To that now constant chorus of detractors who smarmily complain about how appalled they are by Wagner the man, I ask them, “Did you write Tristan und Isolde?” And when they answer, “No,” I say, “Then shut up!”
And who is talking excuses here? Certainly not I, but, at an unavoidable same time, I am rejecting the socially sanctimonious tribunal-mentality that presumes to deliver virtue-signaling judgments on artistic geniuses who fail their presentizing litmus tests. It’s never quite as morally cut and dried as these posturing secular church ladies make it out to be, and frankly, Wagner’s so-called faults and personal shortcomings are incidental to his person and therefore take a back seat to the greater reality of his genius and his accomplishment.
@a_little_flame589 No one is offering excuses here. But yet, what can be offered at this unavoidable point is a questioning of the socially sanctimonious tribunal-mentality that presumes to sit in judgment of Wagner the man and to issue virtue-signaling denunciations of his "personal faults and shortcomings." This kind of moralizing presentism adds nothing to the discussion. Wagner's idiosyncratic opinions and actions are documented enough for none of us to need hearing what in effect functions as the recitation of their higher-consciousness credentials by these eager-to-impress church-lady types, and frankly, that for which the latter fault him ends up being wholly incidental when viewed in relation his genius and accomplishment.
Yes, it's glorious listening to the music of Wagner. But it's a whole different experience watching the opera being performed on stage with all the stage settings.
If you have ever been in love at least once in your life (and maybe then abandoned, but not necessarily) you can't help but burst into tears listening to this climax
I booked a box at the Proms and the love of my . I held hands and our heads were together throughout. She dumped me in 2022. I never got over it nor understood why she did it. I will love her forever. I sent her sonnets that I wrote every week until the last one was returned unopened and threatening to call the police if I wrote her again. 😢 Neroscience has the answer but it will be a wound in my heart forever. ❤️
@mozartsbumbumsrus7750 that is very sad and my heart goes out to you. The writing of sonnets to a woman is one of the most romantic things there is but unfortunately when the woman does not return your love you might aswell be sending her packets of poison. But to threaten you with the police is very strange and extreme. Sometimes the very thing that would stir a woman's heart can be the height of annoyance to her. It all depends on the feelings involved. Without feelings any tokens of affection are a waste of your time. I hope you find love again. Sounds to me to be honest considering her behaviour, she is unworthy of you. I'm a sonnet writer myself tho I've never sent them to anyone. I can understand the pain you must feel.
J'ai vu cet opéra à Montpellier il y a une vingtaine d'années. Je n'ai jamais ressenti une telle émotion musicale de toute ma (longue) vie. Ce Richard, quel génie! Si seulement j'avais pu aller à Bayreuth dans mes belles années. Maintenant c'est trop tard. Je suis trop vieux et il paraît qu'il faut attendre entre 5 et 10 ans avant d'obtenir une place. Et puis, d'après ce qu'on peut lire ici et là, les mises en scène actuelles ne sont pas toujours à la hauteur des chefs d'oeuvre de notre révéré Wagner. Je me contenterai donc de nos bons vieux opéras français à Paris et en régions.
While everybody is throwing out their favorite bits O'Music, I strongly suspect that is more an emotional connection than this technical analysis. While I miss the witty commentary of most of your videos, I appreciate you just explained and let us listen and really listen. It helped me seeing the singer stepping up the stairs, reach the landing, and sing her triumphant joy of walking the staircase. And finally the easing down while we and her catch our breath back. Thank you!
@@michaelhanrahanmoore1622 Thank you! This excerpt of wagner is nice however it's not my top 10. What I appreciate was how the composer took us on his journey through music.
@braincraven hi 👋 to be honest it's not my favourite bit of wagner neither. I'm not overly keen on die meistersinger neither. My works of choice are tannhauser lohengrin the ring and parsifal. The flying dutchman is good and also rienzi. I've heard the fairies and the love ban. I struggle to accept they are works by wagner.
All these people saying the Liebestod doesn’t match up to other climaxes… then proceed to name pieces that consciously or otherwise exist in its shadow. Tristan and Isolde is the dividing line pointing toward musical modernity. Without it there’s no Mahler, no Shostakovich, no Strauss, no Bruckner, no Debussy, no Ravel, no Schoenberg, and so on and so on.
@@CommonSwindler of course, but you can carry that argument further and further back, and say none of them would be who they are without Beethoven, Bach etc. It’s entirely possible for a work to be deeply inspired by another and also manage to exceed it, which is how music has progressed over time.
