# New orchestral suite of Wagner's Parsival



## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Andrew Gourlay has finished a 45 minute orchestra-only vesion of Wagner's last opera, Parsival. According to Gourlay's website:

"_Parsifal surely contains some of Wagner's greatest orchestral writing, yet there is little orchestral-only material currently available for concert performance. The opening prelude is a staple, often performed in combination with the Good Friday Music, but I know of no suite of a significantly longer duration that has been produced to my liking._"

If you have a BBC licence then a performance is available here (till October the 23rd 2019).


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Listening to the transformation music section I am struck by how much Mahler drew from this sound world.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

janxharris said:


> Listening to the transformation music section I am struck by how much Mahler drew from this sound world.


There are many traces of _Parsifal_ in Mahler's music. He heard _P__arsifal_ at Bayreuth in 1883 when he was 23, and wrote to a friend; "I can hardly describe my present state to you. When I came out of the Festspielhaus, completely spellbound, I understood that the greatest and most painful revelation had just been made to me, and that I would carry it unspoiled for the rest of my life." In his personal score of the opera he marked a passage in the third act which became the germ of a melody in _Das Lied von der Erde._ I was delighted to learn this, having previously thought, listening to the harmony in that part of the opera, "That sounds like Mahler."

Much is made of the seminal importance of Wagner's _Tristan_ to the subsequent course of music, but I think the influence of _Parsifal_ was equally great. Its harmonic and orchestral subtlety affected not only Mahler and the Second Viennese School but, conspicuously, French music and British composers, notably Elgar.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Heresy I guess for opera fans, but I've always hoped for major Wagner works to be arranged as piano concertos ... it would also make the vocal lines clearer and more conceivable for larger parts on the general public. 
Sadly I don't have BBC subscription, but it sounds interesting & there might be a CD release; I'm in favour of longer orchestral pieces/suites, rather than a few arranged highlights.

EDIT: turns out one can hear it via the link above. It starts at 1:06.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

janxharris said:


> Andrew Gourlay has finished a 45 minute orchestra-only vesion of Wagner's last opera, Parsival. According to Gourlay's website:
> 
> "_*Parsifal surely contains some of Wagner's greatest orchestral writing,* yet there is little orchestral-only material currently available for concert performance. The opening prelude is a staple, often performed in combination with the Good Friday Music, but I know of no suite of a significantly longer duration that has been produced to my liking._"
> 
> If you have a BBC licence then a performance is available here (till October the 23rd 2019).


No doubt about that!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Actually there have been "suites" of _Parsifal_ before this, notably the "symphonic synthesis" created and recorded by Leopold Stokowski (who made similar arrangements of other Wagner operas). Stokowski fragmented the music a bit more, though; this one is pretty successful in preserving most of the longer orchestral passages more or less intact. As the conductor/arranger says, Wagner's transitions in the full score are subtle - before you're finished with one thing you're already on to something else - but the solutions here are generally effective. More than with Stokowski's work, we have a sense of the scale and the emotional dimensions of the opera.

I recall another attempt at this sort of arrangement on a CD conducted by Edo de Waart. I found it unsatisfying and the performance rather bland. "Bland" was never a word one could use of Stokowski!


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