Originally posted by gradus
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In Act 1 of Götterdämmerung at the point when Hagen sights Siegfried coming towards them from the Rhine he exclaims: 'In einen Nachen, Held und Ross!' ('In a sailboat, hero and horse!'), and it's made clear in the stage directions as they come ashore that Siegfried and Grane, his horse, are indeed on a boat. Not sure if any performance has managed to adequately depict this rather unlikely episode."The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink -
I’ve read through the posts and it is not clear what the Guilini paddle steamer test is. There is a reference to it being quoted by YNS ( the Met conductor? - I can’t face checking his name either )in programme notes but I can’t find the exact Guilini quote anywhere. I am assuming it refers to keeping the same sort of steady tempo in the opening as a paddle steamer and not to reproducing Musically the chopping effect of the paddles- an effect Britten so brilliantly mimics in the opening of Death In Venice .Comment
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See JLW's post 141. I'm assuming that JLW and YNS are referring to Giulini's recording of the 'Rhenish'.Originally posted by cloughie View Post"The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
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I saw that but gave little explanation or quotes! Seemed to me a throwaway line which it was assumed all would know what it meant - clearly not!Originally posted by Petrushka View PostComment
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Neither that post nor JLW’s earlier post In which it is first mentioned specified what the Guilini paddle steamer test actually is ...Originally posted by Petrushka View Post
I’m sorry to sound like a pedant but this thread is going round in circles like a stuck rudder on a Rhine paddle steamer ..Comment
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I’m sure Jayne will come up with a full explanation dreckly!Originally posted by Heldenleben View PostComment
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I’m 300 metres the wrong side of the Tamar but isn’t ‘dreckly” Cornish for “at a time of my convenience not yours “?Originally posted by cloughie View PostComment
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The connection is with Schumann (Scenes from Goethe's Faust), not Giulini.Originally posted by LMcD View PostStupidly, I thought he was on a boat. I actually gave up on this thread a while ago, because I just didn't understand some of the messages, so I didn't read the message concerned. An equally confused friend happened to ask me if I'd heard of this Giulini thing, knowing my penchant for useless facts, musical and oterwise.
Am i the only person around here who increasingly feels out of his (or her) depth at times?
(Further evidence of my stupidity - what's the connection between a German playwright and an Italian conductor?)Comment
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So Goethe was into paddle steamers on the Rhine? I’ll wait for Jayne’s clarification.Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
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Well, that paddle steamer is making a few waves around here, isn't it?
From the note to the DG recording of the Schumann Complete cycle, by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the COE.
“The Rhine runs through the work, as it did through Schumann’s life – even to the extent that, in his deepest depression, he threw himself into its waters. Nézet-Séguin owes an insight to the great Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini. “I remember him telling me that the viola and second violin figures right at the start – those repeated quavers – are like the sound of the wheels of a paddle boat on the Rhine: it really gives the piece a sense of starting a journey.”
As aforesaid, Rattle (trust him
) brings out this lovely, gentle rhythmic underpinning better than any I’ve heard; very few render it audible, let alone telling. Yes, a given reading can survive and move without it. But how lovely it is, when it is made to count upon the heart and ear.
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Schumann/Giulini/Paddle Boat/Faust/Goethe .... ?Originally posted by Bryn View Post
My head hurts.Comment
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Thanks Jayne, may the Rhine be calm once more - I’ll have a listen to Rattle now!Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View PostWell, that paddle steamer is making a few waves around here, isn't it?
From the note to the DG recording of the Schumann Complete cycle, by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the COE.
“The Rhine runs through the work, as it did through Schumann’s life – even to the extent that, in his deepest depression, he threw himself into its waters. Nézet-Séguin owes an insight to the great Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini. “I remember him telling me that the viola and second violin figures right at the start – those repeated quavers – are like the sound of the wheels of a paddle boat on the Rhine: it really gives the piece a sense of starting a journey.”
As aforesaid, Rattle (trust him) brings out this lovely, gentle rhythmic underpinning better than any I’ve heard; very few render it audible, let alone telling. Yes, a given reading can survive and move without it. But how lovely it is, when it is made to count upon the heart and ear.
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I'm not jlw but, like her, I'm a regular Qobuzzer. One of the best things about that platform is the presence of the booklet texts for almost all recent recordings there: here's the relevant bit from the YNS booklet:
Nézet-Séguin owes an insight to the great Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini. “I remember him telling me that the viola and second violin figures right at the start – those repeated quavers – are like the sound of the wheels of a paddle boat on the Rhine: it really gives the piece a sense of starting a journey.
Ah well, I was too slow with my copying and pasting...Comment
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