Well said. Personally I find a lot of Mahler's and Strauss's climaxes certainly "noisier" than this, but also "cheaper" as well. They're certainly not better in terms of structural control, pacing and motivic development etc. The Liebstod is far more seamless, organic and profound - at least to my ears - than frankly anything in Mahler and Strauss. Wagner is simply the greater composer imo.
That's still not an argument to prove that a climax from any of the composers you just mentioned can't be greater. Or any other composer for that matter.
@iggyreilly2463 I adore lohengrin and tannhauser and even the dutchman. Parts of them are still abit immature at least for wagner but I just love them for their lush orchestration and gorgeous melodies.
The last chord (used by Herzog in he last scene of the movie "Scream of Stone-Schreie auf Stein-Grito de Piedra") is so beautiful, that can be called "The Harmony of the Universe".
If you study Mozart to Beethoven to Brahms, the motivic development (let alone the orchestration) of this piece is beyond mere mortals; the act of creation itself is touched by the hand of God. "We weep for wonder...of shadows on the stars".
@jaygbardo8781 tristan has never been among my favourite wagner works but I revere it the most because if any work is an example of his genius it is tristan. I think if wagner was asked which of his music dramas was his pride and joy he'd probably say tristan tho he called it his child of sorrow
My partner and I went to see Tristan and Isolde at our local opera house and though there were some good staging decisions I liked the first act being set on a car ferry from Ireland to Cornwall and them leaving in a balloon. The second act had the balloon crash landing and covering the back of the stage until King Mark arrives. The third act was on an ice-flow with a back projection and I had had so much - the singing is stupendous that I timed the looped back projection (It was 4 minutes 20 seconds!) so it was hard to focus at the end.
@@BenEmberley Bielefeld - the production was imaginative but sadly for me there wasn't enough action for me - who is very visual My partner often closes his eyes and listens to the music intently.
Unless you are being satirical, you have described the exact reason why I rarely watch opera onstage. I cannot stomach listening to some of the most sublime of all music whilst watching Wagner's legacy as a dramatist being totally trashed by "imaginative" directors. Wagner's imagination was quite good enough for me, thank you! If we are trying to make the action more relevant and contemporary, why aren't we changing the music too? Perhaps a drum-kit and some electric guitars and synthesisers mixed in will tempt in a new audience if that is the intention?
I was going to comment on the same thing, in addition to them I also mention the ending of Symphony 4 by Carl Nielsen. In any case, they are all incredible, and have their climaxes in different soul tones.
Yes, it's all IMO, or me and my mates agree, but on this occasion I concur, but on another day say but whattabout the kiss moment in Delius's A Walk to the Paradise Garden (A Village Romeo & Juliet). For me same effect with more economic means.
The greatest climax in classical music - (or more to the point, Baroque music) - and also the greatest resolution, is the third movement of Bach's 5th Brandenburg concerto.
I had to think quite a long time on your comment - being (personally) a lover of all the Brandenburg Concertos, and holding them in the highest regard. I feel quite a fool now, since the only possible explanation I can find is that you are trolling. The 3rd movement of the 5th concerto is indeed sublime, but I can find no emotional, structural, harmonic or other technical reason to possibly call it the greatest climax in classical music history. Still - if you are serious - perhaps you could lay out your case in detail? I'd love my mind to be changed.
I find this moment very satisfying from tonal and motivic point of view. There’s no doubt it’s very beautiful. However, having discovered Wagner via the ring cycle first and then everything else…. I find Tristan and Isolde no where near as epic or satisfying in anyway. As a whole pretty underwhelming in fact, but hey I’m sure some people feel exactly the opposite lol. I can see that perspective as well.
I don’t want to rank and rate - clearly the entire Tristan opera is a monumental stroke of genius and is overwhelmingly powerful and heartbreaking. It begins with the so called Tristan chord which develops into the Tristan death chord in the third act and only resolves it self 3 seconds before the end of the entire opera. The whole this is just undeniably brilliant. There are are other undeniably brilliant explosions all over the musical literature. They all “sound like” … I’m not going to list anything but just look at Mozart requiem and compare to Michael Hayden’s requiem. Stolen copied influenced? Dunno. Music reminds us of our own feelings and how we sound under different emotions. It’s therefore clear that different composers when trying to convey a thought will hear the same thing. I’m not sure it’s a copy of music or a copy of emotion. This is a great video that points out the development buildup. It’s like the Niagara Falls as they buildup over a long distance with many mini falls along the way. After the big fall, everything gets relaxed and resolved. Many composers do the same thing. There is something very touching to me about how Wagner does it. But this is a better of style and opinion. Certainly Mahler and Bruckner and Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky and even Ravel and Debussy do it as well. But just within a different template and mask. Each are equally legitimate. If we want to make a without … there would be no … well, clearly without Beethoven there would be no Wagner. But that’s ok and it doesn’t take away from Wagner in the least. He exists within history and the past affected his future. At least he took the past into account but still moved on.
