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Re: Re Karajan and Gould
This is all from memory,
but I think it's pretty accurate.
In the 1980s, Zubin Mehta conducted the
Israel Philharmonic (I'm guessing in Tel Aviv) through the advertised program.
Then he addressed the audience and said the orchestra was going to play an
unadvertised Wagner piece -- and that would have been the first Wagner publicly
performed in Israel. Mehta invited the audience to leave if they chose, or to
stay; a few left, with what level of indignation or outrage I don't know; most
stayed; and after the piece applauded enthusiastically.
My agent is a lifelong New York City
resident and a Jew. She told me that during her childhood in the 1950s, her
mother dragged her to every Wagner opera. I asked her if she didn't think this
odd; she said it probably was odd, but she'd never thought about it before. She
just took for granted that if there was any Wagner in town, her mother was going
to worship every note and drag her along.
At the time Mehta performed his Wagner
piece, Israel was much more composed of Jews from central Europe, Germany and
Austria, than it is today. Despite the Holocaust, they brought with them their
beloved traditions; before the Nazis, German Jews were the most integrated into
mainstream cultural life of all European Jews and enjoyed the fullest benefits
of citizenship with Christians, and had for about a century. And before the
Nazis, Germany and Austria were zeniths of music, literature, art, science, law
and religion for the world. Like my
agent's mother, many German/Austrian Jews reached Israel with a love of
their secular traditions, German lullabys for their children, and a hypnotic
devotion to Wagner's music.
I apologize that life is not
simple.
Bob / Elmer
>Hello all:
>
>This is a great subject
and I really have no answer as to where art begins
>and politics
ends. I have visited Israel three times. I have read that
in
>Israel, people can listen to the music of Wagner on the radio and
though it
>has been performed in smaller venues there, it is still a very
sore subject
>with the large number of Holocaust Survivors still living in
Israel. Also,
>the question of whether Wagner should be played at all in
Israel is still
>brought up from time to time in that country and is still
the subject of
>passionate debate. Be well and take
care.
>
>Daniel Vaiser