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02-20-2013

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
Posts 10,156
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #:	1
Post ID:	19026
Reply to:	19026

Wagner and loudness.

This is kind of strange but I am developing a habit to play my Wagner mostly on LP. You think I do it because it sounds better? Well, this is not really a reason. The true reason is that playing records I have more gain in the whole playback and consequentially it allows me to play my Wagner louder.

I have no idea why when I play Wagner I crank my volume control all the way up. Does anybody else has developed this habit?

Rgs, Romy the Cat

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

02-21-2013

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Goetz

Hamburg/GER and Gdansk/PL
Posts 11
Joined on 01-14-2013

Post #:	2
Post ID:	19032
Reply to:	19026

Wagner sound level

Verteilung und Verlauf des Halbstunden-Mittelungspegels in den 20 Diskotheken

This might show your average sound level at your typical listening time during a typical Wagner Opera... Smile
(if so, take a rest every 45 minutes for 15 minutes to avoid damaging your ears: This is an institutional recommendation here in Germany to DJ's and sound engineers)
For me personally I do not have such habit explicitly for Wagner, however I play my classics quite loud.

02-23-2013

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Romy the Cat

Boston, MA
Posts 10,156
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #:	3
Post ID:	19043
Reply to:	19032

In search of Wagner Sound.

Wagner subject is very interesting. I never was inBayreuth. Amy kind nagging me that we need to go to inBayreuth but if we got o that part of the world then there is so much wonderful places in there that I would love to visit… we would need to take a month of at least.

Listening a lot of Wagner lately I am trying to come up with my sense how I would like it to sound and it is kind of al over the map. The original Wagner sound implies indirect ambient but large sound, force of orchestra and the singer that can deal with that force. It has to be almost the sound from a honked horn but I do admit that I like also a highly direct sound that MET did in 80-90.

Still, for whatever reason I love it to be played very loud. That stupid pretence dramatic articulation that Wagner stuffed his music does work very well with large scale playback efforts and large volume. I would like singers to scream and it does come with volume for whatever reason.
I wonder - since the site has a lot of German visitor – what Germans would consider outside the in Bayreuth to be the right location to play Wagner?

The Cat

"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche

02-23-2013

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Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,657
Joined on 10-12-2006

Post #:	4
Post ID:	19044
Reply to:	19026

Wagner Conditions Wagner Performances

I only listen to Wagner when I have the house to myself, and the electricity is perfect! The slightest sense of hesitation or choking from the system can ruin it for me.

Much of Wagner is very "self-important" music; yet - somehow - he pulls it off - - if you meet him on his terms. He wants to be and nearly is the Forces of History.

Almost the "opposite" is a Samuel Beckett play. "Opposite" because "minimal" to Wagners "excess". Yet similar because both are always tightly scripted and under complete control, and packing a big punch.

Paul S

02-24-2013

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Goetz

Hamburg/GER and Gdansk/PL
Posts 11
Joined on 01-14-2013

Post #:	5
Post ID:	19047
Reply to:	19043

Compromise Bayreuth

Romy the Cat wrote:
Wagner subject is very interesting. I never was inBayreuth. Amy kind nagging me that we need to go to inBayreuth but if we got o that part of the world then there is so much wonderful places in there that I would love to visit… we would need to take a month of at least.
Still, for whatever reason I love it to be played very loud. That stupid pretence dramatic articulation that Wagner stuffed his music does work very well with large scale playback efforts and large volume. I would like singers to scream and it does come with volume for whatever reason.
I wonder - since the site has a lot of German visitor – what Germans would consider outside the in Bayreuth to be the right location to play Wagner?

The Cat

I'am afraid to say that outside of Bayreuth is always a compromise, however Salzburger Festspiele might be the best compromise:
http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/opera/meistersinger-2013

02-24-2013

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decoud
United Kingdom
Posts 247
Joined on 03-01-2008

Post #:	6
Post ID:	19048
Reply to:	19047

Modern Wagner

I have to say there is hardly a production of Wagner these days that is not fucked up in some way, as if the only people who dare stage him are so narcissistic they will not let him compete with them, and need to try to handicap his power. Covent Garden did a Tristan a few years back where the central characters never came together physically and occupied two different parts of the stage, helpfully illuminated red and blue, as if signposted to a lavatory. I wish Bayreuth were an exception to this, but I cannot see any evidence for it. Roger Scruton wrote elegantly about this a while back: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2003/apr/12/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures1

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