@paules3437 mind your language. But if you wish to open the subject the most thrilling climaxes I ever experienced happened while I myself was conducting.
@@michaelhanrahanmoore1622 Um... if you want ME to mind my language maybe look at again at your recent post. In all seriousness, what were you conducting. In High school, my orchestra conductor found he was double booked at a HS arts festival and asked me to conduct the opening to Fiddler on the Roof, the first musical my school had done in decades. I did, and it was cool, but I then understood how an orchestra can get away from the conductor. They rushed and I couldn't restrain them!
Thanks very much for making this; any chance of doing something similar for, say, part of the third movement of Vaughan Williams's fifth or the build-up to the "big tune" in his sixth symphony? In any case, thanks again for this!
This is a good one. But I think two other good ones would be the ending of Strauss' Death and Transfiguration, and the ending of Scriabin symphony 4, the Poem of Ecstasy.
All the Vertigo score of Bernard Hermann is a derivative of Tristan und Isolde, and the actress who played the part of the love interest in this movie IS Kim Novak. There IS a track in the score which IS very similar to Liebstod and it IS called "Love Thème"@@paules3437
…no doubt whatsoever, it’s the ideal coital act of a woman with the best lover ever, followed by blissful contentment and perhaps endless sleep ,set to music by a genius.
Oh I LOVE this piece, but NOT with the lady hollering. Oh well, I enjoyed your annotations and illustrations so much I began to ignore the lady hollering. I think I'll subscribe.
I think he may be punning on the idea of 'climax' (especially given the final caption), but in other ways I would agree that Mahler does it more emphatically in symphonies 2, 3 and 8 especially. That finale to the third always sounds to me like the single most perpetually ascending and triumphant climax in all of music.
@AlexMaddyclas_sical_lover It is absolutely magnificent, so yes I do agree. Although both his second and eight symphonies attain similar heights in different ways. In my mind the third steadily ascends to the summit of an impossibly high peak, striding defiantly upwards and finally lets us stand triumphant like the figure in that famous Caspar David Friedrich picture, whereas the eighth suddenly throws open the gates and invites us into a heavenly paradise of bliss and love. The second... that's a different kind of heaven altogether! :)
@@jamesboswell9324 What do you think about Titan....It has an early view of Mahler world and has an glorious, magnificent and other worldliness finale....❤️❤️❤️
Sorry to deflate your enthusiasm but everything is relative. It might be the greatest climax for you, but what about the glorious climax of the Alpensimfonie???
It is indeed one of the greatest, most moving 7 minutes in all of music, but it's SO much more so without the bloody soprano. The vocal line OBSCURES and MUDDIES this greatest of all builds.
In my own experience, I also tend to go up while building up to a climax. Then climax happens, and then I go down again, and the ending is calm and quiet.
Elsa”s Procession to the Cathedral always gave me goosebumps when I played it. It’s got a pretty great climax. ruclips.net/video/F6mYZo90xx0/видео.htmlsi=8LZ3UmojmClo9OxK
I do agree 🎶.... but It would have been much more obvious with Birgit Nilsson and Karl Böhm from a live performance in 1966 in Bayreuther Festival...ruclips.net/video/665lMKUB1xc/видео.htmlsi=JszdakJSqBcK0TU4
I adore this music, but I dare say it's a lot more effective without the singer. The music really is magical, and I feel the singer forces the orchestra to hold back from what it's really capable. Also, the vocal line is kind of boring. But that's somewhat typical for Wagner. Gorgeous orchestration and lackluster singing parts.
I always thought that the cyclical structure of this piece, the rhythmic contractions, and the gradual build up and release of pressure until that final resolution were meant to simulate the physiological stages of the female orgasm. The experience of orgasm gives us insight into the fundamental nature of love and its overwhelming and often fatal influence over the human being.
The title snagged me. It was good. Quite wonderful. There could be many applicants for this title … so many subjective influences make up our listening experiences. Some people just don’t like opera.. sorry no like, no subscribe (since you asked).
Wagner's music is better than it sounds, as someone once commented. I'd go along with that. But without Wagner they'd be no Mahler, a far greater composer I think.
