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HIGH FIDELITY OLYMPIAN LIVING PRESENCE DAWN AND ’S RHINE JOURNEY

SIEGFRIED IDYLL • PRELUDE TO

PRELUDE TO ACT III OF PAUL PARAY . DETROIT SYMPHONY

MG50107 • conducting PARAY PAUL SYMPHONY, DETROIT Prelude. III Act Tristan Prelude; Parsifal Idyll; Siegfried Journey; Rhine WAGNER and myself on Titurel than the span of time was vaca¬ hnhauser and Nine appealing poem.” in the neigh- L hid myself Wolfram von te poems of NOTES BY HAROLD LAWRENCE pipe i] had planned to intro- thoughts: he Isoli and a Ion; opera: de, a mourn] new th< tan, a Shepherd’s This MERCURY LONG PLAYING recording was made pos¬ whereby it has become possible for Mercury to produce for the sible through the use of MARGIN CONTROL—a technique single microphone A faithful ally of Paray’s intentions is Mercury’s contains the following motives which appear The Prelude to Parsifal surprised Cosima with another birthday Seven years earlier, Wagner parts depends in great In Wagner, clean delineation of instrumental of Parsifal covf The genesis chabrier Espana; ravel Rapsodie Espagnol; ibert Escales. MG50056 MG50101 Schumann Symphony No. 2 in C Major. MG50102 debussy Iberia; Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun”; La Mer. FRANCK Symphony in D Minor. MG50023 tar”). MG50028 SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4; liszt Les Preludes. MG50036 The] ravel Bolero; rimsky-korsakov Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34. sel The Spider’s Feast. MG50035 wagner The Flying Dutchman Overture; Parsifal Good Friday Spell; BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”). MG50045 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7 in A Major. MG50022 MG50020 ravel La Valse; faure Pavane; franck Psyche. MG50029 wagner Preludes to Acts I and III; Die Meistersinger Pre¬ lude ; Tannhauser Overture; . MG50021 rimsky-korsakov Russian Easter Overture; Symphony No. 2 (“An- dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; faure Pelleas and Melisande; rous- Tristan and Isolde Prelude and Love-Death; Forest Murmurs. MG50044 This record can be played on any 33 1/3 r.p.m. turntable equipped with microgroove pick-up, as long as pick-up playing stylus is not WORN or replacement at least every SIX MONTHS, and that sapphire styli be the Faith motive. The Prelude was performed (“Dresden Amen”), and record-buying public a disc of truly superior quality, especially with DAMAGED. It is recommended that diamond styli be checked for replaced after 25-30 playings. machines, which are not Orchestra Hall, this feeding Fairchild tape by PAUL PARAY and the DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA respect to brilliance, clarity, dynamic range and reliable stylus tracking. Fidelity recordings Other Mercury LIVING PRESENCE High through McIntosh record¬ master tapes are transferred from tape to disc cutting head mounted on a ing amplifiers to a specially designed Miller master tapes. to the musical performances contained on the levels are set. The edited monitored in any way once the basic volume result is absolute fidelity variable pitch Scully recording lathe. The end directed, the Wagnerian measure upon the conductor. If improperly Paul Paray has the orchestra can sound murky and thick-textured. in other hands, might be¬ happy faculty of bringing a lucidity to what, Journey, for example, come turgid. The Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine startling clarity of detail with its rich thematic interplay, emerges with microphone of the highest Living Presence recording technique. A single focal point of Detroit’s old sensitivity is hung in precisely the right sonic at all times limpid, trans¬ schen on June 6, 1869. The is .. . With the book i Eschenbach. it in the composition of Parsifal. He completed 1877 that Wagner began same premiere at Bayreuth in the summer of the 1882. It was given its December 25, 1877. room and played the Siegfried Idyll. After staircase leading to Cosima’s score presented his wife with a copy of the the performance, Wagner is a little town near day greeting by her Richard, 1870.” ( parent and mellow. time for a select audience on Cosima’s birthday, privately for the first led by Wagner, lined up on the circular morning, fourteen musicians, Idyll, vith Fidi-Bird- bearing the following dedication: “Tribschener as a symphonic birth¬ song and Orange Sunrise. Offered to his was born in Trib¬ tender evocation of a loving father: Siegfried RECORDING NOTES AND HI-FI FACTS ABOUT THIS in this recording. act of Tristan and Isolde. It was not until August, duce him into the third Grail itself: Amfortas’s Suffering, the Spear, the throughout the opera the they were first married. At half-past seven in present during the year entirely uncharacteristic .) Themes from Siegfried make up this of the Ring is absent in this Wagner work. The super-human atmosphere He had takenj tioning in Bohemia. and, seated by^ bouring woods, Wolfram’s strange) Parzival in effect %Q^^^^pMOTmnbeara^ 1845 Wagner had Ring. In July, opera’s production. Wolfram’s poem to the tion ofl Next fo horn Parsifal was still : years later, read years passed from the time Wagner first year. Thus, thirty-seven most i time to time, Wagner Work on the Ring was not continuous. From until he had fin¬ Wagner did not, however, say farewell to Siegfried In 1848 years in the making. the Nihelung was twenty-six The Ring of Rhine Journey is an orchestral bridge between Dawn and Siegfried’s be¬ only real opera Wagner’s singer is Die Meister opinion, In Lang’s first performed in Munich completed early in August, 1859 and was shelved it for the time interested himself in the story in 1854 but had Otto Wesendonck’s wife, donck mansion which he called his “Asyl.” full orchestral score was tillation of part of the Prelude to Act III. The under Billow’s direction on June 19, 1865. adjoining the Wesen- being. Wagner was then living in a small house and for nearly a year, Mathilde moved into the mansion in July, 1857 and 1m Treihhaus is a dis¬ and Isolde. Traume appears in the Love Duet, All involvements, and other moods and events. glimpse into his future happy times together. the composer and this charming woman spent were a foretaste of Tristan Wagner’s Five Songs set to Mathilde’s poetry his attention to some would tire of his Norns and Gibichungs and devote Siegfried from my heart he wrote to Liszt on June 28, 1857: “I have torn my young Siegfried into and buried it under lock and key... I have led said farewell to him.” tree, and, with tears from the depth of my heart, Tristan and Isolde. He had ished Act II. Then he plunged into work on a Briinnhilde, his progress along the Rhine, fried’s leave-taking of in one of the most skilful and impressive these motives are put together left him under a linden the beautiful forest solitude again; there I have contrapuntal wiz¬ tone paintings in all symphonic literature. Wagner’s singer. ardry is only matched in the prelude to Die Meister first day, The Valkyrie; second day, Young Evening, The Rhinegold; Sieg¬ ddmmerung and Act I, which describes the prelude of Die Gotter Siegfried, for example, wholly unrelated composition. Halfway through in Soon the tetralogy took definite shape entitled, Young Siegfried. In it first on the banks of the Mississippi.” trilogy, and I shall perform and Young Siegfried later be'came Siegfried, composition this summer.” the my poem; it is called The Ring of April, 1853 he had “completed While the situations. in down-to-earth real people it portrays cause same time, cer¬ settings. At the to be heard in their original kiire deserve to Kietz: “I mean to begin my great Nibelungen his mind and he wrote play for three days preceded by an evening. Nihelung, a stage-festival Gotterddmmerung. Siegfried’s Death, Die programs. suited for symphonic excerpts are admirably tain orchestral contained in this recording. three of the works These include completed the book and also written another Three years later he had Death. If I’m well, I’ll begin the musical Siegfried; third day, Siegfried’s from Die Wal- and Wotan’s Farewell Die Gotterddmmerung Scene from Siegfrieds Tod. opera called, the idea of a three-act Wagner conceived of idea the by possessed not been he had man ordinary this extra of He of Germandom. glorification for the monument g a musical ere^i:n remote as the folk-mythology are as semi-gods of German deities and the Immolation Wagnerian opera as such moments in ancient Druids, of all time.” greatest symphonists one of the have become might

