Wagner: Overtures & Preludes

Mixed bag

     

The first thing to note is that Karajan's name appears on the artwork; but all you get is 6 minutes of Ride of the Valkyres. Well, so be it. The contributions by Kubelik (Idyll, Mastersingers) used to be quite famous and belong to the upper echelon of Wagner recordings; Böhm's contributions are extracted from a disc that I have reviewed elsewhere (look for Böhm conducts Wagner, Vienna Phil on DGG), not unalloyed happiness. In fact all the tracks on this album are also available somewhere else. So I will take this as a cue to simply alert you to the fact that the seam of gold here is Jochum's performance of the Parsifal music. I think all critics have agreed for the past 60 years that this is one of those performances that make the world a better place to live in. A profoundly moving reading, glorying in a vast spacious aural ambience, with soft strings, immensely weighty brass, luminous woodwinds. An unforgettable experience, once you have immersed yourself in it. Worth the price of this album by itself. (And it makes you wonder, incidentally, why we have to put up (on this same disc!) with the boxy, unnaturally spotlighted, unmusical recordings of much more recent vintage with such immensely improved recording techniques!). -- Anyway, put those quibbles aside and buy what is essential to your happiness, especially if you are a died in the wool Wagnerian. Get the Jochum/Parsifal tracks, if nothing else.