Klarinet Archive - Posting 000131.txt from 1998/10

From: HatNYC62@-----.com
Subj: [kl] wagner
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 18:06:59 -0400

>>Finally this: I know of no universally agreed to statement that documents
that "half of the greatest interpreters of Wagner of the last century have
been Jewish." I know of no one who counted them, inquired as to their
ethnicity, or established what you said as statistical truth. It is the kind
of statement that is offered because it sounds nice, but there is no bottom to
it.<<

Fine Dan. Just change the word 'half' to 'many.' The statement is now true.
Happy?

>>Furthermore, for you to use Mendelssohn as an example of a Jewish composer
conducted by Wagner is the worst possible contrast. Felix Mendelssohn was a
Protestant, specfically a Lutheran. He was a Christian. While it is true
that he was of Jewish heritage, that is not a chromosomal condition that can
never be gotten rid of. He gave it up when he embraced fealty to Jesus of
Nazareth and cannot be accurately referred to as a Jewish composer. Neither,
for that matter, can Mahler. Neither for that matter can any convert from
Judaism. It is nothing less than trying to hang on to good but lost
merchandise.<<

To Wagner, Mendelssohn was Jewish. That was my point.

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