570296bk Weber US:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 11/10/08 1:49 PM Page 1

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Antoni Wit The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1946, is the country’s leading professional orchestra. It has an Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting establishment of ninety players and performs over a hundred concerts annually. Touring within New Zealand looms large with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of WEBER in the orchestra’s activities. All its main symphonic programmes are presented in Auckland and Wellington, and as well Music in Kraków, subsequently continuing his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. as this, the orchestra visits some thirty New Zealand towns and cities annually. In 2005 the orchestra undertook a highly He also graduated in law at the Jagellonian University in Kraków. Immediately after successful tour that included performances at the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw, Snape Maltings and the World Expo completing his studies he was engaged as an assistant at the Warsaw Philharmonic Overtures at Aichi in Japan. Pietari Inkinen was appointed as the orchestra’s Music Director from January 2008, succeeding James Orchestra by Witold Rowicki and was later appointed conductor of the Poznan Judd, who held the position from 1999 to 2007 and is now Music Director Emeritus. Other conductors who have worked Philharmonic, collaborated with the Warsaw Grand Theatre, and from 1974 to 1977 with the orchestra during his tenure include Alexander Lazarev, Dimitri Sitkovetsky, David Atherton, Yan Pascal Tortelier was artistic director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic, before his appointment as Der Freischütz • Euryanthe • Oberon and Edo de Waart. Soloists who have worked with the orchestra include Lynn Harrell, Lang Lang, Hilary Hahn, Vadim director of the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus in Kraków, from Repin, Steven Isserlis, Jonathan Lemalu and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has an 1977 to 1983. From 1983 to 2000 he was the director of the National Polish Radio Preciosa • Turandot • Silvana • Abu Hassan extensive catalogue of CD recordings. As part of a commitment to promote and encourage music by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and from 1987 to 1992 he was the chief conductor composers, the orchestra records at least one CD of New Zealand music annually. The NZSO has a strong relationship and then first guest conductor of Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. In 2002 he with Naxos, recording repertoire as diverse as Elgar (three discs), Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven, Bernstein, Copland, Lilburn, became General and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. His New Zealand Symphony Orchestra • Antoni Wit Sculthorpe, Frank Bridge, Akutagawa, Mendelssohn, Honegger, Liszt, and Vaughan Williams. Over one million of these international career has brought engagements with major orchestras throughout CDs have been sold internationally in the last decade and they have received critical acclaim. NZSO discs (Hummel, Elgar Europe, the Americas and the Near and Far East. He has made nearly a hundred and Bernstein) were chosen for the “Editor’s Choice” section of Gramophone in 2004 and Lilburn’s Orchestral Works was records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev, chosen in 2006. www.nzso.co.nz awarded the Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque. In January 2002 his recording of the Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messiaen (8.554478-79) was awarded the Cannes Classical Award in Midem Classic 2002. In 2004 he received the Classical Internet Award and was nominated for a Grammy for his Naxos recording of Penderecki’s St Luke Passion (8.557149), with a further nomination in 2005 for Penderecki’s Polish Requiem (8.557386- 87). Antoni Wit is a professor at the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. Photo of NZSO by Robert Catto

C M Y K 5 8.570296 6 8.570296 570296bk Weber US:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 11/10/08 1:49 PM Page 2

Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) Turandot 5 was written for Stuttgart in 1809. The story to prison. As in Mozart’s Turkish opera, Die Entführung aus in the tree, is killed, visited in death by a vision of Samiel. re-united with Adolar in final happiness, ending a tale that Overtures of the cold-hearted Chinese princess is well enough known dem Serail, (The Abduction from the Seraglio), there is a Max confesses what has happened and is put on probation combines improbability with complexity. The Overture from Puccini’s last opera. Weber’s overture, presumably place in the score for what was then known as ‘Turkish for a year, after which he may, if he acquits himself well, makes use of two of Adolar’s themes, includes ghost music Weber spent much of his childhood with the peripatetic London in April 1826 under the direction of the composer. based on his earlier Overtura Chinesa, now lost, makes use music’, chiefly percussion. The overture provides a lively marry Agathe. The overture contains full statements of and provides a fugal treatment of the first of Adolar’s themes. theatre-company directed by his father, Franz Anton Weber, Weber was a pioneer in the use of the conductor’s baton, of a Chinese melody borrowed from Rousseau’s introduction to the comedy. thematic material from the opera. In its opening it suggests Weber’s final opera, Oberon 3, with an English libretto uncle of Mozart’s wife Constanze, and, like his brother, at and his first appearance with this potential weapon caused Dictionnaire de Musique, where it was wrongly transcribed Weber’s Jubel-Ouvertüre 8, written in 1818, was the forest, the world of the huntsman and forester, while by Planché after Wieland, has its narrative origin in a one time a member of the famous Mannheim orchestra. At alarm among English