Wagner: Parsifal - VALERY GERGIEV, MARIINSKY ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS, GARY LEHMAN, VIOLETA URMANA , RENE PAPE (4 Hybrid SACDS)

Gary Lehman (Parsifal), Violeta Urmana (Kundry), René Pape (Gurnemanz), Evgeny Nikitin (Amfortas), Alexei Tano Vitski (Titurel) & Nikolai Putilin (Klingsor)

Mariinsky Orchestra & Chorus, Valery Gergiev

What really distinguishes this...is Gergiev. His reading is vivid and luminous, generally expansive but with fluidly shifting tempos, unashamedly guilty of theatrical excitement. Yet he evokes... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2010

...on grounds of the general excellence of its singers and the cumulative authority of the interpretation, this is a performance to be reckoned with...it has an imaginative force, overall, which pushes any hints of contrivance to the musical and dramatic margins. --Gramophone