Category Archive: Classical Music
Wagner and Modernism
Wagner by Albrecht Leistner, 1911 (photo by Koernerj2000)
Modernism has many adherents and many parents. It began, more or less, in the late 19th century (particularly in France) and flourished in the 20th century (early on, particularly in Italy – Ezra Pound’s admonition to ‘make it new’ probably reflected his italianate longings). Although some point to Kant as the great begetter of modernism, there are folks who were closer to home that can stake a better claim. In France: Édouard Manet, Gustave Flaubert and especially Charles Baudelaire, and rather more globally, Richard Wagner. Nietzsche regarded Baudelaire in this context as Wagner’s ‘intelligent adherent.’ But surely Wagner takes the prize, both in…
Continue Reading →“Leitmotifs Through the Aether”
A Tribschen idyll...Wagner with Eva
May 22, Happy 203rd birthday to Maestro Richard Wagner! On the evening of 19 May 2016, the Richard Wagner Society of SA hosted ABC broadcaster and programmer Simon Healy to give the annual Brian Coghlan Lecture on Leitmotifs Through the Aether:Wagner’s Operas in Broadcasting History. In a highly detailed and fascinating talk, Simon spoke (in his classic, Classic FM voice) of the technological advances through the last couple of centuries, referring first to the ancients and their perception of the ‘aether’ as the fifth element, onward and upward to the telegraph, which really paved the way for mass communication since….
Continue Reading →Nicholas Carter in Conversation
(Bradley Forum, Adelaide, March 2016) [ASO Chief Conductor Nicholas Carter in conversation with Jacinta Thompson] TVC attended this important discussion at Uni SA last evening, in the “Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre”, a think-tank with the mission of “strengthening our democracy – valuing our diversity – building our future”. (As to these aims, one could not help hearken back to the imbroglio of Bob’s many failed attempts to impose the Australia Card on us, but let that pass!) The central text was the relevance of the orchestra in the 21st Century – which recalls the golden moment from The Ploughman’s Lunch,…
Continue Reading →Our “Great Classics: Carter & Wagner” Review in ASO eNotes
It takes something special to get folks in Adelaide to stand
In their latest electronic newspaper, our friends at the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra linked to our review of a recent function held by our friends the Richard Wagner Society of SA and a concert under the auspices of the ASO’s new Principal Conductor Nicholas Carter. Scroll down!
Continue Reading →Valkyries
Painted by Emil Doepler
PREMIERE: 26 JUNE 1870 in MUNICH. It was done as a ‘stand-alone’ piece, not part of the Cycle, and reaction was mixed. But Wagner wasn’t going to allow 26 year’s worth of work down the drain and ultimately, as both part of the Ring cycle and alone, it stands atop the operatic ramparts. Discussion: February 10, 2016 at Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Performance: February 13, 2016 at Festival Theatre, Adelaide Die Walküre shows Wagner blossoming as musician and dramatist. In the words of Ernest Newman, “he abandoned himself luxuriously to the sheer joy of music-making, both enlarging the scale of his…
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