Great Wagner Conductors: A Listener's Companion

This book, by the award-winning author of "Tristan und Isolde on Record", is the first in-depth study to bring the great historical Wagner conductors to life - through anecdote, their own views on Wagner¿s music, reports of their performances throughout the world, and their recordings. After a substantial introductory chapter on Wagner - what he was like as a conductor of his own works, and what he wanted of his conductors ¿ there are chapters on Hans von Bülow, Hans Richter, Anton Seidl, Hermann Levi, Felix Mottl, Karl Muck, Artur Nikisch, Albert Coates, Gustav Mahler, Felix Weingartner, Bruno Walter, Arturo Toscanini, Artur Bodanzky, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Fritz Busch, Erich Kleiber, Hans Knappertsbusch, Clemens Krauss, Karl Böhm, Richard Strauss, Otto Klemperer, and Fritz Reiner. There are over 270 illustrations, many showing the conductors at work. Comprehensive discographies set out, for the first time in one book, what the conductors recorded. Rare recordings are documented: shellac and vinyl that have never made it to compact disc, "pirate" and commercial recordings, and inauthentic recordings. There is comment on or excerpts from reviews of all the major recordings, and on many of the more obscure. A section on timings of actual and recorded performances, from Wagner onwards, reveals how widely practice has varied. The book is the outcome of extensive research in England, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United States, Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. It is an essential source-book for the serious Wagnerian, opera lover, record collector, and music historian.