Richard Wagner

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'Tannhäuser' Overture by Richard Wagner

On this day in 1813, one of the most remarkable men of the 19th century was born. Listen to the following overture from his opera Tannhäuser, which is one of the most uplifting, powerful and emotional pieces of music ever written:

DHM YouTube Playlist - performance under the direction of Georg Solti

Richard Wagner - operas and librettos
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22 1813, Leipzig - February 13 1883, Venice). Six months after the premiere of 'Parsifal', Wagner took an extended holiday with Cosima and their children to Venice. Whilst there, he suffered a massive heart attack. His body was brought back to Bayreuth for burial in a vault in the garden of his villa. After his death, Cosima became the guardian of the Wagner shrine until her death in 1930. 

"I am being used as the instrument for something higher than my own being warrants...I am in the hands of the immortal genius I serve for the span of my life and that intends me to complete only what I can achieve."
- Richard Wagner

A philosopher, first-rate conductor and one of the key composers in the Western European tradition, Wagner was also one of the most unpleasant of men. Notoriously he was a racist and anti-Semite, and in his private and professional life he was utterly ruthless, allowing nobody to stand in his way. He used people, borrowed their money without repaying it, and was indifferent to the pain he caused others (causing his wife Minna to endure his serial infidelity); yet he became neurotically obsessed with the pain anyone caused him. Intriguingly, he viewed himself as something of a deity, building a temple in Bayreuth in which his works could be celebrated and he himself worshipped, rejecting all those who did not believe in him. 

Wagner was virtually self-taught. A born rebel, Wagner was expelled from the Thomasschule in Leipzig, spent most of his time at the university there drinking, gambling, duelling and womanising and only in 1831 did he settle down to study counterpoint with the cantor of the Thomaskirche, Thomas Weinlig. After six months Weinlig admitted that there was nothing more he could teach him. Wagner's best days were ahead of him. 


Sources: 'The Great Composers', Jeremy Nicholas







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