, Maria Nezadal, Charlotte Müller
    Conducted by Karl Muck

  3. Parsifal
    Composed by Richard Wagner
    Performed by Berlin State Opera Orchestra
    Conducted by Karl Muck

  4. Parsifal
    Composed by Richard Wagner
    Performed by Berlin State Opera Chorus, Berlin State Opera Orchestra
    with Gotthelf Pistor, Cornelius Bronsgeest, Ludwig Hofmann
    Conducted by Karl Muck

  5. Parsifal
    Composed by Richard Wagner
    Performed by Bayreuth Festival Orchestra
    with Fritz Wolff, Alexander Kipnis
    Conducted by Siegfried Wagner

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Karl Muck (1859--1940), one of the greatest Wagnerian conductors of the generation immediately following those who knew and worked directly with the master, was responsible for leading the performances of Parsifal at Bayreuth from 1901 until 1930. Wagner's last opera was, in a word, Muck's property, and this magnificent two-CD set documents his unique and intense relationship with that work in exemplary fashion. It contains Muck's accounts of the Prelude to Act I and a sizeable amount of Act III, recorded with the chorus and orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, and of excerpts from Acts I and II, recorded with the chorus and orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival. The recordings, made in 1927 and 1928, reflect the glow of a golden age in Wagner interpretation, and, thanks to Naxos's extraordinary job of remastering, that reflection is no longer a dim one.

The great Wagnerian soprano Frida Leider, whose voice is not heard on these recordings, encountered Muck in his later years at Bayreuth and was struck by the slowness of his tempos in Parsifal. Indeed, they are slow: the Act I prelude takes 15:55 by the clock and seems even longer, yet the effect is sublime. Muck sustains the prelude as if on a single breath, just at the point where the pulse almost disappears; the music seems to arise out of silence and darkness to become light and spirit. This is just what Wagner intended. The Act III excerpts, which feature tenor Gotthelf Pistor as Parsifal and bass Ludwig Hofmann as Gurnemanz, are also superb. Pistor's is quite a fine voice--he was a real heldentenor--and the drama is palpable. But the greatest treasure here is the playing of the State Opera orchestra. Muck had been its chief conductor for 20 years, from 1892, and the chemistry between him and his erstwhile colleagues is particularly remarkable. They are majestic in the "Good Friday Spell", and they bring enormous grandeur and radiance to the closing pages of the opera. What a superb band this was!

The segments recorded in Bayreuth are only a little less enchanting, largely because the chorus preparation leaves a lot to be desired (the chromaticism in Wagner's writing was difficult then, and still is). But we hear the original Bayreuth bells in the Act I transformation music (they were carried up to Berlin for the Act III processional music as well): cast to Wagner's own specifications, and melted down for the German war effort in 1940, they are truly a "voice" from the past.

The two discs are superbly laid out and include, in addition to the Muck material, a four-part orchestral suite from Parsifal conducted by Alfred Hertz and recorded in 1913 with the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as the "Good Friday Spell" played by the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra under the direction of Siegfried Wagner, the composer's son, recorded in 1927. The transfers by Mark Obert-Thorn are the best yet of these historic recordings. --Ted Libbey

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
magic carpet ride
epics
classical music
arthurian legend

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than historical significance, 16 Jun 2005
By Klingsor Tristan (Suffolk) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
Hans Knappertsbusch ruled the Kingdom of the Grail at Bayreuth through the 50s and early 60s. Karl Muck did much the same in the period before the Nazis came to power. At this time the production and Joukowsky's sets were still fossilised by Cosima in the form the Meister had set down for the first performances more than 40 years before.

If the musical direction also followed traditional lines, it must be said it was a great tradition. We have no aural record of how Hermann Levi - who conducted the first performances with the composer on hand - interpreted the work, but these Muck performances, particularly the almost complete Act 3, are among the greatest. (As an aside, it's interesting that the ever-practical Wagner chose Levi, the son of a Rabbi, to lead his most 'religious' opera - so much for his anti-semitism.) Like Kna, Muck had the ability, so important in a Parsifal conductor, of seeing the work in long paragraphs, of relating tempi to each other with the long-term always in view, of weighting climaxes so that only the most important carry the greatest weight.

The fill-ups on this disc are excellent, too. Shorter excerpts from Acts 1 and 2 from Muck - it's good to compare the different requirement of his fine Flowermaiden scene with the needs of the more hieratic Grail Castle passages. And Siegfried Wagner proves himself no mean conductor of his father's works in a radiant Good Friday scene with an excellent Parsifal in Fritz Wolff and a superb Gurnemanz in Alexander Kipnis.