musicians at his possibly aggressive from Jean Baptiste du Halde’s important and influential intended to form part of a concert in Dresden to celebrate the main part of the overture is a sonata-form conflict chanson de geste, embroidered by Wieland, who knew his the time of Carl Maria Weber’s birth his father was still in intentions. The English weather could only further damage history of China. The pentatonic melody is given a curious the fiftieth anniversary of the King’s accession to the throne. between themes associated with Max and with Agathe. Shakespeare. The work opens with Oberon asleep, the service of the Bishop of Lübeck and during the course his health and he died in London on the eve of his intended twist by the intrusion of an alien note. The same theme It includes a setting of Heil dir im Siegerkranz, familiar as Die drei Pintos (The Three Pintos) (recorded on Naxos separated, as Puck tells us, from Titania, with whom he has of an extended visit to Vienna had taken a second wife, an departure for Germany. appears in the second act March. the British national anthem, in a version borrowed from his 8.6600142-43) had to wait for its completion by Mahler. quarrelled, to be reconciled only if they can find a constant actress and singer, who became an important member of the Weber’s achievement was both considerable and Of Rübezahl, a romantic two-act opera, written in and cantata Kampf und Sieg (Struggle and Victory), composed Weber’s next opera was Euryanthe 1, first staged in Vienna couple, a search that ends in the proved fidelity of Huon of theatre-company established in 1788. Weber’s musical gifts influential. In German opera he had opened a new and rich intended for Breslau in 1805, only three numbers survive, after Waterloo. in 1823. The involved libretto, derived from a thirteenth- Bordeaux, who, with the aid of a magic horn provided by were fostered by his father, who saw in him the possibility vein that subsequent composers were to explore: as an and Weber may never have actually set the whole libretto. Incidental music for Pius Alexander Wolff’s play century romance, tells of a husband driven to test his wife’s Oberon, survives a multitude of adventures in the Middle of a second Mozart. Travel brought the chance of varied if orchestrator he demonstrated new possibilities, particularly He rewrote the overture as a dramatic concert piece, Der Preciosa 6 was composed in 1820, with later additions. fidelity. Adolar, Euryanthe’s husband, wagers on his wife’s East, to be united once more with his beloved Reiza. inconsistent study, in Salzburg with Michael Haydn and in the handling of wind instruments: as a conductor and Beherrscher der Geister (The Ruler of Spirits) 4, in 1811. It was first performed in Berlin in 1821. Based on La constancy with the ill-disposed knight Lysiart. Matters are Oberon’s horn-call starts the well-known Overture, and elsewhere with musicians of lesser ability. Lessons with the director of performances he instituted a number of reforms, It demonstrates Weber’s now very considerable skill and Gitanilla, one of the Novelas exemplares of Cervantes, it complicated by the jealousy of Euryanthe’s friend Eglantine, remains a significant motif throughout a work hampered by Abbé Vogler led to a position as Kapellmeister in Breslau as he had first attempted as an adolescent in Breslau. In met with his own satisfaction. tells the story of a supposed gypsy girl whose noble lover secretly in love with Adolar, and by the restless ghost of its plot and, as Weber saw, by its mixture of singing and in 1804, brought to a premature end through the hostility of style his music follows classical principles of clarity, with Weber’s next stage work was the romantic opera Silvana abandons his own family to be with her, discovering, finally, Emma, Adolar’s dead sister. Lysiart and Eglantine are speaking rôles. musicians long established in the city and through the a particular lyrical facility shown both in his operas and his 7 (recorded on Marco Polo 8.223844-45), staged in that she herself, abducted as a child, is the daughter of eventually thwarted in their evil designs, and Euryanthe is Keith Anderson accidental drinking of engraving acid, left by his father in instrumental and vocal compositions. Frankfurt am Main in 1810. An unusual feature of the work aristocratic parents. The subject allows Weber the chance a wine-bottle. Nothing remains of Weber’s first opera, Die Macht der is the initial silence of Silvana herself. Count Rudolph, out to suggest the exotic music of Spain and his score won A brief and idyllic period in the service of Duke Eugen Liebe und des Weins (The Power of Love and Wine), written hunting in the forest, comes across the mute Silvana and success with audiences. of Württemberg-Öls at Carlsruhe was followed by three in 1799 and never performed. Only fragments survive of takes her back to the castle of Count Adelhart, to whose Der Freischütz (The Marksman) 0 is a work that retains years as secretary to Duke Ludwig of Württemberg, a Weber’s second opera, Das Waldmädchen (The Forest daughter Mechthilde he is betrothed, although she loves an assured place in operatic repertoire, seminal in its younger brother of the reigning Duke. The financial dealings Maiden), staged in Freiberg in 1800, when Weber was another. Matters are finally resolved when a former servant inclusion of leading elements of German romanticism, the of Weber’s father, who had joined him there, led to fourteen. His third opera, Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn reveals that Silvana is the daughter of Count Adelhart, a forest, the huntsman, the Devil and magic. It was first imprisonment and expulsion, and a return to a career as an (Peter Schmoll and His Neighbours) 2 (recorded on Marco revelation that allows her at last to speak. Derived in part staged in Berlin 1821. The young forester Max must win active musician, at first principally as a pianist, appearing in Polo 8.223592-93), had its first performance in Augsburg, from Das Waldmädchen, Weber’s Singspiel