Re-pitched PARSIFAL Mödl, Windgassen, Weber, London, Uhde - Knappertsbusch - Bayreuth VII&VIII51

This is the first ever commercial recording of Parsifal. Decca decided to record it live at the 1951 Bayreuth Festival. How many performances were used for this is disputed. In his first book, Decca’s producer John Culshaw wrote that the dress rehearsal and two performances were recorded, in a later one he claimed that two rehearsals and 4 or 5 performances are the basis for this Parsifal. After looking at the frequency spectrum, the former claim seems more likely: cuts are very few, clearly visible and occur about every 20 minutes. This was the standard length of tapes used at the time. Of course it is possible, that these segments originate from 7 different days, but it looks more probable, that by and large "the best" performance of the run was used. The Decca release was copied many times by various labels. This version is based on the Membran release. Pitch was pretty constant (each segment was very slightly differently pitched) but the overall pitch was extremely flat (mostly around a=438 instead of a=445 Hz). It seems that the tape machines Decca used at the time were far superior to those by EMI by the way, where pitch was always painfully inconsistent. PARSIFAL Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel in drei Aufzügen von Richard Wagner. Amfortas: George London Titurel: Arnold van Mill Gurnemanz: Ludwig Weber Parsifal: Wolfgang Windgassen Klingsor: Hermann Uhde Kundry: Martha Mödl Altsolo: Ruth Siewert 1. Gralsritter: Walter Fritz 2. Gralsritter: Werner Faulhaber 1. Knappe: Hanna Ludwig 2. Knappe: Elfriede Wild 3. Knappe: Günther Baldauf 4. Knappe: Gerhard Stolze Blumenmädchen 1. Gruppe: Lore Wissmann Erika Zimmermann Hanna Ludwig Blumenmädchen 2. Gruppe: Paula Brivkalne Maria Lacorn Elfriede Wild Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele Hans Knappertsbusch Bayreuth, Festspielhaus, Juli & August 1951 Prelude: 0:00 Act 1, s.1: 13:59 Act 1, s.2: 1:15:44 Act 2, s.1: 1:55:29 Act 2, s.2: 2:13:32 Act 3, s.1: 3:07:03 Act 3, s.2: 4:06:04 Compilation recording by Decca from several performances, based on Membran edition, pitch corrected to a=445 Hz 3 FLAC files: https://1fichier.com/?iq7mrg7x5a1rh8p...