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Wagner: Lohengrin

Gunther Groissbock

Opera - Released June 1, 2012 | PentaTone

Hi-Res Booklet
This live 2011 recording is the fourth installment in Pentatone's ambitious Wagner cycle, set to be completed in 2013 to celebrate the bicentennial of the composer's birth, featuring Marek Janowski leading Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Rundfunkchor Berlin. Janowski's reading, which is in general snappier than the average, wisely leans toward emphasizing the extremes in the score; the slow sections are ethereally serene and the fast have a buoyant, sometimes almost reckless energy. It makes for an exciting and propulsive performance, and the orchestra plays with agility and rich, sensuous tone. This is a concert performance, but everyone involved performs with urgency and strong sense of drama. Günther Groissböck as Heinrich stands head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. His oaken, ringing, authoritative bass rivets attention whenever he sings; he's entirely persuasive as a powerful medieval monarch. As Telramund, Gerd Grochowski has less commanding vocal equipment, but he's a terrifically engaging singing actor and his scenes with Susanne Resmark as Ortrud crackle with energy and are among the highlights of the performance. The romantic leads are overall less effective. Klaus Florian Vogt as Lohengrin sings with musicality but has a relatively light tenor that sounds like he would be more at ease in bel canto and Mozart; he just doesn't have the heroic timbre and bearing this role requires. Annette Dasch sounds somewhat out of her comfort zone as Elsa, particularly in the first act and when she is called on to sing at full volume. Their voices are beautifully suited to the third act duet, though; its more intimate emotions and more delicate orchestration give them a chance to shine without strain, and they have real chemistry as their tender lovers' conversation devolves into a nightmarish confrontation of broken trust. The sound of the hybrid SACD is wonderfully clear and is as clean and well-balanced as a studio recording. © TiVo
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Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer, WWV 63 (Live)

Bayreuther Festspielorchester

Opera - Released March 14, 2006 | Orfeo

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone Editor's Choice
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Wagner: Le vaisseau fantôme (Diapason n°615)

George London

Opera - Released June 28, 2013 | Les Indispensables de Diapason

Booklet
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Wagner: Parsifal, WWV 111

Martha Modl

Opera - Released June 2, 2023 | Profil Edition Guenter Haenssler

Booklet
The production of Wagner's overgrown Grail tale Parsifal from the shrine at Bayreuth, directed by the composer's grandson Wieland and first staged in 1951, was famously spare in its design; the conductor, Hans Knappertsbusch ("Kna," to perfect Wagnerites), thought the sets were still to be constructed and was chagrined to find that there really were very few. Vocally, however, the music was luxuriant. By the time of this 1955 live recording, most of the singers, including Martha Mödl as Kundry, were veterans of the production, and there was a strong newcomer, baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Amfortas, already with his characteristic honeyed tone. The production was recorded in the studio in 1951, with somewhat better sound than on this release, but really, the live sound is impressive for 1955 (some of the credit should go to Hänssler Classic's remastering), and text intelligibility is great. Further, Knappertsbusch is known to have preferred live performance to recording, and the production benefits from a good deal of forward motion; sample around and compare timings with other recordings, for almost everywhere, Knappertsbusch comes in faster than average. Yet the music never feels rushed in any way. Of course, several generations of Wagner singers have come and gone since this recording was made, but for those wanting to experience Wagner "from the source," this may be a prime choice despite its age. © James Manheim /TiVo
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Wagner: Lohengrin, WWV 75 (Recorded Live 2011)

Bayreuther Festspielorchester

Classical - Released June 22, 2018 | Opus Arte

Booklet
Recorded live at a performance in Bayreuth on 14 August 2011, this Lohengrin naturally benefits a lot from the place's amazing sound; the listener will surely forgive the little noises from around the stage or hall: it is, after all, a very small price to pay for having a front-row seat at a live performance, and with the element of risk – taken by the singers, at least – which heightens the experience. The production brings together some of the greatest voices of the day, led by the tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, a real free radical, who started his career as... horn player in the Hamburg Philharmonic! But soon he heard the call of the lyrical, and he began a superb career as a tenor, first lighter, in Mozartian roles, and then more powerful with Wagner and the roles of the young "Heldentenor." As Elsa, we have Annette Dasch, who had already made a much-remarked-upon début in Bayreuth the year before – also as Elsa. Bass Heinrich Zeppenfeld is following the same Bayreuth trajectory, as King Henry the Fowler. The ambiguous Ortrud is played by Petra Lang, who since moved on to play Isolde, also at Bayreuth, a few years later – a fine rendition. © SM/Qobuz
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Parsifal

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Classical - Released May 29, 2011 | Challenge Classics

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Richard Wagner : Der Fliegende Holländer - Pierre-Louis Dietsch : Le vaisseau fantôme ou le maudit des mers

Marc Minkowski

Classical - Released November 4, 2013 | naïve classique

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Wagner: Götterdämmerung

Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Classical - Released June 30, 2023 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Wagner: Parsifal by Hans Knappertsbusch

Hans Knappertsbusch

Opera - Released February 8, 2023 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Bach Motets

