From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Re: Die Meistersinger
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 14:13:40 GMT

In article <27990089@otter.hpl.hp.com> 
sec@otter.hpl.hp.com (Simon Crouch) writes:

>	  I would greatly appreciate your recommendations for recordings
>	  (available on CD) of Wagners "Die Meistersinger". 

DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NUERNBERG happens to be the opera
closest to my heart.  It's a restorative for when I get
disgusted with the world; I need to experience it every so
often, for the good of my soul.  So I have heard all the
commercial recordings at least once.  I thought I would take
a different tack this time, and rather than critique each
version separately I would compare them element by element and
let others draw their own conclusions about what's most
important to them.  But first a quick listing of the likely
candidates, for ID purposes (ignoring some of historical/
documentary interest, but too dim or fragmentary to satisfy):

1950: Hans Knappertsbusch, Vienna [hereafter "Kna"]; Act 3 was
      recorded and released first as a tryout, then the rest. 
      Decca/London
1951: Herbert von Karajan, live at Bayreuth [Kar1].  EMI
1957: Rudolf Kempe, Berlin Phil [Kempe].  EMI
1963: Joseph Keilberth, live at Munich [Keil], the first
      stereo Meistersinger.  Eurodisc
1970: Karajan, Dresden [Kar2].  EMI
1974: Silvio Varviso, live at Bayreuth [Var].  Philips
1975: Georg Solti, Vienna [Solti].  Decca/London
1975: Eugen Jochum, Berlin Opera [Jochum].  DG

Of these, I believe only Kna and Kempe are not currently on
CD.

There have been surprisingly few recordings, considering how
well loved an opera this is.  Partly this may be because the
conductors and producers, loving it so much, are all too aware
of how deadly an experience it can be when Hans Sachs is a
toneless ranter or Walther von Stolzing an insenstive blaster. 
Accordingly, they probably wait until they think they have
these elements solved.  And some projects are planned that
never happen:  Beecham and Boehm studio recordings were
feverishly planned during their last years but never came to
pass, and a famous Rafael Kubelik tape for Bavarian Radio was
shopped around to record companies for release but never
picked up (but what a cast: Gundula Janowitz, Brigitte
Fassbaender, Sandor Konya, Thomas Stewart, Thomas Hemsley,
Franz Crass).

In fact HANS SACHS is the crucial part, for if his singing
lacks the sustained warmth, imagination, and beauty to keep us
involved, nothing else will matter much.  Here is where Norman
Bailey (Solti) scores, for he has all these qualities, and he
dominates the soundstage whenever he sings.  Paul Schoeffler
(Kna) shares some of the same gifts, though in a less
directed, less convincing fashion, and Karl Ridderbusch (Var)
has the goods though his voice sounds less full and lovely in
this baritone music than when he sings bass.  The others
either bore us or annoy our ears, though I can give Theo Adam
(Kar2) a partial exemption -- the voice is dry and not always
steady, but his conception and musicality are exceptional
enough to win me over.  But the others, even Fischer-Dieskau
(Jochum), nope.

Second, we need a WALTHER who can seduce us by pouring
glorious, musically-directed tone into the glorious melodies
Wagner has given him.  And here's where it's hard to argue
with Placido Domingo (Jochum): he does just that.  I wish he
got his tongue around the German better, and introduced more
dynamic variety, but he has the essentials in hand, and the
others don't.  Very close, though, is Rene Kollo's first try
(Kar2), reasonably liquid and ringing; by his second try
(Solti) the voice had tightened up.  Jess Thomas (Keil) also
makes a good, if rather unvaried, sound.  The others deliver
trial songs in more than one sense.

Most of the performances of EVA are excellent.  If I have a
personal fondness for Helen Donath (Kar2), call it a quirk of
mine that I can never resist her voice and its enticingly
personal quality.  Elisabeth Gruemmer (Kempe), a sadly
underrecorded artist, is superb too, with a bigger voice than
most Evas and no loss of ease and soar.  Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
(Kar1) is lovely and delightful as well, full of character
that isn't overdone.  Hilde Gueden (Kna) and Claire Watson
(Keil), if less distinctive, take their place on a
distinguished honor roll.  Alas, the most recent Evas on
records are the only inadequate ones.