Wie kommt es denn überhaupt, dass so viele Kommentare sich überhaupt nicht auf die Deutschland-Politik, sondern auf klassische Musik beziehen? Hier stimmt was nicht.
Difficult to overlook Beethovens Angus Dei 13.12 here. As if the orchestra just before was opening the gates of hell with the drums. Always gives me goosebumps ruclips.net/video/dDs6NJ037cs/видео.htmlsi=ttipo7gngaL4GKbK
I'm by no means an actual fan of classical music, but when I was introduced to the orchestral version of this over 50 years ago I felt like I'd entered another realm, and this still can make me feel like my chest is going to explode. This is the first time I've heard it with the vocals, and quite frankly they annoyed the hell out of me. All that grating singing got in the way of the music.
Yes, but the climax begins to build from the first note - of the whole opera.
Exactly!!! The whole opera is a yearning for resolution in love-death all the way through!
The most prolonged orgasim in history! Wagner knew what he was doing!
@macrobius the biggest climax in tristan is the beginning of the love duet
I like Bernsten's comment: "I detest Wagner, but I do it on my knees"
I believe Bernstein said something very similar.
To that now constant chorus of detractors who smarmily complain about how appalled they are by Wagner the man, I ask them, “Did you write Tristan und Isolde?”
And when they answer, “No,” I say, “Then shut up!”
@@duanejohnson8786 so what he's excused of being a shite person cause he wrote good music
And who is talking excuses here?
Certainly not I, but, at an unavoidable same time, I am rejecting the socially sanctimonious tribunal-mentality that presumes to deliver virtue-signaling judgments on artistic geniuses who fail their presentizing litmus tests.
It’s never quite as morally cut and dried as these posturing secular church ladies make it out to be, and frankly, Wagner’s so-called faults and personal shortcomings are incidental to his person and therefore take a back seat to the greater reality of his genius and his accomplishment.
@a_little_flame589 No one is offering excuses here.
But yet, what can be offered at this unavoidable point is a questioning of the socially sanctimonious tribunal-mentality that presumes to sit in judgment of Wagner the man and to issue virtue-signaling denunciations of his "personal faults and shortcomings."
This kind of moralizing presentism adds nothing to the discussion.
Wagner's idiosyncratic opinions and actions are documented enough for none of us to need hearing what in effect functions as the recitation of their higher-consciousness credentials by these eager-to-impress church-lady types, and frankly, that for which the latter fault him ends up being wholly incidental when viewed in relation his genius and accomplishment.
Yes, it's glorious listening to the music of Wagner. But it's a whole different experience watching the opera being performed on stage with all the stage settings.
Very true, usually ruined by the director’s ridiculous ideas about how Wagner got all his visualisation wrong.
If you have ever been in love at least once in your life (and maybe then abandoned, but not necessarily) you can't help but burst into tears listening to this climax
I've been in love for 16 years with a woman I can not be with.
I booked a box at the Proms and the love of my . I held hands and our heads were together throughout. She dumped me in 2022. I never got over it nor understood why she did it. I will love her forever. I sent her sonnets that I wrote every week until the last one was returned unopened and threatening to call the police if I wrote her again. 😢 Neroscience has the answer but it will be a wound in my heart forever. ❤️
I do, and think how amazing the power of Music is .
@mozartsbumbumsrus7750 that is very sad and my heart goes out to you. The writing of sonnets to a woman is one of the most romantic things there is but unfortunately when the woman does not return your love you might aswell be sending her packets of poison. But to threaten you with the police is very strange and extreme. Sometimes the very thing that would stir a woman's heart can be the height of annoyance to her. It all depends on the feelings involved. Without feelings any tokens of affection are a waste of your time. I hope you find love again. Sounds to me to be honest considering her behaviour, she is unworthy of you. I'm a sonnet writer myself tho I've never sent them to anyone. I can understand the pain you must feel.
The climax is soul-shattering. And then the blissful aftermath.
From the “bliss” motive to the end I always cry.
J'ai vu cet opéra à Montpellier il y a une vingtaine d'années. Je n'ai jamais ressenti une telle émotion musicale de toute ma (longue) vie. Ce Richard, quel génie! Si seulement j'avais pu aller à Bayreuth dans mes belles années. Maintenant c'est trop tard. Je suis trop vieux et il paraît qu'il faut attendre entre 5 et 10 ans avant d'obtenir une place. Et puis, d'après ce qu'on peut lire ici et là, les mises en scène actuelles ne sont pas toujours à la hauteur des chefs d'oeuvre de notre révéré Wagner. Je me contenterai donc de nos bons vieux opéras français à Paris et en régions.
