The Last Word: David Breckbill on Knappertsbusch’s final ‘Parsifal’

Orfeo began releasing official editions of Bayreuth Festival broadcasts in 2003 with an important ‘first’: the inaugural postwar performance of Tristan und Isolde (conducted by Herbert von Karajan, 23 July 1952). This fifth instalment in the series documents a perhaps even more significant ‘last’: Hans Knappertsbusch’s final performance of Parsifal. Although he did not conduct at Bayreuth until 1951, Knappertsbusch’s ties to the festival extended back to his student days (1910–12), when he was an assistant to Hans Richter.