is introduced a shooting contest if he is to gain the hand of Agathe. He the major cities of Germany. A short stay in Berlin proved possibly in March 1803. The librettist Joseph Türk based by an overture that uses themes from the work. is induced by Caspar to have resort to Samiel, the Black fruitful, before his appointment to the opera in Prague in his text, much of its dialogue now lost, on a novel by Carl The Singspiel Abu Hassan 9 is based, at second hand, Huntsman, and the powers of evil. Max agrees to meet 1813. In 1817 he was invited to Dresden, where it was hoped Gottlob Cramer. The rich old Peter Schmoll lives with his on an episode in The Arabian Nights. It had its first Caspar at midnight in the Wolf’s Glen to seek diabolical Get this free download from Classicsonline! he would establish German opera, although the first nineteen-year-old daughter Minette. She is in love with the performance in Munich in 1811. Abu Hassan, cup-bearer help, while the latter seeks to escape from Samiel’s power Spohr: Faust Overture performance of Der Freischütz was given in Berlin in 1821. young hero Carl, who turns out to be the son of Peter to the Caliph, and his wife Fatime, are being pressed for by offering Max as a substitute for himself. In a ghostly Copy this Promotion Code NaxMzejbtLhO and go to http://www.classicsonline.com/mpkey/spoh5_main. While the rival Italian opera in Dresden continued to Schmoll’s long lost brother, separated from his family by the debt by Omar, a moneylender, who has designs also on scene magic bullets are cast, six of which will surely hit Downloading Instructions cause Weber trouble, he was invited to write an opera for French revolution. Finally, various misundertandings are Fatime. The couple plan to extract money from the Caliph their intended mark, while the seventh will go where Samiel 1 Log on to Classicsonline. If you do not have a Classicsonline account yet, please register at Vienna. Euryanthe, with a libretto by the blue-stocking resolved and Minette and Carl are happily united. The by each claiming the other is dead, thus eliciting money wills. At the contest Max has used his magic bullets to good http://www.classicsonline.com/UserLogIn/SignUp.aspx. authoress of Rosamunde, Helmina von Chézy, remembered Overture, effectively revised by the composer in 1807 under from the Caliph and his wife. The Caliph promises a reward effect, but Prince Ottakar proposes that he shoot with his 2 Enter the Promotion Code mentioned above. now for Schubert’s incidental music, had a mixed reception. the title Grande Ouverture à plusieurs instruments and for an answer to the mystery, and Abu Hassan, hearing this, seventh bullet a white dove that has settled on a bough. 3 On the next screen, click on “Add to My Downloads”. In spite of deteriorating health, the result of tuberculosis, dedicated to Jérôme Bonaparte, uses melodies from the awakes from the dead. Omar, who has been shut in a Agathe, who has entered, cries out. The hermit touches the Weber accepted a commission from Covent Garden for an opera. cupboard by Fatime, is punished by the Caliph for his bough and the bird flies to another tree. Max shoots and English opera, Oberon, which was first performed in Weber’s incidental music for Schiller’s version of Gozzi’s activities, and the cupboard, with Omar inside, is taken off Agathe falls down fainting, while Caspar, who had hidden 2 8.570296 3 8.570296 4 8.570296 570296bk Weber US:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 11/10/08 1:49 PM Page 2

Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) Turandot 5 was written for Stuttgart in 1809. The story to prison. As in Mozart’s Turkish opera, Die Entführung aus in the tree, is killed, visited in death by a vision of Samiel. re-united with Adolar in final happiness, ending a tale that Overtures of the cold-hearted Chinese princess is well enough known dem Serail, (The Abduction from the Seraglio), there is a Max confesses what has happened and is put on probation combines improbability with complexity. The Overture from Puccini’s last opera. Weber’s overture, presumably place in the score for what was then known as ‘Turkish for a year, after which he may, if he acquits himself well, makes use of two of Adolar’s themes, includes ghost music Weber spent much of his childhood with the peripatetic London in April 1826 under the direction of the composer. based on his earlier Overtura Chinesa, now lost, makes use music’, chiefly percussion. The overture provides a lively marry Agathe. The overture contains full statements of and provides a fugal treatment of the first of Adolar’s themes. theatre-company directed by his father, Franz Anton Weber, Weber was a pioneer in the use of the conductor’s baton, of a Chinese melody borrowed from Rousseau’s introduction to the comedy. thematic material from the opera. In its opening it suggests Weber’s final opera, Oberon 3, with an English libretto uncle of Mozart’s wife Constanze, and, like his brother, at and his first appearance with this potential weapon caused Dictionnaire de Musique, where it was wrongly transcribed Weber’s Jubel-Ouvertüre 8, written in 1818, was the forest, the world of the huntsman and forester, while by Planché after Wieland, has its narrative origin in a one time a member of the famous Mannheim orchestra. At alarm among English musicians at his possibly aggressive from Jean Baptiste du Halde’s important and influential intended to form part of a concert in Dresden to celebrate the main part of the overture is a sonata-form conflict chanson de geste, embroidered by Wieland, who knew his the time of Carl Maria Weber’s birth his father was still in intentions. The English weather could only further damage history of China. The pentatonic melody is given a curious the fiftieth anniversary of the King’s accession to the throne. between themes associated with Max and with Agathe. Shakespeare. The work opens with Oberon asleep, the service of the Bishop of Lübeck and during the course his health and he died in London on the eve of his intended