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Symphony in C / Tristan und Isolde / Siegfried Idyll

Edo de Waart / Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony in C / Tristan und Isolde / Siegfried Idyll

Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917264920
Catnr: CC 72649
Release date: 12 September 2014
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1 CD
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917264920
Catalogue number
CC 72649
Release date
12 September 2014

"3 stars Technique 3,5/5"

Diapason, 03-8-2015
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
EN
NL
DE

About the album

With Edo de Waarts, Henk de Vlieger and Otto Tausk, some of the Netherlands‘ best musicians and conductors have joined one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious orchestra. Together, they invite the listener into Wagner’s world of music theatre: Enjoy his Symphony in C major, revel in the Siegfried Idyll and suffer with the lovers Tristan and Isolde.

He admitted quite frankly that his first compositions showed leanings towards Beethoven; But nowhere is Beethoven as palpably present as in the Symphony in C, which Wagner wrote in the early summer of 1832, according to him in a period of six weeks. Just how thoroughly Wagner had studied the scores of his great predecessor is equally apparent from his mastery of counterpoint and his total grasp of the material. Moreover, the composer himself is already unmistakably present with a theatrical effect that more than once evokes associations with orchestral intermezzos in an opera. But nowhere in Wagner’s works are drama and things theatrical so integrated into the music as in Tristan und Isolde, a work that is at the same time the most symphonic of his operas. A special place in Wagner’s oeuvre is reserved for the Siegfried Idyll, the birthday present with which he surprised his wife Cosima, on 25 December 1870.Although the musical themes were largely borrowed from the opera Siegfried this Siegfried Idyll is the least theatrical and most elegiac work imaginable by the composer It is his ultimate musical declaration of love to the woman who had gladdened him a year and a half before with the birth of their son Siegfried. It is his name, and not that of the opera, that should be linked to the name
that Wagner actually only gave to this musical idyll when it was officially published 1877.
Wagners onbekende Symfonie in C, gecombineerd met populaire werken
Dit album bevat werken van Richard Wagner, uitgevoerd door het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest onder leiding van Edo de Waart, een van de beste Wagnerdirigenten van deze tijd. Het album richt zich op de Symfonie in C, een werk wat zelden wordt opgenomen. Daarnaast bevat het album twee populaire werken: delen van Tristan und Isolde, waaronder een bewerking van "Nachtgesang" voor orkest van Henk de Vlieger, en de Siegfried Idyll.

Beethoven is nergens zo duidelijk in de muziek van Wagner aanwezig als in de Symfonie in C, die Wagner in de zomer van 1832 componeerde. Uit zijn perfecte beheersing van het contrapunt en begrip van het materiaal valt af te leiden hoe goed Wagner de partituren van Beethoven bestudeerd heeft. Het werk werd geprezen door Robert Schumann.

In geen enkel werk van Wagner zijn drama en theater zo geïntegreerd in de muziek als in Tristan und Isolde. Tegelijkertijd is dit ook de meest symfonische opera van deze componist. Dit tijdloze liefdesdrama is geen drama in de echte zin van het woord. Volgens filosoof Ernst Bloch is het een verhaal over twee mensen die vooruitgaan in de nacht; ze gaan van de ene wereld naar de andere.

De Siegfried Idyll neemt een bijzondere plaats in in Wagners oeuvre. Het is geschreven als verjaardagsgeschenk voor zijn vrouw Cosima. Dit is zijn ultieme liefdesverklaring aan de vrouw die hem anderhalf jaar eerder had verblijd met de geboorte van zijn zoon Siegfried. De titel verwijst ook naar de zoon, en niet naar de opera van Wagner, ook al werd er muziek uit gebruikt.
Mit Edo de Waarts, Henk de Vlieger und Otto Tausk sind auf dieser Aufnahme einige der besten Musiker und Dirigenten sowie eines der ältesten und angesehensten Orchester der Niederlande versammelt. Lassen Sie sich von der Niederländischen Radio Philharmonie in die Welt des Wagnerschen Musiktheaters entführen: Genießen sie seine Symphonie in C, schwelgen Sie im Siegfried-Idyll und leiden Sie mit den Liebenden Tristan und Isolde!

