Richard Wagner - Prelude "Lohengrin" act 1 - conducted by Toscanini

[paulostroff99]

Lovely playing.TY herblich1 for posting.

[0pus]

For me, the best Preludio in the history of music: pure light sound's, rising harmony.

[josajpnide]

That's right !

[LJBSasha]

Too fast; to boot, the ending is poorly handled, it loses much of its atmosphere (notably that last cymbal-crash is too loud!). I'll take Solti any day or night - but to each his own...

[wks1978]

@LJBSasha I agree -the cymbal crash sounds like it belongs in a Verdi overture!

[LJBSasha]

@wks1978: It's not that it shouldn't be there at all - the score specifies it. However, it should be just barely audible, whereas it's very strident here!! [Perhaps it might be an idea - although it likely's unorthodox - to have one cymbal played with a sponge-head mallet instead of being crashed with a second cymbal.]

[rerakoke]

@LJBSasha these remarks remind me of von Buelow's reaction to the cymbal crash in the Adagio of Bruckner's seventh. Who needs all this pedantry!

[LJBSasha]

@rerakoke:  Doesn't bad taste deserve to be criticised?

[jetzt0844]

Superb ! Wagner is immortal !....

[paulostroff99]

@jetzt0844 -He was immoral as well. A bigot who avoided paying his bills as well. An admitted anti semite.

[feuip]

This is amazing!!!! I always cry while listening to this!

Just one question: isn't this the prelude to the 1st act? I'm asking because you wrote it's to act 3. Or did I get it wrong?

[herblich1]

@feuip Yes, that's my mistake, I just corrected it, thanks for the remark!

[healym67]

I was floored when I first heard this piece to find out it was Wagner. Absolutely astonished. It's so delicate, intimate, sublime. Wagner usually makes me want to fight. This makes me want to sit and weep. It's about as perfect as eight and a half minutes of music can be, and Toscanini does a very good job of it. A bit allegro in some points for me- I like to savor this piece, but not too adagio.

[Abdekundus]

Riccardo Mutti: take that, again, again, again, again: be a smart inheritor...

[luccarossi2]

Superbo

[antontsai]

thanks for uploading

[GermanOperaSinger]

Excellent, I have a 1936 recording of this and you can actually hear the Maestro humming along to the music, like he often did. I'll post it if I have time.

[herblich1]

Yes, you can even see him humming in the video recordings of the Walkürenritt and the Lohengrin prelude to the 3rd act, do you know those ones?

[GermanOperaSinger]

Yes I've seen those, lot of people find it annoying when they hear him humming in the recordings, but that's what makes them historic!

[paulostroff99]

@GermanOperaSinger -Glenn Gould hummed what he was playing on piano almost always.

[twooffour]

@GermanOperaSinger

No, what makes them historic is that they're really good and by a famous conductor.

[chrismcgovernmusic]

@herblich1 Sir Colin Davis hums too when he conducts. Annoying, but what can you do? I guess people can't help it or simply don't realize they're doing it. Glenn Gould did it as well. I just try to ignore it.

[dj4ng0l1n0]

Toscanini ;)

[parsifal12007]

Fantastic ! no more needed.