twist by the intrusion of an alien note. The same theme It includes a setting of Heil dir im Siegerkranz, familiar as Die drei Pintos (The Three Pintos) (recorded on Naxos separated, as Puck tells us, from Titania, with whom he has of an extended visit to Vienna had taken a second wife, an departure for Germany. appears in the second act March. the British national anthem, in a version borrowed from his 8.6600142-43) had to wait for its completion by Mahler. quarrelled, to be reconciled only if they can find a constant actress and singer, who became an important member of the Weber’s achievement was both considerable and Of Rübezahl, a romantic two-act opera, written in and cantata Kampf und Sieg (Struggle and Victory), composed Weber’s next opera was Euryanthe 1, first staged in Vienna couple, a search that ends in the proved fidelity of Huon of theatre-company established in 1788. Weber’s musical gifts influential. In German opera he had opened a new and rich intended for Breslau in 1805, only three numbers survive, after Waterloo. in 1823. The involved libretto, derived from a thirteenth- Bordeaux, who, with the aid of a magic horn provided by were fostered by his father, who saw in him the possibility vein that subsequent composers were to explore: as an and Weber may never have actually set the whole libretto. Incidental music for Pius Alexander Wolff’s play century romance, tells of a husband driven to test his wife’s Oberon, survives a multitude of adventures in the Middle of a second Mozart. Travel brought the chance of varied if orchestrator he demonstrated new possibilities, particularly He rewrote the overture as a dramatic concert piece, Der Preciosa 6 was composed in 1820, with later additions. fidelity. Adolar, Euryanthe’s husband, wagers on his wife’s East, to be united once more with his beloved Reiza. inconsistent study, in Salzburg with Michael Haydn and in the handling of wind instruments: as a conductor and Beherrscher der Geister (The Ruler of Spirits) 4, in 1811. It was first performed in Berlin in 1821. Based on La constancy with the ill-disposed knight Lysiart. Matters are Oberon’s horn-call starts the well-known Overture, and elsewhere with musicians of lesser ability. Lessons with the director of performances he instituted a number of reforms, It demonstrates Weber’s now very considerable skill and Gitanilla, one of the Novelas exemplares of Cervantes, it complicated by the jealousy of Euryanthe’s friend Eglantine, remains a significant motif throughout a work hampered by Abbé Vogler led to a position as Kapellmeister in Breslau as he had first attempted as an adolescent in Breslau. In met with his own satisfaction. tells the story of a supposed gypsy girl whose noble lover secretly in love with Adolar, and by the restless ghost of its plot and, as Weber saw, by its mixture of singing and in 1804, brought to a premature end through the hostility of style his music follows classical principles of clarity, with Weber’s next stage work was the romantic opera Silvana abandons his own family to be with her, discovering, finally, Emma, Adolar’s dead sister. Lysiart and Eglantine are speaking rôles. musicians long established in the city and through the a particular lyrical facility shown both in his operas and his 7 (recorded on Marco Polo 8.223844-45), staged in that she herself, abducted as a child, is the daughter of eventually thwarted in their evil designs, and Euryanthe is Keith Anderson accidental drinking of engraving acid, left by his father in instrumental and vocal compositions. Frankfurt am Main in 1810. An unusual feature of the work aristocratic parents. The subject allows Weber the chance a wine-bottle. Nothing remains of Weber’s first opera, Die Macht der is the initial silence of Silvana herself. Count Rudolph, out to suggest the exotic music of Spain and his score won A brief and idyllic period in the service of Duke Eugen Liebe und des Weins (The Power of Love and Wine), written hunting in the forest, comes across the mute Silvana and success with audiences. of Württemberg-Öls at Carlsruhe was followed by three in 1799 and never performed. Only fragments survive of takes her back to the castle of Count Adelhart, to whose Der Freischütz (The Marksman) 0 is a work that retains years as secretary to Duke Ludwig of Württemberg, a Weber’s second opera, Das Waldmädchen (The Forest daughter Mechthilde he is betrothed, although she loves an assured place in operatic repertoire, seminal in its younger brother of the reigning Duke. The financial dealings Maiden), staged in Freiberg in 1800, when Weber was another. Matters are finally resolved when a former servant inclusion of leading elements of German romanticism, the of Weber’s father, who had joined him there, led to fourteen. His third opera, Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn reveals that Silvana is the daughter of Count Adelhart, a forest, the huntsman, the Devil and magic. It was first imprisonment and expulsion, and a return to a career as an (Peter Schmoll and His Neighbours) 2 (recorded on Marco revelation that allows her at last to speak. Derived in part staged in Berlin 1821. The young forester Max must win active musician, at first principally as a pianist, appearing in Polo 8.223592-93), had its first performance in Augsburg, from Das Waldmädchen, Weber’s Singspiel is introduced a shooting contest if he is to gain the hand of Agathe. He the major cities of Germany. A short stay in Berlin proved possibly in March 1803. The librettist Joseph Türk based by an overture that uses themes from the work. is induced by Caspar to have resort to Samiel, the Black fruitful, before his appointment to the opera in Prague in his text, much of its dialogue now lost, on a novel by Carl The Singspiel Abu Hassan 9 is based, at second hand, Huntsman, and the powers of evil. Max agrees to meet 1813. In 1817 he was invited to Dresden, where it was hoped Gottlob Cramer. The rich old Peter Schmoll lives with his on an episode in The Arabian Nights. It had its first Caspar at midnight in the Wolf’s