"Made wise through empathy, the pure fool" -- is Parsifal even more, er, "innocent" than Siegfried?

"Seeking his wife he flew up --
to circle with him over the lake
and gloriously to hallow them both."
-- Gurnemanz, deep into Scene 1 of Act I of Parsifal

[We hear first Donald McIntyre, with Reginald Goodall conducting (in 1984), then Hans Hotter, with Hans Knappertsbusch (in 1962). We'll be hearing a bit more of these performances later in the post. Sorry the second clip is so conspicuously louder; I don't know how to adjust that.]

__          __          __          __          __

GURNEMANZ: A blessed radiance emanated from the Grail;
a holy vision clearly spoke to him [i.e., Amfortas]
this message in words of fire:
"Made wise through empathy, the pure fool;
await him, the one I have chosen."
ESQUIRES: "Made wise through empathy, the pure fool --"

Ludwig Weber (bs), Gurnemanz; Elisabeth Rutgers (s), Sieglinde Wagner (ms), Erich Majkut (t), and Hermann Gallos (t), Esquires; Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Rudolf Moralt, cond. Myto, live concert performance, [Oct. 1?] 1948

Franz Crass (bs), Gurnemanz; Elisabeth Schwarzenberg (s), Sieglinde Wagner (ms), R. A.  Hartmann-Griffke (t), and Heinz Zednik (t), Esquires; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. Live performance, July 24, 1971

Kurt Moll (bs), Gurnemanz; Regina Marheineke (s), Claudia Hellmann (ms), Helmut Holzapfel (t), and Karl-Heinz Eichler (t), Esquires; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Kubelik, cond. Recorded for broadcast, May 1980

Kurt Moll (bs), Gurnemanz; Heidi Grant Murphy (s), Jane Bunnell (ms), Paul Groves (t), and Anthony Laciura (t), Esquires; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine, cond. DG, recorded 1991-92

Cesare Siepi (bs), Gurnemanz; Loretta Di Franco (s), Ivanka Myhal (ms), Leo Goeke (t), and Robert Schmorr (t), Esquires; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Leopold Ludwig, cond. Live performance, Apr. 3, 1971

by Ken

We'll come back to the very first morsel we heard above, regarding the murdered swan's flight. The bit we just heard immediately above precedes the chunk we heard last week in the second of our pair of post "teases" ("Two case studies in ignorance -- Siegfried and Parsifal" and "Tease 2: Case studies in ignorance -- Siegfried and Parsifal (continued)," from the later stage of the first scene of Act I of Parisal but as part of a larger chunk of this scene from the later stages of the first of the two scenes of Act I of Parsifal. For all the difficulty I've had figuring out how to proceed from those teases, not to mention the amount of menial labor that will go into executing the provisional new roadmap, there was never any question that one thing we would need to do is to backup into this earlier part of the scene, and shortly we're going to hear a fuller context for these crucial lines.

I also realized that I needed to make clearer that labeling Siegfried and Parsifal as "ignorant" isn't meant as any kind of judgment but merely as a statement of fact -- both of our heroes have come to strapping young-manhood without any significant opportunity to learn the basics of life most of us take for granted, learning them as we do from a combination of normal socialization and instruction.


BEFORE WE PROCEED, LET'S HEAR A LITTLE MUSIC
TO HELP GET US INTO A "PARSIFAL FRAME OF MIND"

On this initial pass at this post, the most we'll be able to do is set out the bare bones, to be filled in tonight and tomorrow with more performances, better context, and more comment. And I do think it'll help if we use the pairing of the Prelude to Act I and the "Good Friday Spell" from Act III to orient ears and brains to the Parsifal sound world. The Jochum recording we've heard before; I don't believe we've heard the Bruno Walter one.

Parsifal: Prelude (Act I) and "Good Friday Spell" (Act III)


Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. DG, recorded December 1957

Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded Feb. 25, 1959


ANOTHER THING I DIDN'T DO LAST WEEK . . .

Post tease 2: Case studies in ignorance -- Siegfried and Parsifal (continued)

Gottlob Frick as Gurnemanz -- in 1960, when he was 54; would
you believe the recording we're about to hear was made in 1971-72?
(Later we're also going to hear him from about the time of the photo.)

