COMPOSERS: Wagner
LABELS: EMI
WORKS: Parsifal
PERFORMER: Warren Ellsworth, Donald McIntyre, Waltraud Meier, Philip Joll; Chorus & Orchestra of WNO/Reginald Goodall
CATALOGUE NO: CMS 5 65665 2 DDD
Readers who never heard Goodall in the Sixties and Seventies will probably wonder what all the fuss was about when encountering this WNO-based Parsifal captured in 1985. But even at some frustratingly distended tempi, which seem consciously to retard the otherwise excellent Meier and McIntyre and spotlight the chinks in Ellsworth’s battered vocal armour, Goodall’s skill in balancing expressive weight with structural cohesion still emerges, if only intermittently. Antony Bye
Wagner: Parsifal
Readers who never heard Goodall in the Sixties and Seventies will probably wonder what all the fuss was about when encountering this WNO-based Parsifal captured in 1985. But even at some frustratingly distended tempi, which seem consciously to retard the otherwise excellent Meier and McIntyre and spotlight the chinks in Ellsworth’s battered vocal armour, Goodall’s skill in balancing expressive weight with structural cohesion still emerges, if only intermittently. Antony Bye
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm