Richard Wagner(1813 – 1883)

SUPER AUDIO CD NEEME JÄRVI CONDUCTS Overtures and Preludes Royal Scottish National Orchestra Richard Wagner, May 1865 May Wagner, Richard Photograph by Josef Albert (1825 – 1886) / AKG Images, London / Imagno Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) Overtures and Preludes 1 Overture to ‘Die Feen’, WWV 32* 10:48 Adagio – Un poco meno adagio – Tempo I – Allegro con molto fuoco – Più allegro 2 Overture to ‘Columbus’, WWV 37† 8:02 Edited 1907 by Felix Mottl (1856 – 1911) as concert overture with the title Christoph Columbus Allegro molto agitato – Andante maestoso – Tempo I – Andante maestoso – Tempo I – Andante maestoso – Tempo I – Andante – Tempo I – Andante – Presto 3 Overture to ‘Das Liebesverbot’, WWV 38* 8:10 Molto vivace – Allegro con fuoco – Presto 4 Overture to ‘Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen’, WWV 49‡ 11:16 Molto sostenuto e maestoso – Allegro energico – Un poco più vivace – Molto più stretto 3 5 Eine Faust-Ouvertüre, WWV 59† 11:03 Sehr gehalten – Sehr bewegt – Sehr allmählich das Tempo etwas zurückhalten – A tempo – Wild 6 Overture to ‘Der fliegende Holländer’, WWV 63‡ 11:00 Allegro con brio – Andante – Animando un poco – Tempo I – Molto animato – Un poco ritenuto [not previously released] 7 Prelude to Act III of ‘Lohengrin’, WWV 75* 3:04 Sehr lebhaft 8 Prelude to ‘Tristan und Isolde’, WWV 90* 6:43 Langsam und schmachtend 9 Prelude to ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’, WWV 96† 8:56 Sehr mäßig bewegt – Bewegt, doch immer noch etwas breit – Mäßig im Hauptzeitmaß – Im mäßigen Hauptzeitmaß – Sehr gewichtig TT 80:00 Royal Scottish National Orchestra William Chandler* • Peter Thomas† • Maya Iwabuchi‡ leaders Neeme Järvi 4 Wagner: Overtures and Preludes Overture to ‘Die Feen’ Overture to ‘Columbus’ / Eine Faust- Even if the overall style of Wagner’s first great Ouvertüre romantic, although less well-known, opera, That Wagner wrote instrumental music for Die Feen, WWV 32 (1833 – 34), based on a spoken drama appears as no accident in the La donna serpente by Carlo Gozzi, owes its essentials light of his later œuvre. Wagner the operatic to Beethoven, Marschner, and Weber – composer held the view that drama did not something that Wagner himself never hid in primarily spring from the text, but from the the least – there are at the same time clearly audible music. Not the words, but the notes have the foreshadowings of Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. greatest dramatic impact and determine the This emerges unequivocally, for example, in the direction of the work. In order to lend the balanced, solemn main theme of the Overture, music the desired dramatic effect, he took but also in the effervescent allegro theme. By advantage of many expressive devices from contrast, there are passages that sometimes even older traditions. One may say about Wagner recall Mendelssohn (although at that point his that his rhetorical sensibility essentially Ein Sommernachtstraum was still to be written!). The goes back to the baroque. However, all the distinctiveness of Die Feen, which received its baptism techniques borrowed from that period, of fire in Munich in 1888, after Wagner’s death, such as the many suspensions, the delayed is, however, the amalgam of historical, mythical, resolution of dissonances through the subtle and fairytale elements. This is a phenomenon that play between melody and accompaniment, comes to the fore even more strongly in Wagner’s and the insertion of new voices to strengthen mature music dramas, Lohengrin and Der Ring des the harmonic framework, are massively Nibelungen first and foremost among them. amplified by Wagner by means of the larger time span of the compositions, the dominant © 2011 Maarten Brandt role of the instrumentation, and the blurring Translation from the Dutch: of the distinction between vocal and Hannah Mason for Surrey Translation Bureau instrumental writing styles. All these techniques 5 enabled him to compose instrumental dramas. cultural sphere, Wagner was, with Liszt (who Wagner wrote instrumental pieces that, with the lived in Weimar from 1849 onwards), the knowledge of later events, can be described as main representative of the instrumental drama symphonic poems avant la lettre. What carries without a clear model: much more important the music of Wagner beyond that of the baroque, than faithfulness towards an inherited pattern with the simple addition of a classical sense of was an intuitive sense of tension, relaxation, form and a romantic and theatrical engagement and proportion, especially in works on a large with expression, are his melodic style and his timescale. (Wagner gave shape to this idea in love of complexity and ambiguity. His early his operas, in which the through-composed mature pieces are clear forerunners in this form places entirely new demands on the respect. The Overture toColumbus , WWV 37 organisation.) Not only in the architecture, but (1835) is his prelude to the play by Theodor