Listen to the low e that started the flow of the Rhine on August 13, 1956: this tone was sounded exactly 80 years after Hans Richter gave the prelude to the very first Bayreuth Festival. A lot has changed since then. From the beginning of the 1950s Wagner's grandson tried to renew the Wieland Festspiele. "Wagner's legacy should not be mummified out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to the original,"
… he wrote in 1951. Although much had been improved in 1956 by 'New Bayreuth', these productions still had so many novelties and corrections that they were then press were commented in detail. The legendary Hans Knappertsbusch gives a dignified and majestic reading of colossal tetralogy. Here the soloists are not pushed away by an all-dominating sound power: the production sounds more like a collectively created mystery play, in which each singer contributes to the whole. Obviously, this live mono recording has serious misses and disturbances, but the overall atmosphere is so overwhelmingly authentic that the more dedicated Wagner enthusiast should certainly cherish this reading. Besides Hans Hotter as Wotan, Wolfgang Windgassen as Siegfried and Astrid Varnay as Brünhilde, Gré Brouwenstijn should also be mentioned, who could be heard as Sieglinde and Gutrune. (HJ) Besides Hans Hotter as Wotan, Wolfgang Windgassen as Siegfried and Astrid Varnay as Brünhilde, Gré Brouwenstijn should also be mentioned, who could be heard as Sieglinde and Gutrune. (HJ) Besides Hans Hotter as Wotan, Wolfgang Windgassen as Siegfried and Astrid Varnay as Brünhilde, Gré Brouwenstijn must also be mentioned, who could be heard as Sieglinde and Gutrune. (HJ)more