Glen to seek diabolical Get this free download from Classicsonline! he would establish German opera, although the first nineteen-year-old daughter Minette. She is in love with the performance in Munich in 1811. Abu Hassan, cup-bearer help, while the latter seeks to escape from Samiel’s power Spohr: Faust Overture performance of Der Freischütz was given in Berlin in 1821. young hero Carl, who turns out to be the son of Peter to the Caliph, and his wife Fatime, are being pressed for by offering Max as a substitute for himself. In a ghostly Copy this Promotion Code NaxMzejbtLhO and go to http://www.classicsonline.com/mpkey/spoh5_main. While the rival Italian opera in Dresden continued to Schmoll’s long lost brother, separated from his family by the debt by Omar, a moneylender, who has designs also on scene magic bullets are cast, six of which will surely hit Downloading Instructions cause Weber trouble, he was invited to write an opera for French revolution. Finally, various misundertandings are Fatime. The couple plan to extract money from the Caliph their intended mark, while the seventh will go where Samiel 1 Log on to Classicsonline. If you do not have a Classicsonline account yet, please register at Vienna. Euryanthe, with a libretto by the blue-stocking resolved and Minette and Carl are happily united. The by each claiming the other is dead, thus eliciting money wills. At the contest Max has used his magic bullets to good http://www.classicsonline.com/UserLogIn/SignUp.aspx. authoress of Rosamunde, Helmina von Chézy, remembered Overture, effectively revised by the composer in 1807 under from the Caliph and his wife. The Caliph promises a reward effect, but Prince Ottakar proposes that he shoot with his 2 Enter the Promotion Code mentioned above. now for Schubert’s incidental music, had a mixed reception. the title Grande Ouverture à plusieurs instruments and for an answer to the mystery, and Abu Hassan, hearing this, seventh bullet a white dove that has settled on a bough. 3 On the next screen, click on “Add to My Downloads”. In spite of deteriorating health, the result of tuberculosis, dedicated to Jérôme Bonaparte, uses melodies from the awakes from the dead. Omar, who has been shut in a Agathe, who has entered, cries out. The hermit touches the Weber accepted a commission from Covent Garden for an opera. cupboard by Fatime, is punished by the Caliph for his bough and the bird flies to another tree. Max shoots and English opera, Oberon, which was first performed in Weber’s incidental music for Schiller’s version of Gozzi’s activities, and the cupboard, with Omar inside, is taken off Agathe falls down fainting, while Caspar, who had hidden 2 8.570296 3 8.570296 4 8.570296 570296bk Weber US:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 11/10/08 1:49 PM Page 2

Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) Turandot 5 was written for Stuttgart in 1809. The story to prison. As in Mozart’s Turkish opera, Die Entführung aus in the tree, is killed, visited in death by a vision of Samiel. re-united with Adolar in final happiness, ending a tale that Overtures of the cold-hearted Chinese princess is well enough known dem Serail, (The Abduction from the Seraglio), there is a Max confesses what has happened and is put on probation combines improbability with complexity. The Overture from Puccini’s last opera. Weber’s overture, presumably place in the score for what was then known as ‘Turkish for a year, after which he may, if he acquits himself well, makes use of two of Adolar’s themes, includes ghost music Weber spent much of his childhood with the peripatetic London in April 1826 under the direction of the composer. based on his earlier Overtura Chinesa, now lost, makes use music’, chiefly percussion. The overture provides a lively marry Agathe. The overture contains full statements of and provides a fugal treatment of the first of Adolar’s themes. theatre-company directed by his father, Franz Anton Weber, Weber was a pioneer in the use of the conductor’s baton, of a Chinese melody borrowed from Rousseau’s introduction to the comedy. thematic material from the opera. In its opening it suggests Weber’s final opera, Oberon 3, with an English libretto uncle of Mozart’s wife Constanze, and, like his brother, at and his first appearance with this potential weapon caused Dictionnaire de Musique, where it was wrongly transcribed Weber’s Jubel-Ouvertüre 8, written in 1818, was the forest, the world of the huntsman and forester, while by Planché after Wieland, has its narrative origin in a one time a member of the famous Mannheim orchestra. At alarm among English musicians at his possibly aggressive from Jean Baptiste du Halde’s important and influential intended to form part of a concert in Dresden to celebrate the main part of the overture is a sonata-form conflict chanson de geste, embroidered by Wieland, who knew his the time of Carl Maria Weber’s birth his father was still in intentions. The English weather could only further damage history of China. The pentatonic melody is given a curious the fiftieth anniversary of the King’s accession to the throne. between themes associated with Max and with Agathe. Shakespeare. The work opens with Oberon asleep, the service of the Bishop of Lübeck and during the course his health and he died in London on the eve of his intended twist by the intrusion of an alien note. The same theme It includes a setting of Heil dir im Siegerkranz, familiar as Die drei Pintos (The Three Pintos) (recorded on Naxos separated, as Puck tells us, from Titania, with whom he has of an extended visit to Vienna had taken a second wife, an departure for Germany. appears in the second act March. the British national anthem, in a version borrowed from his 8.6600142-43) had to wait for its completion by Mahler. quarrelled, to be reconciled only if they can find a constant actress and singer, who became an important member of the Weber’s achievement was both considerable and Of Rübezahl, a romantic two-act opera, written in and cantata Kampf und Sieg (Struggle and