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I've come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a "perfect" performance when it comes to "Siegfried." There are a number of quite worthwhile performances that are all going to have their trade-offs one way or another, but there's no such thing as "perfect." Keilberth's recording of "Siegfried" is no different, but it comes a lot closer than most.
The pluses: Some absolutely gorgeous singing from Windgassen--perhaps his finest performance of this opera that I've heard (and I won't claim to have heard all available recordings he appears in, but I know the major ones--Solti, Krauss, Bohm). Disc 1, track 6, has some especially gorgeous lyrical singing from Windgassen that makes me melt. Hans Hotter is tremendous--I think his singing throughout is magnificent, but his scene as the Wanderer visiting with Mime is exalted. Astrid Varnay is her usual fantastic self--beyond criticism. Three of the four central characters in "Siegfried" could not be sung better than what we have here. That's reason enough to purchase this set.
The minuses: Sorry, I'm not a fan of Paul Kuen's screechy Mime. There has to be someone out there who actually sings this part rather than yelps and glissandos it. I'm not sure why Kuen was such a lock for this role for so many years, but I guess there must be some people out there who think well of his singing. I find Solti's Mime, Gerhard Stolze, far superior to Kuen.
And I have to agree with some of the criticisms of Keilberth that I've read, that he's a solid "meat and potatoes" conductor but falls short of inspired. The performance as a whole is wonderful, but my overall impression is that I hear quite good conducting that rarely crosses the line into cosmos as both Karajan and Furtwangler often do. Compare Keilberth's conducting here to Karajan's Siegfried from four years earlier (1951) at Bayreuth on Walhall
Richard Wagner : Siegfried (Bayreuth 1951)
, and the difference is night and day--highly functional versus truly inspired throughout. Sadly, the Karajan performance has far inferior sound (not a huge problem) and a far inferior Siegfried, Bernd Aldenhoff (which in fact is *the* problem). Still, I listen to both these sets more or less equally, with the Keilberth set probably slightly more often.
On the whole, this is a great performance, well worth whatever it costs. It's just a shame that it's not truly PERFECT, because it has most of the ingredients. But for sure, it deserves five stars and all the accolades it has justifiably received.
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charles whitworth
an absolute classic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2023Brian David Wall
The best Siegfried recording available.
Reviewed in Canada on October 22, 2013