succeeding work. Wag¬ orchestra becomes more prominent with each hall, Paul Henry Lang, Discussing Wagner’s success in the concert

^AUL PARAY

and, frankly, more so, as effective in the concert hall as on the stage Rhine Journey and Siegfried’s Dawn that connect these sym¬ ened by the oflcn turgid and labored passages what would have become phonic odes... One cannot help wondering process is not weak¬ because the sweep and continuity of the symphonic comment upon and develop only support those on the stage, but would to Parsifal Prelude wrote: “Such music is just music critic of the New York Herald Tribune, particularly in his the composer’s first thoughts were with the orchestra, tissue which would not ing to the orchestra an almost unbroken thematic of music and drama, he Despite his lengthy manifestoes on the marriage voice; but the truth is that ers. Not that he could not write well for the parts necessitated assign¬ later operas. The narrative quality of the vocal every musical idea. III of Tristan und Isolde Prelude to Act Idyll Siegfried to its ultimate growth. had singlehandedly brought the ‘music drama’

than with his sing¬ created more theatrical excitement with his orchestra styles. Instead, with the inal force in the development of new operatic Die Meistersinger, Wagner ities of the Ring, and the super-orchestra of the labyrinthian complex¬ melting chromaticism of Tristan and Isolde, not on his libretti or vocal ner lavished his most original inspirations opera was no sem¬ writing, but upon the orchestration. Thus, Wagnerian

conducting the PAUL PARAY

the operas, it is interesting to note that IN the evolution of Wagner’s

SYMPHONY DETROIT ORCHESTRA WAGNER

MG50107 • WAGNER Rhine Journey; Siegfried Idyll; Parsifal Prelude; Tristan Act I de. DETROIT SYMPHONY, PAUL PARAY conducting COYER PHOTO BY EWING KRAININ DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

MG 50107 A