This Decca Die Meistersinger has always been a well-balanced and enjoyable performance vigorously conducted by Solti. Its main assets are the warm, full-blooded playing of the Vienna Philharmonic and the very human Hans Sachs of Norman Bailey, recorded at a time when he was at the peak of his powers in the role. His portrayal is at once stylishly sung in long-breathed, unemphatic phrases, and philosophically interpreted. Listening to it again, I was once more moved by its eloquence. Bernd Weikl, now a notable Sachs himself, is here a rewarding, unexaggerated Beckmesser, quite believable as an alternative suitor. Kollo, as Walther, by intelligence and art overcomes a voice that isn't really quite right for the part, too narrow in tone and somewhat gritty in texture. Bode is a sensitive but not very individual Eva, Dallapozza a shirpy, pleasing David, Moll an affecting Pogner, especially in his First Act address. For those unaware of the fact, strange name of the Nightwatchman hides a mixed identity; it is the anagram of Kurt Moll and Bernd Weikl who share the part; one of Decca's little jokes.
The recording is bigger in scale than that of its only CD rival, the Jochum/DG version. That has Fischer-Dieskau as an unorthodox Sachs, more the poet than the cobbler in his ultra-refined way with the text and music but ever interesting, and Domingo as a virile if not very idiomatic Walther. The playing, under Jochum's benign direction, is less sumptuous than that of the VPO, but I find Jochum's reading the more convincing as a whole. So far as the remainder of the cast is concerned honours are about equal between the sets, so recommendation between them remains difficult. I lean towards the DG, but am very loath to be without Bailey. Most Wagnerians will want both. Either gives a worthwhile account of this endlessly rewarding and heart-warming score.'