Brilliant! Thank you for the journey...
It may well be the greatest climax. You can't build one better.
While everybody is throwing out their favorite bits O'Music, I strongly suspect that is more an emotional connection than this technical analysis. While I miss the witty commentary of most of your videos, I appreciate you just explained and let us listen and really listen. It helped me seeing the singer stepping up the stairs, reach the landing, and sing her triumphant joy of walking the staircase. And finally the easing down while we and her catch our breath back. Thank you!
you call this technical??? I call it passionate.
@@braincraven good comment
@@diegomunoz363 the analysis 👌
@@michaelhanrahanmoore1622 Thank you! This excerpt of wagner is nice however it's not my top 10. What I appreciate was how the composer took us on his journey through music.
@braincraven hi 👋 to be honest it's not my favourite bit of wagner neither. I'm not overly keen on die meistersinger neither. My works of choice are tannhauser lohengrin the ring and parsifal. The flying dutchman is good and also rienzi. I've heard the fairies and the love ban. I struggle to accept they are works by wagner.
When I read the headline, I just knew it was going to be Wagner. :)
we all knew
Gorgeous!
All these people saying the Liebestod doesn’t match up to other climaxes… then proceed to name pieces that consciously or otherwise exist in its shadow. Tristan and Isolde is the dividing line pointing toward musical modernity. Without it there’s no Mahler, no Shostakovich, no Strauss, no Bruckner, no Debussy, no Ravel, no Schoenberg, and so on and so on.
@@CommonSwindler of course, but you can carry that argument further and further back, and say none of them would be who they are without Beethoven, Bach etc. It’s entirely possible for a work to be deeply inspired by another and also manage to exceed it, which is how music has progressed over time.
Well said.
Well said. Personally I find a lot of Mahler's and Strauss's climaxes certainly "noisier" than this, but also "cheaper" as well. They're certainly not better in terms of structural control, pacing and motivic development etc. The Liebstod is far more seamless, organic and profound - at least to my ears - than frankly anything in Mahler and Strauss. Wagner is simply the greater composer imo.
That's still not an argument to prove that a climax from any of the composers you just mentioned can't be greater. Or any other composer for that matter.
@@robertunwin1148 About Strauss you may be right. But you don't understand Mahler in the slightest.
Scriabin's Poeme de l'Extase would like a word.
But Wagner is glorious. Act II of Lohengrin is my favorite.
Well, in the words of whoever said it, some glorious moments and some dreadful half hours.
@paules3437 Rossini. "Some beautiful moments but awful quarter hours", if memory serves. I love his music unreservedly.
@@iggyreilly2463 Alas, not I... and I even took a course in the music Dept just on him my senior year of college. didn't help.
@@iggyreilly2463 Wagner sounds a lot better when you remove the singers and focus on the orchestral music.
@iggyreilly2463 I adore lohengrin and tannhauser and even the dutchman. Parts of them are still abit immature at least for wagner but I just love them for their lush orchestration and gorgeous melodies.
This gave me goosebumps!
wunderbar !
The last chord (used by Herzog in he last scene of the movie "Scream of Stone-Schreie auf Stein-Grito de Piedra") is so beautiful, that can be called "The Harmony of the Universe".
THIS IS BEAUTIFUL BUT I LOVE THE ENDINGS OF MAHLER'S 2ND, AND THE 8TH
Well,great visiual musicall expelenations !
If you study Mozart to Beethoven to Brahms, the motivic development (let alone the orchestration) of this piece is beyond mere mortals; the act of creation itself is touched by the hand of God. "We weep for wonder...of shadows on the stars".
@jaygbardo8781 I agree and wagner makes brahms sound little more than a wet fart
@jaygbardo8781 tristan has never been among my favourite wagner works but I revere it the most because if any work is an example of his genius it is tristan. I think if wagner was asked which of his music dramas was his pride and joy he'd probably say tristan tho he called it his child of sorrow
@@michaelhanrahanmoore1622 My favorite is Parsifal....
What's that quote from?
Shore on this shining night@@paules3437
My partner and I went to see Tristan and Isolde
at our local opera house
and though there were some good staging decisions
I liked the first act being set on a car ferry from Ireland to Cornwall
and them leaving in a balloon.
The second act had the balloon crash landing and covering the back of the stage
until King Mark arrives.
The third act was on an ice-flow with a back projection
and I had had so much - the singing is stupendous
that I timed the looped back projection
(It was 4 minutes 20 seconds!)
so it was hard to focus at the end.