BECKMESSER is a dramatic problem: the story is clearly
constructed for him to provide comedic contrast, yet he must
also be a plausible Mastersinger and suitor, and a scary
embodiment of good rules taken to narrow-minded extremes. 
It's hard to find a good balance:  we have several expert
comic performances by Karl Doench (Kna), Erich Kunz (Kar1),
Benno Kusche (Kempe), and Geraint Evans (Kar2), of whom Kusche
sings especially well and Evans gives an especially detailed
(some would say overdone) characterization.  On the other
hand, simply "taking the character seriously" by avoiding all
characterization leads to such leaden if well-sung results as
Roland Herrmann achieves (Jochum); when his almost noble
vocalism confront's Dieskau's prissy Sachs, it definitely
sounds as if the two have swapped roles.  So the best
Beckmesser we have is Bernd Weikl (Solti), solidly vocalized
and also convincingly fanatical.  A good word also for Klaus
Kirte (Var), who with not much of a voice is aiming at a
simliar result.  We still haven't heard the last word on this
interesting role, though.

The apprentice DAVID needs to be a first-rate lyric tenor, not
a character or "second" tenor, for he has an important scene
in which he demonstrates the Mastersingers' skills and rules. 
Here Anton Dermota (Kna), who was indeed a leading lyric
tenor, is in a class of his own, and Peter Schreier (Kar2)
would be close except that his voice just isn't very
attractive.

POGNER would be just an ensemble part if he didn't have that
stirring Address to the Guild in the first act, for which we
need a top-quality bass.  The blue ribbon easily goes to Karl
Ridderbusch (Kar2), with his beautiful easily produced bass,
and second prize to Kurt Moll (Solti) who's missing only that
last bit of ease on top.  The others struggle in various ways.

MAGDALENE is a short role, but we need a solid mezzo who can
maintain some character even through her formally-written
music, and then sock out a good high A over the fight
ensemble.  Christa Ludwig (Jochum) is the one who delivers
here, with Anna Reynolds (Var) and Julia Hamari (Solti) very
good too.

FRITZ KOTHNER introduces the Masters' official functions and
reads their rules in an ornamented Baroque arietta.  The only
one who really nails the latter is Gerd Feldhoff (Jochum).

Who buys a Meistersinger for the NIGHT WATCHMAN?  I know, but
I had to point out that his simple little songs have been
nicely rendered on disc by Hermann Prey (Kempe), Victor von
Halem (Jochum), Kurt Moll (Kar2), and Bernd Weikl (Var). 
There's also this gentleman "Werner Klumlikboldt" (Solti), who
is actually kurt moll in his wwfirst appearance, bernd weikl
in his second (try anagramming) -- they both knew the part
already and were on hand for the recording.

CONDUCTING:  Almost all conductors of this opera on records go
for a lyric approach, each scene given its full weight and
color before going on to the next.  Kempe and Jochum are
perhaps the best examples of this, and Karajan (especially his
second time) would be on their level if he didn't let the
bottom drop out of some scenes in his interest for novel
colors.  Solti lacks their interest in molding the phrases
meaningfully, but he does have something the others lack: some
theatrical zip, call it vulgarity if you want -- he's the only
one who really puts the requisite stinger at the end of the
first act and wipes you out with the overlapping fanfares
leading into the last scene.

ENSEMBLES: All the orchestras are good, though it's easy to
hear the extra quality of Berlin, Vienna, and Dresden.  The
Bayreuth choruses are always something special.  And Solti
gets points for using boys' choruses for the apprentices --
one listening proves that this must be what Wagner had in
mind, for his writing (especially the yodels) makes sense this
way and does not with women's voices.

LUTE:  A tiny point, but unlike all the other recordings which
use Wagner's own eventual solution, a harp with metal strings
(or with a strip of paper woven through its strings), Jochum
found an actual lutenist or guitarist able to play the part on
a gut-stringed instrument.  The instrument makes countless
witty touches in the writing audible here, as they are nowhere
else.  Which brings us to

RECORDING QUALITY.  There's too much going on for a mono
recording to be fully satisfactory, though not all the stereo
jobs capitalize on their advantage.  In particular the Solti
sounds like a flat-plane overmixed piece of work, and the
Varviso is ill-balanced and full of stage noise.  Karajan 2 is
fine, and Jochum is amazingly transparent -- sometimes perhaps
artificially so, but this is the only recording where I can
actually hear each line in the complex ensembles.

Note also some important HISTORICAL RECORDINGS from the 1920s-
40s.  Especially Friedrich Schorr in Sachs's solos, giving
them an eloquence and beauty they've never had since. 
Likewise Melchior's excerpts of Walther, even though he chose
not to sing the role, and the recording of the Quintet in
which they joined with Elisabeth Schumann.  And Alexander
Kipnis's recording of Pogner's solo.

Anyway, add up the complete recordings' elements according to
what's important to you.  For me, the Karajan/Dresden
recording comes out a pretty clear winner, the only one with
nothing awful in it (and it has some very special positive
qualities).  Jochum and Solti have much in their favor too,
and after that you'll be such an afficionado that you'll be
picking and choosing among the others, just as I have.

Have fun!

Jon Alan Conrad