Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

"This famous set, its reissue long awaited finally makes its re-entry into the catalogue...Kempe's interpretation remains his version's main glory, a wonderfully consistent, life-enhancing view of the piece, unexaggerated in tempo, all of a piece structurally — just as it used to be at Covent Garden. No other conductor on disc, not even Karajan, surpasses Kempe in the long view, in generosity of phrasing, subtlety or rubato, or in a sharp eye for instrumental detail. In particular, the whole of Act 3, from Eva's entrance, after all the heart of the work, sweeps forward with an inevitability of pulse and a depth of feeling that warm the heart." -- Alan Blyth, Gramophone [2/1993] Hans Sachs: Ferdinand Frantz Veit Pogner: Gottlob Frick Kunz Vogelgesang: Horst Wilhelm Konrad Nachtigall: Walter Stoll Sixtus Beckmesser: Benno Kusche Fritz Kothner: Gustav Neidlinger Balthasar Zorn: Manfred Schmidt Ulrich Eisslinger: Leopold Clam Augustin Moser: Herold Kraus Hermann Ortel: Robert Koffmane Hans Schwarz: Anton Metternich Hans Foltz: Hanns Pick Walther von Stolzing: Rudolf Schock Eva: Elisabeth Grümmer Magdalene: Marga Höffgen David: Gerhard Unger Ein Nachtwächter: Hermann Prey Chöre der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Chöre der Berliner Staatsoper, Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale, Berlin Berliner Philharmoniker Rudolf Kempe Studio recording in mono 19 June, 1956