Opera Overtures: Meistersinger / Tristan & Isolde

On this CD:

1. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, opera, WWV 96 Overture
Composed by Richard Wagner
Performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Franz Konwitschny

2. Tristan und Isolde, opera, WWV 90 Overture
Composed by Richard Wagner
Performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Franz Konwitschny

3. Tannhäuser, opera, WWV 70 Overture
Composed by Richard Wagner
Performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Franz Konwitschny

4. Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), opera, WWV 63 Overture
Composed by Richard Wagner
Performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Franz Konwitschny

5. Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 28
Composed by Richard Strauss
Performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Franz Konwitschny

Opera Overtures: Meistersinger / Tristan & Isolde, Music, Wagner, Strauss, Czech Phil, Konwitschny, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Orchestral & Symphonic

Wagner: Overtures & Preludes
Average customer rating:

A well-kept secret

Essential Wagner

Excellent Wagner from a surprising source ... or maybe not!

Go For Boult

Memorable and dramatic- A must have for Wagner fans

Wagner: Overtures & Preludes

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by Wagner | Wagner, Richard | ( W ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
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Similar Items:

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde/Parsifal/Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg/Lohengrin/Tannhäuser

The Best Of Wagner

Wagner: The "Ring" Without Words

Twilight of the Gods: The Essential Wagner Collection

Wagner: Orchestral Favourites

ASIN: B000002S08
Release Date: 1992-09-29

Tracks:

Tannher: Overture
Tannher: Grand March
Der Fliegende Holler: Overture
Tristan und Isolde: Prelude to Act 1
Tristan und Isolde: Prelude to Act 3
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg: Overture
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg: Prelude to Act 3
Lohengrin: Prelude to Act 1

Tracks:

Lohengrin: Prelude to Act 3
Parsifal: Prelude to Act 1
Parsifal: Act 1 Transformation scene
Parsifal: Prelude to Act 3
Parsifal: Good Friday Music
Das Rheingold: Entrance of the Gods
Die Walkure: Ride of the Walkyries
Siegfried: Forest murmurs
Gotterdammerung: Siegfried's Rhine Journey
Gotterdammerung: Siegfried's Funeral March

Customer Reviews:

A well-kept secret.......2007-05-18

Everyone wants to have a crack at the "bleeding chunks" eventually, and while I love the flashier Stoky and Furtwangler approach, I wouldn't want to be without the Boult. He's a great Wagnerian, strange as it may seem. Who could blame him for not wanting to go down in history merely as the finest Holstian? As long as this stays in print, Ormandy will still be considered the least sexy conductor. (I heard CBS researchers found an Ormandy fan once!)

Essential Wagner.......2006-06-17

As a child, this set was my first experience of Wagner's music, and it made quite an impression on me. However, as I grew older and began to collect the full operas I felt I could surely do better than Adrian Boult and the British for a collection of the preludes, overtures, and orchestral music from the operas. I was wrong. I have yet to here any recordings that can match the power and intensity as demonstrated in these discs from Boult and the LSO (and LPO). The Meistersinger prelude alone is worth the price, and the only version of the prelude to Tristan which outdoes the one here is Bohm's live 1966 Tristan. The Solti, Karajan, and Klemperer highlight discs have their moments (and truthfully, I do prefer Solti and Karajan for the "Ring" highlights), but their contributions are greatest in the full operas, and overall, they simply can't muster the power and intensity that Boult brings to these preludes, overtures, etc.

Even if you have other compilations of Wagner's music in "bleeding chunks", I can assure you they don't come close to this one; and with two discs (the second containing mostly music from Parsifal and the "Ring") at 14 bucks, there is absolutely no excuse not to have this essential recording. So go ahead and buy this disc, never buy another Wagner compilation again, and with the money you save get started on the more important task at hand: the full operas.

