Boulez's Ring Des Nibelungen

[Haffner]

(Still need to listen to that Levine Parsifal.)

Karl, get the Stein-conducted DVD from Bayreuth. The Kundry in that one isn't as good, but it's a very inspiring rendition otherwise. I guess that for some reason my liking of that dvd is a bit of a minority one here at GMG, but I really like it alot.

I now am dying to hear the 1955  Keilberth. Even though I believe it's mono.

[PSmith08]

(Still need to listen to that Levine Parsifal.)

That you do, just as I really should bite the bullet and buy the DG Parsifal with Levine.

I really need to get a pair of bowling shoes, however, and I just bought a bowling ball. Decisions, decisions.

How 'bout that Boulez, though?

Karl, get the Stein-conducted DVD from Bayreuth. The Kundry in that one isn't as good, but it's a very inspiring rendition otherwise. I guess that for some reason my liking of that dvd is a bit of a minority one here at GMG, but I really like it alot.

I now am dying to hear the 1955  Keilberth. Even though I believe it's mono.

I'll just say that the Stein DVD is about as good as it gets for Parsifal on DVD. Wolfgang Wagner's production makes the loss of Wieland apparent and keen, but it's serviceable. The 1985 Levine release deserves a listen, but not for its merits (though some might like it). Clearly, if you want Bayreuth Parsifal, then you want Knappertsbusch (preferably from 1964).

The Testament release of Joseph Keilberth's 1955 Ring is in stereo. Decca recorded it, but it was shelved for fifty years in favor of Solti's Vienna project.

[karlhenning]

Well, but Levine's Parsifal I've already got in TGWC (The Grand Wagner Cube).

BTW, I read in Rickards's book here that Sibelius got the wind up seeing Parsifal in Bayreuth in July of 1894:

Nothing in the world has ever made so overwhelming an impression on me, all my innermost heartstrings throbbed.

Seems that it spooked him in plans that he had formed to compose an opera or two.

[karlhenning]

I really need to get a pair of bowling shoes, however, and I just bought a bowling ball. Decisions, decisions.

That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

[PSmith08]

That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

It did. Of course, Jackie Treehorn draws a lot of water in this town, so I'll just have to take my chances.

Seems that it spooked him in plans that he had formed to compose an opera or two.

"Nun danket alle Gott." If Sibelius had turned his attentions to opera, then we might never have gotten the Seventh.

[karlhenning]

. . . According to one of his best profilers, Bryan Magee, Wagner deliberately left big holes in his libretti as "literature", in order to let the music fill in the gaps.

Lots of ins, lots of outs, lots of what-have-yous.