GURNEMANZ [to PARSIFAL]:
You could murder, here in this holy forest,
where tranquil peace surrounded you?
Did not the woodland beasts tamely come near
and innocently greet you as friends?
What did the birds sing to you from the branches?
What harm did that faithful swan do you?
Seeking his mate, he flew up
to circle with it over the lake
and gloriously to hallow the both.
This did not impress you? It but tempted you
to a wild, childish shot from your bow?
He was pleasing to us; what is he now to you?
Here -- look! -- here you struck him,
the blood still congealing, the wings drooping lifeless,
the snowy plumage stained dark,
the eyes glazed -- do you see his look?
[PARSIFAL has followed GURNEMANZ with growing emotion; now he breaks his bow and hurls his arrows away.]
Now do you appreciate your misdeed?
[PARSIFAL passes his hand over his eyes.]
Say, boy, do you realize your great guilt?
How could you commit this crime?
PARSIFAL: I didn't know.

-- translation by Lionel Salter

Gottlob Frick (bs), Gurnemanz; René Kollo (t), Parsifal; members of the Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded 1971-72

by Ken

In the earlier "tease" for this week's post, I noted the connection I typically feel from the difficult-to-conceptualize ignorance of the young Siegfried and that of his Wagnerian comrade-in-arms Parsifal (even if the "arm" in question in the latter's case is a bow and arrows), but without so much as a note of the latter's music. This follow-up tease aims to set that right.

NOTE: On present schedule, look for the main post tomorrow. (I don't rule out the possibility of additions to, or other tamperings with, one or both of the teases.)


NOW WE HAVE A FULLER VERSION OF THIS EXCERPT

Post tease: Two case studies in ignorance -- Siegfried and Parsifal

Siegfried meets Fafner: Oh joy, Fafner's turned into a murderous dragon!

by Ken

One issue that's extensively tested in Wagner's Ring cycle, and that has been quietly bedeviling us in our enquiries, is whether we really know how to deal with innocence: recognizing it, understanding it, coping with it. I thought that at this point, as we're meeting Siegfried at perhaps his most exposed, we needed at least to drag it out into the open -- as it were, outside the opening to the cave where the giant Fafner, since murdering his brother Fasolt at the end of Das Rheingold and taking sole possession of the Nibelung hoard, including the all-power-conferring Ring and the Tarnhelm that enables the wearer to transform into any form desired, has Tarnhelmed into a murderous dragon and taken up solitary (he hopes) residence in a remote deep-forest cave, where he mostly sleeps on top of the hoard, guarding it against any would-be hoard-snatchers.

We're in Act II of Siegfried, earlier in the act than we were last week ("Not just a tease for next week's post: A little birdie told him"), when we heard Siegfried actually hearing and understanding tidings shared by a newsy Woodbird. Those mutually antagonistic lordlings Alberich and Wotan have just met for the first time since the final scene of Das Rheingold, when Wotan stole the Nibelung hoard from Alberich (who is of course "the Nibelung" of The Ring of the Nibelung) and Alberich, powerless to do anything else, placed a curse on the Ring -- as if that order of wealth didn't come with its own built-in curse. Or maybe Alberich was aiming his curse at some kind of certainty of enforcement of the curse implied by acquisition of all that treasure?


IT'S BEEN OCCURRING TO ME THAT THE THEME
OF SIEGFRIED'S HOPELESS IGNORANCE . . .

Promissory note for one of our still-to-come Operatic Bad Days

Along the way, we hear how Wagner made it
possible for folks everywhere to get married

MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Okay, I think we've got something more like a post. There's still work to be done, notably the addition of texts, but for now, whew!
TUESDAY NIGHT UPDATE: I wound up substantially rejiggering and in some aspects entirely reconstituting the Tristan and Meistersinger lineups, in addition to adding the promised texts for each, so progress is being made. I feel a keen need for fuller context-setting of the "days" dramatized in these excerpts, but fear that trying to plug the gap will lead to utterly exploding the post. Hmm. Still to come for sure: texts for Lohengrin [done!] and Tannhäuser.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: I've not only done the Tannhäuser texts but popped in as-brief-as-possible situation-setters for Tannhäuser, Tristan, and Meistersinger. At least for now, I think we're there, wherever "there" is, except for whatever cleanup of the wreckage I'm able to undertake.



by Ken

Last week we started talking about Operatic Bad Days ("On an operatic bad day you can sometimes see forever -- but oftentimes not"), looking first at the case of Sir John Falstaff (courtesy of Maestro Verdi), dragging himself out of the Thames to drown his sorrows at the Garter Inn. Sir John, I think we can agree, got what he deserved and deserved what he got, but not so much with the two OBD sufferers whose cases always crowd my mind. By way of setting the mood, while I struggle with what was supposed to be an "easy" post, here's a tease. [SUNDAY UPDATE: Now filled out a little more!]

