Uhde You Think You Are? Richard Laing binges on a big box of Bayreuth’s best

Review of Richard Wagner Edition: Bayreuther Festspiele (Decca Eloquence, 25 CDs): Parsifal, conducted Knappertsbusch, 1951; Lohengrin, conducted Keilberth, 1953; Der fliegende Holländer, conducted Keilberth, 1955; Parsifal, conducted Knappertsbusch, 1962; Tannhäuser, conducted Sawallisch, 1962; Tristan und Isolde, conducted Böhm, 1966; Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, conducted Varviso, 1974; Tristan und Isolde, Act III, rehearsal excerpt, conducted Böhm, 1966; Parsifal, audio documentary, 1965. 

March 2026, Volume 20, Number 1, 80–87.

Wine enthusiasts (perhaps there are one or two among the TWJ readership) will be familiar with the concept of a vertical tasting, when different vintages from the same winery are sampled. Here we have a Bayreuth vertical: seven vintages in all, dating from 1951 to 1974 – an era seen by some as a golden age – in a box of twenty-five CDs. In a tasting, a small glass of each vintage will suffice, but your reviewer has drunk deep and long, imbibing the entire contents of each Wagnerian barrel.