Classical Music for Aficionados

Jeremy, I see where you are coming from here and I know tales can get messed up in the telling. My source is Prof. Alan Walker the official biographer of Liszt who has written three huge volumes on Liszt and his circle .It is probably in volume 2 or 3 and they are huge and I have read them twice and also use them for reference. He writes about all the young pianists and profesional people who came to visit him.

Len    you are spot on about Cosima she was a nasty piece of work, she even left her father on his death bed to go to her beloved Beyreuth and lord it over another of her beloved Richard's diatribes. She even stopped any of his pupils from coming in to tend to him and make his passing a little easier. No out of the three children he had she was definitely the worst and sad thing is she outlived Wagner by nearly forty years.

You may not have a university degree jim , but I GUARANTEE you both know more that 90% of them that do and that you are a born scholar .
I tip my McDonald of the Isles glengarry to a braw man.
Lang may yer lum reek !

Wagner, Barenboim, Said, Israel
quote from Said article

In any event, Wagner’s works in Israel have by common consent been left unperformed, until 7 July, 2001. Barenboim is head of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Berlin State Opera, whose orchestra he was leading on tour in Israel for the three consecutive concerts presented in Jerusalem. He had originally scheduled a performance of Act One of Wagner’s opera Die Walkure for the 7 July concert, but had been asked to change it by the director of the Israel Festival, which had invited the German orchestra and Barenboim in the first place. Barenboim substituted a programme of Schumann and Stravinsky, and then, after playing those, turned to the audience and proposed a short extract from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde as an encore. He opened the floor to a discussion, which ensued with people for and against. In the end, Barenboim said he would play the piece but suggested that those who were offended could leave, which some in fact did. By and large though, the Wagner was well received by a rapturous audience of about 2800 Israelis and, I am sure, extremely well performed.

Still, the attacks on Barenboim have not stopped. It was reported in the press on 25 July that the Knesset committee on culture and education “urged Israel’s cultural bodies to boycott the conductor… for performing music by Hitler’s favourite composer at Israel’s premier cultural event until he apologises.” The attacks on Barenboim by the minister of culture and other luminaries have been venomous, even though despite his birth and early childhood in Argentina, he himself has always thought of himself as an Israeli. He grew up there, he went to Hebrew schools, he carries an Israeli passport along with his Argentinian one. Besides, he has always been thought of as a major cultural asset to Israel, having been a central figure in the country’s musical life for years and years, despite the fact that, since he was in his teens, he has lived in Europe and the United States most of the time, not in Israel.

read whole article here
https://www.mediamonitors.net/barenboim-and-the-wagner-taboo/

More Edward Said
this article contains the description of Saint Saens playing Siegfried at Wagner's home

Cosmic Ambition Edward Said October 20, 2011 Edward Said

• Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff

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