Excellent Wagner from a surprising source ... or maybe not!.......2004-09-27

Does Sir Adrian Boult conjure up of images of Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughn Williams, but not Wagner? You're not alone! Nevertheless, this is a double CD set not to be missed! Many years ago, I was listening to a classical radio music station in NYC that was playing the music of Wagner. The performance was so good, that I wouldn't leave the radio until I found out the name of the conductor. When the announcer said the conductor was Sir Adrian Boult, I was quite surprised. I had recordings of English music from Sir Adrian on Angel/EMI, but I never associated that conductor with Wagner. Having been blessed with a friend who had knowledge of classical music way beyond his years, I gave him a call to find out more about the recording. He told me that, Boult had solid expertise in the area of Germanic music, but, in England, had been overshadowed in that repertoire by Otto Klemperer. He told me not to be surprised about Boult's very fine Wagner, it was an excellent recording to purchase and, indeed, search out Sir Adrian's wonderful performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (now available on Vanguard). Fast-forward many years and I find myself browsing through Amazon for a recording of Wagner's Overtures and Preludes. Like everyone else I know, I foolishly jettisoned my LPs in the 1990s and have been "back-filling" ever since. Well, I was able to obtain this splendid set for less than $7 per CD! There are a total of 18 selections covering most of Wagner's operas including five excerpts from the Ring Cycle. The performances are excellent coming from no less than three British orchestras, and the sound is top-shelf EMI. Sir Adrian's pacing is measured and his vision is broad and sensitive, highlighting the beauty and grandeur --rather than just the fire-- of this glorious music. I heartily recommend this two-CD set, and at this price, I think it's a steal.

Go For Boult.......2003-07-08

Sir Adrian Boult is best known for his recordings of the British repertoire, and his performances, particularly of Holst's "The Planets" and Elgar's Symphonies and Orchestral Works, are legendary. But Boult was also an excellent conductor of Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner, and this 2-CD set collects the Overtures and Preludes of the latter German titan. These stereo recordings from the early to mid-1970s with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, and London Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras are truly first rate. EMI's set compares nicely in terms of price, quality and musical offerings with competing sets by DG (Bohm, Kubelik, et al) and Sony (Ormandy & Szell). You might have reservations about getting German music conducted by a Brit, but you really can't go wrong with Boult.

Memorable and dramatic- A must have for Wagner fans.......2000-03-20

I bought this cd for the following reasons: 1 I'm a Wagner fan, 2 the cover looks exquisite and 3 I wanted to hear a "prelude" since it sounds fancy and never heard one. The result is great cd. The Tannhauser overture, Tristan and Isolde prelude and Lohengrin Prelude to act 3 are all very excellent. Excerpts from the Ring of the Nibelunge aren't as good as I had anticipated but are still enjoyable. The music speaks the tales of Wagner's operas. Just hear it, as slow and irksome as they maybe, these preludes make you feel the tragic love of Tristan and Isolde, the epic odyssey of Lohengrin and the holy, heavenly spirit in Parsifal as he discovers the Holy Grail. Buy this CD and you won't regret it. Except that one bit from Gotterdammerung, Siegfried's Funeral March. It does'nt quite have the feel of grand disaster as it did in John Boorman's film Excalibur. If you're hoping to find that version(which is better) stick with the Classics Go To The Movies Vol 2 cd. But all the other pieces on this CD are excellent. Go and buy this CD- now !

Wagner: Preludes and Overtures; Orchestral Works

Average customer rating:

Very fine of orchestral highlights and rarities

Wagner: Preludes and Overtures; Orchestral Works

Manufacturer: Angel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00005UVAN
Release Date: 2005-07-14

Tracks:

Overture - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France
Prelude - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France
Act I: Prelude - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France
Act III: Prelude - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France
Siegfried-Idyll - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France
Act I: Prelude - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France
Act III: Prelude - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France
Dance Of The Apprentices - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France
Finale - Orchestre Phillharmonique De Radio France

Tracks:

Kaisermarsch - London Symphony Orchestra
Eine Faust-Ouverture - London Symphony Orchestra
Huldigungsmarsch - London Symphony Orchestra
Overture - London Symphony Orchestra
Grosser Festmarsch (Centennial March), For The Centenary Of Indpendence Of USA. - London Symphony Orchestra
Overture - London Symphony Orchestra

Customer Reviews:

Very fine of orchestral highlights and rarities .......2004-08-10

This set, with Marek Janowski, offers the best disk of Wagner's early overtures and later occasional pieces that I know of, as well as a well-played disk of better-known "bleeding chunks" from the operas.

