Seduced by Sonority … but David Breckbill resists a new Parsifal’s charms

Reviews of Parsifal, conducted van Zweden, Amsterdam, 2010 (Challenge Classics, 4 SACDs and 1 highlights DVD); René Pape, Wagner: Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music (Die Walküre), Flieder Monologue, ‘Hört, ihr Leut’‘, ‘Verachtet mir die Meister nicht’ (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), ‘Gott grüß euch’ (Lohengrin), extended sequence from Act III ‘O Gnade, höchstes Heil!’ (Parsifal), Song to the Evening Star (Tannhäuser), bass Pape, tenor Domingo, conducted Barenboim, Berlin, 2011 (Deutsche Grammophon, 1 CD).

March 2012, Volume 6, Number 1, 81–4.

This new recording of Parsifal, the sonic remnant of a concert performance excerpted on an accompanying DVD, possesses strengths that make it extremely rewarding; in certain respects I would almost suggest that this constitutes must-hear listening for dedicated Wagnerians. At the same time, one of its primary features places it among the most controversial of recent Wagner audio recordings, prompting any engaged listener to (re)assess, or at least (re)consider, values in Wagner performance.