It wasn't often that
Wilhelm Pitz, the chorus master at
Wagner's Bayreuth, got a shot at making a disc on his own, and this 1958 recording of
Wagner choruses is one of his very, very few. But so masterful, so confident, so profoundly sympathetic is his conducting here that even if this one disc was all he'd ever recorded under his own name,
Pitz's reputation would be assured. With excerpts from every opera with a chorus from Der fliegende Hollander to Parsifal, this disc is essentially the greatest hits of
Wagner's choral writing. Every Wagnerian's favorite choruses are here -- the "Sailor's Chorus" from Der fliegende Hollander, the "Pilgrim's Chorus" from Tannhäuser, the "Wacht Auf!" chorus from Die Meistersingers von Nurnberg, and, naturally, the "Vassal's Chorus" from Götterdämmerung -- and everyone is superbly conducted by
Pitz. Of course, it helps that this was the repertoire he prepared every summer during his decades at Bayreuth Festival and it likewise helps that the chorus and orchestra are also from the Bayreuth Festival and thus as familiar with the music as
Pitz. Ultimately, however, the success of this disc depends as much on the consummate musicianship of the performers as it does on their knowledge of the repertoire, and by those standards, this is a great disc of
Wagner's choruses. DG's aged sound is a bit gray and a tad distant, but still very present.