Disk One, with the French Radio Phil, offers mainstream Wagner excerpts: the _Tannhäuser_ overture, the _Tristan_ prelude, the preludes to _Lohengrin_ Acts I and III, the _Siegfried Idyll_ and the _Meistersinger_ overture, with orchestral selections from Act III. All of this is very well played, and towards the top third, let's say, of a very crowded and competitive field. That makes them very good indeed.

But disk 2, with the London Symphony Orchestra, offers some less common pieces, perhaps more enticing to the serious Wagnerian: the _Kaisermarsch_, the _Faust Overture_, the _Huldigungsmarsch_, the _Die Feen_ overture, the _American Centennial March_ and the _Das Liebesverbot_ overture.

The Janowski/LSO disk offers easily the best playing of most of this music that I've ever heard. The _Faust_ overture in particular shines, as perhaps the earliest piece of great music that Wagner wrote. As is often the case with early Wagner, it sounds a bit like unknown Beethoven, with additional orchestral flavouring from Weber, but for the first time you hear a new voice: Wagner's own. This comes in the form of a new richness and darkness in orchestration (though the version played here includes revised orchestration by the mature Wagner), plus a real and effective dramatic instinct, allied with strong and distinctive themes. Wagner said the _Faust_ overture is the piece with which he "became Wagner", and he is surely right.

Janowski even manages to convince me that there's some merit in the _American Centennial_ march, probably the worst music written by the mature Wagner, despite, as Cosima's _Diaries_ show, his sincere admiration for America. I've heard this piece in three other performances, in each of which it struck me as banal, emptily noisy, and interminable. But the London SO under Janowski work a miracle in finding some forward propulsion and argument, some contrasts of light and shade, and making the piece come quite close to working. It's only a small miracle, because even when brilliantly played this still isn't great music. But if you have to hear the American Centennial March_ at all, this is certainly the version to hear.

The _Kaisermarsch_ is perhaps beyond rescue, but again, Janowski offers as good and as committed a performance of this piece as one is ever likely to hear. He also offers the best _Huldigungsmarsch_ I know of, and excellent accounts of the _Die Feen_ and _Das Liebesverbot_ overtures. Though the very best performances of these operatic overtures that I've heard are the versions that open the Sawallisch complete sets of these two operas.

For very good versions of familiar orchestral excerpts from the mature operas, plus outstanding performances of some Wagner rarities, this disk is strongly recommended.

Cheers!

Laon

Wagner: Preludes & Overtures [Hybrid SACD]

Average customer rating:

Wagner: Preludes & Overtures [Hybrid SACD]

Manufacturer: Pentatone
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Mozart, W.A.: Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 2 & 5

ASIN: B0002TX9F2
Release Date: 2004-12-14

Average customer rating:

Not the best Wagner orchestral works available.
Over the top, even for Wagner fans
Competent...for casual listeners
Caricature conducting
Superb playing

Richard Wagner: Overtures And Preludes
Richard Wagner , Daniel Barenboim , and Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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Similar Items:

Wagner: Overtures & Preludes, Vol. 2
John Dowland: Complete Lute Works, Vol. 3
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Haydn: 6 "London" Symphonies
Debussy: Préludes for Piano, Books 1 & 2

ASIN: B000000SS2
Release Date: 1996-01-09

Tracks:

