Special offer. Wagner: Parsifal
Lars Cleveman (Parsifal), Katarina Dalayman (Kundry), Sir John Tomlinson (Gurnemanz), Detlef Roth (Amfortas), Tom Fox (Klingsor), Reinhard Hagen (Titurel)
Hallé, Sir Mark Elder
The Hallé offers playing worthy of the orchestra’s long Wagner tradition. Elder’s very slow Prologue reminds us of his journeyman days under Reginald Goodall, leading into a luminous, measured...
Special offer. Wagner: Parsifal
Lars Cleveman (Parsifal), Katarina Dalayman (Kundry), Sir John Tomlinson (Gurnemanz), Detlef Roth (Amfortas), Tom Fox (Klingsor), Reinhard Hagen (Titurel)
Hallé, Sir Mark Elder
Purchase product
The Hallé offers playing worthy of the orchestra’s long Wagner tradition. Elder’s very slow Prologue reminds us of his journeyman days under Reginald Goodall, leading into a luminous, measured...
About
Following their acclaimed previous Wagner opera releases, Hallé present the re-mastered recording of their 2013 Prom performance, recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall.
“Working with his orchestra, the Hallé, Sir Mark Elder produced an account of this miraculous score which, for a combination of passion and precision, surpassed any other that I have ever heard.”
Michael Tanner, The Spectator, 31 August 2013
Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal, which the composer declared to be his “farewell to the world” has been described as being in many ways the most “total” of all his “total art works”. His spiritual swansong unfurls as a slow-moving, ritualistic drama, and is arguably the best-suited of all his operas to the style of concert staging offered here.
Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall, London at the 2013 BBC Proms, featuring dramatic spatial placing of off-stage choruses and musicians.
Audio re-mastered by Hallé’s award winning engineer Steve Portnoi: the original multitrack recordings of both rehearsals and concert were edited to eliminate audience noise whilst retaining the sense of place and the staged nature of the performance. The edited multitrack was then remixed to achieve a sound in keeping with Hallé label releases.
Contents and tracklist
- Tom Fox, Robert Murray, Andrew Greenan, Detlef Roth, Joshua Ellicott, Reinhard Hagen, Ana James, Madeleine Shaw, Andrew Rees, Anna Devin, Sarah Castle, John Tomlinson, Anita Watson, Katarina Dalayman, Elizabeth Cragg, Lars Cleveman
- Hallé Orchestra, Trinity Boys Choir, Royal Opera Chorus, Hallé Youth Choir
- Mark Elder
Awards and reviews
July 2017
The Hallé offers playing worthy of the orchestra’s long Wagner tradition. Elder’s very slow Prologue reminds us of his journeyman days under Reginald Goodall, leading into a luminous, measured performance with many beauties, notably the Grail scene, yet dramatic enough to animate Klingsor’s nervy strings
November 2017
Its best feature, by some distance is a quite superb performance by the Halle itself. Already admired as a Wagner conductor, Elder seems exquisitly comfortable in leading an account marked by capacious, long-breathed tempos, seemingly tuned to a pulse ordained in some unearthly realm. Best of the soloists is Katarina Dalayman.
31st May 2017
[Dalayman's] portrayal conjures dramatic presence out of every phrase and can compare with the best of those already available on disc...Elder’s approach to the score is distinctly measured...but the sustained beauty of the Hallé’s playing and the perfect blending of the textures just about keeps it going.
2nd June 2017
a testament to Elder’s ability to draw the very best from an orchestra, and to traverse the huge peaks (and troughs) of Wagner’s scores with unerring skill...Yes his tempos are mostly slow, but the Hallé plays Wagner’s last opera with shimmering beauty...Dalayman’s Kundry is a class act, sensual and sensitively sung.
