It is good to have so many recordings by Rudolf Kempe available on compact disc, far more recordings available now than when he was alive. One reason may be that Kempe spent much of his later career in East Germany, putting himself beyond the reach of most Western record companies. Another possible explanation is that there is simply more room for Kempe now, because when he was alive, giants roamed the earth. When this live performance of Wagner's Parsifal was made in 1959, for example, Knappertsbusch, Klemperer, Walter, ...
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It is good to have so many recordings by Rudolf Kempe available on compact disc, far more recordings available now than when he was alive. One reason may be that Kempe spent much of his later career in East Germany, putting himself beyond the reach of most Western record companies. Another possible explanation is that there is simply more room for Kempe now, because when he was alive, giants roamed the earth. When this live performance of Wagner's Parsifal was made in 1959, for example, Knappertsbusch, Klemperer, Walter, Reiner, Karajan, Böhm, and Szell were active and Furtwängler, Kleiber, and Krause were only recently deceased. There are few modern conductors who can measure up to any of them, and Kempe inevitably looks better in comparison. The cast of Kempe's 1959 Convent Garden performance of Parsifal is for the most part fine. Gottlob Frick's superbly characterized Gurnemanz is especially strong, but Karl Liebl is quite weak in the title role; he makes Parsifal sound less like the pure fool that...
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Add this copy of Wagner: Parsifal to cart. $56.71, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2010 by TESTAMENT: TES1455.
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