Which Opera Theatre was that?
@@BenEmberley
Bielefeld - the production was imaginative
but sadly for me there wasn't enough action
for me - who is very visual
My partner often closes his eyes
and listens to the music intently.
Unless you are being satirical, you have described the exact reason why I rarely watch opera onstage. I cannot stomach listening to some of the most sublime of all music whilst watching Wagner's legacy as a dramatist being totally trashed by "imaginative" directors. Wagner's imagination was quite good enough for me, thank you!
If we are trying to make the action more relevant and contemporary, why aren't we changing the music too? Perhaps a drum-kit and some electric guitars and synthesisers mixed in will tempt in a new audience if that is the intention?
@@MrBulky992Blatant homophobia
@@johncrwarnerI knew it was going to be in Germany! 😅
I do like the way you annotate the score. Can we have more of these kind of videos? I'd love them...
thans for the analysis.
Thank you!
"O glaube, mein Herz, o glaube..."
This was pretty good. Maybe second. Well, in a world where Ein Alpensinfonie also doesn't exist.
I was going to comment on the same thing, in addition to them I also mention the ending of Symphony 4 by Carl Nielsen. In any case, they are all incredible, and have their climaxes in different soul tones.
That's what she said
I feel like this piece is actually designed to imitate the experience of an orgasm.
Yes, it's all IMO, or me and my mates agree, but on this occasion I concur, but on another day say but whattabout the kiss moment in Delius's A Walk to the Paradise Garden (A Village Romeo & Juliet). For me same effect with more economic means.
No credits?
The greatest climax in classical music - (or more to the point, Baroque music) - and also the greatest resolution, is the third movement of Bach's 5th Brandenburg concerto.
I had to think quite a long time on your comment - being (personally) a lover of all the Brandenburg Concertos, and holding them in the highest regard. I feel quite a fool now, since the only possible explanation I can find is that you are trolling. The 3rd movement of the 5th concerto is indeed sublime, but I can find no emotional, structural, harmonic or other technical reason to possibly call it the greatest climax in classical music history. Still - if you are serious - perhaps you could lay out your case in detail? I'd love my mind to be changed.
Don't think I ever saw a YT video that had a superlative in its title which wasn't wrong. Still haven't.
In terms of tension and release, I agree. However, I would have to say Mahler 2 finale has the best climax. Great video!
Mahler's 2nd is utterly epic and sublime. It slays me every time I listen to it.
Mine's the first hammer blow in Mahler 6
Romantic Era dross. Such an incongruous vocal line....
I find this moment very satisfying from tonal and motivic point of view. There’s no doubt it’s very beautiful. However, having discovered Wagner via the ring cycle first and then everything else…. I find Tristan and Isolde no where near as epic or satisfying in anyway. As a whole pretty underwhelming in fact, but hey I’m sure some people feel exactly the opposite lol. I can see that perspective as well.
2:39 The only part of this with a proper melodic structure. No going around corners here.
Thanks you ❤
How about Puccini, TOSCA, finale of the first act.
Just the te deum? What about a quiet climax of La Boheme preceded by two solos and a duet at end of Act 1?
A poor Italian. No one is perfect.
Wagner sneered at verdi and rightly.
@@michaelhanrahanmoore1622 What does Verdi have to do with it?
@timothyblake9213 I mentioned verdi because the Italian was wagners exact contemporary and the rivalry was very plain
I don’t want to rank and rate - clearly the entire Tristan opera is a monumental stroke of genius and is overwhelmingly powerful and heartbreaking. It begins with the so called Tristan chord which develops into the Tristan death chord in the third act and only resolves it self 3 seconds before the end of the entire opera. The whole this is just undeniably brilliant.
There are are other undeniably brilliant explosions all over the musical literature. They all “sound like” … I’m not going to list anything but just look at Mozart requiem and compare to Michael Hayden’s requiem. Stolen copied influenced? Dunno. Music reminds us of our own feelings and how we sound under different emotions. It’s therefore clear that different composers when trying to convey a thought will hear the same thing. I’m not sure it’s a copy of music or a copy of emotion.
This is a great video that points out the development buildup. It’s like the Niagara Falls as they buildup over a long distance with many mini falls along the way. After the big fall, everything gets relaxed and resolved. Many composers do the same thing. There is something very touching to me about how Wagner does it. But this is a better of style and opinion. Certainly Mahler and Bruckner and Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky and even Ravel and Debussy do it as well. But just within a different template and mask. Each are equally legitimate.
