Watching the great Kna on video: Hans Knappertsbusch conducts Wagner in Vienna.

Few of the great Wagner conductors of the past have left some videos of their wagnerian performances: Sawallisch, Böhm, Karajan left some filmed complete performances. The master of Bayreuth and one of the doyens of Wagner conducting, Hans Knappertsbusch, left only three filmed concert performances, all of them filmed during the Wiener Festwochen, in 1962 and 1963, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The pieces filmed were Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, the Siegfried-Idyll and the Act I from Die Walküre. A scarce legacy comparing all his audio recordings at Bayreuth of the complete operas by Wagner, most of them unsurpassable references.

Knappertsbusch was able to do wonders with the orchestra. His old-school style, with his particular slow tempi,  was so opulent, majestic, with all musicians in full performance; was able to make feel the  beauty of the wagnerian drama, without being boring or annoying. With the VPO he stablished a prodigious collaboration, as gifted as his one with Bayreuth Festival. In these videos he appears old, somehow sturdy but also a bit tired. Nevertheless, he is still able to give unsurpassable and unforgettable performances.

His slow tempi came from the famous "Bayreuth style", what he learned from conductors like Hans Richter, who worked with Wagner himself. Listening to the old recordings by Muck and Von Hoesslin, it could sound old-fashioned, though wonderful, to a modern listener. This doesn't happen with Kna: in his case, that slowness means Wagner's grandeur at his best: every detail, every instrument has the chance to shine magnificently. Every individual musician is part, of the inmense score, and Kna's tempi and style makes them to sound always epic.

In 1962, the filmed concert was devoted to Beethoven and Wagner, the latter represented by the Tristan's most famous excerpts. Here, the brilliant sound of the orchestra helps Kna's baton to perform an enchanting, intense rendition of the Prelude. The famous chord is performed slow, but energically. The famous Liebestod is sung by Birgit Nilsson, who was at her peak of her voice, with her powerful, thunder-like high notes and big-volumed voice, even when she would still have to reach her plenitude in Böhm's recording.  

The 1963 concert was entirely devoted to Wagner. The first part was the Siegfried-Idyll, whose version sounds more in the style of a big symphony than the original chamber style. This version is more familiar, tender, intimate, despite the bombastic sound of the orchestra.

The second part is the famous Act I from Die Walküre, an usual piece of operatic concerts, such lyrical and quite symphonical at the same time. The prelude begins maybe a bit slow, with the strings reaching the climax little by little, and at the same time reflecting the anxiety of escaping through the forest in the middle of the night. The cello, so important here, shines here when Siegmund takes the drink offered by Sieglinde. And when the hero tells his story, the wind section are elegiac at their best. In the final duet, the orchestra and singers become one, the beauty and theatrical sense of this music raise the listener to a supreme level. At the end, the orchestra plays slowly the final tutti, but in order to lengthen the climax, feeling a supreme joy.

Fritz Uhl, despite his limitations, had a lighter voice than his brilliant contemporaries, indeed his high register seems to be limited, cracking the last note, but despite all he has some beauty in his tone to be still better to many of tenors singing today Siegmund. From his monologue Ein schwert verhiess mir den vater, he gets more and more inspiration.

Claire Watson is the great surprise of this video. She recorded Freia and Gutrune in Solti's Ring, so she was usual in the Viennese stage. Her voice has a proper tone, volume, beauty and she is an accomplished performer. Her Sieglinde is a fragile, but determined and brave woman. Her rendition of Der Männer Sippe is anthological, at the same level of her legendary colleagues. Her delightful voice leaves us wonders as a beautiful pianissimo in mich dünkt, ihre klang, hört ich als Kind. In her day, she had to compete with such contemporaries like Rysanek, Grümmer, Brouwenstijn or Janowitz, but her performance is clearly at their level. Today most of the opera houses would long to listen such a soprano.

Hunding is sung by the legendary bass Josef Greindl, here a veteran, but by far the best singer of the concert. Here is the character as Wagner thought: a very dark basso profondo with perfect tone, diction and volume. His Hunding is brute, fearsome and his expressions are so dramatic that gives a sensation of performance. His last line: "hüte dich wohl!" is really chilling, scary. A true wagnerian, opera legend.

These videos, even in a limited black and white image, are wonderful examples of the artistry of Hans Knappertsbusch, and a must for every fan of Wagner's works to watch, to have both pleasures: to see and hear the greatest wagnerian conductor of all time.

My reviews are not professional and express only my opinions. As a non English native speaker I apologise for any mistake.

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