Rudolf Kempe at Bayreuth
1960
Das Rheingold (conductor)
Die Walküre (conductor)
Siegfried (conductor)
Götterdämmerung (conductor)
This was a new Ring production by Wolfgang Wagner. For some reason, Kempe's Bayreuth career never reached the sky. Both Birgit Nilsson and Penelope Turing suggests that this may be connected to the acoustics in the Festival Theatre.
Penelope Turing writes about the 1960 premiere in her book New Bayreuth:
"London operagoers in particular were familiar with Kempe's Ring: his supremely artistic overall cpnception of the work, his exquisite feeling for string tone, his consideration for the singers, and withal the majesty and fire which he could unleash in the orchestra. They came expecting him to perform the same magic in Bayreuth, but unhappily the magic was absent. Perhaps this was due to his unfamiliarity with the unusual acoustics of the Festspielhaus; perhaps the rehearsal time was too short. there were many beauties in the playing of that first Ring, but they did not add up to greatness."
1961
Das Rheingold (conductor)
Die Walküre (conductor)
Siegfried (conductor)
Götterdämmerung (conductor)
1962
Das Rheingold (conductor)
Die Walküre (conductor)
Siegfried (conductor)
Götterdämmerung (conductor)
1963
Das Rheingold (conductor)
Die Walküre (conductor)
Siegfried (conductor)
Götterdämmerung (conductor)
1967
Lohengrin (conductor)
Some of Rudolf Kempe's Wagner recordings
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