This performance marked the occasion of the opening of the rebuilt Nationaltheater in Munich following its destruction in the war. Keilberth was then the Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera, and an accomplished, knowledgeable Kapellmeister, always to be relied on to conduct Weber, Wagner and Richard Strauss with care and understanding. This reading is a very fair example of his work, sound but seldom inspired. I admire the way he keeps the score moving along lightly and with rhythmical buoyancy, never allowing the music to drag in an attempt at false sentiiment. Yet, beside Karajan's noble interpretation on EMI, or that of Kempe (also EMI—not available yet on CD), Keilberth's seems wanting in depth and curiously pedestrian. The sound of the opera-house orchestra sometimes lacks presence and colour as compared with the Staatskapelle Dresden on the Karajan set. That said, you do feel the pleasing sense of being present at a live evening in the theatre, which—for me—counts for much. Where the singing is concerned, each set has its advantages and disadvantages. Otto Wiener was a well-routined and articulate Sachs, not so very different in character from Theo Adam (Karajan), but Adam has the better voice and the greater depth of expression. Hotter? a noted Sachs a few years earlier, is here a moving and intelligent Pogner, in spite of the fact that the cold from which he was suffering makes his singing occasionally effortful. Nobody has sung the little scene with Eva near the start of Act 2 with such inwardness—but Ridderbusch (Karajan) is steadier and almost as eloquent. Kusche is an extremely experienced Beckmesser. His idiomatic, observant performance, replete with all the Marker's didactic fussing, is more credible than Evans's somewhat exaggerated reading for Karajan. There's not much to choose between Donath's (Karajan) and Watson's Evas; both light, smiling interpretations. Watson is suitably fervent at ''O Sachs, meine Freund'' but not the equal of Grummer (Kempe) or of Schwarzkopf in Karajan's earlier set, made at Bayreuth in 1951 (to be reissued on CD later this year). On stage she was a wholly believable performer, as was Jess Thomas as Walther. Like Kollo's (Karajan) his singing had its uncomfortable moments, but by and large the poetic lyricism overcomes some signs of strain as the evening progresses. Metternich is such a good Kothner one wishes he was singing Sachs. Lenz's David hasn't the youthful ebullience of Schreier (Karajan), but is pointedly sung. The Magdalene is poor, no match for Karajan's Hesse.
For all my reservations, I think this is a case of the result being more impressive than the sum of its pans. There is something thoroughly authentic about the performance in a theatre with such a long tradition of giving this music. May I make a plea for a release of the great 1949 performance in Munich under Jochum with Hotter in his prime as Sachs and Treptow a poetic Walther. Tapes exist in excellent sound.'