Search - Richard Wagner, Sergiu Celibidache, Münchner Philharmoniker :: CELIBIDACHE / Münchner Philharmoniker - Wagner: Orchestral Music

An experiment in sound and spirituality

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 07/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Amazon reviewer more or less ridicules Celibidache's famously slow tempos, and many listeners would get very, very restless during some of these performances. But Celibidache's posthumous recordings on EMI and DG became bestsellers in Britain, and they should be taken seriously. The eccentric Romanian conductor, who never made a comemrcial recording in the stereo era, had a theory about how sound should be heard in a concert hall, having to do with reverberation time, and he slowed the tempos down drastically to impart a new, more spiritual experience of the music.



Of course, we don't have the benefit of being in a hall under the conductor's spell. Even so, these Wagner readings evoke new feelings. The 12-min. Meistersinger Prelude isn't glacial--it's slowed down enough to make a statement. Inner tension and vitality remain, and there's a certain golden glory to hearing Wagner's chords resound this way. The sonics, presumably from FM radio braodxasts, are excellent.



The program continues with a 23-min. Siegfried Idyll that is again quite slow but not glacial, changing the mood to one of deep reflection, more like a Bruckner slow movement than a serenade. If you are going to be converted to Celi's methods, probably the clincher will be Siegfried's Funeral March, taken with real mystery and depth of sorrow. The program ends with the Tannhauser Over. and considerable applause, which follows every item, by the way.



In all, a less-than-extreme introduction to Celibidache's controversial art."