Wagner's Warehouse

[Scion7]

^ imagines Wagner having a kanipshin fit over that cover!   

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Wagner liked Schopenhauer's version of Buddhism, I guess, but I don't think he was a Buddhist.

Sounds right.

[vers la flamme]

Ross's new book sounds great. I'll have to check it out.

[Scion7]

His ... Noise is opinionated myopic hash.  This has to be an improvement.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I heard that My Life, authored by Wagner, is fun to read. Any thought?

[Scion7]

Volume 1  ---  http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5197/pg5197-images.html

Volume 2  ---  http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5144/pg5144-images.html

Have a go, old boy.

Critics consider it important for its view of the times.

[vers la flamme]

I see there are a few haters of "The Rest is Noise" in this thread. I was wondering if either of you could elaborate on your feelings about the book. I enjoyed it as an overview of the music of the previous century, and found some of it to be very compelling (Mahler and Strauss at the Salome première at the very beginning, Schoenberg in '30s Berlin, etc.) though perhaps I was not paying close enough attention to the subtext. I read it over about a year, a few pages here and there.

[Scion7]

Found it to be self-absorbed humdrum.
You must have skimmed over those parts. 

[vers la flamme]

Found it to be self-absorbed humdrum.
You must have skimmed over those parts. 

Entirely possible... I don't seem to remember all that much "self" in it at all.

[Scion7]

Actually, I'm looking through it again and I think the main problem with it that left me with a bad taste in my mouth is the later chapters dealing with some of the modern/minimalist people.  Lionizing Britten is always a red flag to me. He barely gives people like Vaughan Williams a mention, for example. He dips his toe into some talk of Jazz, but he'd have been better off leaving that all out entirely, because he does a disservice to the music by giving a couple of name-checks to Mingus and Coltrane and so on, but nothing much more.  The chapters up to the death of Strauss are not bad, except for the sin of omission. Too much emphasis on Glass, Cage, etc., in the latter part of the book.  I know there were some statements here and there in it that I haven't found again skimming through it tonight that set my teeth on edge at the time, and I dust-binned it for a reason. Oh, well - back to Siegfried Idyll . . . 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

NYT review.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/books/review/wagnerism-alex-ross.html

[Jo498]

Actually, I'm looking through it again and I think the main problem with it that left me with a bad taste in my mouth is the later chapters dealing with some of the modern/minimalist people.  Lionizing Britten is always a red flag to me. He barely gives people like Vaughan Williams a mention, for example. He dips his toe into some talk of Jazz, but he'd have been better off leaving that all out entirely, because he does a disservice to the music by giving a couple of name-checks to Mingus and Coltrane and so on, but nothing much more.  The chapters up to the death of Strauss are not bad, except for the sin of omission. Too much emphasis on Glass, Cage, etc., in the latter part of the book.  I know there were some statements here and there in it that I haven't found again skimming through it tonight that set my teeth on edge at the time, and I dust-binned it for a reason. Oh, well - back to Siegfried Idyll . . .

I am still not through "The rest is noise"; I got it as a Xmas present 2017, don't remember when I started reading and took several breaks. My mark is in the Britten chapter. Overall it is highly opinionated and it very clearly shows that it was based on unsystematic columns or blog entries.

[Scion7]

What are people's feelings on Wagner's piano works?

I was listening to the 3 piano sonatas a while ago.

Piano Sonata in Bb, Op. 1  (1831)
Piano Sonata in A, 'Grosse Sonate', Op. 4  (1832) 
Piano Sonata in Ab  (1853)

and the

Fantasia for piano in f#, WWV 22  (1831)

[Biffo]

I heard that My Life, authored by Wagner, is fun to read. Any thought?

It depends on your idea of fun. I attempted to read it many years ago when I had more stamina but gave up less than halfway through. Turgid is the word I would use rather than 'fun'.

[vers la flamme]

NYT review.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/books/review/wagnerism-alex-ross.html

Written by no less than John Adams. The book sounds totally intriguing. I know almost nothing about Wagner but I've thought before about the subject matter, ie. how his music seems to tie into so many disparate artistic, cultural, and political movements throughout the 20th century. I will have to give this a read but I may wait until the price comes down.

[Scion7]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSwDnvtzUYI

nice version of Huldigungsmarsch in Eb, WWV 97 (1864) - for military band, as it was originally scored for ...

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

What are people's feelings on Wagner's piano works?

I was listening to the 3 piano sonatas a while ago.

Piano Sonata in Bb, Op. 1  (1831)
Piano Sonata in A, 'Grosse Sonate', Op. 4  (1832) 
Piano Sonata in Ab  (1853)

and the

Fantasia for piano in f#, WWV 22  (1831)

I like Op. 4 and Elegy (Ab maj).
Also, fyi, an explanation of the so-called Tristan Chord by Pappano is here.

https://youtu.be/QcE3kSX_y_c

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Enjoying this album. Takuya Niinomi is a graduate of Liszt Academy in Budapest, and he also had a master's degree in sociolinguistics from Hitotsubashi University, one of the top universities in Japan.

[Lisztianwagner]

Enjoying this album. Takuya Niinomi is a graduate of Liszt Academy in Budapest, and he also had a master's degree in sociolinguistics from Hitotsubashi University, one of the top universities in Japan.

I had a look at the pieces included, it looks an interesting recording! Maybe Wagner's piano music doesn't reach the mastery of his operas, but it is extremely enchanting anyway; especially the Elegie Schmachtend, brief, but poetical and beautifully intense.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I had a look at the pieces included, it looks an interesting recording! Maybe Wagner's piano music doesn't reach the mastery of his operas, but it is extremely enchanting anyway; especially the Elegie Schmachtend, brief, but poetical and beautifully intense.

Enjoy!