Victory), composed Weber’s next opera was Euryanthe 1, first staged in Vienna couple, a search that ends in the proved fidelity of Huon of theatre-company established in 1788. Weber’s musical gifts influential. In German opera he had opened a new and rich intended for Breslau in 1805, only three numbers survive, after Waterloo. in 1823. The involved libretto, derived from a thirteenth- Bordeaux, who, with the aid of a magic horn provided by were fostered by his father, who saw in him the possibility vein that subsequent composers were to explore: as an and Weber may never have actually set the whole libretto. Incidental music for Pius Alexander Wolff’s play century romance, tells of a husband driven to test his wife’s Oberon, survives a multitude of adventures in the Middle of a second Mozart. Travel brought the chance of varied if orchestrator he demonstrated new possibilities, particularly He rewrote the overture as a dramatic concert piece, Der Preciosa 6 was composed in 1820, with later additions. fidelity. Adolar, Euryanthe’s husband, wagers on his wife’s East, to be united once more with his beloved Reiza. inconsistent study, in Salzburg with Michael Haydn and in the handling of wind instruments: as a conductor and Beherrscher der Geister (The Ruler of Spirits) 4, in 1811. It was first performed in Berlin in 1821. Based on La constancy with the ill-disposed knight Lysiart. Matters are Oberon’s horn-call starts the well-known Overture, and elsewhere with musicians of lesser ability. Lessons with the director of performances he instituted a number of reforms, It demonstrates Weber’s now very considerable skill and Gitanilla, one of the Novelas exemplares of Cervantes, it complicated by the jealousy of Euryanthe’s friend Eglantine, remains a significant motif throughout a work hampered by Abbé Vogler led to a position as Kapellmeister in Breslau as he had first attempted as an adolescent in Breslau. In met with his own satisfaction. tells the story of a supposed gypsy girl whose noble lover secretly in love with Adolar, and by the restless ghost of its plot and, as Weber saw, by its mixture of singing and in 1804, brought to a premature end through the hostility of style his music follows classical principles of clarity, with Weber’s next stage work was the romantic opera Silvana abandons his own family to be with her, discovering, finally, Emma, Adolar’s dead sister. Lysiart and Eglantine are speaking rôles. musicians long established in the city and through the a particular lyrical facility shown both in his operas and his 7 (recorded on Marco Polo 8.223844-45), staged in that she herself, abducted as a child, is the daughter of eventually thwarted in their evil designs, and Euryanthe is Keith Anderson accidental drinking of engraving acid, left by his father in instrumental and vocal compositions. Frankfurt am Main in 1810. An unusual feature of the work aristocratic parents. The subject allows Weber the chance a wine-bottle. Nothing remains of Weber’s first opera, Die Macht der is the initial silence of Silvana herself. Count Rudolph, out to suggest the exotic music of Spain and his score won A brief and idyllic period in the service of Duke Eugen Liebe und des Weins (The Power of Love and Wine), written hunting in the forest, comes across the mute Silvana and success with audiences. of Württemberg-Öls at Carlsruhe was followed by three in 1799 and never performed. Only fragments survive of takes her back to the castle of Count Adelhart, to whose Der Freischütz (The Marksman) 0 is a work that retains years as secretary to Duke Ludwig of Württemberg, a Weber’s second opera, Das Waldmädchen (The Forest daughter Mechthilde he is betrothed, although she loves an assured place in operatic repertoire, seminal in its younger brother of the reigning Duke. The financial dealings Maiden), staged in Freiberg in 1800, when Weber was another. Matters are finally resolved when a former servant inclusion of leading elements of German romanticism, the of Weber’s father, who had joined him there, led to fourteen. His third opera, Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn reveals that Silvana is the daughter of Count Adelhart, a forest, the huntsman, the Devil and magic. It was first imprisonment and expulsion, and a return to a career as an (Peter Schmoll and His Neighbours) 2 (recorded on Marco revelation that allows her at last to speak. Derived in part staged in Berlin 1821. The young forester Max must win active musician, at first principally as a pianist, appearing in Polo 8.223592-93), had its first performance in Augsburg, from Das Waldmädchen, Weber’s Singspiel is introduced a shooting contest if he is to gain the hand of Agathe. He the major cities of Germany. A short stay in Berlin proved possibly in March 1803. The librettist Joseph Türk based by an overture that uses themes from the work. is induced by Caspar to have resort to Samiel, the Black fruitful, before his appointment to the opera in Prague in his text, much of its dialogue now lost, on a novel by Carl The Singspiel Abu Hassan 9 is based, at second hand, Huntsman, and the powers of evil. Max agrees to meet 1813. In 1817 he was invited to Dresden, where it was hoped Gottlob Cramer. The rich old Peter Schmoll lives with his on an episode in The Arabian Nights. It had its first Caspar at midnight in the Wolf’s Glen to seek diabolical Get this free download from Classicsonline! he would establish German opera, although the first nineteen-year-old daughter Minette. She is in love with the performance in Munich in 1811. Abu Hassan, cup-bearer help, while the latter seeks to escape from Samiel’s power Spohr: Faust Overture performance of Der Freischütz was given in Berlin in 1821. young hero Carl, who turns out to be the son of Peter to the Caliph, and his wife Fatime, are being pressed for by offering Max as a substitute for himself. In a ghostly Copy this Promotion Code NaxMzejbtLhO and go to http://www.classicsonline.com/mpkey/spoh5_main. While the rival Italian opera in Dresden continued to Schmoll’s long lost