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Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) Lohengrin 1 Prelude (Vorspiel) Act 1 8. 24 Wesendonck Lieder (Orchestration: Felix Mottl) 2 Der Engel 3. 17 3 Stehe still 3. 46 4 Im Treibhaus 5. 41 5 Schmerzen 2. 35 6 Träume 4. 15 Lohengrin 7 Elsa’s dream: “Einsam in trüben Tagen” (Act 1) 6. 25 Tristan und Isolde 8 Prelude (Vorspiel) Act 1 9. 49 9 Isolde’s love-death (Liebestod): “Mild und leise” (Act 3) 6. 13 Tannhäuser 10 Elisabeth’s prayer: “Allmächt’ge Jungfrau !” (Act 3) 5. 57 Die Walküre 11 “Du bist der Lenz” (Act I – Sieglinde) 2. 16 Charlotte Margiono, soprano Limburg Symphony Orchestra Maastricht conducted by: Ed Spanjaard Recording venue: Theater aan het Vrijthof, Maastricht, The Netherlands, June 29 – July 1, 2006 Recording Producer: Wilhelm Hellweg Balance Engineer: Erdo Groot Recording Engineer: Daan van Aalst Editing: Ientje Mooij Total playing time: 59. 23 Love, Death and Passion ments of the n this Wagner recital, the Dutch so- score: Wagner Iprano, Charlotte Margiono, proves had broken new herself to be the Wagner heroine par ground, both in his excellence. The title choice points employment of the or- to a well thought-out concept. The chestra and in the manner three combined “romantic operas” in which he had set the libretto – Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and the to music. The prelude has a pro- “plot in three acts”, Tristan und Isolde grammatic-symphonic character and – have an important common denomi- the special orchestral techniques em- nator: the heroine dies as a result of ployed by the composer immediately her doomed love for the hero of the grab the attention of the audience. opera. Thus Elisabeth’s death contrib- The blending of sound so typical of utes to the salvation of Tannhäuser, Wagner – a new and individual sound- Elsa pays with her life for her lack of tone created by the simultaneous trust in Lohengrin, and Isolde – surely mixing of the unique sound of two or the most sublime of Wagner’s female more instruments – is achieved here characters – seeks certain death in by various high string groups and order to be eternally reunited with her woodwind. The motif of the prelude lover Tristan. exudes the Grail-like atmosphere of Although Wagner had already Montsalvat. completed the work on his score for Wagner assigned specific instru- Lohengrin by the end of March 1848, ments to the characters in his operas: his sudden, politically motivated for the depiction of Elsa, for instance, flight from Saxony in 1849 delayed he employed the entire woodwind the première until August 28, 1850. section. The key assigned to her is This took place in Weimar, under the A flat major, which changes at times baton of Franz Liszt, yet without the to A flat minor. After having been ac- presence of the composer: at the time, cused of fratricide, Elsa is called upon Wagner was in exile in Zurich. Liszt by King Henry to defend herself. But also noted the two major achieve- she speaks with dreamlike ecstasy of a knight who has appeared to her fulfil a double role: on the one hand, and promised to help her (“Einsam in they were used as preliminary studies trüben Tagen”, = Alone in dark days). for Tristan (in fact, Wagner had spe- The Wesendonck Lieder were set cifically subtitled “Im Treibhaus” and to music between November 1857 “Träume” as Studien zu Tristan und and the beginning of May 1858. They Isolde); and on the other, they were were written more or less during the musical expression of his close re- the same period as Tristan and thus lationship with Mathilde Wesendonck. bear much of the essence of this “Der Engel” was the first song, com- extremely unusual work. During pleted by the composer on November his exile in Zurich, Wagner had met 30, 1857 and followed four days Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a later by “Träume” on December 4. businessman, who was to become Two months later, on February 22, his muse and great love. Towards Wagner finished work on “Stehe Still” the end of April 1857, she arranged and concluded the cycle with “Im for him to move into a house owned Treibhaus” on May 1, 1858. He was by her husband Otto Wesendonck, highly satisfied with his work, as is located near the Wesendonck villa. evidenced in a letter sent to Mathilde In his new home, which he called on October 9, 1858 after revising the his “asylum”, Wagner completed the songs. “I have never written anything libretto for Tristan und Isolde: this to surpass these songs: in fact, only a encouraged Mathilde Wesendonck to few of my works could stand shoulder write five poems, which Wagner later to shoulder with them”. The version set to music. The first version was by Felix Mottl which was used for for female voice and piano, and this recording is closely based on the was later orchestrated by Felix instrumentation and orchestration of Mottl (followed by another Tristan – which does not always en- orchestration by Hans tirely benefit the intimate mood of the Werner Henze in the original songs. 