Thread: Ouverture Die Meistersinger

Solti has excelled with Wagner.
The overture is an explosive start to the opera. What lush strings and excellent brass by the Wiener Philharmoniker! This orchestra has never disappointed with Solti for Wagner. The Ring is still definitive. Meistersingers also sounds superb.
Listen here:

Solti's overtures are almost always definitive.

I tend to prefer that the rhythms flow a little more. Solti has a lot of energy, but it's sometimes a little too metrical and pointed in its rhythms.

I generally find Solti's Wagner unlistenable, although occasionally I can be pleasantly surprised that I can manage to listen to him without throwing up, screaming, or some similar reaction.

My favourite Meistersinger overture is by Karl Muck:



Wagner spent his life complaining bitterly about interminably dragging, slow tempi. Under his baton this overture lasted a few second over 10 minutes. Under Muck it takes about 10' 40".

Originally Posted by Sator

Wagner spent his life complaining bitterly about interminably dragging, slow tempi. Under his baton this overture lasted a few second over 10 minutes. Under Muck it takes about 10' 40".

Under Solti it lasts 9'22". And yes, Solti is my favorite Wagnerian conductor as well. I have his Meistersinger and his Ring and his Tannhäuser and his Parsifal and his Der Fliegende Holländer, so almost a complete collection.

And the ouverture itself is absolutely splendid: bright, joyful and sparkling like some sort of musical fireworks and so very uplifting.

My favorite overture to Meistersinger is Knappertsbusch in Munich 1962.

However Solti's first recording has the best sound and is the best played and is my #2. His second recording is decided inferior in that respect since the sound is much worse (Chicago halls).

Whoops, I meant to say that under Wagner's own baton, the Meistersinger Overture lasted "a few seconds longer than EIGHT minutes". Under Muck it lasts 8' 30" and not 10' 30" as I previously stated. As I listened again to the Solti, I couldn't figure out why it sounded so interminably dragging and plodding compared to Muck, until I realised my silly error, so I looked it up again. Yes indeed, "a few seconds longer than 8 minutes" is Wagner says he took to get through this overture.

That Muck is good. I've got a lot of Wagner overtures I like... Tennstedt, Karajan, Bohm etc. I like both slow or fast as long as the conductor sustains his chosen speed with phrasing that doesn't sound like he's just beating out time. Solti sounds like that to me sometime. I think the Vienna Philharmonic would naturally temper that a bit at times. It's a Viennese thing.