This next artist held some reprehensible views. Fortunately he’s been dead for over 125 years, and I bought this album second hand, so I can enjoy his music (mostly) guilt free.
Disc 1865 is…The Best of Wagner
Artist: Richard Wagner
Year of Release: 1993-1997, but featuring music from 1840 - 1874
What’s up with the Cover? In the upper right we also have a caricature drawing of Wagner which makes him far more whimsical than his real-life photos suggest (where he looks more like the curmudgeon I imagine he was).
We are also presented an aerial photo of Neuschwanstein Castle, in Bavaria. A magical place that is now a tourist destination that charges 21 euros to wander about. I would happily pay to wander about there, as it looks quite magical.
Odd fact about Neuschwanstein, if you are a senior, a student or handicapped they give you a discount of…wait for it…one euro. I imagine this leads to interesting moments of outrage from visitors, as patient castle staff explain that that is the full amount of the discount, and you’re welcome.
How I Came To Know It: Everyone has heard of Wagner, and I’ve always loved “Flight of the Valkyries”. His catalogue is immense (and long) and I decided to dip my toe in instead of buying the entire Ring cycle on CD. Because while it sounds great, it’s also a serious time commitment.
Besides, I got a great deal. One Canadian dollar at a local thrift store! Close in value to the massive windfall a college student could realize on a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle.
How It Stacks Up: This is the only Wagner currently in my collection AND it’s a compilation, so it is not stackable on two accounts.
Ratings: Compilations don’t get rated. I will go on about it for a bit, though, if you decide to keep reading.
While I’m not going to get into it, for a guy who so clearly loved fantasy and adventure, a lot of crazy stuff actually happened to Wagner through his life - some of it well-deserved. Fortunately for the world, Wagner seems to have channeled that drama into swelling and enchanting compositions that transport us to a place of breathtaking adventure and excitement.
If you are looking for in-depth explorations of Wagner’s compositional style, or how his concept of Gesamtkunstwerk influences these selections, you should be looking elsewhere. My classical music knowledge is woefully low. I only know that Gesamtkunstwerk is a word because I lifted it from Wikipedia.
Instead of letting my own considerable ignorance get me down, I like to fall into classical music with the same blissful abandon I approach modern popular music and see where it takes me.
In the case of Wagner, I felt like I was listening to something Very Important all the time. These snippets of larger works are impressive in their ability to lift you up and soar your spirits with knights, ghost ships and Valkyries.
Sometimes there is bombast from the opening notes, as is the case with “Die Walkure (“The Valkyrie”) and the famous “Ride of the Valkyries”. This tune is movie magic excitement from a time before modern motion picture action films existed (If they had existed, Wagner would have definitely been scoring them).
“Ride of the Valkyries” is pure adrenaline from the opening notes. If I was ever to be lifted from a field of the slain by a host of flying warrior woman (yes please!) this is definitely the song I want playing while it is happening. Given this is unlikely to happen (the occasions I find myself on a field of the slain is mercifully rare), listening to “Ride of the Valkyries” is the next best thing. And when it’s over, and I’m parched from all that top-tier air conducting I can go grab a glass of water rather than being, you know, dead.
Yes, I digress, but I found it very hard to listen to Wagner and not engage in a little digressing. Dude is fanciful.
Another favourite on this compilation is the overture to “Der Fliegende Hollander (the Flying Dutchman)” a story of love, ghost ships and a bit of Satan. I’ve never seen (or heard) the full opera, but if there is anything near the adventurous spirit present in the overture, count me in.
Even when Wagner is not getting all boisterous and heroic, he brings inspiration. The section lifted from “Tristan and Isolde” (“Liebestod”) is the height of romance. I loved the tragic romance of this story since I first read it in Mallory’s Morte D’Artur and Wagner captures all the right feels in his interpretation.
There were a couple of times I got fidgety – most of the prelude to “Lohengrin” is just ambient mood music, reminding me of the third song you hear at the end of a movie with super long credits. However, even here Wagner throws in some fanciful swells about two thirds of the way through that will leave you certain your heart will burst out of your chest before it settles back down again and fades out.
Wagner is one hell of a composer. Shame about his rotten opinions (that he shared all the time) but the music – great stuff, and even better knowing he didn’t get a single cent of the dollar that I paid for it.
Best tracks: They are all pretty great, but I’ll go with “Tristan und Isolde – Liebestod”, the overture to the Flying Dutchman, and Ride of the Valkyries for reasons noted above.
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