This concert recording represents a real stroke of luck, for which we have to thank a conductor – Herbert Kegel – who championed music during the GDR era that was not viewed as "politically correct". This 1975 recording of Parsifal, featuring snappy tempos and devoid of the usual mystique surrounding Wagner, is an interpretation which seems to have evolved well ahead of its time.
The Parsifal recording by Herbert Kegels takes a clear aesthetic position and impresses with the lightness and transparency of the soundscape. The ensemble around the outstanding soloists René Kollo and Theo Adam is above reproach.
Reviews
In Kegel's Parsifal interpretation, the music is of a unique eruptive power, which is ideally supported by the singers. (Wiener Zeitung, 4/05)
"Whoever was there will not forget it. The concert on January 11, 1975, in the Leipzig Congress Hall at the Zoo. The New Gewandhaus was not yet standing, the three Leipzig orchestras concertized in the interim hall with the horribly creaky floorboards. Here, Vaclav Neumann led the members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra to peak performances, the Große Rundfunkorchester also presented popular soloists from non-socialist foreign countries in their series> Zauber der Musik <and the young audience was queuing up tickets for the concerts which Herbert Kegel gave with the Rundfunkfonorchester, because Kegel (1920-1990) campaigned for composers such as Schenker and Goldmann from the GDR, led Dessau and Wagner-Régeny, introduced us to Orff, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Martinu, Britten and later Nono and Penderecki. . "
(Klassik.com, Criticism by Boris Michael Gruhl, 30. 08. 2006)
"Now Edel again proves his vinyl competence: As estate manager of the former GDR classic label Eterna you get out under the serial name> AAA Eterna Cuts <five recordings of the prestigious company the years 1961-1975 again to analog honors. Each publication is pressed on impeccable 180 gram vinyl in the Edel-Optimal Preßwerk in Röbel, individually numbered and equipped with inserts including historical and technical information. Everything looks valuable, the manufacturing quality is mostly excellent. "(Audio, June 2013)
Wagner: Parsifal
Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Thomanenchor Leipzig & Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Leipzig
Herbert Kegel
