Wagner - Parsifal

The Guardian 60

Cleveman/Dalayman/Tomlinson/Roth/Hallé/Elder
(Hallé, four CDs)

It has taken almost four years for Mark Elder’s account of Wagner’s final music drama to find its way on to disc. Elder conducted this Parsifal at the 2013 Proms, as part of that season’s Wagner bicentenary celebrations. The performance was generally extremely well received – his conducting and the Hallé’s playing were particularly admired. Yet what may be overwhelmingly convincing in the white heat of a live event does not always seem as special when transferred to CD, on which any shortcomings can be emphasised.

In this case, those weaknesses appear in the casting of the principal roles. Of the protagonists, only one, Katarina Dalayman as Kundry, retains her lustre; her portrayal conjures dramatic presence out of every phrase and can compare with the best of those already available on disc. No one else matches her combination of intensity and vocal security. Tom Fox’s Klingsor and Detlef Roth’s Amfortas just about pass muster, but two performances are particularly problematic: Lars Cleveman’s Parsifal sounds worn and effortful from the start, hardly the naive youth with the potential to reinvigorate the grail knights, while John Tomlinson, unquestionably one of the greatest Wagnerian performers of our time, simply made this recording as Gurnemanz a decade too late. Every word of his first-act narration is dictation-clear, but the price is vocal delivery that is almost toneless at times, with an intrusive vibrato.