Richard Wagner: Meistersinger - An Orchestral Tribute on Super Audio CD

Orchestrale Verneigungen
Henk de Vlieger setzt seine Erfolgs-Aufnahmen mit den orchestralen Verneigungen vor Richard Wagner fort: in seiner Orchesterfassung erklingt diesmal »Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg«. Henk de Vlieger gelingt es auch hier, die wesentlichen Melodien zu einer »symphonischen Dichtung« zusammenzufassen. Zum ersten Mal erklingen auch zwei Zwischenaktmusiken, die Richard Wagner unvollständig hinterliess. Ergänzt wird die Aufnahme durch die zwei Ouvertüren zu »Columbus« und Goethes »Faust«, die Wagner im jungen Alter von 20 und 25 Jahren komponierte.

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.