Der fliegende Hollander
Tannhauser
Lohengrin: Act I
Lohengrin: Act III
Overtures And Preludes: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg
Tristan und Isolde: Prelude - Liebestod

Amazon.com essential recording

Barenboim is an excellent Wagner conductor, and it's a pity his ongoing series of Wagner operas is often forced to make do with less than splendid voices. All the more reason, then, to enjoy this excellent disc of overtures and preludes, all of which are played to the hilt by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and recorded in sound of superb amplitude. There are many collections of this type available, many of them very fine, and even more of them very dull. Barenboim plays the music with the necessary flexibility of tempo, but at the same time never turns it into a lecture on Schopenhaurian philosophy. It's a good listen. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

Not the best Wagner orchestral works available........2003-09-22

It would be an understatement to say that some tracks on this CD are performed better than others. Barenboim is inconsistant in his interpretations. His best recording is Die Meistersinger and it is quite good. He uses an acceptable pace and does not limit the orchestra's sound. Nor does he try and institute sudden tempo fluctuations that make absoulutely no sense whatsoever. The selections from Lohengrin are pretty good. The prelude to Act I is deliberate but convincing. It is not heavy handed and both Barenboim and the orchestra do manage to produce positive results. The prelude to Act III is driven and fast. The one negative aspect of the recording is that in one section the playing is incohesive and the orchestra does not sound together. Der fliegende Hollander is fair. Barenboim makes the mistake towards the end of the piece by using ritards and accelerandos that do not come off effectively. The beginning of the work is fine however. Tristan und Isolde is okay when the prelude is played but the Love Death is too constricted and lacks the passion needed to make it convincing. The orchestra's sound is very limited in scope. The turkey on this CD is the overture to Tannhauser. Barenboim takes the work at an agonizingly slow tempo and uses frazing that is underlined in blood. The orchestra is not permitted to bring out a powerful sound that is a necessity for this composition and at times they do not manage to stay together. This Tannhauser overture is to be avoided at all costs, even if it is the last recording available in the store.

Over the top, even for Wagner fans.......2003-07-13

Barenboim is not my favorite conductor and his ham-fisted attempts at producing a subtle atmosphere produces its fair share of cringes. The overture to "Tannhauser" (sorry, my keyboard has no umlaut), is rendered here without discernible emotion or feeling, the whole performance is maddeningly flat. Barenboim does a better job on the overture to "Der fliegende Hollander," (again, apologies for no umlaut) but the string section goes off on some shrill tangent halfway through the piece. It's a little like a cat stumbling over piano keys smeared with butter.

My most brutal criticism is reserved for the tepid, chilly and uninspiring "Liebestod." This is one of the most exquisite and exciting pieces of music ever produced, but one would scarcely know that listening to this version. I'd never thought it possible to nod off during the "Liebestod," but Barenboim actually achives this unenviable feat in this dismal recording.

Wagner fans will know this disc is a bomb, so I say this to the uninitiated: look elsewhere to hear Wagner's genius. This is like the Beatles being played on an organ grinder.

Competent...for casual listeners.......2003-04-01

Barenboim's interpretations are competent, but hardly touch the potential of this music, especially the Tannhauser and the Tristan.

The recording quality is average. Lacks detail and is often overwhelmed by boomy tympany; really a shame considering the richness of Wagner's use of horns.

If you're a casual Wagner listener, this recording is OK and may satisfy you. If you're a serious Wagner fan or audiophile, you'll probably be disappointed.

Caricature conducting.......2002-03-09

I love these pieces, but was very disappointed by the performances on this CD. The conductor seems to have no conception of subtlety. He excels at grossly exaggerated gestures--transitions are ham-fisted, fast tempi are blasted through full bore, slow tempi are dragged out painfully. Orchestral textures that are finely balanced in other renditions are a muddled blur in this recording, even at ultra slow tempo. Listen on headphones and hear someone (the conductor, presumably) grunting along with the melody line (Lohengrin, Act III prelude, Meistersinger). I would recommend other versions of this great music (i.e., Solti).

