Caution! Contents Dangerous!

Yesterday we received a shipment from Amazon containing two items: the new Deutsche Grammophon CD of Hilary Hahn's readings of the Sibelius and Schoenberg violin concertos (commented on in this S&F post), and the Decca/BBC/ORF DVD of The Golden Ring, the famous 1965 documentary detailing the making of Decca's Götterdämmerung installment of its history-making recording of the first complete recorded Der Ring des Nibelungen (often referred to in short as the Solti or Decca Ring). We've of course known of the existence of this DVD for years, but somehow never got around to ordering it. But as its price coupled with the price of the Hahn CD was only slightly above the right amount to give us free shipping for both, we decided now was as good a time as any to finally secure a copy for our library.

As might be imagined from reading our above linked post on the Hahn CD, we were very much looking forward to giving the Schoenberg another close listen or three, but since we figured the DVD would require only a single viewing, we decided we'd start with that instead of the Schoenberg and have done with it so we could give our full attention to the Schoenberg without having the distraction of an unauditioned new arrival occupying our thoughts.

Bad decision.

Why a bad decision?

The recording sessions for the Decca Ring were unique at the time as, contrary to then standard industry practice, each session consisted of an unbroken 15-or-so-minute take rather than the 5-6 minutes typical of the time so as to maintain both the musical and dramatic continuity for the performers of what was being recorded. Turns out, The Golden Ring is also unique as documentaries typically go as it documents several of those unbroken 15-or-so-minute takes — unbroken.

In our S&F post, "Goldovsky, Mozart, and Wagner: A Moment Briefly Revisited", we recounted the following incident involving ourself and the great opera maven and general manager, dramaturge, director, and music director of his own opera company, Boris Goldovsky:

Eventually, we got around to discussing Wagner, and at just the mention of the name, Goldovsky [a man who all but worshipped Mozart] turned his face toward the ceiling, threw his arms up in a sort of helpless gesture (Goldovsky was a native Russian, and, well, you know just how emotional Russians can get, especially after tucking away three or four shot glasses filled with lethal-strength vodka), and declared passionately in a vodka-thickened Russian accent which I here won't even attempt to mimic, "Wagner!, Wagner! He consumes me!"

I at first thought he was merely engaging in a bit of stage business to create a dramatic moment to precede some point he wanted to make. But it was no stage business. The man looked positively stricken.

I, of course, was stunned speechless, and my astonishment must have shown on my face because he quickly caught hold of himself and, poised and quietly, explained, "Every time I conduct Wagner the world disappears, and for days after, all other opera seems nothing but shit. Verdi is shit. Puccini is shit. Tchaikovsky is shit. Even Beethoven is shit. And...," and here he paused, leaned his face close to mine, lowered his voice conspiratorially, and with genuine distress written over all his features, he, in hoarse, shamefaced whisper declared," and, Mozart...even Mozart is shit."

Now do you understand why our decision to audition that DVD first was the wrong way to go? It's been some 40 hours now, and we still haven't managed to fully purge our system of that music's spell.

Bloody Wagner! They really ought to put warning labels on all recordings of his mature works. The man's music is positively dangerous — even in relatively small doses.