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Felix Klempka
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Posted on Friday, January 07, 2011 - 11:51 am:
Dear Mr. McGlaughlin,
I am a regular listener who almost always enjoys your selections. Imagine my surprise when I heard you compare the opening strains of Wagner's "Song to the Evening Star" music from Tannhäuser with that of Mendelssohn (1/07/2011) I sat back rigidly in my chair and tried to imagine the pandemonium which would have ensued at Wahnfried if Wagner found out that anyone, especially an American musicologist, had compared any of his "sacred" music with anything written by, as he would have described him, the Jew, Mendelssohn!
Not that I would disagree with your simile, but as an amateur historian, I like to imaging the reactions to signal events in history taken from the view of "Then and Now".
Of course, there is still plenty of anti-semitism in the world today, but I can't help wondering how Wagner's opinions, especially considering his epic diatribe, "Jewry in Music" of 1850, would be tolerated by a general public with today's perspective. Would he have even been so outgoing in his essays on all things Wagner in the light of today. And IF he had been a better person in the late 19th century, would the Nazzis have found a different champion? The mind boggles with the thought of all the permutations this line of reasoning might develop.
Keep up the good work.
Cordially,
Felix Klempka, Buffalo, NY.
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