Parsifal by Jaap van Zweden, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir & State Male Choir Latvija

Jaap van Zweden, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir & State Male Choir Latvija

Parsifal

Price: € 20.95
Format: SACD hybrid
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917251920
Catnr: CC 72519
Release date: 30 May 2011
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Hi-res download at Spirit of Turtle

SACD hybrid (5 items) ✓ in stock	€ 20.95	Buy
		Hi-res download at Spirit of Turtle

Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917251920

Catalogue number
CC 72519

Release date
30 May 2011

"CHARACTERISTIC PIECES"

Infodad.com, 21-7-2017

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

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)

Wagner's laatste opera: een emotioneel spektakel
Richard Wagner noemde Parsifal zijn 'Bühnenweihfestspiel', een festivaloptreden om het podium in te wijden. Wagner begon in 1957 met het schrijven van deze opera, 25 jaar later zou hij hem afmaken, waarmee het zijn laatste opera werd. Parsifal werd toen pas, in 1882, voor het eerst uitgevoerd tijdens het Bayreuth Festival.

De opera omvat de thema’s van Wagner's meest bekende muzikale theateruitvoeringen. Allesomvattende liefde en haar consequenties uit Tristan en Isolde; de onverenigbaarheid van liefde en het verlangen naar macht uit de Ring der Nibelungen. Alles wat Wagner nog wilde zeggen aan het eind van zijn leven, over liefde, politiek, natuur en religie komt samen in dit 4 uur durend muziekdrama. En al deze emotie is terug te horen in deze live-registratie van Parsifal, uitgevoerd in de Zaterdagmatinee in het Concertgebouw Amsterdam (2010). De magische en gloedvolle interpretatie van dirigent Jaap van Zweden samen met de sublieme muzikale begeleiding van het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest en het Groot Omroepkoor, met welbekende solisten, maakt dit album tot een onvergetelijke ervaring.

Jaap van Zweden (Amsterdam, 1960) leerde al op zijn 5e viool spelen, aangemoedigd door zijn vader. Hij studeerde viool in Amsterdam. Toen hij op zijn 15e het Nationaal Vioolconcours Oskar Back won, kon hij zelfs gaan studeren aan de beroemde Juilliard School in New York. Nog maar 18 jaar, kreeg hij een telefoontje van Bernard Haitink, de bekende chef-dirigent van het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest. Of hij concertmeester wilde worden. Hij werd daarmee de jongste concertmeester ooit van het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest. Tijdens een repetitie in Berlijn van een symfonie van Mahler, onder leiding van dirigent Leonard Bernstein, vroeg deze hem even het stokje over te nemen. Dat was het begin van zijn carrière als dirigent. Inmiddels heeft Jaap van Zweden naam gemaakt als dirigent. Hij leidt grote orkesten en treedt op als gastdirigent bij gerenommeerde orkesten over de hele wereld. In januari 2016 is hij benoemd tot chef-dirigent van het New York Philharmonic Orchestra, in de stad waar het ooit voor hem begon.

Het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest werd in 1945 opgericht door Albert van Raalte. Het staat in dienst van de Nederlandse Publieke Omroep, waar ook het Groot Omroepkoor nauw mee verbonden is. Sinds het bestaan van het orkest, is het altijd geleid door bekende dirigenten, bovendien werken ze nauw samen met beroemde gastdirigenten. Het orkest onderscheidt zich door het spelen van bijzonder geprogrammeerde symfonische concerten. Eerste uitvoeringen in Nederland en wereldpremières zijn geen uitzondering. Het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest treedt ook regelmatig op in het buitenland.

Magisch-glutvoller Parsifal aus Amsterdam

Dieser Live-Mitschnitt des Parsifal vom 12. Dezember 2010 im Concertgebouw Amsterdam kann nicht nur mit einer festspiel-würdigen Sängerriege aufwarten, sondern überzeugt vor allem durch Jaap van Zwedens glutvolle, magische Interpretation. Ihm steht das Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra als herausragender Klangkörper zur Verfügung, ergänzt durch zwei fulminante Chöre.

Eine Bonus-DVD enthält 10 Höhepunkte der konzertanten Aufführung aus dem Concertgebouw Amsterdam, die vom niederländischen Fernsehen NTR aufgezeichnet wurde.

Besetzung der Hauptrollen:
Parsifal: Klaus Florian Vogt, Tenor
Kundry: Katarina Dalayman, Sopran
Amfortas: Falk Struckmann, Bass-Bariton
Titurel: Ante Jerkunica, Bass
Gurnemanz: Robert Holl, Bass
Klingsor: Krister St. Hill, Bariton

Artist(s)

Born in Amsterdam in 1960, Jaap Van Zweden began his musical career as a violinist, becoming at nineteen the youngest ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1997, van Zweden made his decision to conduct full time, played his last concert as a violinist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and was named the chief conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra where he remained until 2003. In 2000, he added the music directorship of the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague to his credits, a post he held until 2005.
Jaap van Zweden began his third season as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in September 2010. His commitment to the orchestra was recently extended through the 2015-2016 season. Under his direction, the orchestra is enhancing its programming and community outreach, continuing to champion new composers, and raising its national profile with an annual residency in Vail, CO and a 2011 appearance at Carnegie Hall in the inaugural Spring for Music Festival. Concurrently with his post in Dallas, van Zweden’s other titled positions include chief conductor and artistic director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (2005-2012), and chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra of Belgium (2008-2012).

Under van Zweden’s leadership, the DSO has established an ongoing residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival through the summer of 2012, and debuted five world premiere works over two seasons as part of the DSO’s Texas Instruments Classical Series. Throughout the past seasons, the orchestra, under van Zweden's leadership, has received lavish praise from notable media including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Musical America, The Financial Times, BBC Music Magazine, The Dallas Morning News and many others. In a December 2009 article in The LA Times, Mark Swed named van Zweden one of the”Faces to Watch“ in 2010, noting van Zweden “knows how to generate tense, tactile excitement in all kinds of music.”

Van Zweden has also become a highly sought-after guest artist since the DSO introduced him to US audiences in 2007. During the 2010-2011 season, van Zweden debuts with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, San Paulo Symphony, Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic. He makes his much-anticipated fourth guest appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and returns to guest conduct with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Louis Symphony and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

He also has guested with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capital de Toulouse, Munich Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Tokyo Philharmonic, among others.

The 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 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.

Composer(s)

Richard Wagner

Press

CHARACTERISTIC PIECES
Infodad.com, 21-7-2017

Extremely fine achievement from an impressive orchestra under an idiomatic instinctive Wagnerian
Opera, 01-3-2012

The most distinctive feature and greatest asset of this recording is the simply wonderful sound-world that Jaap van Zweden and the recording engineers have together conjured up for this work: it is luminous, detailes are well balanced
The Wagner Journal, 01-3-2012

Critic's Choice 2011
Gramophone, 01-12-2011

The main glory here is the superb playing of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. It respinds to every demand of the score, under the inspiring baton of Jaap van Zweden, who seems to be the ideal man to conduct this incredible score, which wounds and heals simultaneously.
BBC Music Magazine, 01-11-2011

Wagner performances don't often come more intense, epic, or beautiful than this.
Classic FM Magazine, 01-11-2011

This Parsifal never gets too loud; it may just be the most lyrically spotless, smoothest reading the opera has ever has. String playing shimmers at all times and the winds breathe.
International Record Review, 01-11-2011

Van Zweden is without a doubt a good Wagnerian, who cares about the traditions.
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