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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful but lots of cuts, 3 Dec 2004
This is a treasure in terms of getting a complete performance Friedrich Schorr as Hans Sachs, perhaps the greatest interpreter of the role, in his late prime. The 1939 performance released earlier on Walhall with Leinsdorf has Schorr in considerbly worse voice and not the best supporting cast, with the exception of Charles Kullman as an exceptional Walther. That performance also had Erich Leinsdorf, a rather dull conductor, as conductor. This performance from 1936 is better on all accounts with the exception of Rene Maison's Walther. This performance has the very inspired Artur Bodanzky as it's musical leader. The performance breathes with live from start to finish. Schorr is really exceptional as Sachs making full use of his long experience in interpreting this really difficult part. The humanity and comical as well as the poetic cobbler is so well defined one cannot help help but think if it should be any better than this. It all feels so right and absolutely wonderful to listen to.His supporting cast is nearly as good. Elisabeth Rethberg is a little past her prime, but is so wonderful as Eva. Eduard Habich is also really exceptional as the pompus Beckmesser, trying to woo a woman. He is at all times musical and totally into the character without turning the character into a caricature. It is quite normal to turn this character into a clown who cannot sing, which was the case in the 1939 performance, but not so here in the performance from 1936. Rene Maison as Walther is the only weak link vocally. It is extremely hard to match the rest of the cast, but he has a vibrato that is too heavy, I think, in addition to some raw toneproduction. I just wish Melchior sang the role on stage. Hans Clemens's David is also really good, as is Karin Branzell as Magdalene and Emanuel List as Pogner. There is, however, a down side to this performance. It is as full of cuts as swiss cheese is full of holes. Just about every scene I love in the his opera is heavily cut (i.e. David's great scene in the first act, Sachs/Beckmesser scenes in acts 2 and 3, Sachs/Eva scenes in acts 2 and 3, Sachs/Walther scenes in act 3, the Preislied near the end). This and the not too good sound is what detracts one star. It was very normal to cut the Wagner operas back in those days, so to get really exceptional performances of the complete uncut opera from the golden age get the Toscanini 1937 performance (recently released by Andante in greatly restored sound) or the Abendroth 1943 Bayreuth performance (released by Preiser). There is also the Furtwangler 1943 Bayreuth performance with a really great Walter in Max Lorenz but two sections of the performance is not recorded because of faulty equipment at the time. I knew that this performance would have bad sound and would be cut. I bought it anyway to get a Schorr's Sachs in his prime in addition to hearing Elizabeth Rethberg's Eva live. I wasn't disappointed, since I already knew those facts. So if you still want this performance inspite of the sound quality and that it is heavily cut, then I highly recommend this one. There are some bonus material here too. There are some really great studio excerpts from the the opera with Schorr, Elisabeth Schumann and Lauritz Melchior.
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