Recorded at:		-
	Live / Studio		Studio
	Producer		-
	Balance engineer		-
	First LP Edition		BASF | 29 21108-8 | 2 LPs | durata 48' 42" - 46' 36" | (p) 1972
	First CD Edition		PILZ - ACANTA | 44 2181-2 | 2 CDs | durata 48' 42" - 46' 36" | (c) 1993 | ADD
	Note		-

Bayreuth lies in a magnificent setting and is full of palatial houses," wrote Robert Schumann in the year 1828. He was visiting Nayreuth not for musical but for literaly reasons, the attraction being the literaly idol of his youth, Jean Paul, who lived there from 1804 until his death in 1825. It wasin Bayreuth where Jean Paul wrote these much-quoted lines often applied to Wagner: "...So far the Sun God has bestowed the gift of poetry with his right hand and the gift of music with his left, to mortals so far apart from each other that we have had to wait up until this moment for the man who could both write and compose a true opera." Jean Paul was referring to the writer and composer E. T. A. Hoffmann then living in nearby Bamberg, and there can be no question whatsoever of his having Wagner's music-dramas in mind. It does seem a strange coincidence, however, that he should have written these words in the very year of Wagner's birth (1813), and in Bayreuth, the very town in which the union of writer and composer in one person was to materialize and where the result of this union, the music-drama as such, was to find its home. Richard Wagner's first visit to Bayreuth was in 1835. Writing about it later he said, "The journey through Eger over the pinecovered Fichtel Mountains and arriving in Bayreuth, which was gently bathed in the evening sunlight, long remained one of my pleasantest memories." Possibly this first favourable impression had something to do with thechoice of Bayreuth as a place for his festival. 1871 proved a decisive year for Bayreuth. In his search for a suitable place for his festival Wagner struck on Bayreuth with its 18th century baronial opera-house. After a visit in April 1871, while realising that the old building was inadequate for his purposes, Wagner was so taken with the place that he announced the first Bayreuth Festival of 1873 the following month. In November 1871, after he had informed the Bayreuth banker and official representative of the local government, Friedrich Feustel, that he intended to build his festival theatre in Bayreuth, they went out of their way to be accommodating. As early as the 15th of December, Wagnber was able to view a proposed site. It seems that the City Fathers had immediately realised what a big attraction this internationally famous composer and his proposed festival would be, and what economic bvenefits it would bring to this rather remote little town in Franconia. When it turned out that building on the suggested site presented insurmountable difficulties, a new site was immediately sought, and on January 8th, 1872, the Mayor, Theodor Muncker, in  person, undertook the journey to Lucerne, Wagner's residence at the time, to obtain the composer's consent to the new location of the theatre. On January 31st Wagner was again in Bayreuth, where, on February 1st the "Administrative Council of the Bayreuth Festival" was formed. At the end of April Wagner moved to Bayreuth with his family and the children of his wife by her marriage with Hans von Bülow. On May 22nd, his 59th birthday, Wagner laid the foundation-stone of the theatre. To mark the occasion he conducted a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in the old opera house. In this way Wagner wished Beethoven's last symphony with its transition to the sung word to symbolise the foundation-stone of his own work, the music-drama. In 1876 the first Bayreuth Festival took place and the "Nibelung's Ring" was given its first performance. Leading artists took part, Ludwig II, Emperor Wilhelm I, and Don Pedros II of Brazil were in the audience. Franz Liszt, Peter Tchaikovsky, Friedrich Nietzsche and other eminent persons attended either rehearsals or performances. Bayreuth was scarcely able to cope with this onslaught. Many had to put up with makeshift lodgings, and the catering was far removed from present-day standards. Nevertheless, the first festival ended with a deficit, and Wagner was compelled to organize concert tours to make up some of his losses. To repeat the festival was, for the time being, out of the question. Not until 1882 was it possible to put on performances again at the Festival Theatre. The sacred-music-drama "Parsifal" received its first stage performance. On the last evening Wagner himself was suddenly moved to take over the conducting. It was the only time he had ever conducted at the Festival Theatre. In 1874 Wagner took up residence in his new villa "Wahnfried" (in the present-day Richard Wagner Strasse), which had been especially built according to his own specifications. "Villa Wahnfried" was to become thecentre of musical life in Bayreuth far more than the actual Festival Theatre. It was in this house that all the preliminary studies for the "Ring" were gone through. There was hardly a day there without some sort of music-making. Wagner himself, although possessing only slight pianistic ability, used to play anything from Bach's 48 Preludes and Fuges to Liszt's Symphonic Poems and his own music-drama. If there were other pianists present, they, of course, had to play. Joseph Rubinstein, Wagner's "house pianist", was permanently in demand. Hans Richter, the conductor of the "Ring", and Felix Mottl, later to  conduct the Bayreuth "Tristan", were also frequently to be found seated at the piano. Highlights of the year were always the days when Franz Liszt came to stay at Villa Wahnfried. Wagner regarded him the greatest pianist of the age, extolling his performances of Beethoven. Frequently Liszt would play his own compositions. After Wagner's death in 1883 Liszt remained a faithful visitor to the Festival and it was during the 1886 Festival that he died, in a house adjacent to Villa Wahnfried. Wagner also spent many interesting hours at "Wahnfried" searching out the early compositions of his youth - among which there were several large-scale piano works- and bringing them once more to light. In this connection Cosima, Wagner's wife, showed particular initiative. On the occasion of Wagner's 60th birthday she arranged a "gala evening" at the old baronial opera-house, at which the completely unsuspecting guest of honour was treated to several of his own early compositions. It is said that he had hreat difficulty in trying to name the composer! Whereas after Wagner's death the Festival became a permanent institution and made Bayreuth famous throughout the world, the importance of Villa Wahnfried as a centre for intimate gatherings of great musicians of the day gradually waned. Villa Wahnfried is now merely a museum and archive. Dr. Egon Voss