Re-pitched DAS RHEINGOLD Resnik, Höffgen, Hines, Stolze, Kraus - Kempe - Bayreuth 26VII61

[@knappertsbusch]

Another treasure from the greatest KZbin channel :) This Kempe & Wagner combo was unknown to me before stumbling on this channel, what a joy. And what the heck did the record companies were doing all these years?!

[@Gralsritter]

Thank you for this Re-pitching KEMPE TRIUMPHANT!! This Ring is one of the finest performances that I know. It is the personal vindication of Rudolf Kempe at Bayreuth. He was undecided after having conducted this production when new in 1960 whether to return to Bayreuth or not. He did not trust the acoustics of the theatre and was doubtful of his own conducting there. This from a man, who since 1955, had led the annual Ring Cycles at Covent Garden(1959 apart) with such a firm hand and a wonderful sense of the architecture of the work, could now begin to doubt his own values in this work. Thankfully he was persuaded to return (and would continue to conduct the Ring for a further 3 years) to Bayreuth and we are now able to hear just what a magnificent achievement it was. This is also the Ring of 6 great Basses. Whether Bass-Baritone or Bass is of no matter. There are 5 Wotan/Wanderers of the past, present and future here. One from the past, two from the present and two for the future, and one great Bass. In Das Rheingold we meet four of them. Jerome Hines, David Ward, Otakar Kraus and Thomas Stewart. Hines began with the Walküre Wotan in 1960, but was unsure of the other roles being too high for him. His Rheingold Wotan was the first performance anywhere, he would sing it once more (at the MET in 1962) but that would be it - it was too uncomfortable for him to sing. He would never sing the Wanderer in Siegfried for the same reasons. He would, ultimately only sing Wotan a few times before reverting back to his core repertoire as a Bass. His Rheingold Wotan presented here is a wonderfully sonorous and superbly sung traversal. He may well have been uncomfortable singing it, but we certainly are not aware of that. David Ward here sings Fasolt with his great feeling for character and with a superb voice which would become Covent Garden's resident Wotan for the next 15 years. He would sing the Wotans all over the world with great distinction, trained and tutored by Hotter himself, so it is a great bonus to be able to hear him as Fasolt against the Wotan of Hines (who was also happier singing Fasolt than the young Wotan) Having made his debut in 1960, Ward tired quickly of the Bayreuth atmosphere and would not return after 1961. He would remain with a foot in both camps, singing Wotan /Holländer, but equally successfully as King Marke and Pogner in the Bass repertory. Otakar Kraus had sung Wotan for the Covent Garden touring company in the 50s, but it was as Alberich that his great ability for character acting came to the fore. His is a singularly mavelolent characterisation that has rarely been equaled by anyone before or since. He had been singing this role for Kempe since 1955 and it was Kempe who insisted on his engagement for Bayreuth while he conducted the Ring. Suffice to say that Kraus was probably the finest Alberich ever to be seen or heard at Bayreuth. Kraus did not record much so this is a great chance to hear him at his best. Thomas Stewart, here heard as a young helden-baritone in the role of Donner , would also go on to sing Wotan with great success and distinction at Bayreuth, the MET and Salzburg in the future. And Rudolf Kempe? where does he stand among the great conductors of the Ring? At or near the very top. He never recorded it commercially but today thankfully we can now hear his interpretation in different performances. The 1957 Covent Garden performance (Testament) suffers from poorer sound but with a great Bayreuth style cast of the 50s. From an unpublished article Kempe at Bayreuth (@MJ Hood)

[@petterw5318]

Since you know a lot about the great Rudolf Kempe, do you know what happened with that 1959 EMI incomplete Rheingold? Was the plan to record a complete Ring, but it was scrapped because Frantz died later that year?

[@meisterwue]

Schon der Beginn bezeugt es ohrenfällig : ein Wagner-Könner, der Rudolf Kempe...unvergesslich sein Lohengrin mit Grümmer & Jess Thomas, leider auch mit dem immer säuselnden DFD , den man aus allen Aufnahmen herausschneiden und durch einen anderen, echten Bariton ersetzen sollte ......DFD stört jede Aufnahme

[@davidhansel897]

Thank you for posting this! Prelude: 0:08 Scene 1: 04:41 Scene 2: 26:06 Scene 3: 1:13:25 Scene 4: 1:42:30

[@jameslamendola7843]

Thank you.

[@vincenzomerli6174]

Vielen Dank

[@Gralsritter]

After checking Kempe's concert diary it seems that only Highlights were planned. Kempe writes "Querschnitt" in his diary and the recording was done over 2 days - 10th and 11th of March, 1959 in Berlin.

[@wallenstein72]

The recording you are writing about is the EMI-highlight recording with Kempe, the Staatskapelle Berlin and Ferdinand Frantz, Benno Kusche, Helmut Melchert, and others. It was reissued on Berlin Classics and is part of the "Les Introuvables du Chant Wagnerien"-collection by EMI.