I used to think it sounded awfully pretty when conductors played the opening introduction nice and slowly. I loved to enjoy a leisurely boat cruised down the river Rhine with gently lapping waves. In time, I have come to agree more with those conductors who take the introduction at a faster tempo and build it up to a surging dramatic climax.
If you look at the score notice what Wagner writes at the climax of the introduction:
The words are "Hier wird der Vorhang aufgezogen - Volles Wogen der Wassertiefe". That is: "here the curtains are raised - massive surging of the depth of the waters". We aren't meant to be on a picnic, we are in deeply surging, choppy waters. Notice all of those string figures that go up and down like the waves of the surging river:
At the very end of the introduction you get these rising figures in the woodwind that urge the river on to full flood:
Keep in mind that the German word Rheintöchter means Rhine daughters and not "maidens". These women are wild children of primal Nature, not sweet little maidens. They are as ambivalent as Nature itself. They might be as seductively beautiful as sirens, but they also drown men. That is, Nature can as destructive as it can be enticing. Even the names of the Rheintöchter are consistent with this. "Wogen", as in "Woglinde" means "to surge", and "wellen", as in Wellgunde", means "to swell". "Fliessen" as in "Flosshilde" means "to flow" (floss is the perfect form). So the names refer to the surge and swell of the flowing might of the river.
If taken at more fluid tempi, the climax of the Rheingold introduction surges and swells, the choppy rising and falling string figures seriously rock the boat, making for an uncomfortable ride. It is simply dramatically wrong to slow the music down so that the surge and swell gets reduced down to a slowly undulating lapping of gentle waves. It may make it more picturesque but it is probably not the dramatic effect Wagner intended.
If the tempo at the peak of the introduction is fluid enough to permit a drama surging of the Rhine when the Rheintöchter enter there is enough pace here that it stops them just sounding like they are puddling around like some leisurely bathers. These are meant to be wild and fantastical women, who seem to enjoy the torrents of the river.
You might remember the recent quotes from Wagner On Conducting, where we saw how he often complained about conductors taking his music too slowly. One of the reasons he was dissatisfied with Hans Richter's premier performance of the Ring was probably because Richter had a well known perchant for slower tempi.
There are a few conductors on record who do get this introduction right with a more fluid tempo. Pierre Boulez and Karl Böhm are the best known. Böhm in particular, learnt his Wagner from Richard Strauss, who learnt his Wagner from Hermann Levi and Felix Mottl, both Bayreuth stalwarts who worked under the strict supervision of the composer.
However, Joseph Keilberth also does well in 1952, as does Hans Swarovsky in 1968, and Clemens Krauss in 1953. Even Hans Knappertsbusch does quite surprisingly well here, although as a former assistant to Hans Richter, he is notorious for a tendency to indulge in the sort of dragging tempi that Wagner complains often of. Here are the last 15 seconds of the climax from the Prelude to das Rheingold with the Bayreuth Fespiel Orchester under Knappertsbusch in 1957:
Notice how the rising wind figures are clearly audible, and help to maintain a sense of legato in the line (what Wagner referred to as endless melody or Melos). The tempi is far from dragging, and if Knappertsbusch refuses to drags things along here, there is absolutely no excuse for anyone else to. Indeed, Knappertsbusch takes the introduction at a similar tempo to Boulez and Böhm, and is actually a few seconds faster than Boulez for his centenary cycle.
The Solti (Vienna Philharmonic for Decca, 1958) takes things somewhat more slowly than Knappertsbusch. The tempo picks up as you go along, which although it is unmarked, is something Wagner would have probably approved of. The really odd thing is that the rising woodwind figures in the final bars get totally swamped by the rest of the orchestra to the point that they are scarcely audible:
The end result is that the climax of the introduction is dominated, not by the legato lines of the rising figure in the winds, but by the choppy strings playing their recurring accompanying figure. This type of breaking up of the legato of the overall line - the Melos - is typical of Solti's approach to the Ring.
Of those conductors who insist on a more picturesque Prelude at a more leisurely tempo, the most successful of these is Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic, simply by virtue of the beauty of the playing from the Berlin Philharmonic. Even at Bayreuth in 1951, Karajan was already adopting a slow tempo for this prelude. However, Daniel Baremboim manages to also to make the slow tempo convincing for his Bayreuth Ring cycle for Teldec. James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera probably manages to at least equal him, and the recording is technically even more sumptuous. Lorin Maazal also does a fine job with the Berlin Philharmonic on his recording of orchestral excerpts (The Ring Without Words) with what is perhaps the slowest interpretation on record. Kempe in his Convent Garden Ring cycle also does a fine slower Prelude, however the distortion on his Bayreuth recording from 1960 makes it difficult to say much.
Lastly, I should make mention of Fürtwängler (in his Ring cycles from Rome 1952, and Milan, 1948) who takes as long as Karajan to get through the Prelude. Predictably, the rising wind figures at the very end come through very well, with exemplary long legato lines.
Recorded Bibliography:
The above MP3 quotations were taken from the following recordings:
Hans Knappertsbusch - Bayreuther Festspiel Orchester 1957
George Solti - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Decca, 1958:
The most recent Decca transfer
The complete cycle
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