All in all, this disc is much more than an historical record. It is a great performance and you can hear it in sound which, for its day (not that long after the introduction of electric recording), has come up with great presence and depth.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Historic Parsifal, 24 Oct 2004
By Patrick Benham (Bristol, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
The main part of this set is devoted to the excerpts recorded by Karl Muck, from Acts I & II in Bayreuth (1927), and nearly the whole of Act III in Berlin (1928). It also includes the Good Friday Music (with Alexander Kipnis, rather too loud, and Fritz Wolff) conducted by Siegfried Wagner (!) in 1927, and a "suite" (Act I Prelude, Acts I & III Transformation Music and Good Friday Music), recorded in 1913 by Berlin Philharmonic (or part thereof) under Alfred Hertz, who conducted the first non-Bayreuth Parsifal (Cosima was not amused) and the first Covent Garden Parsifal.

Quite apart from musical considerations, the sense of being so close to the fountainhead is thrilling. And musically it's mostly pretty good too. The sound in 1913 is amazingly good, so that the experience is a great deal more than historical curiosity. The Muck Act III is justly famous, above all for the fine conducting and for the moving Gurnemanz of Ludwig Hoffman, but the earlier excerpts are less successful, with a rather uncertain (and small but loud) chorus from the pre-Pitz era - the chorus in Act III is incomparably better. The sound of the 1927/28 recordings is fine.

You do get 2 Act I Preludes, 2 Act III Transformations and 3 Good Fridays (one orchestral), and no Klingsor or Kundry. So (apart from Act III) it's excerpts, not an abridged Parsifal. But what a sense of almost being in at the beginning!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars one for Wagner fanatics, 20 Jun 2002
By Rich (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
oh WOW. This is such a great bargain, and even if the price had been twice as high then it would still be an essential purchase. The main reasons for buying this set are the recordings of 'Parsifal', made between 1927 and 1928, by Karl Muck, one of the great pre-war Wagnerian conductors. Nearly all of Act III was recorded at two different locations, one being the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth and the other the Singakademie in Berlin. The only part of this act not recorded is the opening exchange between Gurnemanz, Parsifal and Kundry. Unfortunately, funds didn't extend so far as to be able to hire a soprano for Kundry's role. But everything else is here, including the prelude. You may be thinking 'hmm....1927? The sound must be terrible'. But it's NOT. Mark Obert-Thorn, the engineer, has done a terrific job of cleaning up the original 78s. Although there is some inevitable hiss and scratch here and there the voices and orchestra come across with astounding clarity (considering the antiquity of the originals). These originals were first released as 11 records, and were a milestone in the history of the grammophone; and to record them the music had to be sung in little snippets. How incredible then that the finished result should've had such sweep and majesty. This recording of Act III has been called the 'greatest and most uplifting' version ever put on record, and so it is. The playing of the Berlin State Opera Orchestra is magnificent; the singing, notably Pistor as Parsifal and Ludwig Hofmann as Gurnemanz, as good as has ever been recorded, especially Pistor. Muck conducts with such intensity and fervour that by the Act's conclusion, when that heavenly chorus begins, you'll be in awe of what you've just heard. Another great highlight is Hofmann's singing of the 'Good Friday Music': such feeling, and so lyrical and sweet.

The other extracts are also noteworthy. Muck conducts a slow and intense performance of the great Act I prelude, and also of the choral extracts in Act I. Siegfried Wagner, the composer's son, stepped in at Bayreuth and conducted for other recording of the 'Good Friday Music'. Forget the performance, think of the historical significance of actually hearing him conduct at Bayreuth. More history is uniquely captured here. The great bells of Montsalvat which Wagner commisioned for the premiere in 1882 were recorded here for the first and last time. They were destroyed by the Nazis to help the war effort in the 1940s, but in this recording they resound once more with a startling and extraordinary sound. One critic likened them to a 'herd of Bosendorfer pianos'! Not an inaccurate comparison. The other brief extracts are really of historical interest only i.e. a very early recording of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. But you'll be buying this for Muck's 'Parsifal'. I had bought this set to give to a friend of mine for his birthday, but having listened to it I'm now hooked and he'll have to get something else! It obviously doesn't supplant a full version of 'Parsifal' (try Knappertsbusch's 1962 account or, in spectacular digital sound and with great playing, and conducting, Karajan's DG set with the BPO). However, IF Muck had recorded the whole opera (and what a thought that is) then there would be little doubt that the entire set would've been the one to have. As it is you can enjoy a tantalising glimpse of what might have been.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative music making
This anthology is quite superlative. The Alfred Hertz recordings recorded in 1913 are much better than I expected and well worth an occasional hearing. Read more
Published 5 days ago by J. Gibbons

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Wagner: Parsifal (highlights)
57% buy the item featured on this page:
Wagner: Parsifal (highlights) 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
£8.79
Parsifal (Knappertsbusch, Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Orch.)
19% buy
Parsifal (Knappertsbusch, Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Orch.) 4.5 out of 5 stars (4)
£12.88
Wagner: Parsifal (highlights)
18% buy
Wagner: Parsifal (highlights)
£13.69
Wagner: Parsifal (highlights)
5% buy
Wagner: Parsifal (highlights) 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
Explore similar items

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject





i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.