20th century). The unrequited love affair between The songs Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck is particularly reflected in Tristan und articulate or Isolde. The work was written between convey within October 1854 and summer 1859, and the world of emo- is one of the most personal confes- tions is transmitted sions – albeit cast in an “objective” by the pure and inwardly mould – ever made by an artist. It focussed absolute music of is a work of artistic escapism: it cor- Wagner. It is important to note responds profoundly with Wagner’s here that Wagner abstains from the beliefs concerning “musical drama”, use of chromaticism in any part of as put down in his book Oper und the opera which, from a psychologi- Drama, and breaks with the opera cal point of view, deals with death conventions of the day. It would be wishes or the readiness to die – take, hard to find a braver pioneering ven- for example, the use of the key of E ture than Tristan, with its erotic poetic (horns) in “Tristans Vision”, or “Isoldes fervour and its distinct melodic and Liebestod”. harmonic chromaticism, which ad- From July 1843 to April 1845, vanced – thanks to the ideal matching Wagner worked on the musical reali- of this combination – into the spir- zation of his fifth opera, Tannhäuser. itual sphere, which lies deeply hidden Although the formal structure of away under the surface of human the opera still largely followed that relationships. Wagner had recognised of grand opera, he created a dra- this, admitting that “my music will be matically bonded story-line from horrific, a quagmire, an abyss”. The at the separate pieces. What is new, is times overwhelmingly intense musi- the transformation of the recitatives cal expression can already be heard in into separate pieces and the musical the Prelude, in which the reinterpreta- language in itself. Here are already tion, alteration and false closes cause included special chromatic append- havoc with the harmony (for example, ages, which function according to in the Tristan chord), which surely the principal of the most direct route, heralds the beginning of “modern without however cancelling the tonal music”. That which is impossible to foundation. Elisabeth’s aria from the third act (“Allmächt’ge Jungfrau, hör Charlotte Margiono mein Flehen”) is a tranquil resting he soprano Charlotte Margiono point within the story flow, a point of Twas born in Amsterdam. She self-recollection before death: here, began her studies at the Arnhem the music is purely diatonic. Conservatoire, where she at first stud- For more than a quarter of a ied the recorder. In 1977, her voice century, between 1848 and 1874, was ‘discovered’, and from then on- Wagner worked on his opus mag- wards, she received coaching from num, Der Ring des Nibelungen, thus the legendary Aafje Heynis. creating one of the greatest tetralo- Her international breakthrough gies in the history of opera. From came about in 1988, when she sang the first act of Die Walküre comes the role of Vitellia in Mozart’s La clem- Sieglinde’s “Du bist der Lenz”, her enza di Tito at the Aix-en-Provence answer to Siegmund’s “Winterstürme music festival. In the Netherlands, wichen dem Wonnemond”. Lynn Hart her breakthrough was to come two wrote the following with regard to years later as Fiordiligi in Così fan this scene: “It doesn’t matter who first tutte, under the baton of Nikolaus says ‘you are the picture that I carry Harnoncourt. This breakthrough also within me’, because it’s the same for confirmed her permanent position them both: ‘you are the springtime’. among the top international Mozart A fine young, as yet totally immature sopranos. She has sung roles in love blossoms, in which each one Mozart operas at all the major opera- really only loves himself or herself houses in Europe and Japan. in the other – a narcissistic mirroring. In the meantime, she has greatly But the mutual recognition and expanded her repertoire. This now in- confirmation is overwhelming.” cludes not only Mozart roles, but also roles in Die verkaufte Braut, La bo- Franz Steiger hème, Der Freischütz, Otello, Rusalka, English translation: La damnation de Faust, Fidelio, Die Charles Kenwright Meistersinger and Lohengrin. She first sang Chrystothemis (in Elektra) in La Monnaie in Brussels, and Sieglinde lyrico spinto. in Die Walküre with De Nederlandse Perhaps you Opera. should just call my She has worked with most major voice fully lyrical…’. conductors: these include Claudio And further on in the inter- Abbado, Frans Brüggen, Sir Colin view, she adds: ‘Sometimes Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Valery enormous powers are unleashed.

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