Mike Parr in his review of the Sawallisch recording of Wagner's early opera quoted from my own review of the later Weigle recording back in 2013, and gave a link to that review.
However when that review was originally published I did then add a postscript some months later which was added to this message board but has since been deleted. Since it does have some bearing on the matter of the cuts made by Sawallisch to the score, I repeat its contents here with the request that it should be read in conjunction with my own review:
"When reviewing the newly issued recording of Das Liebesverbot, I commented that although the cuts made in the score were extensive the composer himself might have wished to make sbridgements in the score if he had ever had the chance to supervise a production in his later years. In making that judgement I was guided by my reading of the passages which had been omitted in the vocal score. I did however comment that there was only one complete recording of the opera, derived from Edward Downes’s studio broadcast in 1976, which had been only intermittently available.
BBC Radio 3 broadcast that same performance again last week, and this gave me the first opportunity for many years to listen to the work absolutely complete (and the first time I had been able to do so with score in hand). I now think I may have been too ready to admit the desirability of cutting the score as considerably as Weigle and Sawallisch (not to mention Heger) did in their recordings. Much of what looked in the vocal score like simple repetition in fact contained an interesting degree of variety in the counterpoint and harmony which mean that the cut score actually sounds less adventurous than it really is; for example the closing march (cut in all other recordings), which branches out into quite unexpected directions. Even when Wagner is apparently having difficulty bringing an extended ensemble to a close, the sheer piling of one coda onto another has a decidedly Beethovenian tint.
The sound in the BBC recording is not ideally clear, and the singing is certainly less well captured than in Weigle’s new recording; but having heard Downes in the complete score (and he is also considerably livelier than Weigle in places) I would now suggest that his version should be the recording of choice for Wagner completists."
I would still strongly suggest that Wagner enthusiasts who wish to acquire a recording of this opera would be better served by Downes than any rival version. Transfers of the broadcast have appeared on CD over the years.
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