tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post8280808180728481940..comments2024-01-24T08:24:14.555-05:00Comments on My Favorite Intermissions: Einstein on the StoveMaury D'annatohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136129943169313348noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-61841088350293573892008-02-08T14:33:00.000-05:002008-02-08T14:33:00.000-05:00i'm so glad forbis is getting the attention he des...i'm so glad forbis is getting the attention he deserves. Vocally, I found him to be the most satisfying singer of the evening, and also the best siegmund i've ever heard too. He has the ability to really sing directly to the listener and command his/her attention. Not to mention his gleaming, huge sound! <BR/><BR/>I thought I was in the minority about Maazel, when I initially thought he conducting to be so very dramatically slack. I've never been more bored by act II. he even made "oh hehrstes wunder" a climactic-non event! Yes the orchestra was beautiful, but the same could be said of those synthetic late-karajan recordings. I may be biased however, bc i was raised very much in the bohm/leinsdorf school of wagner, though I have always enjoyed furtwangler and some kna too.scifiscihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16431760525185570504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-18344627290149973332008-02-08T09:22:00.000-05:002008-02-08T09:22:00.000-05:00Steve: if one person has spit imaginary milk out h...Steve: if one person has spit imaginary milk out his nose today, I have done my job.Maury D'annatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14136129943169313348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-19973896170549201562008-02-07T22:25:00.000-05:002008-02-07T22:25:00.000-05:00Ah, Wagner and conductors. Something about Wagner...Ah, Wagner and conductors. Something about Wagner inspires conductors to think they must one-up the Bayreuthian master.<BR/><BR/>Last night was my second encounter with Maazel's Walkuere. And while I agree with you on Maazel's excesses, I enjoyed myself both last night and two weeks ago. Why? <BR/><BR/>Maazel has a knack (particularly with the messy New York Philharmonic in muddy Avery Fisher Hall) for reshaping an orchestra into a series of instrumental lines that represent the purest of voices. At times, it is like looking at a Seraut painting one inch away from the canvas. It can be maddening - clarity when it is not called for is not beautiful. A Maazel opera is first and foremost an orchestral piece. The singers, if they merit any attention, are simply other instrumental voices.<BR/><BR/>Having heard the opera about 10 times at the MET over the years, I have heard more illuminating moments IN THE ORCHESTRA in the two Maazel performances than in all of my Levine and Gergiev listenings. (Although I still love Levine's reading of the opera, as a whole, the best - no one can compare with the tenderness with which he caresses the soprano, tenor, clarinet, and cello in Act I.) <BR/><BR/>I am sad to hear you left for Act III, which contained some of the most illuminating insights into the wind lines around Brunnhilde's "war is so schmaehlich". The winds, in particular, had more of Maazel's attention than any one on the stage.<BR/><BR/>One moment nearly made me jump out of my box: the self-indulgent total breaks Maazel inserted 4 and 8 bars after Wotan's "freer than I, the God", one of my favorite passages in the opera. Apparently, Maazel wanted to announce that the conductor-God trumped Wotan-God. <BR/><BR/>A Maazel review usually dwells on the orchestra, yet I should mention the singers. Forbis was the best Siegmund I have ever heard. He was on fire. And Gasteen's Act III was perfect. <BR/><BR/>(Blythe, from two weeks ago, was a bitchy, sarcastic, and powerful Fricka -- moreso than last night's deYoung.) <BR/><BR/>JoeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-4490121197493099382008-02-07T18:07:00.000-05:002008-02-07T18:07:00.000-05:00I can't comment on conductors in the Ring per se, ...I can't comment on conductors in the Ring per se, because Wagner is a blind spot for me. Well, selective blindness.<BR/><BR/>The conductor I always reach for if I want too-slow-but-it-works is late, late Klemperer. Those last couple of Mozarts on EMI- the Figaro and the Cosi- are absurdly, ridiculously, laughably too slow. But they work.jondrytayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07014577384156823525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-16659674121308910872008-02-07T14:55:00.000-05:002008-02-07T14:55:00.000-05:00It's more a matter of firmness of beat and, indeed...It's more a matter of firmness of beat and, indeed, the shaping of an act or entire opera "architecturally, I think, rather than just length of performance. I attended a Die Meistersinger in Chicago conducted by Thielemann that was longer than any DieM I had ever experienced but it seemed to fly by, natural as breathing. It was gorgeously shaped and and played. <BR/><BR/>Some of Knappertsbusch's performances seem literally to last for eternity. Slack of tempo and sometimes phoned in, they ghave no shape and even if rather fast, they just SEEM long. I know his reputation, but he's one of my least favorite Wagner conductors for that reason.Willhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14279473113628377106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-28916886339169123102008-02-07T14:37:00.000-05:002008-02-07T14:37:00.000-05:00Your opening paragraphs made me spit milk out of m...Your opening paragraphs made me spit milk out of my nose. And I wasn't drinking any.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com