brother, separated from his family by the debt by Omar, a moneylender, who has designs also on scene magic bullets are cast, six of which will surely hit Downloading Instructions cause Weber trouble, he was invited to write an opera for French revolution. Finally, various misundertandings are Fatime. The couple plan to extract money from the Caliph their intended mark, while the seventh will go where Samiel 1 Log on to Classicsonline. If you do not have a Classicsonline account yet, please register at Vienna. Euryanthe, with a libretto by the blue-stocking resolved and Minette and Carl are happily united. The by each claiming the other is dead, thus eliciting money wills. At the contest Max has used his magic bullets to good http://www.classicsonline.com/UserLogIn/SignUp.aspx. authoress of Rosamunde, Helmina von Chézy, remembered Overture, effectively revised by the composer in 1807 under from the Caliph and his wife. The Caliph promises a reward effect, but Prince Ottakar proposes that he shoot with his 2 Enter the Promotion Code mentioned above. now for Schubert’s incidental music, had a mixed reception. the title Grande Ouverture à plusieurs instruments and for an answer to the mystery, and Abu Hassan, hearing this, seventh bullet a white dove that has settled on a bough. 3 On the next screen, click on “Add to My Downloads”. In spite of deteriorating health, the result of tuberculosis, dedicated to Jérôme Bonaparte, uses melodies from the awakes from the dead. Omar, who has been shut in a Agathe, who has entered, cries out. The hermit touches the Weber accepted a commission from Covent Garden for an opera. cupboard by Fatime, is punished by the Caliph for his bough and the bird flies to another tree. Max shoots and English opera, Oberon, which was first performed in Weber’s incidental music for Schiller’s version of Gozzi’s activities, and the cupboard, with Omar inside, is taken off Agathe falls down fainting, while Caspar, who had hidden 2 8.570296 3 8.570296 4 8.570296 570296bk Weber US:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 11/10/08 1:49 PM Page 1

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Antoni Wit The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1946, is the country’s leading professional orchestra. It has an Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting establishment of ninety players and performs over a hundred concerts annually. Touring within New Zealand looms large with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of WEBER in the orchestra’s activities. All its main symphonic programmes are presented in Auckland and Wellington, and as well Music in Kraków, subsequently continuing his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. as this, the orchestra visits some thirty New Zealand towns and cities annually. In 2005 the orchestra undertook a highly He also graduated in law at the Jagellonian University in Kraków. Immediately after successful tour that included performances at the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw, Snape Maltings and the World Expo completing his studies he was engaged as an assistant at the Warsaw Philharmonic Overtures at Aichi in Japan. Pietari Inkinen was appointed as the orchestra’s Music Director from January 2008, succeeding James Orchestra by Witold Rowicki and was later appointed conductor of the Poznan Judd, who held the position from 1999 to 2007 and is now Music Director Emeritus. Other conductors who have worked Philharmonic, collaborated with the Warsaw Grand Theatre, and from 1974 to 1977 with the orchestra during his tenure include Alexander Lazarev, Dimitri Sitkovetsky, David Atherton, Yan Pascal Tortelier was artistic director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic, before his appointment as Der Freischütz • Euryanthe • Oberon and Edo de Waart. Soloists who have worked with the orchestra include Lynn Harrell, Lang Lang, Hilary Hahn, Vadim director of the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus in Kraków, from Repin, Steven Isserlis, Jonathan Lemalu and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has an 1977 to 1983. From 1983 to 2000 he was the director of the National Polish Radio Preciosa • Turandot • Silvana • Abu Hassan extensive catalogue of CD recordings. As part of a commitment to promote and encourage music by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and from 1987 to 1992 he was the chief conductor composers, the orchestra records at least one CD of New Zealand music annually. The NZSO has a strong relationship and then first guest conductor of Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. In 2002 he with Naxos, recording repertoire as diverse as Elgar (three discs), Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven, Bernstein, Copland, Lilburn, became General and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. His New Zealand Symphony Orchestra • Antoni Wit Sculthorpe, Frank Bridge, Akutagawa, Mendelssohn, Honegger, Liszt, and Vaughan Williams. Over one million of these international career has brought engagements with major orchestras throughout CDs have been sold internationally in the last decade and they have received critical acclaim. NZSO discs (Hummel, Elgar Europe, the Americas and the Near and Far East. He has made nearly a hundred and Bernstein) were chosen for the “Editor’s Choice” section of Gramophone in 2004 and Lilburn’s Orchestral Works was records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev, chosen in 2006. www.nzso.co.nz awarded the Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque. In January 2002 his recording of the Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messiaen (8.554478-79) was awarded the Cannes Classical Award in Midem Classic 2002. In 2004 he received the Classical Internet Award and was nominated for a Grammy for his Naxos recording of Penderecki’s St Luke Passion (8.557149), with a further nomination in 2005 for Penderecki’s Polish Requiem (8.557386- 87). Antoni Wit is a professor at the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. Photo of NZSO by Robert Catto