WAGNER: Tannhäuser: Act III Prelude


Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Oct.-Nov. 1961

Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Teldec, recorded June 2001

London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, cond. EMI, recorded Dec. 13-14. 1972

WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde: Act III Prelude


Symphony of the Air, Leopold Stokowski, cond. RCA, recorded 1960-61

Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber, cond. Recorded during a live performance of the opera, Oct. 7, 1973

Staatskapelle Berlin, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. From a live performance of most of Acts II and III, Oct. 3, 1947

WAGNER: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Act III Prelude


London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, cond. EMI, recorded January 1974

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Kubelik, cond. From a broadcast performance of the complete opera, October 1967

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded during concert performances of the opera, Sept. 23-27, 1995

WAGNER: Parsifal: Act III Prelude


London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, cond. EMI, recorded January 1973

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Hans Knappertsbusch, cond. Philips, recorded live at the 1962 festival

Welsh National Opera Orchestra, Reginald Goodall, cond. EMI, from a recording of the complete opera, June 1984

THEN AGAIN, IN CASE YOU THINK YOU'VE STARTED
TO SENSE A PATTERN HERE, THERE'S ALSO THIS

One of these "Parsifal" performances doesn't belong in the company of the others

WAGNER: Parsifal: Prelude and Good Friday Spell

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. DG, recorded December 1957

by Ken

We first heard the Prelude and opening of Act I of Parsifal in a March 2010 post called "Wagner, master of musical motion, Part 2," in which I wrote: "Our subject this week, you'll recall, is "musical motion," how performers find -- or don't -- what makes a piece of music move forward from the inside, how they re-create it with real energy and purpose instead of just grinding out one damned note after another."

The Jochum studio recording of the frequent concert coupling of the Parsifal Prelude and "Good Friday Spell" (from Act III), by no means a speedy performance, seems to me a shining example of the "re-created with real energy and purpose" kind.


IN 2010, OUR PRINCIPAL WAGNER TESTING GROUND . . .

Sunday Classics chronicles: Remembering Eugen Jochum (4) -- Overtures Plus, part 2 (Wagner's "Lohengin" and "Parsifal")

Is there anyone who doesn't know this music?

As you probably know, the world's best-known wedding march isn't a wedding march at all. Elsa and her unknown knight were married at the end of Act II of Lohengrin. Here, at the start of Act III, they're being escorted to their bridal chamber. The 1954 Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra are conducted by our man of the hour, Eugen Jochum.

by Ken

We're forging ahead with our remembrance of that wonderful conductor Eugen Jochum (1902-1987) -- wearing his concert hat in Part 1 and Part 2 (devoted to his Haydn and Bruckner) and now his opera conductor's chapeau in Part 3 (snatches of Weber's Der Freiscütz and Beethoven's Fidelio) and today's installment -- and we still haven't gotten to his Mozart, which is where I was trying to get us. I thought maybe we'd throw in a little Boris Godunov too. But not today; we have too much to do. (And as usual it will look like we're doing more than we actually are, because the texts consume so much space relative to the amount of music they cover.)

One of the recordings I acquired recently -- one of the sources of the "archival" recordings we're featuring in these "chronicles" posts -- wasn't actually new to me. I just didn't have it on CD. It's Jochum's 1954 Bayreuth Lohengrin. (He actually made a studio recording of the opera around the same time, but it's not one of his happiest achievements. Perhaps even he, who often coaxed surprisingly successful results from dubious-looking casts, could do much with that one.)

In a late decision, we're not even going to get to our other Wagnerian destination: Jochum's extraordinarily beautiful 1971 Bayreuth Parsifal, which we sampled in the March 2010 post "Good Wagner conductors find what inside the music makes it move." I'd rather do that another time.

I'm calling these posts "Overtures Plus" because we're hearing a number of overtures and preludes that -- like the two we heard Friday night -- are also familiar as concert pieces. And I thought we'd start by hearing the Lohengrin Act I and Act III Preludes performed as concert pieces. While I actually do have Jochum studio versions, they're mono, so I thought we'd bring in some ringers.

We already heard this performance of the exhilarating Act III Prelude -- in the "Good Wagner conductors post.

WAGNER: Lohengrin:
Prelude to Act III

Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded February-March 1960

That's quite a "wow" piece, but if we go back to the start of the opera, to "the Prelude to Lohengrin, we encounter something even more astonishing, not least for those ethereally shimmering strings. (This is a performance we haven't heard before, from the remarkably beautiful series of Wagner orchestral LPs Sir Adrian Boult recorded in the early '70s. We already heard the Siegfried Idyll from this series in a March 2011 post on the piece.)