Solomon's Knot

Classical - Released June 16, 2023 | Prospero Classical

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Wagner: Parsifal

Evgeny Nikitin

Opera - Released February 1, 2012 | PentaTone

Hi-Res Booklet
Parsifal is the second installment in Pentatone's ambitious project to record Wagner's ten important operas between in 2011 and 2013 in celebration of the bicentennial of his birth, featuring live concert performances with Marek Janowski leading Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Rundfunkchor Berlin. Janowski is an old hand at Wagner, having conducted the first (and very fine) digital recording of The Ring, and he brings a sure understanding and unified conception to Parsifal. One of its most immediately noticeable characteristics is its urgency, which essentially means faster tempos. His version at three and three-quarters hours is nearly a half hour shorter than classic recordings like Knappertsbusch's 1951 Bayreuth version and Solti's Decca release. What's gained is a momentum and sense of dramatic movement in an opera that's notorious for bogged-down performances. It also has the effect of making the opera seem more personal, even intimate at moments, because the momentum gives the dialogue between characters such immediacy. Janowski is sensitive to allowing the music plenty of space to unfold where it calls for evoking a timeless expansiveness, such as the scenes in the Hall of the Grail. The orchestra and chorus perform with seamless assurance and with a velvety sensuality. Janowski keeps textures transparent so that details of the scoring are easily audible, and that transparency also contributes to the intimacy of his reading. The exemplary vocal performances are uniformly very fine, and the singers bring an acute sense of drama to their roles and their interactions The recording is blessed with a wealth of expressive, resonant, tonally sumptuous, and clearly differentiated low voices, including Evgeny Nikitin as Amfortas, Dimitry Ivashchenko as Titurel, Franz-Josef Selig as Gurnemanz, and Eike Wilm Schulte as Klingsor. Christian Elsner is a passionate Parsifal and his ringing tenor is heroic and robust. As Kundry, Michelle DeYoung sings with warmth and poignancy and is especially effective in her rich lower register. The sound of the hybrid multichannel SACD is immaculate and spacious.© TiVo
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Bach : St Matthew Passion (Matthäus-Passion)

René Jacobs

Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released October 7, 2013 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Choc de Classica - Choc Classica de l'année
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Wagner: Lohengrin Prelude

Andris Nelsons

Classical - Released February 16, 2018 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Hi-Res Booklet
Recordings of Anton Bruckner's symphonies have increasingly acquired an air of mystery and difficulty due to their extraordinary length, harmonic complexity, and the vagaries surrounding the multiple versions and various published editions, which conductors champion for different reasons. Yet Andris Nelsons seems to have taken the path of least resistance with his live recording of the Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, "Romantic," which he presents with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in a proudly conventional reading. Not only is the 1878/1880 version one of the most widely accepted and most frequently performed and recorded, Nelsons also serves up a rather traditional interpretation that harks back to mid-20th century standards. To be sure, Nelsons is committed, consistent, and coherent, and his choices of tempos and dynamics are convincing, though he shows no interest in observing period practices or re-creating the techniques and sonorities of Bruckner's day. Instead, Nelsons delivers a "Romantic" that more closely resembles models set by Klemperer, Jochum, Wand, Tennstedt, and other traditional Brucknerians. The inclusion of Richard Wagner's Prelude to Act I from Lohengrin provides a reminder of Bruckner's unwanted role in the "War of the Romantics," though Nelsons appears to have made this pairing of composers a continuing feature of his Bruckner recordings. This album, and Nelsons' 2017 release of the Symphony No. 3 in D minor with the Overture to Tannhäuser, are part of a projected series for Deutsche Grammophon that promises to be one of the most popular of mainstream Bruckner cycles.© TiVo
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Wagner: Lohengrin, WWV 75 (Live)

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Opera - Released November 3, 2017 | Orfeo

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Bach: Cantatas 54, 82 & 170 "Widerstehe", "Ich habe genug" & "Vergnügte Ruh"

Iestyn Davies

Classical - Released December 30, 2016 | Hyperion

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Wagner : Parsifal

Herbert von Karajan

Classical - Released January 1, 1981 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Distinctions Gramophone Record of the Year
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Wagner : Der fliegende Hollander (Le Vaisseau fantôme)

Matti Salminen

Opera - Released September 1, 2011 | PentaTone

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama
In preparation for the Wagner bicentennial in 2013, Marek Janowski and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester and Rundfunkchor Berlin began an ambitious project of recording the composer's ten major operas for Pentatone with Der fliegende Holländer in 2010. The recording's strongest points are the stellar performances by the orchestra and chorus; there's real fire and passion in their playing and singing. This is not Wagner's most dramatically coherent opera, but Janowski manages to keep the momentum going and the big moments are genuinely stirring. The leads are mostly very fine but not consistently memorable; the general lack of real distinction keeps this from being a contender as a top-ranked recording of the opera. Daland has been a signature role for Matti Salminen, who delivers the strongest performance among the leads; his characterization is sharply and vividly realized, and while his noble voice shows its age, it's appropriate for the role. As the Dutchman, Albert Dohmen has a vocal quality not sufficiently differentiated from Salminen's, and although his singing is never less than adequate, he fails to convey the character's mythic dimensions. Ricarda Merbeth as Senta has a voice that's large enough for the part but that's somewhat hard and inflexible, and that fails to generate much sympathy for her character. Robert Dean Smith usually sounds strained as Erik, except in his relatively rare quiet passages. The singer who makes the strongest and most lingering impression is Steve Davislim in the small role of the Steersman. The sound is clean, full, and nicely nuanced.© TiVo
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Mendelssohn: Elias, Op. 70

Thomas Hengelbrock

Classical - Released November 18, 2016 | deutsche harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason - 5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
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Beethoven: Christus am Ölberge

Philippe Herreweghe

Classical - Released October 28, 2022 | Phi

Hi-Res Booklet
Beethoven composed the oratorio Christus am Ölberge in just "a fortnight, amid all sorts of tumult and other unpleasant and alarming events in my life". It marked the first time since the two "imperial cantatas" of 1790, the Cantata on the Death of the Emperor Joseph II WoO 87 and the Cantata on the Accession of Leopold II WoO 88, that he had embarked on a multi-movement vocal work. Christus am Ölberge was also Beethoven’s first composition on a religious subject and was destined to remain his only oratorio. © Phi