Parsifal (SACD/CD): Jaap van Zweden, Klaus Florian Vogt, Falk Struckmann, Robert Holl, Katarina Dalayman
Song of Redemption
Jaap van Zweden was recently named Musical American’s “Conductor of the Year” Photo: Hans van der Woerd/Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
Parsifal
Conductor: Jaap van Zweden
Parsifal: Klaus Florian Vogt
Amfortas: Falk Struckmann
Gurnemanz: Robert Holl
Kundry: Katarina Dalayman
Klingsor: Krister St. Hill
Titurel: Ante Jerkunica
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Netherlands Radio Choir; State Male Choir ‘Latvija’
Choral Director: Eberhard Friedrich
Audio Recording Director: Gerard Westerdaal
TV Recording Director: Joost Honselaar
Recorded live at the Concertgebouw in December, 2010
Challenge Classics CC72519
Playing Time: 236 minutes (4 SACDs); 81 minutes (DVD)
According to Stanford University’s Parsifal Performance History, the first Netherlands concert performance of Parsifal took place in Amsterdam in 1896, followed by a fully staged production in the city in 1905. (The Netherlands did not sign the Berne Convention, which prevented Parsifal from being performed outside of Bayreuth for 30 years after the work’s premiere.)
There is of course no audio record of these late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century performances. However, a much more recent Amsterdam concert rendition, by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Concertgebouw in December 2010 is now available on the Challenge Classics label.
This live performance was also videotaped and later streamed on the Netherlands Radio 4 website. (The video stream can also be viewed at Wagneropera.net.)
Conductor of the Year
The performance is led by the orchestra’s current chief conductor and artistic director, Jaap van Zweden, who is also the Dallas Symphony’s music director. In early November, 2011 van Zweden was named “Conductor of the Year” by Musical America.
Van Zweden’s straightforward, modernist approach lies somewhere between the mysticism of some mid- and late-twentieth-century Germanic conductors and the astringent style favored by Pierre Boulez and his adherents.
Van Zweden carefully builds the opera’s psychic tension and sculpts the performance so that the opera ends with the sense of spiritual resolution and redemption imbued in Wagner’s music.
During this performance the Netherlands Radio Choir was joined by the State Male Choir ‘Latvija’ and under Eberhard Friedrich’s direction the two ensembles blend seamlessly. Friedrich is also the chorus director for the Bayreuth Festival and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB); the first set of CDs in the RSB’s Wagner concert series, Der fliegende Holländer was recently reviewed by Wagneropera.net.
Capital Kundry
Soprano Katarina Dalayman’s vocally and dramatically seductive Kundry is another important reason for obtaining this set. Even though she clips a couple her highest notes in Act 2, she sings with an intensity and vocal color that recalls such legendary Kundrys as Christa Ludwig and Waltraud Meier.
Dalayman inhabits the role with the same level of musical intelligence she brings to her staged performances. Now in her late 40s, Dalayman may replace Meier as opera’s most formidable Kundry.
Alabaster-Voice Tenor
Klaus Florian Vogt is acclaimed for his Wagner roles, especially Lohengrin, which the tenor performed in Bayreuth last summer. Reporting on one of those performances in his I Hear Voices blog, the critic RML wrote that Vogt “is now even more sensitive and elegant in his high mezza voce than before. No wonder he received a standing ovation such as I have rarely witnessed in an opera house.”
And in Wagneropera.net’s review of the Gran Teatro del Liceu’s January 2011 Parsifal production, I wrote, “Vogt’s translucent tenor voice and boyish mien make him ideal for the role until Parsifal cries, ‘Amfortas! Die Wunde! Die Wunde!’”
This is pretty much case in the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic performance, which took place only weeks before Vogt’s Liceu engagement.
Certainly on the recording, during the latter part of Act 2 and for most of Act 3, one wishes Vogt’s voice sounded more like an oboe and than a flute, as he is unable to convey gravitas as Parsifal gains wisdom and maturity.
Fortunately the performance excerpts DVD that accompanies the Dutch CDs contains the last minutes of the opera including Parsifal’s “Nur eine Waffe taugt” (“But one weapon serves”). It is fascinating to watch the physical effort Vogt puts into singing this passage.
The beatific expression on Vogt’s face and in his voice as Parsifal sings his final line, “enthüllet den Graal, öffnet den Schrein!” (“uncover the Grail, open the shrine”) demonstrates that however bleached his voice may sound, Vogt is a committed, impassioned performer.
CD Tech Assist
In the streamed performance, the Dutch-born bass-baritone Robert Holl, Gurnemanz, had some rough patches, including his delivery of “Schlafhüter” in the phrase “Schlafhüter mitsammen" (“guardians of sleep, as well”) near the very beginning of the opera.
Robert Holl, Gurnemanz.
During the streamed performance there are problems in Act 3 when Holl sings his monologue, "O Gnade! Höchstes Heil"! (Oh, mercy! Bounteous grace!"). In the opening line, the word "Heil" is gruff and off pitch and Holl very nearly cracks the note. A bit later in the monologue when Holl intones “des Heiles, das du bringst” (“the healing that you bring”), the word “Heiles” also is delivered too gruffly.
On the CD, however, there’s no evidence of this roughness. Presumably the CD engineers patched in other takes.
Otherwise, Holl delivers an authoritative performance. As can be seen in the streamed video, Holl takes the final singer’s bow at concert’s end and the enthusiastic Dutch audience accords their countryman a rousing ovation. (The curtain calls are not included in the set’s DVD.)
Familiar Amfortas and Other Principals
Falk Struckman has been singing Amfortas for several decades. Indeed, the cast in an early 1990s VHS release (regrettably unavailable as a DVD) of Harry Kupfer’s Staatsoper unter der Linden production of the opera includes Struckman as Amfortas.
Inevitably, the bass-baritone’s voice isn’t as fresh as when he appeared in that 1992 Berlin performance. But Struckman’s years of experience performance the role and his careful use of legato are assets in the Amsterdam performance.
Certainly his Amfortas retains some dignity, vocally and dramatically throughout the opera, a welcome change from the whining, febrile depictions of Amfortas seen in many staged productions.
Krister St. Hill’s youthful baritone lacks the snarl to convey Klingsor’s menace. Bass Ante Jerkunica’s Titurel was good preparation for his stage performances the following month at the Liceu. The Blumenmädchen sing seductively and the various squires and knights make welcome contributions.
The CD booklet includes Willem Brul’s insightful essay, “Parsifal: ‘Das grosse Leid des Lebens” (“Parsifal: The Great Suffering of Life”), a phrase Wagner used to describe his final opera. This essay is translated into English, but the libretto section of the booklet includes only Wagner’s original German text.
Even though the streamed performance isn’t quite as technically perfect as the CD version, I’m glad it is still available on online and actually wish a DVD of the entire concert had been released. Nonetheless, this Dutch CD is an important addition to Parsifal’s recorded legacy.
Other CD Review
Note: English-language translations of Wagner’s libretto used in this review are by Lionel Salter and appear in the Parsifal guide published by Overture Opera Guides/English National Opera (Oneworld Classics, Ltd., 2011).