Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Axel an der Himmelstür, Ralph Benatzky’s (1884-1957) operetta that had its premier in 1936, made an overnight star of soprano Zarah Leander, cast to play and sing the role of Hollywood star Gloria Mills. + Over two decades later, in 1958, Ms. Leander recorded the operetta complete in Vienna with Heinz Sandauer conducting; this version is heard here in a 24Bit/96kHz re-mastered edition. + As a bonus Walhall has added the remaining recordings from the first release of this score in 1937.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The German conductor Hans Knappertsbusch and the Bayreuth Wagner Festival were nearly synonymous propositions in their respective performative and historical grandeur by the 1950’s, an era also looked back on from the present as a golden age of Wagnerian singing. + Furthering these propositions is the splendid Ring cycle of 1957, which hosted Knappertsbusch and a cast of incredible singers including Hans Hotter, Birgit Nilsson, Astrid Varnay, Ramon Vinay and Wolfgang Windgassen, amongst others, spread across these four 24Bit/96kHz re-mastered volumes from Walhall Eternity.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This 1956 Bayreuth performance of Richard Wagner’s last opera Parsifal falls on the timeline about halfway between two justifiably famous recordings, Decca’s 1951 (mono) and Philip’s 1962 (stereo) releases, featuring the same conductor, Hans Knappertsbusch, whose luminous conducting of Parsifal (choose any one) in particular is unmatched on record. The cast, as is typically the case from this era of Bayreuth productions, can hardly be bettered: Martha Mödl, Ramón Vinay, a young Dietrich-Fischer-Dieskau (as Amfortas), Hans Hotter, Josef Greindl and Toni Blankenheim.

Classical Music

Classical Music