A Quest for Authenticity: Peter Quantrill is fascinated by the perspectives opened up by Hengelbrock’s ‘period’ Parsifal

Review of Parsifal (concert perf.), conducted Hengelbrock, Madrid, 2013.

July 2013, Volume 7, Number 2, 58–62.

Bruno Weil used a mix of old and modern instruments in his Cologne concerts of Der fliegende Holländer (recorded by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi in 2003) but until now only one project has attempted a ‘period’, or historically informed, performance of a mature Wagner opera, Das Rheingold with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Simon Rattle in 2005 (Baden-Baden and London). With this Parsifal, rehearsed over a fortnight in Dortmund and played there and in Essen before moving to Madrid’s Teatro Real for three nights, Thomas Hengelbrock and the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble (BNE) were still breaking new ground.