Reply To: Criteria needed for ratings

[FP Walter]

Thanks for your comments, Andy. I agree it’s strange that Wagnerites haven’t contributed more actively to this forum, since they’re hyperactive elsewhere. As for supplying criteria, the benefit is simply clear communication — if Herr Tristan likes or dislikes something, at least I have some understanding of his priorities and can decide if I want to hear a particular performance.
As for cuts, certainly they impact the “wholeness” of a piece . . . how can anybody dispute that? So I’d give Furtwängler’s Scala Ring, at best, an 8/10 because of its Wotan cuts — they scrap a major driving motive (the god’s failure to find a free agent) from the action altogether. Therefore I find this an incandescent performance (esp. in Andrew Rose’s cleaned-up edition), but hardly an ideal presentation of “the work as a whole.”

All the best,
F. P. Walter
Albuquerque, New Mexico