Composer: Richard Wagner
Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Conductor: Neeme Järvi
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Release: 2011
Size: 1.33 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg)
(an Orchestral Tribute, arr. H. de Vlieger)
01. I. Vorspiel
02. II. Versammlung der Meistersinger
03. III. Gesang der Lehrbuben
04. IV. Sachsens Monologue
05. V. Vorspiel III
06. VI. Taufspruch
07. VII. Zöge der Zönfte
08. VIII. Tanz der Lehrbuben
09. IX. Aufzug der Meistersinger
10. X. Walther’s Preislied
11. XI. Schlussgesang
Eine Faust-Overture (A Faust Overture)
12. Eine Faust Ouverture
Deux Entreactes tragiques (arr. H. de Vlieger)
13. I. Allegro
14. II. Allegro con brio
Overture to Сolumbus (arr. F. Mottl)
15. Overture to Columbus
Recorded: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow; 17-19 August 2010
Neeme Järvi conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the fourth album of their Wagner series.
Their performances on the previous three volumes have received high critical acclaim. American Record Guide wrote of Volume 1: ‘This is wonderful playing and sound… Järvi knows exactly what to do to make the music speak. The orchestra sounds better than I’ve ever heard them.’
This disc features a symphonic arrangement by the Dutch composer and percussionist Henk de Vlieger of Wagner’s only comic opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. It is the only opera by Wagner centred round a specific time and place in history, rather than a mythical or legendary past. The story takes place in Nuremberg during the middle of the sixteenth century, and revolves around the real-life guild of the Master Singers, an association of amateur poets and musicians who developed a craftsman-like approach to music-making.
Wagner left the two early Entreactes tragiques unfinished, the first only partially orchestrated, and they are heard here in orchestrations completed by De Vlieger.
Completing the disc are the seldom performed and recorded Overture to Columbus, and Eine Faust-Ouvertüre by Wagner. Written in 1835, when Wagner was just twenty-two years old, the Weber-influenced Columbus Overture introduces the play by Theodor Apel. His Faust-Overture followed in 1840. Taking its inspiration from Goethe’s famous play, this work, together with Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, became the main example of nineteenth-century programme music.