# Sampling Wagner



## SamGuss (Apr 14, 2008)

So, sampling some Wagner tonight and some of it I really like, some of it I don't. Same pieces, different pieces, I am beggining to think it's about the orchestra and conductor... though I'm not sure.

So, my question is this: what conductors/orchestra's do you perfer to listen to your Wagner?


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

Well my fave... by far... is Wilhelm Furtwängler's conducting. He's done The Ring and other operas with a variety of orchestras; they're all great interpretations even if the sound is less-than-perfect.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Yeah... Hi!  [Wagner thread=CTP Bait] 
Let the record reflect that the *Bandit*'s precocity in appreciating Furtwängler far exceeds my development in taste during the analogous period in my listening life.

I'm judging by the topic matter ("_Sampling_ (emphasis mine) Wagner") that we were looking for suggestions on what the guidebooks refer to as "potted Wagner." If I'm correct, I have three ideas.

1) Fritz Reiner's CSO Wagner excerpts are something extra. The story goes that Reiner, who was infamous for keeping a watch-face baton-beat, actually let his elbows and arms go in those sessions. When surprised orchestra members asked him "Why don't you conduct that way all the time?", he's reputed to have said "If I conducted that way all the time, I'd be dead inside of a month."

2) The price of the Philadelphia Orchestra/Ormandy Overtures and Preludes collection is worth it, just to have the _über_-energetic Prelude to Act III of _Lohengrin_.

3) There is a Sawallisch/Philadelphia collection of Wagner esoterica including overtures to _Rienzi_ and even _Das Liebesverbot_. Along the same lines, there's also a Barenboim/Chicago "Overtures & Preludes Vol. II" (volume I received some brickbats) which, though I've not heard it, was mostly reviewed favorably.

Final caution: *AVOID* Maazel's mutilative, self-indulgent "Ring without Words!"


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## shsherm (Jan 24, 2008)

Last year I attended a performance of "Tannhauser" by the Los Angeles Opera. The opening scene was an orgy with many nude models on the stage simulating various sexual acts. I thought the whole thing was amazing and actually quite effective to convey the feelings that Wagner intended. This year they performed " Tritan und Isolde" which was certainly much more tame. The point is perhaps a DVD can to some degree duplicate the experience of a live performance but no CD ever can. Next season the LA opera will begin a Ring Cycle to extend over the next two seasons. James Conlon has done a great job as conductor of the LA Opera. If you can attend a live performance you might enjoy it quite a lot.


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## SamGuss (Apr 14, 2008)

Chi_town/Philly said:


> Yeah... Hi!  [Wagner thread=CTP Bait]


Bait the hook and they will come.... 

Great suggestions folks and much much appreciated - now to start sampling some more.


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

I know it is über imaginative, but I still can't go past Solti's ring.


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## Mad Ludwig (May 17, 2008)

I admire Szell and his Clevelanders over all others in Wagner. I first knew Wagner through Toscanini and recordings he made with the BBC SO back in the thirties. They were a revelation for me and when in later years I found the Szell recordings I felt the same sense of hearing it anew. Both conductors were autocrats and cranks but it was amazing what they could make an orchestra do; lean, taut performances of clarity and power. My favorite Wagner piece is the Prelude to the first Act of Lohengrin with it's depiction of the Holy Grail midway through. I have listened to it for a lifetime and never fail to be thrilled by its brilliance. I have an old double disc of Szell doing the orchestral music of Wagner and it is priceless. When Sony took over Columbia I hoped they swould reissue it. They did but in pairings with the PO and Ormandy. or small collections, never the whole thing. But the pearl in that oyster was and is, in my opinion, the Prelude to Act One. Brief but glorious. It is available in their "Essential Classics" editions in a pairing with Ormandy which may be the one somreone reffered to in an earlier post on this thread.


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