David Harbin writes:

>I can't understand why some think Kna is too slow or inflexible in
>Wagner.  Here he achieves great tension and use of rubatto.  If you listen
>to the final moments of Act II alone they are slow.  When you listen to the
>whole Act they have sweep, fire and excitement.

There's a German tradition that recommends playing slow movements, notably
of Bruckner and Wagner, at a pompous, regal tempo, producing a stately air.
Furtwaengler conjured it up it now and then, Celibidache more often, and
Knappertsbusch, Weingartner, Walter could be deft at it.  But Celi was
liable to overdo it.  I heard him and the Munich Philharmonic play the
Siegfried Idyll once and it fell apart for me--and I think for the
orchestra-- because he had stepped too hard on the brakes.  But on another
occasion I heard him do the funeral march from Goetterdaemmerung and that
ran well.  But then, Celi only did orchestral parts of Wagner so there's
no telling how he might have brought off a complete opera.

Denis Fodor