Richard Wagner - Orchestral Works

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)

Orchestral Works

Lohengrin: Prelude To Act 1

Die Walkure: The Ride Of The Valkyries

Siegfried: Forest Murmurs

Die Gotterdammerung: Funeral March

Tristan Und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod

Die Meistersinger Von Nurmberg: Prelude To Act III

Parsifal: Good Friday Spell

The MET (Metropolitan)Orchestra 

James Levine

Recorded New York, Manhattan Center, May 1995

Review:

I have come to feel that after 35 + years of listening, that opera excerpts sound better when played by opera orchestras, to get the true sense of the composer's intent. A full symphony orchestra on the stage is always a thrill, but these works were not really intended to be played as such. There are so many excellent concert hall performances, I won't even try to enumerate them.

James Levine and his superb Met Orchestra allow us to be seated in the house, lights down and listen to these preludes and pieces from sonme of Wagner's finest works. We can almost imagine voices over the music, as indeed the maestro's balance and control of his collegues is firm and well proportioned.

The Lohengrin prelude is as glorious as I've heard and trully magical. One quibble, the double basses seem a bit too loud, but the string playing is rapturously defined. Ride of the Valkyries is the least of my favorite wagner music dispite Levine's wonderful touch. Enough of the bombast, already. Siegfried's Forrest Murmurs is sweet, gentle and delicately rendered. I've never been so impressed with this work as I am here, so I am grateful for its inclusion on this cd.

The Trauermarsch is a bit subdued for my tastes, but still eloquent and noble, as indeed Siegfried is, dispite his naivete. The climactic rhythm of the tympany is noticeable, but I would prefer a greater emphasis. Still, this is funeral music for a hero, heroicly performed.

I agree with the Santa Fe Listener, Tristan und Isolde could benefit from an increase in passion as the Orchestra seems to underestimate the intensity of the love between this man and woman. In fact, I never really appreciated this idea until I read Sant Fe's review. Thank you my friend. But, even routinely played, this is great music, all the more when we consider Wagner broke away from the Ring's composition for Tristan and Meistersinger. Amazing!

Meistersinger's Act III prelude is woefully under exposed on cds and Levine treats us to a fine rendition, but it would have been nice to include Act I's prelude as well. A similar case applies to Parsifal. Instead of the opera's opening prelude, we get the Good Friday Music complete with a wonderfully excecuted Dresden Amen sequence. If I were Levine, I would have skipped Ride of the Valkyries and the Forrest Murmers to include Act I preludes to both Meistersinger and Parsifal.

Levine said in a radio interview many years ago that the Met orchestra, or any great opera orchestra plays differently and, I would surmize, better than a concert orchestra because they are always hearing "voices." Their whole musical world is vocal/instrumental and I think that distinguises them from, say the N.Y. Philharmonic or the Cleveland Orchestra, just 2 examples. I wonder, were these works played by essentially the same size group as would play on opera nights, and, more curiously, was this cd recorded with the musicians in the pit? Probably not, but how would it have sounded? Interesting, yes?

It seems to me that Levine and his charges are wholely on the same page. Wagner's only real competition in opera excerpts is Mozart, but there just isn't much material to compare with. Different styles, different times.

Still, this is a fine recording and worthy of anyone's collection. I can only imagine what a Flying Dutchman or a Lohengrin "without words" might sound like with these forces.

Amazon Reviewer