Re: Barenboim and Wagner

[yoel <yoel...>]

Several points:

1.  The playing of Wagner is NOT disallowed in Israel.  Works by Wagner are
played on Israel radio, by the Israel Philharmonic, and by other orchestras
in israel.  The taboo on Wagner's works in Israel ended more than a decade
ago, though the issue does come up occasionally.

2.  The suggestion in Steve Stowe's email that Barenboim could not pick the
program is wrong.  Barenboim picked the works on the program.  That is the
conductor's prerogative.  If anything is improper here, it is the Israeli
parliament and Israeli politicians making rules about what music can and
cannot be played.  We do not have Entartete Kunst in Israel.  Olmert's
comment that  "It's not [Barenboim's] job to determine whether the State of
Israel decides to allow Wagner to be heard or not"  is both absurd and
deeply offensive.

3.  As for the substance of the objection to Wagner's music because it was
favored by the Nazis:

a) The music of Richard Strauss is played frequently in Israel, and no one
objects.  Richard Strauss was not merely a Nazi, he was Minister of Culture
in Hitler's government.

b) Wagner's music was an inspiration to the Nazis.  It was also an
inspiration to Liszt, Mahler, Bruckner, Schoenberg, Kurt Weill, and dozens
of others.  Musical idioms that have become common coinage of modern
classical and popular music were invented by Wagner.  Hitler liked Beethoven
a lot.

c) I have heard the "Seven Blessings" sung by an ultraorthodox rabbi in
Israel to the tune of Wagner's wedding march.

In sum: a lot of great composers had really repulsive ideas.  A lot of
really repulsive people liked the music of this or that great composer.  In
the final analysis, the music speaks for itself.  And governments should not
censor art.

Joel Epstein
Moshav Magshimim, Israel
tel: 972-3-9333316
     972-52-333316
fax: 972-9338751
yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il


>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>> [mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Stephen
>> M. Stowe, M.D.
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 6:07 AM
>> To: World music from a Jewish slant
>> Subject: Barenboim and Wagner
>>
>>
>> B"H
>>
>> I thought that the following stories and editorials from the Israeli
>> Press make important reading.
>>
>> I really think that Barenboim acted improperly.  If he felt strongly
>> that Wagner should have been played then he should have refused to
>> conduct unless he could chose the program.  To do what he did, in my
>> opinion,  damages art.
>>
>> I wonder what others think.
>>
>>
>> Steve Stowe
>>
>>
>>
>> ************************************************
>> Barenboim breaks the Wagner taboo
>>
>> By Zipi Shohat, Gideon Alon and Dalia Shehori
>> Ha'aretz Correspondents and Agencies Ha'aretz 9 July 2001
>>
>> Having agreed not to play music by Hitler's favorite composer at the
>> Israel
>> Festival, renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim did just that Saturday
>> night,
>> breaking a long-held taboo in Israel and receiving a standing ovation
>> from
>> most of the audience, but angry shouts from a vocal minority.
>>
>> Appearing in Jerusalem, Barenboim and the Berlin Statskapelle played
>> music
>> from Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde." Music from
>> the opera
>> was
>> featured in the original program, but after protests from Holocaust
>> survivors and pressure from politicians, the management
>> asked Barenboim
>> to
>> choose an alternative program.
>>
>> At the end of Saturday's concert Barenboim asked the audience if they
>> wanted
>> him to play the Wagner piece after all. Most of them
>> responded with loud
>> applause, but a few angrily protested, shouting "fascist," and "go
>> home."
>>
>> Barenboim continued the dialogue with the audience, appealing to the
>> protesters to let the majority hear what they wish. "This is
>> my personal
>> encore to them," he said. "You can be angry with me, but
>> please don't be
>> angry with the orchestra or the festival management."
>>
>> After a bitter argument, in which those protesting were
>> asked by some of
>> the
>> audience to leave the hall, Barenboim began conducting the
>> piece. As the
>> orchestra began playing, the protesters banged doors, but the
>> interruptions
>> ceased after a few minutes and the playing of the work was completed
>> without
>> further mishap. At the end of the performance, Barenboim received
>> rousing
>> applause.
>>
>> Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that although he
>> is a music
>> lover, he thinks it best if Wagner is not played in Israel "for one
>> reason -
>> there are a lot of people here for whom this is difficult,
>> and it could
>> be
>> that this was too soon."
>>
>> President Moshe Katsav, who had been one of the leading proponents of
>> getting Wagner taken off the program, said that he was
>> "sorry that the
>> official bodies and institutes who made the decisions had been
>> bypassed." He
>> said that he was not interfering in artistic freedom, but
>> rather taking
>> into
>> account the feelings of many Holocaust survivors.
>> ************
>>
>> MUSICAL SNEAK ATTACK CONDEMNED
>> The "sneak attack" pulled by Berlin conductor Daniel
>> Barenboim continues
>> to
>> draw criticism.  Although he had earlier agreed to abide by
>> the Israel
>> Festival management's decision not to play Richard Wagner's
>> music, he
>> turned to the audience at the end of his last concert this
>> past Saturday
>> night, and said, "The concert is over; I will now play
>> Wagner.  Whoever
>> wants to, may leave."  Several people objected, but were
>> drowned out by
>> the
>> yells of others.  A few dozen people walked out, including MK Dan
>> Meridor,
>> but the vast majority - including State Attorney Edna Arbel
>> and Supreme
>> Court Justice Dorit Beinish - remained.
>>
>> The Simon Wiesenthal Center called upon the Israeli music
>> community to
>> boycott Barenboim for what it called his "cultural rape" of
>> the Israeli
>> public.  Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said that Barenboim had
>> "exploited
>> the
>> stage," and that his decision was "arrogant, uncultured, and
>> unacceptable...  It's not his job to determine whether the State of
>> Israel
>> decides to allow Wagner to be heard or not."  Wagner was
>> famous for his
>> anti-Semitism, and the Nazis later adopted his music and ideology as
>> theirs.  Playing his music in public has been forbidden in
>> Israel since
>> the
>> establishment of the State, as an "offense to the
>> sensibilities" of much
>> of
>> the public.
>>
>> *******************
>> Ma'ariv, in its second editorial, notes that conductor Daniel
>> Barenboim "succeeded in getting Wagner into the Israel Festival
>> through the back door, in contravention of a decision by the
>> festival's institutions, and after the Knesset urged against
>> playing works by the composer who served as a source of
>> inspiration for the Nazi ideology." The editors note, "The debate
>> over playing Wagner - replete with gut feelings, myths, symbols
>> and, occasionally, boorishness - in Israel has gone on for
>> decades already," and avers that "While many believe the ban on
>> the musical genius's works must come to an end, it is highly
>> doubtful if the way to decide such a heavy and charged
>> controversy is by pulling a musical fast one."
>>
>> ---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>> ---------------------+
>>