Gluck, C W - Iphigenie auf Tauris - Keilberth, Joseph

---

---

It would no longer be possible today: an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck sung by singers who sing Verdi and Wagner with equal enthusiasm, in German, with a traditional symphony orchestra, with a conductor renowned for his interpretations of Wagner. The use of historical instruments and the narrow specialization in the last fifty years has almost excluded this possibility. Thus, it is good to hear, now and again, how it sounded in the "good old days", in the Fifties. The line up of those soloists who performed at the WDR Kölner Funkhaus (Cologne Radio) was impressive: Hilde Zadek, Nicolai Gedda and a 27-year-old Hermann Prey. Joseph Keilberth (1908-1968), whose 100th birthday was celebrated this year, is regarded as one of the most important conductors of the 20th Century.