If we want to make a without … there would be no … well, clearly without Beethoven there would be no Wagner. But that’s ok and it doesn’t take away from Wagner in the least. He exists within history and the past affected his future. At least he took the past into account but still moved on.
That drawing of Wagner is crazy 😭
I like this but I think Strauss' Ein Heldenleben makes a good arguement
Strauss was Wagner's spiritual son, no wonder his music is extremely similar.
The biggest climax ever in my book is the ending of the fifth movement of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony, Judex crederis esse venturus.
Incredibly based take, I love the Gothic Symphony and I've only recently really got into it. It's one of the greatest symphonic works ever written
My biggest climax was this one time... oh wait, I can't discuss that here....
@@JohanHerrenberg wow I've never heard of him or it. Just shows you what hidden gems there are.
@paules3437 mind your language. But if you wish to open the subject the most thrilling climaxes I ever experienced happened while I myself was conducting.
@@michaelhanrahanmoore1622 Um... if you want ME to mind my language maybe look at again at your recent post.
In all seriousness, what were you conducting. In High school, my orchestra conductor found he was double booked at a HS arts festival and asked me to conduct the opening to Fiddler on the Roof, the first musical my school had done in decades. I did, and it was cool, but I then understood how an orchestra can get away from the conductor. They rushed and I couldn't restrain them!
Thanks very much for making this; any chance of doing something similar for, say, part of the third movement of Vaughan Williams's fifth or the build-up to the "big tune" in his sixth symphony? In any case, thanks again for this!
This is a good one. But I think two other good ones would be the ending of Strauss' Death and Transfiguration, and the ending of Scriabin symphony 4, the Poem of Ecstasy.
It would be nice to have a translation of the lyrics.
Gives me a whole Kim Novack-in-a-white-coat-making-out-by-the-bristlecone-pines feeling.
????? Explain
All the Vertigo score of Bernard Hermann is a derivative of Tristan und Isolde, and the actress who played the part of the love interest in this movie IS Kim Novak. There IS a track in the score which IS very similar to Liebstod and it IS called "Love Thème"@@paules3437
Now that I understand.
No disrespect to the singer but you should have chosen a singer like Nilsson or Flagstad
…no doubt whatsoever, it’s the ideal coital act of a woman with the best lover ever, followed by blissful contentment and perhaps endless sleep ,set to music by a genius.
Thanks for posting this nice analysis!
Love Wagner!
which performance is this? voice and orchestra are often not together
Where can I download the sheet?
What happened to smooth voice leading?
Oh I LOVE this piece, but NOT with the lady hollering. Oh well, I enjoyed your annotations and illustrations so much I began to ignore the lady hollering. I think I'll subscribe.
Each to their own.
To my ears any version without vocals is much more impressive than original, even piano transcription is nicer
Viva WAGNER ❤❤❤🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
The greatest climax in classical music is by Wagner, but it’s not this. It’s Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral
If it is the greatest climax ...
What about Gustav Mahler 🤔🤔
I think he may be punning on the idea of 'climax' (especially given the final caption), but in other ways I would agree that Mahler does it more emphatically in symphonies 2, 3 and 8 especially. That finale to the third always sounds to me like the single most perpetually ascending and triumphant climax in all of music.
@jamesboswell9324 I also love Mahler 3...The best climax ever done in music history...😍😍
@AlexMaddyclas_sical_lover It is absolutely magnificent, so yes I do agree. Although both his second and eight symphonies attain similar heights in different ways. In my mind the third steadily ascends to the summit of an impossibly high peak, striding defiantly upwards and finally lets us stand triumphant like the figure in that famous Caspar David Friedrich picture, whereas the eighth suddenly throws open the gates and invites us into a heavenly paradise of bliss and love. The second... that's a different kind of heaven altogether! :)
@@jamesboswell9324 What do you think about Titan....It has an early view of Mahler world and has an glorious, magnificent and other worldliness finale....❤️❤️❤️
@AlexMaddyclas_sical_lover Yep, it's great too. A very exciting ending again. Mahler does the great endings whether spectacular or just delicious.
Richie = climax 🐐
Waltraud Meier?
Not even my favorite of Wagners great climaxes….i find myself more exhilarated by the Meistersinger overture or finale
Sorry to deflate your enthusiasm but everything is relative. It might be the greatest climax for you, but what about the glorious climax of the Alpensimfonie???
Watch the end of Walküre please. That's way more powerfull
The singing over powers the music's sublime real theme, male, then female sexual climax.
It is indeed one of the greatest, most moving 7 minutes in all of music, but it's SO much more so without the bloody soprano. The vocal line OBSCURES and MUDDIES this greatest of all builds.
