Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Dance of the Apprentices (Tanz der Lehrbuben)

Themes of love and passion dominate these orchestral excerpts from Wagner’s music dramas. The legend of Tannhäuser contrasts the sensual allure of Venus with the ideals of courtly love and religious devotion. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg pits an inspired but rash young singer against the traditions of the old masters in a song competition, with a beautiful girl as the prize. Tristan und Isolde, based on one of the world’s great love stories, is considered Wagner’s most revolutionary work, seamlessly blending themes of love and death into a shattering apotheosis. Gerard Schwarz’s other selections of Wagner excerpts can be found on 8572767 and 8572768.

These stereo recordings date from sessions on 16 and 17 September 1959 for Pye. (The Tannhäuser Overture was recorded at an earlier session in April 1959). The Meistersinger Overture and Act 3 Suite was popular with Barbirolli, having recorded it for HMV in 1944 and other Wagner works he recorded included the Lohengrin Preludes (HMV 1946, now released on SJB1004), the Rienzi Overture (HMV 1944). A unique opportunity to hear an all-Wagner concert from Barbirolli comes in a ‘live’ broadcast with the New York Philharmonic in November 1938 which includes the Siegfried Idyll, which he never recorded commercially (Barbirolli Society SJB1035).

Whatever qualms Wagner himself might have had about performing extracts from his operas in the concert hall, he was, as a professional musician, able to suppress them. They brought in revenue, of course, but this was not the main consideration; more important was that his work should be known and understood. He therefore sanctioned, even encouraged, the performance of excerpts from his operas, either with vocalists or, as in the present recording, in purely orchestral form.

Although John Barbirolli made several commercial recordings during his seven years as conductor of the Philharmonic- Symphony Orchestra of New York (as the New York Philharmonic was then formally known), the Barbirolli Society offers us a unique oportunity with this issue of an off-the-air recording of a Wagner concert, performed in Carnegie Hall in November 1938. It comes as a valuable reminder of an important period of his career, one moreover which has come to be regarded, superficially and misleadingly, as a failure. The orchestra was immediately won over by Barbirolli’s personality and remained devoted to him. If these tough players – once known as ‘Murder Incorporated’ – had not liked him and respected his musicianship, it would have been impossible for the manager Arthur Judson, within five days of JB’s first concert, to have begun to mention a permanent appointment. On 7 December 1936, after five weeks’ work with the orchestra, the board offered him a three-year contract and this was renewed in 1940 for a further two years, by which time the war was a complicating factor. JB himself was overwhelmed and wrote to his future wife Evelyn Rothwell on 11 December 1936: ‘The orchestra played tonight as something I have dreamed of. . . The emotion of the orchestra at my appointment is something too touching for words. I can’t believe I am worthy of all this.’ The orchestra’s first horn player spoke of ‘the joy’ of making music with Barbirolli.