Klarinet Archive - Posting 000400.txt from 2004/01

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wagner
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 21:41:07 -0500

Joseph Wakeling wrote:

> << How did Toscanini and other musicians look at Wagner at Bayreuth in the
> 1880's or 1890's...did society of the time perceive the anti-Semitism? >>
>
> Interestingly enough, Toscanini conducted Wagner several times with the
> Palestine Philharmonic in the 1920s and '30s. It was only after
> Kristallnacht in 1938 that the musicians of the orchestra decided that the
> association of Wagner with the Nazis was such they were no longer willing to
> play the music---thus starting the "Wagner Taboo" of Israel which lasted up
> until very recently, when Barenboim performed, I think, the Tristan
> Overture.
>
> Interestingly, this was a taboo only as regards live performance---the music
> has always been available in Israel on record, and has also been played on
> the radio.
>
> -- Joe

This is, for the most part, a very correct analysis of the situation.
But the ban by the IPO needs a little more clarification.

The ban on performance of Wagner's music by the Palestine Orchestra
(later the Palestine Philharmonic and, still later, the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra), began on Nov. 12, 1938. The closing work of
the program was to have been the prelude to The Master Singers of
Nuremberg. Following the intermission of that concert, the chairman of
the orchestral association announced that "because of the antisemitic
excesses and disturbances in Germany," the Wagner work had been removed
from the program by public demand, and Weber's overture to the opera
Oberon had been substituted.

The most significant factor in this action was due, not to Wagner, but
to Kristallnacht which had taken place three days earlier, Nov. 9, 1938.
It would appear that the use of the name "Nuremberg" and its
connection with both Nazi party conventions and anti-Jewish laws was the
aggravating factor; i.e., the restrictive ordinances were made by the
Nazis in that city in explicit deference to Wagner's opera. As such,
this was not a wholesale condemnation of Wagner by the management or the
personnel of the Palestine Orchestra, and for the fourth concert of the
season, the orchestra played the "Bacchanal" from Wagner's Tannhauser,
though not in Palestine but on tour in Egypt. However, from Nov. 12,
1939 and for 59 years in Palestine, later Israel, the orchestra, with
one well- publicized exception, has performed no music of Wagner.

Dan
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--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@-----.net

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