That is most subjective
This climax is wonderful, but alas! It loses so much when played by a recording...
Who is singing?
We can almost be glad not to know.
In my own experience, I also tend to go up while building up to a climax. Then climax happens, and then I go down again, and the ending is calm and quiet.
Do you make her sing, or is that extra?
@pauldavis3278 gentlemen this is not the place.
@pauldavis3278 if she sings like meier then he needs to up his game. I think we all aim for a nillson high c. I'm not so talented sadly.
So beautiful music, too bad there was way too much visual noise. It made it hard to truly appreciate the music.
When I heard this at the age of 14 I stopped going to church.
👏
Elsa”s Procession to the Cathedral always gave me goosebumps when I played it. It’s got a pretty great climax.
ruclips.net/video/F6mYZo90xx0/видео.htmlsi=8LZ3UmojmClo9OxK
Three and half hours to resolve the opening chord. exhausting, but wonderful.
Marvellous, but singing volume is too loud (as usual).
I do agree 🎶.... but It would have been much more obvious with Birgit Nilsson and Karl Böhm from a live performance in 1966 in Bayreuther Festival...ruclips.net/video/665lMKUB1xc/видео.htmlsi=JszdakJSqBcK0TU4
The greatest climax in my opinion is in the 1st part of Schostakovitch’s Leningrad Symphony
I adore this music, but I dare say it's a lot more effective without the singer. The music really is magical, and I feel the singer forces the orchestra to hold back from what it's really capable. Also, the vocal line is kind of boring.
But that's somewhat typical for Wagner. Gorgeous orchestration and lackluster singing parts.
I always thought that the cyclical structure of this piece, the rhythmic contractions, and the gradual build up and release of pressure until that final resolution were meant to simulate the physiological stages of the female orgasm. The experience of orgasm gives us insight into the fundamental nature of love and its overwhelming and often fatal influence over the human being.
The title snagged me. It was good. Quite wonderful. There could be many applicants for this title … so many subjective influences make up our listening experiences. Some people just don’t like opera.. sorry no like, no subscribe (since you asked).
OK, but Franck Piano Quintet first movement.
Meier and Barenboim, I guess.
What a woefully inadequate soprano!
Agreed
I agree this is one of the best climaxes, but did it bug anyone how flat she was during climaxes?
每次聽油管 TMD都以為自己的喇叭壞了 現在都只聽抖音的了
Oh come on, it's one of them, certainly. But there's lots of other pieces too, even by Wagner. It's just your favourite maybe...
Very Nice video indeed ! except your last non harmonic words.
Hector Berlioz has an incredible climax in Requiem; Dies Irae ruclips.net/video/HofoFYxqIgU/видео.html
Wagner's music is better than it sounds, as someone once commented. I'd go along with that. But without Wagner they'd be no Mahler, a far greater composer I think.
Wagner eaves dropped on Heavens door. He put his ear to the key hole and stole some of Heavens music.
Thank you for doing this!
But Waltraud Meier? Vocally one of the worst Isoldes....
I think the same about Meier
I don't think it's Meier.
Wie kommt es denn überhaupt, dass so viele Kommentare sich überhaupt nicht auf die Deutschland-Politik, sondern auf klassische Musik beziehen? Hier stimmt was nicht.
He certainly did strive to provide the ultimate….except that not everyone can eat a 20 course meal and like it.
He is not a Mac and cheese composer.
The ending to Rach 3?! 👀
Not Loud enough, lacking Orgasmic trombones
I don’t know that last movement of Mahler 2 might be the greatest in my book 🤷♂️
The greatest climax in classical music is shostakovich's 5th symphony
Yeah, that last comment is carrying the analogy just a little too far!
Difficult to overlook Beethovens Angus Dei
13.12 here. As if the orchestra just before was opening the gates of hell with the drums. Always gives me goosebumps
ruclips.net/video/dDs6NJ037cs/видео.htmlsi=ttipo7gngaL4GKbK
Is it? Ok.
I'm by no means an actual fan of classical music, but when I was introduced to the orchestral version of this over 50 years ago I felt like I'd entered another realm, and this still can make me feel like my chest is going to explode. This is the first time I've heard it with the vocals, and quite frankly they annoyed the hell out of me. All that grating singing got in the way of the music.
For me the vocals aren't grating but it is better with just the music, without the vocal.
I'm afraid this is no match for the climax of the storm from Richard Strauss' 'Alpine Symphony'.
I guarantee you Strauss himself would disagree.