Why isn't there a complete Wagner non-operatic set recorded?

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Hehe, I admit some overstatement. Like Nietzsche's piano music, there are a few neat works which would be fun surprises in piano recitials performed by a dedicated advocate.

That's fair. I guess it's no coincidence the performance I have is by Richter, who wouldn't touch a work he didn't enjoy.

[Sean]

Music like this must require stronger advocacy than just a run-through as is common with neglected music, or it could be easilly dismissed as mediocre. A major problem with the box idea would be recording or licencing all these 'ideal' performances into a strong set. If done on the cheap (which it only could be, really - who would buy it?) it would be panned. This is why I figure that the lack of a box is not disgraceful, it's just impractical. If anyone wishes to pick among the scraps, they already can - and with the pick of the field, the performances you will be better than any cheapo complete edition could allow.

Well, Boulez did it twice with Webern, for instance, and it works well with one person directing the overall project.

[Wanderer]

Aside from my previous post: I would like to see a Das Liebesmahl der Apostle/Wesendonck Lieder coupling, for a nice disc of quality vocal works. I am only familiar with DLDA through an oop disc coupled with Bruckner's Heilgoland. It could be an interesting project for a label like Hyperion...

I concur. All three works deserve more recordings.

[Brian]

There's actually something very special about at least one Wagner piano piece: the Albumblatt for Piano (Dedication). 

Hey donwyn,

Is there any chance you have a bit more detail on the piece? I was talking to a pianist friend and by chance mentioned your post and Wagner piano music, but when we hit up some electronic resources we discovered there are three dedicated albumblatter:
Albumblatt for Piano in C major "In das Album der Fürstin Metternich"
Albumblatt for Piano in E flat major "Für Frau Betty Schott"
Albumblatt for Piano in E major "Für E. B. Kietz"
along with one plain old "Albumblatt" free of dedication.

Sorry to cause further trouble 

[knight66]

My recommendation would be Das Liebesmahl der apostle, a fascinating choral work with orchestral entry only near the end (maybe similar to the Choral fantasia,  you can hear ........controversial ongoing shapelessnes to it...

So nothing like the Beethoven then; where the chorus comes in only at the end and the piece is quite formally framed.

Mike

[Bulldog]

Well, Boulez did it twice with Webern, for instance, and it works well with one person directing the overall project.

But Wagner's non-opera works get much less currency than Webern's.

[Lethevich]

But Wagner's non-opera works get much less currency than Webern's.

Hehe, I read that was Weber for a moment - now there is a great composer who doesn't get his due, even in his greatest works (bar perhaps Freischütz)...

[Superhorn]

   The C major symphony, which was written when Wagner was 19, is not bad at all, and nothing for a young composer to be ashamed of.
  It's pleasantly melodic, and the scherzo reminds me of the one from Schubert's rarely heard 6th symphony, which I doubt that Wagner knew.
  The second symphony is only a fragment.  Sawallsich has recorded both with the Philadelphia for EMI, although I don't know if it's still available. There have been a few other recordings of the C major, including one on Phillips by Edo De Waart and the San Francisco symphony. You won't regret getting a recording if any is available currently.

[Sean]

So nothing like the Beethoven then; where the chorus comes in only at the end and the piece is quite formally framed.

I couldn't quite remember how it worked...the various entries are staggered though...

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Hey donwyn,

Is there any chance you have a bit more detail on the piece? I was talking to a pianist friend and by chance mentioned your post and Wagner piano music, but when we hit up some electronic resources we discovered there are three dedicated albumblatter:
Albumblatt for Piano in C major "In das Album der Fürstin Metternich"
Albumblatt for Piano in E flat major "Für Frau Betty Schott"
Albumblatt for Piano in E major "Für E. B. Kietz"
along with one plain old "Albumblatt" free of dedication.

Sorry to cause further trouble 

Hey, you're not really sorry until you hand over your Chopin collection to me.

Seriously, what I didn't realize is the piece is actually unpublished. And like you say the Web isn't much help in tracking it down.

I checked the booklet to the Richter recording I have and the author is as clueless about the piece as the rest of us. He even solicits help from the public to help in identifying the piece.

I had to go back to one of my old issues of Fanfare (1993, Vol.17, no.2) and buried in the review of the Richter recording is this interesting bit of information:

"...the unpublished minature attributed to Wagner - which, according to the narrative passed on to Music & Arts' exec Fred Maroth by Richter authority Falk Schwarz, was supposedly handed down in manuscript from the Wagner family to Toscanini to Horowitz to Richter - is played [unrelated technical stuff omitted]..."

So the piece has never been published but obviously it's been around. I can only conclude that the Richter estate is now in possession of the manuscript.

I do know that the work turns up in all of Richter's repertory information as being a Wagner piece. Period. The latest coming in Monsaingeon's scholarly book, Notebooks and Conversations.

[Brian]

An intriguing mystery! But any mystery that can be experienced (sampled? solved?) by purchasing a Richter recital, well ... what a hardship! 

P.S. "Hand over the Chopin and no one gets hurt"? 

[Dancing Divertimentian]