Artist(s)

Edo de Waart (conductor)

Edo de Waart established a notable conducting career in the last third of the 20th century, becoming known for clear, exciting performances in a wide range of repertory. He came from a musical family, being the son of a choral singer. He studied oboe with Haakon Stotijn and also conducting at the Music Lyceum in Amsterdam. He became co-principal oboe of the Amsterdam Philharmonic in 1961 and associate principal of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1963. Meanwhile, he studied conducting, including a course with Franco Ferrara at Hilversum in 1964. This led to a debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in 1964. That same year he won the prestigious Dimitri Mitropoulos Conductors' Competition in New York, which resulted in a year-long appointment as an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1965-66). He became assistant...
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Edo de Waart established a notable conducting career in the last third of the 20th century, becoming known for clear, exciting performances in a wide range of repertory. He came from a musical family, being the son of a choral singer. He studied oboe with Haakon Stotijn and also conducting at the Music Lyceum in Amsterdam. He became co-principal oboe of the Amsterdam Philharmonic in 1961 and associate principal of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1963. Meanwhile, he studied conducting, including a course with Franco Ferrara at Hilversum in 1964. This led to a debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in 1964. That same year he won the prestigious Dimitri Mitropoulos Conductors' Competition in New York, which resulted in a year-long appointment as an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1965-66). He became assistant conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw under Bernard Haitink in 1966. He made an impressive recorded debut with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, which he founded in 1967, including classic recordings of Mozart wind music. He was also appointed co-music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Jean Fournet, becoming sole music director when Fournet vacated his appointment in 1973. His association with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, which lasted until 1979, became noted for firm, exciting orchestral performances and intriguing choices of repertory. In 1975 he became principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and was elevated to music director in 1977. Although the orchestra was often capable of fine performances, it was variable and had weaknesses. De Waart lifted its standards, turning it into a consistently fine orchestra. In 1985 he conducted an acclaimed series of the complete Wagner Ring operas in San Francisco.
Over the years he has made many appearances as an opera conductor, including Bayreuth, Covent Garden, the Santa Fe Opera, Paris' Bastille Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. He conducted the first recording of Adams' Nixon in China, which won a Grammy Award in 1988. In 1996 he debuted at the Salzburg Festival with Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
In 1993 he was appointed chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney (Australia) Symphony Orchestra, and in August 1995 led it on its first European tour in 20 years. In 1996 he took it on its first tours of Japan and Taiwan, and in 1998, on an American tour. He was appointed artistic director of the Netherlands Dutch Radio and Television Organization, and chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. At the beginning of the 1999-2000 season he began his tenure as chief conductor of the Netherlands Opera. In that year de Waart became music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, with his contract extended until 2012. He assumed responsibilities as musical director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2009. An advocate of modern and contemporary music, he has conducted the work of Reich, Torke, Wuorinen, and Britten.

