BaL 14.12.24 - Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

[Pulcinella]

Bumping in anticipation of this afternoon's programme.

[Wolfram]

Well did anyone see that coming?

[Pulcinella]

Not me!
She's plumped for Stokowski:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7938397--great-performances-from-the-library-of-congress-vol-7

Available on CD as well as as a download.

[visualnickmos]

Bizarre choice of "winner!" Sounds like Catford bus garage.

[Wolfram]

Bizarre choice of "winner!" Sounds like Catford bus garage.

🤣

To be honest I was taken by both Norrington and the Cologne chamber versions; but not Stokowski I’m afraid. Over the years I’ve come think that those conductors who favour faster tempi in Wagner - Krauss, Bohm, Kubelik, Pappano and Janowski for example - are perhaps closer to what Wagner intended. I’ve heard Norrington’s recording of the Meistersinger overture, like Janowski fast at around 8 1/2 minutes, and find it convincing. Actually looking at the timings, Norrington’s Idyll is not that much faster than the rest. I have invested in Norrington because I think I should hear all the recordings on his disk, and will probably invest in the Cologne chamber players also.

I didn’t include Boulez in the list above because, although he too takes a quick approach, I find his Wagner soulless.

[Petrushka]

Not me!
She's plumped for Stokowski:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7938397--great-performances-from-the-library-of-congress-vol-7

Available on CD as well as as a download.

A lengthy Amazon review is highly complimentary about this disc. He does, however, describe the Siegfried Idyll as 'passionate and lush' but also intimate which would appear to me to be something of a contradiction. It can't be both, surely?

I've not heard the disc but knowing of Stokies liking for 'lush' as well as for retouching and rescoring I'm more inclined to be wary.

[Alison]

Quite pleasing to see an old recording win, confounding my theory about ‘fashionable’ choices on this occasion anyway.

[Barbirollians]

Quite pleasing to see an old recording win, confounding my theory about ‘fashionable’ choices on this occasion anyway.

Look forward to hearing this - Gillian Moore has form for this resolutely choosing Bruno Walter's Mahler 1.

[Barbirollians]

I liked the recent Koln recording - Norrington's vibrato free effort was what he thought Wagner ought to have done rather than did . Stoky was fascinating but I am sorry that the Haitink and Boult were left out.

[visualnickmos]

🤣

To be honest I was taken by both Norrington and the Cologne chamber versions; but not Stokowski I’m afraid.....

Yes, I too was very taken with both Norrington and Koln. Stokowski really didn't cut it for me - playing and dreadful 'sound quality'

[Goon525]

The sound quality alone shoukd have been enough to disqualify it as a Library choice, however enjoyable it might be. I liked the ASMF/Marriner more than I’d expected.

[seabright]

I've just waded through all the Siegfried Idylls on You Tube but gave up after about 50 of them. What was surprising were some of the timings. Toscanini, perhaps unsurprisingly, timed in at 16:36 with Furtwangler, here somewhat surprisingly, followed in Toscanini's footsteps with a timing of 16:57. Stokowski belongs to this group, his version coming in at 17:10. At the other end of the scale we have Celibidache at 24:10, Knappertsbusch at 24:16 and Glenn Gould assuming a conductor's mantle at 24:33. There's also Siegfried Wagner on four 78rpm sides clocking in at 16:07. Were any of these, apart from Stokowski, mentioned in the BAL review?

Since it was Stokowski who was chosen, here he is and if there are any "retouchings and rescorings" please let us know at which precise points they occur! ...

[smittims]

Thanks; those timings are interesting. I still regard Karl Muck, who was born in 1859 and educated in Germany where he would have known people of Wagner's generation, as authoritiative, and at 17'35" I never find him too slow. Incidentally, Toscanini's 1952 NBC recording is exactly the same length: 17'35"! Its worth stressing that 'the old man'. as Herbert used to call him, wasn't always faster in his later years.

I always wonder if Cosima, listening to the first performance, thought ' I wonder how long I'm expected to sit here looking enraptured '.