Although Reginald Goodall was thoroughly familiar with Wagner’s last opera from sitting in the pit for Hans Knappertsbusch’s 1950s Bayreuth performances and from his own coaching work at Covent Garden, he actually made his debut conducting the work with the 1971 run from which this release derives. The planned cast was strong but illness led to four Gurnemanzes and two Klingsors being called upon to keep the curtain up.

By many accounts the opening night (with Gottlob Frick coming out of retirement as Gurnemanz) was a great evening – is there not some test recording of that around? The present performance, with the Belgian Louis Hendrikx returning as a careful, direct Gurnemanz, has passionate, well defined interpretations from Jon Vickers in the title-role, Donald MacIntyre as a rapaciously evil Klingsor (with superb German), Norman Bailey’s sorrowful Amfortas and soaring contributions from solo flowers Kiri Te Kanawa and Anne Howells. Amy Shuard also makes her mark in a role especially suited to her dramatic, hard-edged soprano. Goodall’s guidance of the music is replete with beautiful aperçus of balance and rhythm, not to mention much fine wind-playing. But, on this particular evening, the reading too often hangs fire. As interesting reviews of other Goodall performances have pointed out, the conductor’s habits of following (rather than leading) singers he especially trusts, and his taking over of a German, especially Knappertsbusch-like, tradition of marking the end of paragraphs with lengthy, unwritten Luftpausen – in a score that already calls for many significant pauses – often elongate his reading to a point where Act 1, in the iconoclastic words of note-writer John Deathridge, “verges on incoherence”.

In addition, Goodall’s textures and instrumental colours here continually stress the work’s pain and sadness. But it’s not the whole story – there’s exciting psychological drama in this score too, of a Tristan-like beat and intensity. Goodall was to find this more in his long-takes EMI studio recording of 1984 (with Welsh National Opera forces, based on a recent stage production, and at tempi – especially in Act 2 – a little steadier than in London); then, triumphantly, in his faster 1986 ENO performances (a “private” recording exists); and for a satellite Prom of Act 3.

Medici and ROH Heritage Series have done fine work in remastering these BBC tapes for release but neither of Goodall’s two Parsifals now on disc is as compelling as his Meistersinger, Siegfried, Rheingold or Tristan. Admirers of the conductor and collectors of the art of Jon Vickers will find a great deal of consummate music-making and singing here – but, without sounding mealy-mouthed, the story of Sir Reginald Goodall’s Parsifal should not yet be over.