Wagner and Me with Stephen Fry is about this very subject. I loved watching it, really excellent and I learned a ton about Bayreuth in it. Highly recommended.
Wagner and Me with Stephen Fry is about this very subject. I loved watching it, really excellent and I learned a ton about Bayreuth in it. Highly recommended.
Thanks, Frank! I'm gonna watch that. I have a biography I'm about ready to dig into. It's by Derek Watson puplished in 1979. A lot of work was done over the years to separate fact from legend.
Speaking of Wagner's antisemitism: am I the only one who finds it ironic that Wagner's Wedding March is played when brides enter churches, and Mendelssohn's Wedding March is played when new married couples exit? Felix Mendelssohn of course was the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, a famous Jewish philosopher.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
If you want weird and ironic things, I think there are more examples. Like for instance Franz Lehar, who has worked with Jewish lyricists and married a Jewish wife, who converted to catholisism. His music was frowned upon by nazi-ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, because the lyrics were written by Jews. But Hitler and Goebels loved the music, so the lyrics were 'reworked' by Arean lyricists and miss Lehar was named 'Ehrenarier'. Fritz Löhnel Beda, who was one of Lehars lyricist begged Lehar to help him, but Lehar did nothing and Fritz Löhnel Beda ended in Auswitz, where he was kicked to dead, when he was no longer able to work hard enough.Originally Posted by progmatist
The Jews were the scapegoats. Wagner felt the need to trash the legacies of Memdelssohn, and Meyerbeer after their deaths in an effort to establish himself as the supreme artist. And Meyerbeer had been one of his supporters early on.
And of course the Nazis destroyed the careers of several prominent Jewish composers. Somebody wrote a book on this subject but I forget the title. But one of them was Franz Schreker, one of the most popular European composers of the 1920s. Others escaped to Britian and the US. I've discovered a few of these obscure composers over the last several years including Egon Wellesz who composed nine symphonies, piano music, and string quarters.
Decca did a series of these composers called Entartete Musik. Check out Frank Waxman’s Das Lied von Terezin
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Cool piece. Jianer Zhu Symphony No. 4 "6.4.2 - 1". Scored for 22 strings and dizi (bamboo flute). All instruments double as percussion instruments. Here's a cool video where you can follow along with the score.
^ Yes, very good. Thanks for sharing this. Webernisms carefully entwined with Far East intotations, very impressive mix
Classical music ?
Definetely interesting !
Looks like yet another Russian composer I need to keep an eye on!
This time of year I begin 'spring cleaning' my Amazon inventory of things that haven't sold or prices have become too depressed to keep listed (thank you DeCluttr and ZOverstocks). Anyone interested in 10-CD bundles for $25? I can do 'requests' - common composers like Bartok, Mahler, etc (generally European labels)...uncommon, mostly 20th century composers...or...? --Peter
How did I miss British composer, Harrison Birtwistle for so long!?
This guy has some incredible pieces.
And if there were a god, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence - Russell
What I'm listening to this morning (Lekeu)
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Wagner - Die Meistersing Von Nurnberg
Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Just finished my first listen to this 4 + hour epic. Solti's second recording from the 1990s.
Has anyone purchased videos. I was never really interested in them because I didn’t feel the need to watch the performance. I’ve watched a few previews on amazon and find it interesting to watch the performers while listening to the music. If you have are there any standout dvds?
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Are you asking about operas? I haven't bought any DVDs. If want to watch something I'll just look for something on YouTube. There's a lot of great instrumental orchestral stuff as well. I thought about picking up the Ring by NY Met but it's pretty expensive so I haven't bitten yet. Check out Euro Arts on YouTube. There's some good stuff up there. Anyway, the Solti Meistersinger CD is great. Beautifully recorded and lots of beautiful music and singing.
I have several operas including Levin’s Met production and I think it’s essential to see the opera performance and production but I was mainly concerned with symphonies like I see several dvd of bruckners works.
I have the Solti version with the Vienna orchestra from the 70’s which is the original version I bought on vinyl back in the day so that’s the version I bought on cd. I still love that version. Wonder if the newer version is much different. The sound of the Vienna symphony is superb as far as I am concerned.
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I recently watched some Boulez stuff on YouTube. The Miraculous Mandarin, and a couple other pieces. I enjoy the composer conducted stuff. Penderecki, Boulez, Lutoslwaski, etc... I'm enjoying more Bach lately too so I usually watch the choral stuff, or Glenn Gould piano.
And what did you think?
BTW, I just got a 7-day free trial for the Met HD app am I'm going to watch Das Rheingold 1990 later today....speaking of watching performances.
Opera videos are extremely useful, if for no other reason, for the English subtitles. Since operas are stories, it's helpful to follow the stories as they unfold.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Not that I have anything to compare it to, but I think it's superb. It's beautifully recorded, the music is great, and the singing is beautiful. I'm no opera aficionado, and some say Van Dam was over the hill but what do I know? It didn't seem like 4 hours when listening to it. It went by pretty fast.
It would feel like 4 hours if you were in a theater watching it. Believe me. My first opera experience was Parsifal. Love that opera but 6 hours later I was more than ready to drive home which was 3 hours away
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I'm not sure I'd want to sit through it in person, although it sounds very exciting. I've been to a few 3 hour concerts and my seat felt like concrete laced with nails by the time it was over. I have a bad back so live opera performances might be out of the question. I would like to try it once some time.
Most operas range about an hour and a half to two and a half hours long. You do get a break between acts to get up and move around or get something to drink. I saw Strauss Elecktra years ago which is one straight 2 hour opera which wasn’t bad at all because when it was over you could just get up and go home. Plus Elecktra is a great opera. I love seeing operas performed live because you never know what could go wrong. Something about a big production with costumes sets orchestra singers makes for an evening unlike any other form of music to me. You don’t get that with most rock concerts.
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