Re: have your rankings of favorite Meistersingers changed?

[from Geof. Riggs; not Eliz. H., my better half]

Daniel TSAI wrote:
> Surprised to find that Furwangler was not named here in the discussion
> Is it not worth mentioning?
> In fact, I enjoy it very much, though it is not complete
> Thanks for any comment, if I may solicit
> Regards,

Actually, in my previous posting, I (perhaps too briefly) referred to
this one in connection with #7:

> > 7.  In 1952, we are back to a "live" performance.  This time, it's
> > Bayreuth, and in the pit is, once more, Hans Knappertsbusch <SNIP> a wonderful
> > reading of the score from Kna -- possibly the finest reading from anyone
> > on disc save Wilhelm Furtwaengler's, available with a dismal Grade-B cast
> > during the war

There's not much to add to this, sadly.  Yes, Furtwaengler's conducting,
and its sheer naturalness and phrasing, are not equalled anywhere, IMO.
 But he is coping with real castoffs, I feel.  In fact, I find some of
the singing really appalling, very frankly (my failing?).

(It's even occurred to me that higher-ups at the time saw to it that --
given the glowing principals we plainly hear singing with Abendroth that
very season -- Furtwaengler be deliberately given an obviously less
glittering cast as a punishment.  Tongue-in-cheek speculation,
admittedly, but it was, after all, around this time that Furtwaengler
said to Himmler's face that being sent to a camp would put him in with a
finer group of people than the Nazi functionaries he had to deal with
season after season [shades of Kent in King Lear, "I have seen better
faces in my time".....].  Abendroth may have been therefore "allowed"
more of the stars as a lesson to Furtwaengler?)

I prize Furtwaengler's way with this score because I find that his
interpretation balances perfectly the demands of nuance and detail with
the demands of narrative flow.  Kna, "live" at Bayreuth in '52, a decade
later, comes closest to this, and with surer principals, by and large.
So I cite Kna at Bayreuth '52 as _the_ great conducting Meistersinger,
and not Furtwaengler during the war.

The additional fact that there are also sections, important sections,
missing from the only source for the Furtwaengler doesn't help, of
course.  Even the heavily cut Bodanzky performance is, at least,
available in its entirety.

Hope this makes sense of why I (reluctantly) put aside the Furtwaengler
as not being a competitive introduction to Wagner's score.  It is one of
the decent sets (purely because of the conducting), comparable to the
respectable second Karajan.  It is not a negligible one.  But it's not a
set that can hold the attention throughout, IMO.

Cheers,

Geoffrey Riggs
www.operacast.com