Melodram

Mozart: Entführung, ’56, Salzburg/Szell

Robert Levine

The main appeal of this release will be the marvelous leadership of George Szell, into whose hands this opera fell when Karl Böhm gave it

Wagner: Parsifal/Bayreuth, ’54

Jed Distler

Among the Bayreuth Festival Parsifal recordings (official and otherwise) under Hans Knappertsbusch’s direction, this 1954 go-round is closer to the conductor’s weighty 1951 commercially issued

Wagner Ring Knappertsbusch 58/Melodram C

Jed Distler

At the outset let me say that Melodram now offers the best sounding incarnation yet of Hans Knappertsbusch’s live 1958 Bayreuth Festival Ring Cycle. The

Boulez Parsifal Melodram C

Jed Distler

Wieland Wagner’s stripped-down, minimalist Bayreuth Festival staging of his grandfather’s Parsifal finally met its aural equivalent when Pierre Boulez first conducted the opera in 1966,

Kna’s sloppy Ludwig b/Melodram C

Jed Distler

Hans Knappertsbusch’s imposing presence in the concert hall must have been something to behold. Even within the limitations of these archival radio broadcast tapes, you

Knappertsbusch Brahms Disaster

Jed Distler

The overtures, Haydn Variations, Alto Rhapsody, and Second Piano Concerto derive from 1955/7 studio recordings released by Decca. In all likelihood, Melodram’s transfers stem from