On my journey through my record collection, I am currently playing a selection of Haydn String Quartets. Most outstanding is Opus 76 No 3 in C, especially the second movement akaThe Emperor aka a lot else.
The German National Anthem to be precise.
I thought it always has been the German National Anthem. Or, at least, since the days of the glorious but doomed Weimar Republic.
I fell in love with the piece when we sang it in school choir with the words Praise the Lord. My parents really didn't like me playing it; for years I thought their objection was solely to my appalling playing.
Jan Morris links it with Deutschland, Deutschland uber Alles.
There is a bit of history here and here. Customarily, only the third verse is sung these days, to avoid the connotations of Deutschland, Deutschland uber Alles.
When England play Germany at football, of course I am fired up with a deep hope that our boys will win the match - for, of course, Germany are formidable opponents on the football field, and a victory over them is more satisfying than one over an indifferent team - yet I yearn for an National Anthem as exquisitely beautiful as theirs. Even though Haydn was inspired by the dirge-like God Save the King to write this...
The recording I have is strange. I use the word exquisite again to describe the interpretation by the Lindsays. However, it is a live recording in front of an audience in the Wigmore Hall. Somebody sneezes, and at times it sounds as if the person holding the microphone is sniffing sonorously snottily. I'm not sure of the advantage of 'live' recordings of chamber music.
Next month I shall be attending my first ever Wagnerian opera - Das Rheingold. I don't suppose I shall abe able to close my mind to the political subtext, although I understand that Parsifal is the one that has been interpreted as being the inspiration for Nazi-ism - Wagner and anti-semitism; So what is the message of Parsifal; Parsifal and Race; and Wagner Chronology
