From the Rising of the Son: Some restored recordings allow Richard Moukarzel to eavesdrop on early Wagnerian performance style

Review of Siegfried Wagner Conducts Richard Wagner (SOMM ARIADNE, 2 CDs): Das Rheingold, Entry of the Gods into Valhalla; Die Walküre, Ride of the Valkyries, Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music; Parsifal, Good Friday Spell, Prelude to Act III, Good Friday Spell (orchestral version); Siegfried Idyll; Huldigungsmarsch; Tannhäuser, Entry of the Guests; Lohengrin, Prelude to Act I; Tristan und Isolde, Prelude and Liebestod (orchestral version); Siegfried Wagner, Der Bärenhäuter Overture; Bayreuth, Berlin and London, 1925, 1926 and 1927.

March 2026, Volume 20, Number 1, 92–3.

In most Wagnerian narratives, not much is said about the relatively short-lived career of the Bayreuth heir. Siegfried Wagner (‘Fidi’ pour les intimes) is, at best, sometimes acknowledged as a minor composer and conductor – albeit one eclipsed by two domineering parental figures. At worst, he finds himself all too often confined to the backstage corridors of music history. However, it is worth remembering that Wagner Junior was celebrated by his contemporaries as a conductor of his father’s works (both in Bayreuth and internationally) as well as a rather popular opera composer in his own right.