Our recording of Mendelssohn’s Viola Sonata in C minor. To hear the full album, go to https://wagnersnightmare.netlify.app/
For all the obvious differences between Richard Wagner and your average Western film, the cinema genre shares a surprising amount of themes and tropes with the operas of the 19th century's self-appointed #1 Teutonic bard. Check out Daniel's in-depth and (nearly) exhaustive essay on the subject through our website!
We hope you enjoy this performance of Daniel's arrangement of this Morricone classic from when we were in Rockport, ME recording our album.
Audio engineer: Peter Atkinson
Franz Liszt’s enigmatic and prophetic Nuages Gris.
Pierre-Nicolas Colombat, piano
Es Winkt und neigt sich - a beautiful lied by Friedrich Nietzsche. Very Schopenhauer-ian and Schumann-ian
Friedrich Nietzsche, composer
Daniel Orsen, viola
Pierre-Nicolas Colombat, piano
Author of original poem unknown.
A mediocre translation:
Grape whips nod and call.
They are all yellow and bright red.
They tell me with compassion:
All love ends with death.
As the waves, the vines move,
As in a dream they swing,
What if they could see how
A tear is rolling from my eyes.
The wind moves through the leaves,
Their color is like blood,
My feelings are unstable,
They move like a stream in a river.
Oh, vines, your leaves are falling,
As you bow in the wind,
You tell me all the love
It comes to a painful end.
Wagner’s setting of a French translation of German poem (here with English subtitles) by the German-Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine. Wagner gave Heine the backhanded insult, or compliment, it is hard to tell, of being “a highly-gifted poet-Jew.” Wagner’s respect was, although qualified, genuine; in addition to this song, Wagner, when creating “The Flying Dutchman”, was directly inspired by Heine’s retelling of the tale of The Flying Dutchman in “From the Memoirs of Herr Schnabelewopski.”
Julian Manresa joined us back in August for a conversation about the differences between Austria/Habsburg Empire and Germany, and the Salzburg Festival - which was founded as an anti-Bayreuth. We cover a lot of ground, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Anschluss. It's important stuff, and lamentably isn't taught much in the States, particularly in regards to music history. So sit back, crack open a beer, and be edified.
Julian Manresa is currently studying Theology and Philosophy of Religion at Clare College, Cambridge, fully-funded by a prestiguos Paul Mellon Fellowship. He is also a Choral Scholar at Clare College!
Prior to Cambridge, Julian studied Compartive Literature at Yale, where he graduate Cum Laude and was the reciptient of numberous prizes from the German and Compartive Literature Departments. His dissertation, Bezaubernde Schauspiele - The Making of the Salzburg Totenreich, is excellent, and after reading it we had to have Julian on the podcast.
The fifth in a series on LDAs and Classical Music, and how we will be using them with Wagner's Nightmare. This episode addresses the issue of consumer psycho...
The fourth in a series on LDAs and Classical Music, and how we will be using them with Wagner's Nightmare. This episode addresses some of the technological p...
The second in a series on LDAs and Classical Music, and how we will be using them with Wagner's Nightmare. Our thesis: NFTs are the future of the recording i...
The first in a series on LDAs and Classical Music, and how we will be using them with Wagner's Nightmare.Our thesis: NFTs are the future of the recording ind...
To say that Liszt and Wagner had a complicated relationship is just the tip of the iceberg ... Check out Pierre-Nicolas' performance of Nuages Gris and his essay on virtuosity and the “music of the future” by joining the Nightmare Verein
Nietzsche and Wagner had one of the most consequential personal and intellectual relationships of the 19th century. In 2, you will learn more pineapple facts, and Dan will go into Nietzsche's disagreements with and polemical attacks on Wagner.
Nietzsche and Wagner had one of the most consequential personal and intellectual relationships of the 19th century - and it was a wild ride.
Part one of two.
The viola is such a lovely instrument. Why didn’t Wagner like it?
Ritter’s delightful compilation of Austrian folk music for Viola Alta and Zither, performed here on Viola and Piano - but with historically accurate garb.
No Hypotenuses were harmed in the making of this video.
