[f_minor] Fw: off-track

[Pat]

Hi all

Good thinking there, presenting GG-related music in the dry season.

I have a moral question. Richard Wagner was an arrogant, antisemitic, cheating, wife-beating, pompous, self-grandizing, money-wasting and mostly overrated little git and in short a very nasty piece of work. His music is pompous, bombastic to the extreme, far too loud at times, far too long for sure and the words...this might be fun if you are an english speaker, but I understand the native tongue...

Yet...Wagner is one of the most influential (and controversial !) composers of the last 150 years. Without him there would be no Mahler, maybe no Strawinsky and definetly no Heavy Metal. And, I am ashamed to say, some of his Overtures actually rock...

What should one do in such a situation ? Continue to love to hate that composer or try to get into the whole Ring Thing anyway ?

I assume that GG was fond of Wagner for purely musicological and artistic reasons, but is that enough to justify a Wagner transcription ?

Speaking of, here is some fun with Wagner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv7G92F2sqs

Pat

From: michael macelletti 
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 8:20 PM
To: f minor 
Subject: [f_minor] Fw: off-track








Subject: off-track


things have been a bit quiet lately, so i thought i'd make a listening recommendation, albeit somewhat off-track. the new remastered solti  wagner  ring , in the super deluxe edition, is really fabulous.  ( " greatest recording of all time ",  bbc music magazine 2012 . )    truly a win-win.   although a little pricey ,  it'll probably soon be out of print anyway.   and maybe this isn't so off-subject.  gould's wagner interpretations are not too far removed in spirit from the great bayreuth festspielhause conductors such as knappertsbusch and furtwangler  from the '50's.  he must have been familiar with their recordings.                              

( and horowitz probably wouldn't have liked their wagner either, i bet.  )




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