Friday, May 13, 2011

PARSIFAL Act 3: "Mittag, Die Stund is da"


Karl Muck (October 22, 1859 – March 3, 1940) was one of the greatest conductors of Wagner. For reasons of mere prejudice he was, while conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, arrested and interned in a camp in Georgia from March 1918 until August 1919.

Muck was Swiss (not that interning Germans merely because of their origin was right). The result was that America lost a fine conductor to Germany, whence Muck went.

Although hardly a political progressive he was not a supporter of the Nazis and in fact resigned as conductor in Hamburg in 1933, uncomfortable with the Nazi authorities' direction of the city's symphony and opera.

Muck's work arguably ranks above Furtwangler, however, the quality of recordings are limited and so often he is overlooked.

This is a fine recording of PARSIFAL Act 3: Mittag, Die Stund is da from 1928:


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