Whether you love him or hate him, worship him or despise him, one thing is certain: Richard Wagner was and is one of the most important, influential, but also most polarising figures in the history of music. From his ardent admirers and loyal Wagnerians to his anti-Semitic sentiments and the appropriation of his music during the Nazi era, Wagner's works have been claimed by many.
Published in 2020, the book by New York music critic Alex Ross, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, proves this through numerous fascinating examples and well-founded references that go far beyond a superficial knowledge of the composer, and thus open up a whole new insight into the “Cosmos Wagner”. Modern art, politics, literature – no one seems to be able to escape the influence of this controversial and problematic composer.
Likewise, the Bamberg Symphony has been inspired by this rich and wide-ranging biography of a somewhat different kind to present a series of concerts in which the mystery of Wagner is to be symphonically re-examined and explored. I spoke with their artistic director, Marcus Rudolf Axt, about the fascination Wagner holds for them and about the upcoming Wagner concerts, but also about how important it is to keep Wagner relevant, including in the 21st century.
“Wagner is a part of the musical repertoire that must also be considered and played by a symphony orchestra,” Axt says. “We have always done that. We regularly have overtures by Wagner in the concert programmes and also perform his operas in concert.” And indeed, the history of the Bamberg Symphony cannot escape Wagner; he is a fixture in the orchestra's concert activities. Almost all Wagner operas have been performed in concert under Jonathan Nott in Bamberg, and Der Ring des Nibelungen became an important milestone in the orchestra's history at the 2013 Lucerne Festival. But also, following the expiration of the copyright restricting performances of the work to the Festspielhaus, one of the first performances of Parsifal outside Bayreuth by their predecessor orchestra at the German Opera House in Prague in 1914, or Die Walküre led by Joseph Keilberth, which was performed as a guest performance of the Bayreuth Festival in Barcelona in 1955 and in which numerous musicians of the Bamberg Symphony participated, underpin the eventful performance history of Wagner's œuvre.
Now, however, they want to go new ways. Instead of more operas in concert, Axt plans to illuminate this subject from another side, to give it a different perspective. He, therefore, had to ask himself: “What can we do best in the Cosmos Wagner? And that is clearly the symphonic, the symphonic elements or specifically the symphonic effect of Wagner's music.” This realisation led to four concerts, which will be performed between late May and early June.
With The Ring Without Words, which will be performed at both the Bamberg Concert Hall and the Munich Isarphilharmonie, the orchestra hopes to continue its illustrious history of Wagner concerts. “What we are trying to do right now is to add a few words to The Ring Without Words. We want to address the symphonic impact of the whole thing in a kind of lab or workshop.” Thus, Lorin Maazel's 70-minute arrangement of the monumental work becomes a “Ring With Words”.
“Alex Ross' book really is a great source of inspiration and makes it clear how far Wagner has influenced the entire cultural field in the 20th century.” Axt mentions the many literary influences, such as Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Mann, and thus offers an insight into the evening's programme: these influences are to be integrated into the concert in the form of quotations, “which are shown between individual pieces, sometimes in the text or during the music, in order to open up an additional horizon of understanding.”
The concert Die Welt nach Wagner ties in with this idea as well, according to Axt: “perhaps it's the most exciting project for which we are still in the middle of the creative process. That's why we have now come up with the title The World with Wagner”.
“We want to tell a story about the influence of Wagner's music on other compositions.” Axt points to the influences on Richard Strauss, the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, but also lesser-known works, such as the Nibelungen March by Gottfried Sonntag in which Wagner is quoted quite openly and unchanged. “The whole thing is combined with film excerpts in which Richard Wagner's music was used. We want to create cross-fades and interweave music, texts and images on the phenomenon of Wagner in an interdisciplinary and multimedia way to make the Wagner cosmos palpable.” Visually, the concept will be supported by a production by Nick and Clemes Prokop. “In 90 minutes we would like to destroy this usual reception, because everyone has their own prejudices or opinions about Wagner, and we will try to break this down and then put it together again.”