Klarinet Archive - Posting 000112.txt from 1998/10

From: HatNYC62@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Wagner
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 15:44:53 -0400

>>Do you mean that Wagner was a coward because when the political situation
became unpleasant for him around 1848. he left the country - unlike Richard
Strauss, much later?<<

Not quite. Wagner faced arrest from what I understand. As for Strauss, he was
an old man who saw no reason to abandon his homeland. He loved Bavaria and
hated leaving even to conduct in Berlin or Vienna. He was not a fervent Nazi
nor an anti-semite (he had Jewish inlaws). He did accept a position within the
party as head of some composers organization, but quit. His de-nazification
after the war was fairly routine, much more so than, say, Furtwangler.

David Hattner, NYC

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