Superb playing.......2001-10-23

Having just read "Wagner Remembered" by Stewart Spencer, my first real contact with Richard Wagner, I felt compelled to at least listen to some of the music and with this CD I purchased my first listen at Wagner. Subsequently wanting to hear more than just the overtures I purchased the "Twightlight of the Gods" Cd (Apocalypse Now Helicopters on the cover-Orchestra and Conductor unidentified), so there is some basis for comparison. Had Richard Wagner listened to Twighlight of the Gods he would have thrown up, his systems would have been overcome. Questionable playing destroys even the best music. I mention this as a basis to compare The Chicago Sympony Orchestra on Richard Wagner, Overtures and Preludes. Without saying that somewhere it has been done better, it is difficult to imagine a rendition of this music more accurately in tune with what Wagner must have intended. There is a subtlety and scope to this recording, a beauty and breadth that makes one believe that you are looking through the mind of the composer. This is other than to say you would be unable to argue with tempo here or style there or other acquired tastes. Richard Wagner, for all his personal flaws, was one of the best composers. Use of Orchestra, imagination, emotion, melody and use of melody, etc. etc., existed in the mind of this man as in few others. CSO superbly conducted, give perfect playing and to this novice re Wagner do full justice to this great music.

Wagner: Favourite Overtures / Sir Georg Solti

Average customer rating:

Very good...
Solti Speaks Wagnerian
Not really great playing...
Excellent
What a collection!

Wagner: Favourite Overtures / Sir Georg Solti

Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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The Decca Records Store | Specialty Stores | Music
ASIN: B000006P4V
Release Date: 1998-05-12

Tracks:

Die Walkure: The Ride Of The Valkyries
Lohengrin: Prelude Act I
Rienzi: Overture
Der fliegende Hollander: Overture
Tristan und Isolde: Prelude, Act I
Tannhauser: Overture
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg: Prelude, Act I

Customer Reviews:

Very good..........2007-03-29

This album is a good one, but a very strange one too. Both orchestras under Solti, are simply astounding. All the pieces in this album are well played and are skilfully conducted by Solti.
Yet, the only reason why I gave it 3 stars, was for the mere reason that Ride of the Valkyries is an excerpt, don't get me wrong, it is extremely well played, yet, that fact that it is a 3+ minute excerpt is rather disappointing. Also, you may hear an awckward timpani entrance in Tannhauser, but that is no reason not to buy this album. Some may complain that Solti liked overblown brass, but in my experience as an orchestral player, for Wagner, you need brass, and no the brass is not overblown.
My other comment on this album is The Flying Dutchman (Der Fliegende Hollander). Performed by the Vienna Phil. (Wiener Phil.), this performance is simply awesome. I still need to get the one with CSO, but as far as this goes, this track is simply awesome. I sincerely think if you do purchase this CD you will enjoy not only The Flying Dutchman, but the rest of the tracks as well. Enjoy!

Solti Speaks Wagnerian.......2002-10-25

I find this particular Solti interpretation of Tannhauser to be one of the best I've heard. The bold and brassy use of horns is both invigorating and unsettling. Thank you Maestro Solti for "painting" with a bold brush when required.

The reason I did not give this disc 5 stars, is because I also found the abbreviated 3 minute clip of The Ride of the Valkyries to be not only disappointing but also unacceptable.

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg is vintage Solti. His interpretation is probably one of the standard measures for others to compare on this one.

The Rienzi Overture is well done. However, I believe most will find the version conducted by George Szell of the Cleveland Orchestra to be the best. Look for it in Sony's Essential Classics.

Most should find this CD a valuable addition to a basic collection of Wagner instrumentals and I recommend it highly.