also in the details there exist similarities between Apel (1811 – 1867), which enjoyed a certain the works of the two composers: the play with popularity in Germany in the 1830s. Revealing leitmotives (already present in the music of is the form, which departs from the stereotype of Weber, but made much more important by an Italian operatic overture (a slow introduction, both), the love of counterpoint, and the much followed by a fast section in sonata form) in greater role of the instrumentation (not just favour of a free alternation of slow and fast a colouring of a given structure, but a crucial passages. The instrumentation stands halfway element in the architecture of compositions). between Weber and Wagner. Although Eine Faust-Ouvertüre does not Entirely Wagnerian (and not only in the prepare the ground for an opera, it is tempting instrumentation) is Eine Faust-Ouvertüre (A to consider the orchestral piece as a narrative Faust Overture), WWV 59, originally written work, even if we do not know which episode(s) in 1840, but revised in 1855: once again a from Faust Wagner wanted to depict. Certainly, composition devoted to the archetypical seeker after 1850 the Overture, together with Berlioz’s Faust and once again a work, with a narrative Symphonie fantastique, became the perfect title, that stands on its own. With respect to example of nineteenth-century programme form, it stands miles away from the classical music. sonata, but it demonstrates indisputable cohesion. Around 1850, in the German © 2011 Emanuel Overbeeke 6 Overture to ‘Das Liebesverbot’ Tribunen, WWV 49 (1838 – 40) was Das Liebesverbot, WWV 38 (1834 – 36, freely composed at a time when Wagner was after Shakespeare’sMeasure for Measure) is, still under the influence of Italian opera. at first hearing, the most southern-sounding This influence can be detected especially opera that Wagner wrote. This is especially in the passages with a regular beat, in an apparent in the brimming vitality of the instrumentation that pays great attention Overture, in which the tone is set straight to percussion, and in a strong sense of the away by the sparkling contribution of popular. In fact, one critic claimed that in castanets, triangle, and tambourine. What is bad performances the overture sounded more, anyone who did not know better could more like Auber than Wagner – around easily attribute its actual main theme to the 1840 Auber was a very fashionable composer Verdi of Un ballo in maschera, mindful and Rienzi was Wagner’s attempt to conform that the latter work would not be completed to the principles of grand opera. until 1857. Nonetheless, blood will tell in © 2012 Emanuel Overbeeke Das Liebesverbot as well, as one of the common threads in the story is a passionate plea for a love that goes beyond all social Overture to ‘Der fliegende Holländer’ conventions. With this, we really touch upon If the Overture to Rienzi (like the work the universal theme that forms the core of itself) shows indebtedness to Italian grand many of Wagner’s compositions, among opera, a musical style more influenced by which Tannhäuser and the impressive lovers’ nationalist fervour is evident in the Overture tragedy Tristan und Isolde deserve special to Der fliegende Holländer, WWV 63 mention. (1841). Wagner combines his enthusiasm for Germanic traditions, such as the © 2011 Maarten Brandt phenomenon of the restless wanderer and the Translation from the Dutch: idea of nature as an important, if not decisive, Hannah Mason for Surrey Translation Bureau force in human life, with an urge towards harmonic adventure, though he subjects the Overture to ‘Rienzi’ piece to a classical sense of phrasing and to The Overture toRienzi, der Letzte der a form vaguely reminiscent of the classical 7 overture: energetic opening and closing Chorus, which is festively introduced by the sections frame a quiet, pastoral, and reflective brilliant Prelude to Act III. passage. It is also an ‘overture’ in the sense © 2010 Leo Samama that it introduces some of the themes of the opera. But although the themes prefigured in the overture are only a small number of those Prelude to ‘Tristan und Isolde’ that constitute the overall material in the The Prelude toTristan und Isolde, WWV 90 work, it is obvious that the opera is a complex (1865) is a milestone in western music, in its composition presenting many aspects. influence on posterity only comparable with compositions such as © 2013 Emanuel Overbeeke Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Le Sacre du printemps, and Le Marteau sans maître. Such earthquakes Prelude to Act III of ‘Lohengrin’ never come wholly unexpectedly, and Wagner composed his opera Lohengrin, Wagner’s Tristan is no exception to that. WWV 75 during the years 1846 – 48, The most frequently discussed feature of the completing it just before the revolution in opening bars, which present the ‘Tristan- March 1848 (the full score was finished motive’ (an unresolved dissonance followed the following month).

Load more