Zeba Mehta played an excerpt from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Israel back in 1981 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

What I don't understand is how Carl Orff is so widely played in Israel in comparision to Wagner. Wagner wasn't even alive during WWII but Orff was and working with the Nazi's. Orff's Carmina Burana was composed in honor of the Nazi leaders.

Because most people are blind little sheep. Or "sheeple."

Night 3 down the Ring Cycle memory lane.

Siegfried


Just putting in the first cd.

It was composed in 1937. Before the war.
Hitler had only one talent, he was a seductor. I would not be surprise that the pope himself
celebrated a mass in their honour. The SOaB was able to manipulate everybody even the jewish people (before 1939).

Beethoven did the same "Mistake" with Napoleon for one of his symphonie.

This was my two cent, during a classical silent moment.


Moondog

Yes, I know it was before the War but it was still for the Nazi leaders, who were in power at the time. And when the Nazi's wanted to remove Mendelssohn's name as composer from his masterpiece Midsummer Night's Dream they asked Richard Strauss to rewrite the music. Strauss refused and Orff was asked to do it and he agreed.

Keep in mind, Strauss is another composer that is not played in Israel. Strauss (who was the head of the Reichsmusikkammer and had removed all Jewish artists from the public view) refused to do it but Orff agreed (he either never got around to starting it or finishing it), but it is Wagner and Strauss that are basically banned.

Even if you want to believe the white wash of Orff's being suduced he was still around at the time of the Nazi's while Wagner was long dead by the time of the Nazi's.

Hitler used hatred of the Jews to get into power. I am not sure what Jews you think bought or were seduced by Hilter? .




It was a lot different with Beethoven and Napoleon. Once Beethoven saw that Napoleon was not who Beethoven thought he was, he removed the decidcation from the 3rd.

I still like "Carmina Burana," even though "O Fortuna" is one of the most overused pieces of music, even in the "overused music canon." Several bad techno tracks were made from it, including Apotheosis' "O Fortuna," which my friend played incessantly on his radio program.

Wagner used to wear a pair of white gloves when he conducted Mendelssohn, so as not to soil his hands with filthy Jew music. After the performance, he would throw the gloves to the floor to emphasize his contempt. As far as I know Wagner didn't see much financial success in most of his career. He lived off the largesse of others...as so many great artists have...but Wagner was utterly ungrateful.

Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring

Wagner did have an appreciation of Jewish composers such as Mendelssohn (his "Hebrides Overture") and Halévy (his opera "The Jewess").

He also had friendships with Jews such as the choirmaster Heinrich Porges and the conductor Hermann Levi who was a Rabbi's son. Wagner even had an affair with the half-Jewish French writer, Judith Gautier. She was the daughter of author Theophile Gautier and the singer Giulia Grisi, who was Jewish.

He would also refuse to sign any public declarations against the Jews. Wagner also worked with many Jews. Wagner's public relations man was a Jew named Neumann, Hermann Levi conducted Wagner's works at the time, including Wagner's most Christian of all his operas, Parsifal. A musician by the name of Rubenstein (I forget his first name) finished the orchestration of some of his operas.

But Wagner also was the first to use the phrases Jewish Problem and Final Solution. And that was more than half a century before Hilter and the Nazi's.

There is no getting past his being an antisemite. But he still created some of the greatest masterpieces of art in mankinds history.

Make of this anecdote what you want.


Ludwig Karpath, Viennese music critic, found Mahler (who was Jewish) looking sad and self-absorbed in a coffee house. Mahler said that he had just learned that his father was ill. The next morning, Karpath saw a man running sobbing through the streets. Only with difficulty, he recognized Mahler and asked if something happend to his father. "Worse, worse, much worse," Mahler cried, "The very worst has happend. The Master has died." The news of Wagner's death had just reached Vienna.


Chopin was an extreme antisemite, but his music is still played in Israel as well.


If we were to stop listening to all the musicans that are of unsavory characters for one reason or another, that wouldn't leave much to listen to. And it doesn't matter what genre you are talking about.

We'd still be able to listen to Eric Dolphy.

As well as Satchmo & Coltrane, but no Miles, Mingus, Bird, etc....