Not really great playing..........2002-10-11

This in not a terrible disc but, if I had the chance, I would not buy it again. There is some pretty distasteful playing that goes on, especially in Tannhauser. Orchestral balance is way off in many places. Also, upon listening critically, one will discover some missed notes in Ride of the Valkries, and a very awkward timpani entrance in the first statement of the theme in Tannhauser. For the level that the CSO and VPO regularly perform at, this is really unacceptable. Another complaint with Die Walkure is that, for some odd reason, a three minute version is recorded instead of the five minute version that I am accustomed to. It seems like about a hundred or so bars of music are omitted.

If you like Solti and his approach to Wagner, you might want to give this a try. If not, there are better to be found.

Excellent.......2002-01-29

This CD quickly made it's way into my favourites collection. I'd have to say tracks 5 and 6 alone are worth the cost of the CD. On a scale of 1-5 stars, I'd say this is really a 6!

What a collection!.......1999-05-13

This is Wagner as it should be--conducted by one of the best and played by the two best orchestras in the world.

Average customer rating:

Buy this recording for the first 4 tracks

Wagner: Overtures and Preludes

Manufacturer: Umvd Labels
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B0000D1FLL
Release Date: 2003-10-14

Tracks:

Overture From the Flying Dutchman
Overture From Tannhauser
Prelude To Act I From Lohengrin
Prelude To Act III From Lohengrin
Prelude From Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg - Giuseppe Sinopdi
Prelude And Liebestod From Tristan Und Isolde - James Levine

Customer Reviews:

Buy this recording for the first 4 tracks.......2007-06-30

Buy this recording for the first four tracks, which are by Karl Bohm and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra: Overtures to "The Flying Dutchman",
"Tannhauser", and Preludes to Acts I and III of "Lohengrin". Excellent playing and sound, as you would expect, expertly remastered for this budget Universal Classics release.

I cannot recommend Austrian conductor Karl Bohm (1894-1981) enough!

Wagner: The Ride of the Valkyries, Overtures and Choruses

Average customer rating:

Beautiful tone
The Perfect Wagner Introduction
'Apocalypse Now' fans! THIS IS THE ONE!!!

Wagner: The Ride of the Valkyries, Overtures and Choruses
Paul Johnston
Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Decca Records Store | Specialty Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Twilight of the Gods: The Essential Wagner Collection
Wagner: Overture & Preludes
The Best Of Wagner
Wagner Weekend - The Ride of the Valkyries
Wagner: The "Ring" Without Words

ASIN: B00000AFQY
Release Date: 1998-09-29

Tracks:

The Ride of the Valkyries: Prelude: Act 1 - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg
The Ride of the Valkyries: Begluckt darf nun dich (Pilgrims' Chorus - Tannhauser)
The Ride of the Valkyries: Siegfried's Funeral March
The Ride of the Valkyries: Mild und leise (Liebestod - Tristan and Isolde)
The Ride of the Valkyries: Overture (Der fliegende Hollander)
The Ride of the Valkyries: The Ride of the Valkyries (Die Walkure)
The Ride of the Valkyries: Forest Murmers (Siegfried)
The Ride of the Valkyries: Prelude: Act 3 (Lohengrin)
The Ride of the Valkyries: Treulich gefuhrt ziehet dahin (Bridal Chorus - Lohengrin)
The Ride of the Valkyries: Fliegt heim, ihr Raben? (Immolation Scene - Gotterdammerung)

Amazon.com

Historian Paul Johnson's insightful liner notes to this reissue of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries point out that "we can hear singers and musicians swept up together in the spine-tingling experience" of the music. Truly, this is some of the most dizzying music on record, led by Sir George Solti with a wonderful mix of pile- driving Wagnerian energy and strangely exuberant detail. There are numerous important overtures and choruses, with Birgit Nilsson singing "Mild und Leise" from Tristant und Isolde and the Immolation Scene from Götterdämerung. This music has, of course, been assailed as connected to Wagner's anti-Semitism, and that fact provides Johnson for his launch-off: As a child, he couldn't hear Wagner in any context other than the one here, an anthology of overtures and choruses. But Johnson notes that the composer's "undoubtedly unpleasant character" was, in fact, sublimated through the music. Whether that is true will never be clear, but what is now clear is that the music engulfs the listener, and for someone looking for a top-down gloss on Wagner's oeuvre, this is a wonderful CD to spin. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful tone.......2006-03-11

I really like this for its sound even if it is an old compilation of favorites. The Birgit Nillson arias are a gift and really spotlight her voice.

