On Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 9:09:49 AM UTC-8, gavro...@yahoo.com wrote:

Thanks for hints about performances I do not yet know and will look out
for, including Plasson's. Frankly I find it impossible to say whether
I prefer the chamber or (fairly) full orchestral version. It is more a
matter of which I most recently heard. I do know, though, that I am
still looking for the "perfect" performance - an absurd quest, of
course, but one I find hard to resist. No one conductor seems to
capture every element. Thielemann's strings are superb, Muck's
(Berlin) birdsong the best ever (IMHO), Boulez's New York horn
well-nigh incomparable (who is that guy?) etc etc. Some famous names
for me simply do not register here, including Furtwaengler and his
dearly beloved Karajan. Solti, on the other hand, is so relaxed and
warm you would not believe it was..well..Solti. Perhaps he just went
off and left the Vienna players to do their own thing.
One thing does strike me, happily ploughing through all these interpretations. On the whole the early ones - i.e. those recorded in
the 20s and 30s - are the quickest e.g. Siegfried (16.14mins), Blech
(17.13), Muck (17.34), Walter- Vienna (16.44), Toscanini-New York
(16.12), Weingartner (15.48) etc. Compare the post-war maestros, for
instance Karajan (19.41), Maazel (21.03), Thielemann (19.11),
Celibidache (23.38)...

Concerning Celibidache, the following 2023 Youtube upload may be of interest:

"RICHARD WAGNER - Präludien & Ouvertures - Filarmônica de Munique - Sergiu Celibidache"

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