Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ho-hum, despite its reputation - but a must for Steber fans, 22 Dec 2007
I am very conscious, as a veteran Amazon reviewer, that any review which does not laud a famous recording to the skies will attract unfavourable ratings from other fans, but I shall risk simply telling it as it is for me: I think this recording is over-rated. I admire many of the singers here in other performances and I have no criticism at all of Steber's lovely Elsa, which is a thing of beauty: full, subtly inflected, wholly in character and always steady and beautiful of tone. But there are too many drawbacks compared with, say, the classic Kempe studio recording. Of course, this is a live recording and really not bad as such - although there's a lot of hiss, some coughing, and a rather distant acoustic. I don't much mind that; the ear soon adjusts - but I miss the still, rapt, mystical quality Kempe brings to this score. Keilberth - so effective in his comparable "Fliegende Hollaender" of two years later - is here, by comparison with Kempe, merely efficient. In addition, I think that the lower voices often sound gritty, unsteady and lacking in resonance (listen to Greindl strain in Band 5 of Disc 1) - though they are better than Otto Wiener's nasal Herald in the Kempe - and Uhde is much steadier in the later Dutchman than we find him here, where he pushes and strains too often. Windgassen is good but does not outshine Jess Thomas in the Kempe; Thomas has that extra heroic edge and finds more poignancy in his utterance than does Windgassen. Varnay is terrific and terrifying (if a tad squally - always the problem with this role) as Ortrud, but again, no better than Ludwig in the Kempe and although I am not generally a Fischer-Dieskau fan, he does a fine job as the neurotic Telramund alongside Ludwig's convincing incarnation of pure evil. In short, I do not see how this set, for all its virtues, outshines the Kempe and shall remain loyal to that when I want to hear this wonderful opera, especially as Grummer's performance is as heartfelt as Steber's. Or, of course, there is also the excellent Kubelik studio recording with Janowitz and Stewart (see my review).
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Live classic., 10 Nov 2007
This now more than 50-year-old recording has always been held in high esteem by Wagnerians, at least for the singing of several of the leading characters. Keilberth's conducting has sometimes been castigated for being too anonymous, too Kapellmeisterisch. Having played the complete set twice within a few days I have to say that I don't share that standpoint. He is not the interventionist conductor, pulling the music about to make it his personal belonging; he is rather the humble servant who makes everything function without being observed. But from the very beginning he has a firm grip about the music and his gradual building up of the prelude, growing imperceptibly from almost inaudibility to that first cymbal clash at 7:06 is indeed impressive, and throughout the opera he is ever attentive to the needs of the drama with flexible speeds and powerful fortissimos. The Bayreuth Festival Orchestra play well with fine string tone, so important in this opera, and incisive trumpets. The chorus, trained by Wilhelm Pitz, are well in the picture and there are few wobblers among them. What is a problem is the actual sound quality, and I don't blame Mark Obert-Thorn's restoration work, which I have admired and lauded in several reviews recently, but what was on the original Decca tapes and, in this case, LP-pressings. In spite of the "Full Frequency Range Recording", much advertised in the 50s, it is a thin sound, especially affecting the strings. The dynamic range is also rather narrow, which becomes obvious when comparing with more recent recordings. Just a few years after this recording Decca became the sonic leader with the sensational Solti Ring cycle. But as always with "historical" recordings one adjusts to the limitations and listens to the music, which after all is the main reason for listening.
The opera was recorded live during performances in the Festspielhaus. According to a review of a Teldec release of this same recording about ten years ago, the recording date was July 23rd, which was the first performance of this Wolfgang Wagner production. According to Malcolm Walker's booklet notes the rehearsal and the first performance were recorded but also the last three performances, so it seems that what we hear on these discs is a conglomerate of all these performances. Joining them together has been skilfully done, for I can't detect any tape-joints and the whole appears to have been recorded as one piece. It should be noted, though, that there are a good deal of stage noises, most disturbing during the first few minutes of the prelude, when there is a lot of clumping about behind the curtain. Otherwise there is a very realistic fighting scene in act 1 between Telramund and Lohengrin.
The solo singing is on a very high level and several of the singers must be counted to the most important Wagner singers of the whole post war era. It is indeed interesting to find in the cast list two young singers at the beginning of their careers here taking the small roles of Noble 1 and 4: character tenor Gerhard Stolze and bass Theo Adam, a great Wotan and Hans Sachs for many years. Of the main singers Hans Braun's Herald is well in the picture but not as characterful as some. Josef Greindl is an authoritative Henry the Fowler with his gravelly voice, but he is a bit unsteady, something that afflicted his singing in other recordings too, although he was a wonderful Osmin in Fricsay's Die Entführung and a towering Hunding in a recording of act 1 from Die Walküre with Windgassen as a fine Siegmund. But the real great deep-voice performance here is Hermann Uhde's Telramund. It is difficult to imagine a stronger performance. He seems to have unlimited power and stamina at his disposal and especially the first scene of act 2 (CD1 tracks 12 and 13 and CD 2 track 1) is a hair-raising thriller: he growls, he whispers, he shouts and he colours his voice to perfection. Not even Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the Kempe recording can compete. Uhde's identification with Telramund is so total that it must have been a hell for him to return to his normal self after the performance and I can't imagine anyone can get so deep under the skin of a character under studio conditions.
His Ortrud, Astrid Varnay, is almost on a par with this Telramund. Varnay was one of the greatest dramatic singing actresses, competing first with Martha Mödl and later with Birgit Nilsson, whose voice of shining steel outclassed all competition during the late 50s and the 60s. But Varnay was the greater actress and she also had a voice of impressive quality, more mezzo-ish than Nilsson's, who could sound girlish when she felt for that, while Varnay always sounded like a grand woman. This Ortrud is also hard to beat for dramatic conviction. Singing heavy roles from very early in her career gradually made lasting impressions on her voice and her wide vibrato can be troublesome to some listeners. I am usually disturbed by heavy vibratos but in Varnay's case it only adds to the creditability of her interpretation: she sounds evil. At the very opposite pole is fair Elsa, here sung with steady and beautiful tone by Eleanor Steber. She has also the power to shine through the orchestra and the ensemble at climaxes. On the other hand there have been Elsas on disc with more character, more inward, more lovely. My ideal Elsa is Gundula Janowitz on the Kubelik recording. Even among recorded Lohengrins this recording's protagonist comes high on the list. Wolfgang Windgassen sings with great beauty of tone, he has the required heroic ring to the voice, he has dignity. Still he feels a bit uninvolved during the first two acts, the voice not fully controlled, but in the final act he is magnificent. The bridal chamber scene with Elsa is filled with untiring heroic singing and In fernem Land is noble and dignified. Sandor Konya in Leinsdorf's RCA recording may be even better and Domingo in Solti's recording surpasses himself. Returning to that version confirmed the impression I had back in the 80s when it was new, that it is the best ever Lohengrin on disc. Kubelik's on DG is also very good but has a sub-standard Ortrud.
Considering the dated sound this Keilberth recording can't be recommended as the only version in a CD collection but it should be there as a complement for the best evil pair ever, Uhde and Varnay, and for a marvellous third act by Windgassen. At the price everyone can afford it.
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~ Richard Wagner
~ Richard Wagner
~ Richard Wagner
~ Richard Wagner
~ Richard Wagner
![Lohengrin [Recorded 1953] (Keilberth, Bayreuth Chorus)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z2OuhB40L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Wagner: Der fliegende Hollander [Recorded 1950]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q52D35NDL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
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