C M Y K 5 8.570296 6 8.570296 570296bk Weber US:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 11/10/08 1:49 PM Page 1

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Antoni Wit The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1946, is the country’s leading professional orchestra. It has an Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting establishment of ninety players and performs over a hundred concerts annually. Touring within New Zealand looms large with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of WEBER in the orchestra’s activities. All its main symphonic programmes are presented in Auckland and Wellington, and as well Music in Kraków, subsequently continuing his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. as this, the orchestra visits some thirty New Zealand towns and cities annually. In 2005 the orchestra undertook a highly He also graduated in law at the Jagellonian University in Kraków. Immediately after successful tour that included performances at the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw, Snape Maltings and the World Expo completing his studies he was engaged as an assistant at the Warsaw Philharmonic Overtures at Aichi in Japan. Pietari Inkinen was appointed as the orchestra’s Music Director from January 2008, succeeding James Orchestra by Witold Rowicki and was later appointed conductor of the Poznan Judd, who held the position from 1999 to 2007 and is now Music Director Emeritus. Other conductors who have worked Philharmonic, collaborated with the Warsaw Grand Theatre, and from 1974 to 1977 with the orchestra during his tenure include Alexander Lazarev, Dimitri Sitkovetsky, David Atherton, Yan Pascal Tortelier was artistic director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic, before his appointment as Der Freischütz • Euryanthe • Oberon and Edo de Waart. Soloists who have worked with the orchestra include Lynn Harrell, Lang Lang, Hilary Hahn, Vadim director of the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus in Kraków, from Repin, Steven Isserlis, Jonathan Lemalu and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has an 1977 to 1983. From 1983 to 2000 he was the director of the National Polish Radio Preciosa • Turandot • Silvana • Abu Hassan extensive catalogue of CD recordings. As part of a commitment to promote and encourage music by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and from 1987 to 1992 he was the chief conductor composers, the orchestra records at least one CD of New Zealand music annually. The NZSO has a strong relationship and then first guest conductor of Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. In 2002 he with Naxos, recording repertoire as diverse as Elgar (three discs), Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven, Bernstein, Copland, Lilburn, became General and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. His New Zealand Symphony Orchestra • Antoni Wit Sculthorpe, Frank Bridge, Akutagawa, Mendelssohn, Honegger, Liszt, and Vaughan Williams. Over one million of these international career has brought engagements with major orchestras throughout CDs have been sold internationally in the last decade and they have received critical acclaim. NZSO discs (Hummel, Elgar Europe, the Americas and the Near and Far East. He has made nearly a hundred and Bernstein) were chosen for the “Editor’s Choice” section of Gramophone in 2004 and Lilburn’s Orchestral Works was records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev, chosen in 2006. www.nzso.co.nz awarded the Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque. In January 2002 his recording of the Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messiaen (8.554478-79) was awarded the Cannes Classical Award in Midem Classic 2002. In 2004 he received the Classical Internet Award and was nominated for a Grammy for his Naxos recording of Penderecki’s St Luke Passion (8.557149), with a further nomination in 2005 for Penderecki’s Polish Requiem (8.557386- 87). Antoni Wit is a professor at the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. Photo of NZSO by Robert Catto

C M Y K 5 8.570296 6 8.570296 Also available:

8.550378 8.550928

8.550959 8.660142-43 NAXOS NAXOS Carl Maria von Weber composed a number of pioneering works for the operatic stage as well as incidental music whose highly attractive scores combine Classical principles of clarity with a unique lyricism and orchestral mastery that would inspire later Romantic composers. This disc presents overtures from his ever-popular Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon, as well as from other undeservedly lesser-known operatic works, alongside concert pieces such as the 8.570296 WEBER: WEBER: Jubel-Ouvertüre and Der Beherrscher der Geister, and the incidental music for the plays DDD Preciosa and Turandot, all of which amply display his vivid and refined dramatic imagination. Playing Time Carl Maria von 76:24

Overtures WEBER Overtures (1786–1826) Overtures 1 Euryanthe, J.291 8:31 2 Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn, J.8 10:00 3 Oberon, J.306 9:35 4 Der Beherrscher der Geister, J.122 5:43 www.naxos.com Printed & Assembled in USA Disc Made in Canada Booklet notes in English ൿ 5 Turandot: Overture and Act II March, J.75 5:38 Ltd. Naxos Rights International 6 & Preciosa, J.279 7:59 Ꭿ

7 Silvana, J.87 6:18 2008 8 Jubel-Ouvertüre, J.245 8:02 9 Abu Hassan, J.106 3:30 0 Der Freischütz, J.277 10:15

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra C Antoni Wit M 8.570296 Includes free downloadable bonus track from the Naxos catalogue available 8.570296 at www.classicsonline.com. Please see booklet for full details. Y Recorded at Wellington Town Hall, New Zealand, 13–15 July 2006 • Producer & Engineer: Tim Handley Publishers: Breitkopf (1, 3), Kalmus (2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10), Schott (6), Luck’s (9) K Booklet notes: Keith Anderson • Cover photo: Bled lake, Slovenia (© Andreja Donko / Dreamstime.com)