Siegfried Wagner

[Sean]

Wagner's son (1969-1930) completed a dozen operas with an original voice; Die Heilige Linde from 1927 is full of dark and fascinating invention also with a fine libretto about emerging from and returning to the underworld. Naxos has a acquired a whole bunch of his operas and I'm going to get to know Schmied von Marienburg next from 1920, also thought highly of.

I see Siegfried as closer to the Genoveva of Schumann and the tradition of less richly scored but murkily visceral German romanticism.

[Superhorn]

  I haven't heard any of the recordings of Siegfried's operas yet, but am very curious to explore them .
  A few weeks ago, I heard  recording of his violin concerto on youtube, and found it quite attractive .
  His opers were widely performed in Germny during his lifetime , but fell into total neglect after his death,
and have been enjoying something of  a revival there in recent years . 

[Sean]

I've been listening to an orchestral piece called Sehnsucht which is typically somewhat sparsely scored and not first rate music but helps put Strauss and others into perspective, and he does cultivate an original atmosphere.

I read that one of his problems was that Hitler gave him no support and only had time for Richard.

[The new erato]

I've been listening to an orchestral piece called Sehnsucht which is typically somewhat sparsely scored and not first rate music but helps put Strauss and others into perspective, and he does cultivate an original atmosphere.

I read that one of his problems was that Hitler gave him no support and only had time for Richard.

You call that a problem? Richard was wel established by the time of Hitler'support, and see what happened to other contemporary composers of Hitler embraced by him.....

[Sean]

Whatever the merits of that argument Siegfried has really had a rough time of it being the son of God in a very long shadow, but most of his operas are on Marco Polo with orchestral and lieder also available via Naxos.









And others. I think he began 17 and completed 12- see Wiki.

[knight66]

Interesting, thanks. I will go and have an explore. I imagine i will probably be disappointed if he does not sound at least a bit like his father and disappointed if he does!

Mike

[The new erato]

I have the cpo set of his orchestral music and found it wellwritten but without any particular personality or distinction. Mainly of interest if you are particularly interested in the period and its esthetics, or wonder what Richard's son was up to.

[Sean]

Yes, this Sehnsucht  piece sounds like one of Strauss's initial sketches for a tone poem before investing real thought in it.

[knight66]

I have been listening to his tone poems.....sounds like Humperdink. It is lyrical but not memorable.

Mike

[Sean]

I'd suggest that Hansel is more Wagnerian than Siegfried's operas; there's also a distant parallel with Rimsky-Korsakov and the light fairy-tale characterization yet interesting scene painting. I've tried a couple of Humperdinck's tone poems but can't bring them to mind right now...

[Sean]

Into my third listen of this sometimes endless three hour grail type opera Schmied von Marienburg, Siegfried's last, it emerges well, slightly subdued and rather listenable.

Despite a few formulas, sense of the arbitrary and lacking Richard's richness of layering this is a major effort with a great deal of substantially worked out material to get into. Its almost pleasurable sprawl also brings the Strauss operas to mind, many of which were completed by its late 1920s period.

Apparently Hitler didn't care for Siegfried even though he was performed in Berlin and is known to have attended only one performance in his youth. Siegfried had a young wife who became increasingly critical of him and whose nationalism led her to side with the Nazis, and discourage her liberal husband's work.