describes Elmendorff's 1928 recording of Tristan und Isolde as 'orchestrally exemplary' whilst also noting that although it was Toscanini was responsible for fully preparing Bayreuth Festival orchestra to achieve great things in the 1930 production of Tannhäuser, it was Elmendorff who (for contractual reasons) conducted the Bayreuth recording. Ernest Newman regarded Elmendorff's performance in the 1930 Ring as 'efficient rather than dazzling' - an opinion, noted by Frederic Spotts, as not uncommon. In August 1933 Walter Legge attended the Bayreuth Festival in his role as the music critic of the Manchester Guardian newspaper. As well as observing that the Wagner Festival had been transformed into a Hitler festival, with Mein Kampf displacing Mein Leben, Legge heaped scorn on the quality of the conducting which he considers a consequence of German musical protectionism. Lamenting the absence of Toscanini, Legge's review critically slated both Richard Strauss, whose 'conducting days are over' and Elemendorff who Legge damns as 'an artist of but average talent'. If Elmendorff is the best Wagnerian conductor Germany can produce, we can only sympathise with the intelligent music-lovers who have to live in a land where only German conductors are allowed to appear. It looks as if "German music performed by German artists" were fit only for the German home. Discography 1928 Tristan und Isolde, Richard Wagner, Label: Naxos, 2003 1930 Tannhäuser, Wagner, Label: Naxos Records, 2001 1942 Götterdämmerung, Wagner, Bayreuth, Label: Music & Arts Program, 2000 1943 Otello, Giuseppe Verdi, Chor und Orchester der Staatsoper Berlin, Label: BASF, nd 1943 Don Giovanni, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Chor und Orchester der Staatsoper, Dresden, Label: BASF, nd 1944 Luisa Miller, Verdi, Dresden State Opera Chorus, Saxon State Orchestra, Label: BASF, nd, reissued on CD by Preiser Records, 2006 References 1891 births 1962 deaths German male conductors (music) Musicians from Düsseldorf Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln alumni 20th-century German conductors (music) 20th-century German male musicians