Von Karajan's Ring 2 by Peter Moskos My Next Big Breakthrough Came When I Stumbled Upon Robert Donington’S Wagner’S Ring and Its Symbols

Von Karajan’s Ring by Peter Moskos My Pretentious Classical Music Elitist Friend, Janet Miller, has drawn my attention that this, June 2017, is the 50th anniversary of the Herbert von Karajan Ring Cycle (so says Gramophone Maga- zine) . What a flood of memories that brings back! My memories of the Ring go back to my time in England when college friends and I would go to the English National Opera productions. (We would eat Marmite and Marmalade sandwiches at the bar between the first and second Acts.) Rita Hunter was the Brunhild, Alberto Remedios was Siegfried, and Norman Bailey Wotan. Later, my friend, Leslie Sawyer, and I would listen to Wotan’s Farewell over and over again after dinner. We would then go off to the pub for last call. I’m pretty sure it was the Solti recording. When I retuned to Canada, A&A records on Yonge Street in Toronto had the Karajan Die Götter- dämmerung for $20. I snapped it up. A few months later they put on sale the complete von Kara- jan cycle for $100. I was working then and so I had the money to buy it. I gave Die Götterdäm- merung to a friend and listened to the whole Ring for the next 10 or 15 years. During that time, I got to know the Ring by scanning an English translation as I listened to the recording. (No I don’t speak or read German, and in those days there were no DVDs with sub- titles.) The English lines scanned perfectly with the German. Starting with Wotan’s Farewell, I began to identify the basic leitmotifs. Von Karajan's Ring 2 by Peter Moskos My next big breakthrough came when I stumbled upon Robert Donington’s Wagner’s Ring and its Symbols. Donington’s Jungian interpretation of the Ring made perfect sense to me (and I learned a lot about Jung too). But what informed me most was the compendium at the end of the book that listed all the motifs and showed how each derived from an earlier motif. It all starts with the rising E-flat arpeggio that opens Das Reingold. Turn it upside down and put it into a mi- nor key and it is Wotan’s spear and later the theme for the Twilight of the Gods. It also becomes the Reinmaiden’s theme and then Siegfried’s theme and on and on. Amazing stuff! By the time I was into Donington’s book I was deeply into the Ring. I was hooked. Eventually, I had to go back to the Mozart and Verdi operas for a sense of balance. But I still go back to von Karajan’s recordings. Of course, I eventually heard Solti’s Ring and sev- eral others. Solti’s reading struck me as more dramatic than Karajan’s. But what stood out from Karajan’s interpretation was the sumptuous sound. I think it’s because of his incredible sound that Karajan loses some of the drama of the Ring. Despite my misgivings about Karajan, I still treasure his Ring recordings, especially for Jon Vicker’s and Gudula Janowitz’s Die Walkure first act duet and Vickers’ spring song; and for Thomas Stewart’s Wontan’s Farewell. I think Karajan’s/ Stewart’s Farewell is the finest piece of operatic (or classical) music ever recorded. No orchestra or singer ever sounded as beautiful (in my opinion) as that finale to Die Walkure. If you don’t know von Karajan’s Ring, treat yourself. (I think it is now available on audio Blue Ray.) And look up the wealth of material in this month’s Gramophone Magazine (June 2017). It should be on line. Sadly, Donington’s book is no longer in print. However, you can find used copies on Amazon. Von Karajan's Ring 3 by Peter Moskos.

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