Parsifal - Verwandlungsmusik - Transformation Music - Wagner - Solti

"You see, my son, here time turns into space!" Verwandlungsmusik (Transformation Music) and grail procession from Act 1 of Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal (1882).

Conductor: Sir Georg Solti
Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic)

Recorded in 1972, remastered in 2003.

Label: Decca
Year released: 2003

[AvatarYoda]

I've been listening to this piece a lot over the past several months, sometimes multiple times a day. It has a cleansing, healing effect, and I need that now.

[tomab]

Parfisal is a perfection, from the first note to the last. What an extraordinary musical journey.

[VallaMusic]

this whole 'opera' like one big theme(s) and variations - like holding up a giant jewel and displaying it from so many different angles - watching how it shines under so many types of light and color

[danawinsor]

I sometimes wonder, how did Wagner do it, that is, how was he able to create so much magnificent music during one lifetime? This "Transformation Music" is one of the non-vocal sections of Parsifal that can travel deep into one's soul and inspire one forever. The other wonderful example is the "Karfreitagszauber" ("Good Friday Magic"). I ascribe that music to Wagner's generosity, an extra sublime experience that isn't directly related to the story but overwhelms us with still more inspriation.

[johnmueter]

Music not of this world. Magnificent performance.

[markharder]

So many leitmotifs flowing into each other, blending seamlessly into a coherent whole...

[tomab]

A piece of music into a piece of music. This one is a summary of all germanic symphonic music. Perfection.

[mertuncensored]

I hear and sense so many things in this music: time, universe, infinity and its possibilities.

[bannas]

For me this is the greatest piece of music ever created, and perhaps the most beautiful creation of all mankind… such beauty can save us entirely, it will save the world… in the end we will have nothing left to show for ourselves than our creations and our art, and when this is, let us show Parsifal.

[lindabreuning]

If Wagner's music was comparable to pain, it would be the sweetest suffering - so beautiful as to be almost painful.

[joeowens]

Solti's 1970's recording is the absolute Gold Standard. Miraculous. This is an earlier recording.

[paulbale]

For me Solti was the Wagner conductor, getting all of the romanticism out of the glorious music, all the beautiful melody. Perfect timings too.

[Erge]

Magical! Unearthly Music - unearthly Opera... and what a perforrmance....

[thierryranger]

This music is more important than you think. Einstein once discovered this and the seeds were planted for his upcoming theory. 'Here time becomes space'

[AirchimeLTDproductions]

Parsifal my personal favorite opera out off all the compositions written by Wagner. From it's heavenly stirring prelude and interludes to it's celestial contents. For me nothing has truly topped this classical 💎

[VINGC]

sublime, beautiful, amazing, wonderful, extraordinary beautiful.

[gerardbegni]

Solti is here an immense conductor. He builds crescendos and decrescendos, tone shortages of a gigantic power.

[grgaperos]

The feeling this music causes in me is longing... longing for more of it. The majestic sounds of it create a mental loop that asks for more and more and it's never enough. The attacca on the strings, the fanfare-ishness of the trombones, the anticipation of the resolved tonality suspensions... it's all like a drug of which you can't get enough. You want it to be louder but more silent at the same time, and that this line from the violas comes more in front of the violins but also not. When I listen to this, I feel like a sponge full of pain being squeezed out and drained 7:54-8:08 only to suck in that pain again in the next motive or phrase... inconceivable are the thoughts and emotions in this, no words can describe it.

[arikiiskinen]

My blood runs cold when I hear those bells.

[stillstanding]

With Solti, we hear everything Wagner wrote; nothing gets lost. Remarkable conducting. Some call it a little too "tight, bordering on the chilly". And I agree that you can sacrifice some rapture because of it. But it's very much like the difference between driving a Buick and driving a BMW. In the BMW, you feel the road; you experience it all. I think that's what Solti sought. A great deal of rapture remains except rather than lush, it's crystalline.