Wagner: Opera Excerpts / Flagstad, Furtwangler

Like Hamlet, Furtwängler was a poor creature crawling between earth and heaven. He exemplifies the Chinese maxim that one should live in interesting times. For the last fifteen years or so of his life, he had Mister Slick Brilliance on his tail, forever younger and allied to the Rasputin of Albion (Walter Legge). Under the circumstances, when coupled with his God-given talent, it’s no wonder that his legend is evergreen and all the more so in our times when eco-friendly midgets command the stage and indeed, the Philharmonie itself. I’m a pretender in Wagner, but when the music-making is so superlative as it is here, one can rejoice unashamedly in Bleeding Chunks. The Berliners, Viennese and the Philharmonia are arsonists in everything but name. In tension and release, no-one better encapsulates the orgasmic roots of Tristan than WF. At the other end of the spectrum, the “falling upwards” mysticism of the Lohengrin and Parsifal Preludes is irresistible. Oh, to be the hero who warrants the Funeral March from Götterdämmerung! What an existence it must have been! And is it not an embarrassment of riches when Flagstad brings down the curtain on creation in the Immolation Scene? The “kick” at the close of the Tannhäuser Overture almost induces vertigo in the listener. So it goes.

Price: $37.98

In stock
ships in 24 hours