13895 Wagner News 174 - Wagner Society of England

men shouting at each other in Act I you just switch off. Siegfried has to sing lyrically as
Mime also has to do for some of the time.
I noticed that the orchestra pit has been much enlarged.
It was first enlarged backwards for Rheingold in 2007 and to the front, at my instigation,
in 2011. I really needed more strings: we now have six cellos and three double basses. In
total we now have an orchestra of 66 (the Lessing Version). Philip Head has assembled
the orchestra and done a wonderful job.
Although you are now 65, I realize conductors never retire. Is this true of you?
Do you have any unfulfilled aspirations?
For many years I have tended to be an assistant who sometimes took over performances.
Although WNO gave me a lot of conducting, I have rarely had my own show. I do assist
still, but I am a conductor in my own right and feel I am really just beginning. Here at
Longborough it has been my thing; I have been in charge of the music since 2000. This
will be my first full Ring, having only ever conducted some of the individual operas.
I love conducting Mozart and have done much of his work; in the spring of 2012
I conducted a revival of Figaro for WNO. Some Jánaček and more of the early 20th
Century would be welcome as well as tackling some French repertoire. I assisted Boulez
on Pelléas for WNO in 1992. (It is a piece I would love to conduct, not only because of
its Parsifal links.) Massenet would be fun, especially Werther.
We musicians are so lucky in that, whatever the political discussion about Wagner,
we have access to the greatness of this man. There can be no dispute: he is one of the
outstanding dramatic musical geniuses of all time. Yes, there were horrible things about
him and his influence, but that cannot for one iota take away from the music, deeply
rooted as it is in Beethoven who was a vital link in the way in which he builds his
orchestra.
Please tell us about your technique and approach in conducting Wagner.
How influential was Reggie Goodall?
What I learned from him was the need to study in depth, which I realize even more now
than when I worked with him, and especially the quality of listening. Wagner has written
the text so wonderfully that you can sing it rhythmically. One criticism I had of the
English language performances of The Ring and Meistersinger was that they were too
free with the rhythm. In German the rhythm dictates itself rather more than when doing
it in EnglishI have always felt this sense of inner energetic spring; hence I may be a little
faster than other conductors at times but I try to follow exactly what Wagner asks for. If
Wagner wants a gradual change of tempo he may not want the audience to realize it. It is
the altered mood and feeling that one becomes aware of. Italian conductors don’t usually
understand that concept so well and tend to leap into it. Sometimes I just go through the
score to remind myself of all the tempo markings.
I check myself a lot with Furtwängler to see if I am on the right track. Similarly,
the first Wagner I ever heard was Toscanini (who has been deeply influential to me) and
the NBC Symphony with the Rhine Journey, the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and
Parsifal excerpts. His Salzburg Meistersinger is just incredible, especially the sublime
third act Prelude. He could sustain a slow tempo like nobody else. He was slower in
Wagner than anybody when he wanted to be. I tried in my Glyndebourne performance in
2011 to sustain the high string passage like this, almost hovering in infinity.
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