Jaap van Zweden, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir & State Male Choir Latvija
Parsifal
- Type SACD hybrid
- Label Challenge Classics
- UPC 0608917251920
- Catalog number CC 72519
- Release date 30 May 2011
About the album
Philosopher Ernst Bloch once referred to the ‘Bühnenweihfestspiel’ or consecrational stage festival Parsifal as ‘a metaphysical adagio’. In these few words he summed up the story line and the musical purport of Wagner's last opera – that is, if such a thing is at all possible in his operas, because as a composer Wagner was never at a loss for words when it came to bandying about statements artistic and non-artistic about the world in general and the universe in particular. Wagner’s musical theatre revolves around fundamental questions of human existence. Tristan und Isolde is about an all-consuming love, but also about the implications of the longing for love and the death wish. The work is about defining an identity through love and the loss of that identity through that same love. Der Ring des Nibelungen is about the incompatibility of love and the pursuit of power; it is also an in-depth exploration of the question of whether man has a free will, and it is about the eternal cycle of destruction and renewal which holds mankind captive on this earth.
Parsifal is about all of the above and much, much more. Wagner himself defined the theme of his swan song as ‘Das große Leid des Lebens’, the great suffering of life. Everything he still wanted to say at the end of his life about life, love, sex, psychology, politics, society, nature, art, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and anti-Semitism was mixed together in a grail chalice (poisonous, according to some) to form a ‘metaphysical adagio' of four hours of consecrational musical drama. Consecrational in the literal meaning of the word. Wagner’s own name for the genre, ‘Bühnenweihfestspiel’ means a consecrational stage festival. The plot of Parsifal refers implicitly and explicitly to Christianity and religious rites. Indeed, it was one of Wagner’s many ambitions to replace European Christianity by his own ritual art.
The Ring Wagner had to resolve the ‘problem’ of love in a new work. That work was Parsifal. The essential difference with all his prior works is the fact that there is no love in Parsifal. All the characters live in a loveless universe in which only the urge to reproduce – desire, lust – remains. Although Wagner's answer to this remains to be seen for the time being, one thing is important here. With Schopenhauer, Wagner does not view the urge to reproduce as morally reprehensible. He situated Siegfried, who suffered from the same fault in the Ring, in an amoral universe, not an immoral one – in a world where morals are not violated, but where all moral is absent. This is also the case in Parsifal, and it is part of the secret of Wagner’s huge success in the nineteenth century. (Part of the programme information written by Willem Bruls)
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11ACT I Vorspiel
12:24 -
12ACT I He! Ho! Waldhüter ihr
08:24 -
13ACT I Recht so! - Habt Dank! - Ein wenig Rast
05:52 -
14ACT I Nicht Dank! - Haha! Was wird es helfen?
07:57 -
15ACT I O wunden-wundervoller heiliger Speer!
03:44 -
16ACT I Titurel, der fromme Held, der kannt?ihn wohl
10:54 -
17ACT I Weh! Weh!... Wer ist der Frevler?
07:03 -
18ACT I Nun sag! Nichts weißt du, was ich dich frage
07:01 -
21ACT I Vom Bade kehrt der König heim
02:04 -
22ACT I Verwandlungsmusik
03:45 -
23ACT I Nun achte wohl und laß mich seh?n
07:09 -
24ACT I Mein Sohn Amfortas, bist du am Amt?
11:01 -
25ACT I Enthüllet den Gral!
07:39 -
26ACT I Wein und Brot des letzten Mahles
11:15 -
31ACT II Vorspiel
01:59 -
32ACT II Die Zeit ist da. - Schon lockt mein Zauberschloß den Toren
03:40 -
33ACT II Ach! - Ach! Tiefe Nacht!
10:40 -
34ACT II Hier war das Tosen! Hier, hier!
04:05 -
35ACT II Komm, komm, holder Knabe!
04:59 -
36ACT II Parsifal! - Weile!
02:46 -
37ACT II Dies alles hab?ich nun geträumt?
08:46 -
38ACT II Wehe! Wehe! Was tat ich? Wo war ich?
04:24 -
39ACT II Amfortas! - Die Wunde! - Die Wunde!
08:28 -
310ACT II Grausamer! Fühlst du im Herzen nur and?rer Schmerzen
12:11 -
311ACT II Vergeh, unseliges Weib!
04:01 -
41ACT III Vorspiel
05:10 -
42ACT III Von dorther kam das Stöhnen
07:55 -
43ACT III Heil dir, mein Gast!
06:34 -
44ACT III Heil mir, daß ich dich wiederfinde!
04:21 -
45ACT III O Herr! War es ein Fluch
07:07 -
46ACT III Nicht so! - Die heil?ge Quelle selbst erquicke unsres Pilgers Bad
04:00 -
47ACT III Gesegnet sei, du Reiner, durch das Reine!...
05:00 -
48ACT III Wie dünkt mich doch die Aue heut so schön!
02:45 -
49ACT III Du siehst, das ist nicht so
06:36 -
410ACT III Mittag. - Die Stund? ist da
04:16 -
411ACT III Geleiten wir im bergenden Schrein den Gral zum heiligen Amte
04:02 -
412ACT III Ja, Wehe! Wehe! Weh?über mich!
06:51 -
413ACT III Nur eine Waffe taugt
05:08 -
414ACT III Höchsten heiles Wunder!
03:57
Diepte interview met Reinbert de Leeuw
09-06-2017
Op 23 juni verschijnt een nieuw album met muziek van György Kurtág uitgevoerd door het Asko | Schönberg Ensemble en het Groot Omroepkoor onder leiding van Reinbert de Leeuw. Ter gelegenheid hiervan zocht Aart van der Wal de dirigent op voor een uitgebreid interview voor Opus Klassiek. Lees hier deel 1 van het interview, en hier deel 2.
Twee quotes:
"Dat paste ook in onze ideologie: niet een keer iets van een componist uitvoeren, ...
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