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Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first concert on 7 October 1945, led by its founder and ‘first conductor‘ Albert van Raalte, on Radio “Herrijzend Nederland”. Initially the orchestra spent most of its time in studios working on a large number of recordings for the public broadcasting system. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic featured prominently in the Saturday Matinee as soon as the series started in 1961, and has continued to give frequent live performances ever since. The celebrated Saturday Matinee has hosted many legendary concerts. Illustrious soloists such as Kathleen Ferrier, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Clara Haskil and Jean-Pierre Rampal have shared the stage with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2004, the three classical orchestral formations of the broadcasting 15 system...
more
The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first concert on 7 October 1945, led by its founder and ‘first conductor‘ Albert van Raalte, on Radio “Herrijzend Nederland”. Initially the orchestra spent most of its time in studios working on a large number of recordings for the public broadcasting system. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic featured prominently in the Saturday Matinee as soon as the series started in 1961, and has continued to give frequent live performances ever since. The celebrated Saturday Matinee has hosted many legendary concerts. Illustrious soloists such as Kathleen Ferrier, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Clara Haskil and Jean-Pierre Rampal have shared the stage with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2004, the three classical orchestral formations of the broadcasting 15 system were transformed into two: the present Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. In 2006, these two orchestras, the Netherlands Radio Choir and the Metropole Orchestra joined the Dutch public broadcasting organisation NPO.
The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra has been conducted by great names such as Bernard Haitink, Jean Fournet, Hans Vonk, Sergiu Comissiona and Edo de Waart. Jaap van Zweden was named its chief conductor in September 2005. The orchestra has also worked with numerous famed guest conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, Kirill Kondrashin, Antál Dorati, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur and Valery Gergiev. Soon after its founding, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic found itself foremost in Dutch musical life in the number of performances and the diversity of its repertoire, with a predilection for Dutch and contemporary works in its programming. It has honed another facet of its striking profile with a great many opera concertante performances. The orchestra has an extensive discography, ranging from legendary LPs recorded in the 1970s under such conductors as Leopold Stokowski and Antal Doráti to Jean Fournet’s much-lauded renderings of French repertoire. Under Edo de Waart, not only did it release its legendary Wagner interpretations, but also the complete orchestral works of Rachmaninov. CDs with work by contemporary composers such as Jonathan Harvey, Klas Torstensson, Jan van Vlijmen and Stravinsky have garnered prizes and much acclaim.

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Composer(s)

Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner was an important innovator of music in his time. He is best known for his operas, which he himself preferred to refer to as musical dramas. He wrote the texts (the libretti) himself and sought to make a Gesamtkunstwerk, the ideal union of text, music and theatre. Over time, this lead to grandiose musical dramas which were performed in a specially built theater for these works in the small town of Bayreuth. Wagner's greatest critic, the philosopher Nietzsche, named his former friend the 'greatest miniaturist of music who in the smallest of space squeezed an endless amount of sense and sweetness'. Nietzsche regarded this as a sympton of decadence, yet it does portray the large variety of treasures which can...
more

Richard Wagner was an important innovator of music in his time. He is best known for his operas, which he himself preferred to refer to as musical dramas. He wrote the texts (the libretti) himself and sought to make a Gesamtkunstwerk, the ideal union of text, music and theatre. Over time, this lead to grandiose musical dramas which were performed in a specially built theater for these works in the small town of Bayreuth.

Wagner's greatest critic, the philosopher Nietzsche, named his former friend the "greatest miniaturist of music who in the smallest of space squeezed an endless amount of sense and sweetness". Nietzsche regarded this as a sympton of decadence, yet it does portray the large variety of treasures which can be found in Wagner's music: the mysterious fantasy stories of the love potion of Tristan & Isolde, Wotan's spear, the sea of flames of Brünhilde, the sword of Siegfried... Still the real main character is the orchestra, which shines its light on all the true intentions and feelings of these heroes with great depth.

Both as a composer and as an individual, Wagner remains a subject of controversy and emotional discussions. By many he is hailed as a hero, and by equally many others completely dismissed. But his influence as a composer and musical innovator is undeniable!


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Press

3 stars Technique 3,5/5
Diapason, 03-8-2015

No quote.
Luister, 01-2-2015

['']...For major Wagner fans, this is an important release: the symphony's a rarity, and the Nachtgesang arrangement really is wonderful...['']
Music Web International, 01-2-2015

"A valuable addition to the earlier 3-cd-box releases."
Opus Klassiek, 19-12-2014

Edo de Waart and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra admirably take Wagner at his word, playing with verve, beautifully upholstered sound and some giddy climaxes.
Sinfini Music, 21-10-2014

(...) a really naturally flowing Interpretation that lovingly takes care about the musical details 
FonoForum, 15-10-2014

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Often bought together with..

Anton Bruckner
Bruckner No. 7
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra / Bernard Haitink
Robin de Raaff
Atlantis
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Willem Jeths
Ritratto
Dutch National Opera / Amsterdam Sinfonietta / Geoffrey Paterson
Various composers
Nox
Hannes Minnaar
Richard Wagner
Meistersinger - an orchestral tribute
Edo de Waart / Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

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