The metamorphosis of my record collection (thoughts on Wagner’s bicentennial)

It was 12 years ago when I attended Die Walkure. And for the first time in many years I was complety absorded by what I heard on stage and totally in awe for those who performed it. It was my first attendance of an opera. And I was thunderstruck and seduced by the most sensitive and beautiful sounds this side of Stendhal’s syndrome.

Making my way through the 80’s and 90’s with every rock band from Pink Floyd to Metallica and having gone full circle with pop music in general, my search for something new got me on a point of arrival at the turn of the century. For a few years I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

It was not before I got my hands on a CD with instrumental music from Der Rings des Nibelungen that I found the reward I was after. A reward I didn’t know exist. I was aware of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Big household names in the catalogue of every (classical) record collection. I listened to Bach’s Brandenburg concertos between the rockeruptions from Van Halen and the speed metal from Slayer. I switched from Beethoven’s Pastorale to The Beatles and took a detour from Mozart’s Requiem to the progressive hardrock from Rush.

Until

I got

My hands

On that Wagner CD

Listening to the highlights of Der Ring reminded me of the music I had heard in movies. Not very unfamiliair with the soundtrack of the Lord of the Rings-movies that were the most popular thing around at the time. It reminded me of Beethoven. But it was different from both the movie soundtracks and classical music I was acquainted with. This time I didn’t switch. I didn’t turn it off after two hours of listening to play something else. I played it again and again.

And again.

Wagner’s music did something for me that no other kind of classical music had done for me before. I could feel his music like I could feel the blues-based pop and rock music I grew up with. It was more refined and multi-layered but its accessibility surprised and seduced me. It drew me closer in a very pleasant, undemanding way. I was attached to it very quick. This music didn’t need a incubation period to create full effect (like for instance Mahler’s music needed) and turned me into an addict very soon.

And then Die Walkure came to town. In the flesh, that performance 12 years ago from De Nederlandse Opera, and on CD, a rendition with impressive roles by Jon Vickers as Siegmund and George London as Wotan with Erich Leinsdorf at the helm.

Die Walkure was followed by other opera’s from the cycle. The complete Ring. I wanted a copy. But which one to choose: Solti, Böhm, Karajan or Kraus? I decided not to suffer the limitations of “OR” but embrace the richness of “AND”. The list of Ring-cycles that are on my shelves now has reached the number of 15 (12 on CD and 3 on DVD). As I said, I was addicted very soon.

In discovering the music of Richard Wagner I discovered a new world of sound that brought back for me that sensation you experience when you discover something new and exciting. And with it the full spectrum of so-called classical music opened its doors for me. 400 years of music-making were waiting for me and were on the verge of discovery. From Lully to Lutoslawski, from Tallis to Penderecki, from Biber to Dutilleux (who died on the day of Wagner’s bicentennial). The scope is so wide it makes a grown man shiffer. With every new piece of music I hear, a new world looms up. It is like wisdom: the more you know, the more you realise how little you really know. To realise that is something to be grateful for. I have to thank the sorcerer from Bayreuth for the music he has left us and the new worlds of sound beyond that .