Word: knappertsbusch
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Goodall's conducting is in the expansive, slow-paced tradition of men like Hans Knappertsbusch. He has a touch for bringing out the counterpoint in Wagner's score, particularly in the popular orchestral segments like "Siegfried's Rhine Journey"; but often it's hard to tell just what he's doing with his orchestra, because the recording is so muddy...
Died. Hans Knappertsbusch, 77, German conductor in the grand tradition of the late 19th century romantics, who through the 1920s and '30s took brilliant charge of, first, the Munich Bavarian State Opera, then the Vienna State Opera and Vienna Philharmonic until the Nazis forced him into virtual retirement from 1938 to '45, after which he came back to crown his career at the 1951 Bayreuth Festival with a daringly modernized performance of Parsifal that sparked a Wagnerian revival throughout Europe; of a heart attack; in Munich...
WAGNER: PARSIFAL (Philips; 5 LPs). This first stereo version has top credentials: conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch, an eminent Wagnerian, it was recorded at Bayreuth, where Wagner intended his "sacred dramatic festival" to be performed and where the acoustics are ideal-even, unfortunately, for coughs. Knappertsbusch slowly and hypnotically weaves the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus into a rich tapestry of sound against which budding Heldentenor Jess Thomas as Parsifal, Baritone George London as King Amfortas and Soprano Irene Dalis as the tortured Kundry eloquently play out the medieval legend of renunciation and redemption...
Missing from the podium this year was veteran Conductor Hans Knappertsbusch, 65, last of the great Wagner traditionalists, a casualty of the grandsons' innovations. He was in the middle of a rehearsal last spring when he suddenly put down his baton and folded his hands. Wieland Wagner, who had already lost temperamental Conductor Herbert von Karajan over artistic disagreements, begged him to explain what he wanted. "I wish," replied Knappertsbusch, "that you would put back into this opera what your grandfather put into it and what you have taken out." The quarrel was never patched...
...Conductor Hans Knappertsbusch...