KEMPE Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1956) - PACO052

Devotees of Die Meistersinger are most likely familiar with Rudolf Kempe’s lovable, distinguished 1956 performance, his second complete recording of the opera, recorded in rich mono by EMI with the Berlin Philharmonic and an expert cast. The opera has fared very well on recordings with strong studio accounts by Karajan, Knappertsbusch, Kubelík, Sawallisch, and Solti (his second) and important live versions by Toscanini, Abendroth, Reiner, Karajan (his first), Levine, and others. For many collectors, Kempe II is near or at the top of the list. After revisiting the performance on Pristine Audio with sound that gives a sense of greater space around the singers, I would rank it just a notch below Kubelík’s as the best overall Meistersinger.

To restate what many have already noted, Kempe’s masterly conducting is its outstanding feature. He allows all of the work’s many facets—humor, pathos, and delicacy along with its monumentality—to emerge with natural momentum. There’s a wonderfully warm sound to the strings of the Berlin Philharmonic and, unlike many conductors, Kempe maintains an atmosphere of pomp without pomposity from the start of the overture. He brings great clarity and perfect pacing to the difficult contrapuntal finales of acts 1 and 2, helped by the combined forces of three well-trained choruses.

Then there’s the pleasure of hearing an all-German cast of singers who were closely identified with their roles interacting as a real ensemble. There’s not one word in the whole performance that isn’t clearly enunciated. In the important secondary roles, Gerhard Unger is ideal as David, and Marga Höffgen, Gottlob Frick, and Gustav Neidlinger are stylish, comfortable, and have exactly the right voices for Magdalene, Pogner, and Kothner. The young Hermann Prey as the most lyrical of Night Watchmen is a special joy. Benno Kusche is just right as Beckmesser, funny but not overplayed. The role of Eva is particularly well represented on Meistersinger recordings. Schwarzkopf, Janowitz, Donath, and Studer are all wonderful in the part. Elisabeth Grümmer, that paragon of German sopranos, is their equal.

But it’s with Walter von Stolzing and Hans Sachs that we spend the most time (hours and hours), and it’s with the performances of Rudolf Schock and Ferdinand Frantz in these huge, difficult roles that I have some slight reservations. Frantz is a dark-voiced Sachs, authoritative and musicianly, but a little gruff and somewhat unvaried in timbre. This isn’t to say that he isn’t touching in his quieter monologues.

Several far-from-prizeworthy Walthers (Hopf, Beirer, Treptow) are the weak links in the casts of other recordings. Rudolf Schock is preferable to them, and his Walther is phrased and sung with beauty and insight, but the voice is slightly dry, and there’s occasionally a sense of strain.

Turning to the Kubelík recording, Sandor Konya, an important Wagnerian tenor who is poorly represented on commercial recordings, provides a more mellifluous Walther than Schock, and Thomas Stewart is a nobler, more vocally resplendent Sachs than Frantz, more poet than cobbler.

Nonetheless, Kempe’s Meistersinger has well stood the test of time and is now heard to best advantage on Pristine Audio. I wouldn’t want to be without it.

Paul Orgel
This article originally appeared in Issue 34:5 (May/June 2011) of Fanfare Magazine.