[2/5/2012] Stormy weather, part 3 (continued): "Siegfried," Act III

WAGNER: Siegfried: Act II conclusion


Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded May and Oct. 1962

WAGNER: Siegfried: Act III Prelude

The first recording of a Ring recording I owned was -- however improbably -- of Siegfried, at a time when there was only one recording of Siegfried. (Well, there was also only one , and two Walkuüres, and barely one Götterdämmerung.) In those days one of my major record-buying sources, the E. J. Korvette discount department stores, several of which had excellent record departments, sometimes organized their weekly sales by artists, and I somehow conceived the idea of buying the Decca-London Siegfried as "a Joan Sutherland recording." I approached the checkout register with diffidence but steely determination, prepared to insist that it didn't matter that she contributed only a few minutes' worth of warbling as the Woodbird, she was still in it. For better or worse, the cashier recognized the name on the album box and without prompting charged the correct sale price.)

Siegfried is actually kind of a wonderful piece to explore at leisure on your own, being filled as it is with such an astonishing assortment of strange and wonderful kinds of music. Certainly it was a great occasion when I discovered the thundering opening of Act III, which sets the stage for Wotan's final encounter with the earth goddess Erda. I must have played that music a zillion times on my crappy little portable record player. All these technologies later (I have both the Solti and the Karajan Rings on LP and open-reel tape as well as CD), I still think Solti and the Vienna Phil whip up one grand mountainside storm. (For the Barenboim performance, I suggest cranking up the volume a bit if you can. This may be a case where the mellowing effect of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus's submerged-orchestral-pit acoustics may not be doing the music any favor.)

A wild spot at the foot of a rocky mountain, which rises steeply at the back on the left. Night, storm, lightning, and violent thunder, which soon ceases, while the lightning continues flashing among the clouds.

Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded May and Oct. 1962

Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Teldec, recorded live, June-July 1992

Sadler's Wells Opera Orchestra, Reginald Goodall, cond. EMI/Chandos, recorded live, August 1973





TO PROCEED TO THE SNOWSTORM AT THE START OF
ACT III OF PUCCINI'S LA BOHÈME, CLICK HERE

TO PROCEED TO THE STORM THAT OPENS ACT I
OF WAGNER'S DIE WALKÜRE, CLICK HERE

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