Bayreuth Festival 1929

 

I have mixed feelings about creating this post. Richard Wagner was a groundbreaking composer; his operas are monumentally impressive creations. He was also anti-semitic, and something of an Aryan nationalist. The composer's name has become inexorably linked to Hitler and the Nazis, to whom Wagner's music was the highest expression of German art and ideals. In one sense, he can't be blamed for that, since he died some 50 years before Hitler came to power. But one has the uncomfortable sense that Wagner would have embraced the Nazi movement had he been around at the time, given some of his writings.

In a sense, Wagner embodies the age-old debate: to what extent can you separate the art from the artist? To the record industry in the early days of electrical recording, there seemed to be no question - Wagner's music represented the epitome of musical art, the most elevated music around. The problem was that the sheer dimensions of the music meant that it really couldn't be adequately captured by the technology of the time. A short Wagner opera runs around two and a half hours, and the longer ones are around four or five hours. Five minutes was the maximum playing time of 12" 78 RPM record side.

So when Columbia issued a mammoth eleven-disc album of Wagner recordings from the 1929 Bayreuth Festival, it was an event. This was the largest album set that Columbia had issued up to that point. The 1929 Columbia catalog included a page of quotes from musicians and critics, praising the recordings. And it is indeed an impressive achievement for its time. One could buy an hour and 15 minutes of well-recorded music by the composer who was considered to be the top of the heap in the classical music world - and for a mere $16.50! Of course, adjusting for inflation, that works out to be about $287 at the time I'm writing this.

Surprisingly, I can't find that these historic recordings have ever been reissued. I may be missing something, but I can't find them anywhere online or on any reissue CDs. So qualms and all, here is Columbia Masterworks Set Number 79, issued in 1929. I have joined all multi-side selections into single tracks. (See the photograph from the catalog for the original pairings and side breaks.) Again, recording quality is generally good, although there are a few moments when the engineers miscalculated, resulting in some distortion. I have used minimal noise reduction, so you will hear some surface noise. All selections are performed by the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra; conductors and additional artists are noted under each title.

Parsifal: Transformation Scene

     Conducted by Karl Muck

Parsifal: Grail Scene

     Conducted by Karl Muck; with chorus

Parsifal: Flower Maidens Scene

    Conducted by Karl Muck; with Flower Maidens and chorus

Parsifal: Prelude, Act 3

    Conducted by Siegfried Wagner

Parsifal: Good Friday Music

    Conducted by Siegfried Wagner; with Alexander Kipnis, bass, and Fritz Wolff, tenor

Siegfried: Forest Murmurs

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin

Siegfried: Prelude, Act 3

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin

Siegfried: Fire Music

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin

Das Rheingold: Entry of the Gods Into Valhalla

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin; with Rhinedaughters

Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin; with Valkyries