The Perfect Wagner Introduction.......2003-12-19

Ever wondered what Wagner sounded like? This is the perfect introduction to Wagner. Excerpts from Solti's famous Wagner sets - Die meistersingers, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan, The Flying Dutchman and the Ring. For your info, Solti was the only conductor who recorded all of Wagner's mature operas. (Karajan stopped short of Tannhauser).

'Apocalypse Now' fans! THIS IS THE ONE!!!.......2003-01-26

I searched high and low for the exact recording of "Ride of the Valkyries" from Wagner's Die Walküre that was used in Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece "Apocalypse Now", but had difficulty for many years. BY CHANCE, I found this at a music store, and snagged it -- took it home and listened and was thrilled to find that, as I had thought, it was the very recording I had sought for years!

So now I can die happy! LOL

The rest of the CD is truly excellent. Solti and the Vienna Philharmoic Orchestra made a new watermark for all subsequent performances of Wagner with these recordings.

Tracks:

Der Fliegende Hollander, Oveture
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Suite
Die Wlakure, Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music
Rienzi, Overture
Gotterdammerung, Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey
Siegfried Idyll
Tristan und Isolde, Prelude to Act III

Customer Reviews:

We should be glad we have this one.......1999-02-18

Paul Paray (1886-1979) was famous for his Wagner as much as anything else he conducted. He was never at Bayreuth, but listening to this disc you wonder why. Since he was a Resistance higher-up during the war, Bayreuth may have proved a bit repressive for him. We may never know.

What we do know is that his approach to Wagner was very much that of an operatic practioner. His Ring at the Paris Opera was a big attraction during the 1920s. Here we get an idea of what it must have been like: dramatic, sweeping, fresh, vital, above all, human. Paray obviously knew how build dramatic scenes: he gets a move-on and doesn't let the gods dabble around brandishing spears. There's work to do and places to go, and the result is remarkably individual without in any way disfiguring the scores for "effect" or "uniqueness." Paray gives you what he sees and hears and it's exciting, unlike any other Wagner you've experienced.

This would get five stars if the Detroit Symphony had been hitting on all 8 cylinders, but we get some string slop and brass bleeps, unusual for the orchestra at this time. Some problems have been edited: if you own this in its first vinyl release from '58 or so like I do, the Parsifal contains a horrendous goof from trumpets not in evidence here...and some other botched moments are snipped out, too.

The Siegfried Idyll won't appeal to Teutonic tastes that want to wallow in chocolatey sentiment. Paray is the only conductor to treat it as the greeting card it was intended to be, an occasional piece written for Cosima at the birth of their son, not an artistic manifesto for the ages to ponder.

Tracks:

Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg: Prld
Tristan Und Isolde: Prld
Tristan Und Isolde: Liebestod
Tannhauser: Ov
Gotterdammerung: Funeral March
Die Walkure: The Ride Of The Valkyries
Lohengrin: Prld To Act III
Rienzi, Ov: Molto Sostenuto E Maestoso
Rienzi, Ov: Allegro Energico

Customer Reviews:

Wagner!.......2003-12-18

Mariss Jansons, the conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic made a wonderful interpretation of Wagner's great works. The orchestra has a sound unsurpassed by few. Being a brass fan and player, this is a good album to have. It demonstrates virtuostic sound and style.
A fan of Wagner or not, you will be pleased with the extraordinary performance given by the Oslo Philharmonic.

Music Track:

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