Richard Wagner

Deutsche Grammophon continues its successful relationship with the acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra and its chief conductor Franz Welser-Most with this thrilling all-Wagner album. The release of this album will tie in with Franz Welser-Most picking up the baton as General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera. The Clevelanders deliver Lohengrin Prelude (Act I and Act III), The Ride of the Valkyries, the Rienzi and Meistersinger Overture, and the orchestral version of opera's non plus ultra of love's power to transfigure, the Liebestod, from Tristan und Isolde. The impact of soprano Measha Brueggergosman's Wesendonck Lieder, was, said The Plain Dealer "as if she'd penned them herself Tracking Brueggergosman's every move from fierce declamation down to the faintest whisper, Welser-Most and crew nudge the singer's performance into the musical heavens."

Richard Wagner - Tannhäuser (Highlights/Höhepunkte)
Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele / Wolfgang Sawallisch
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 373 MB | Full Artwork: 28 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Philips "Wagner Edition" # 446 620-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1995, 1963
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Opera

Wolfgang Sawallisch (26 August 1923 – 22 February 2013) was a German conductor and pianist. (…) When he debuted at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus conducting Tristan und Isolde in 1957, he was the youngest conductor ever to appear there. (…) For thirty years, he was closely associated with musical events in Munich. Here he conducted practically all of the major Richard Strauss operas, Salome being the sole exception. He also conducted 32 complete Richard Wagner Ring des Nibelungen cycles and is credited with nearly 1200 opera performances in the city alone…

Richard Wagner - Tannhäuser (Highlights/Höhepunkte)
Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele / Wolfgang Sawallisch
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 373 MB | Full Artwork: 28 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Philips "Wagner Edition" # 446 620-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1995, 1963
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Opera

Wolfgang Sawallisch (26 August 1923 – 22 February 2013) was a German conductor and pianist. (…) When he debuted at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus conducting Tristan und Isolde in 1957, he was the youngest conductor ever to appear there. (…) For thirty years, he was closely associated with musical events in Munich. Here he conducted practically all of the major Richard Strauss operas, Salome being the sole exception. He also conducted 32 complete Richard Wagner Ring des Nibelungen cycles and is credited with nearly 1200 opera performances in the city alone…

Wagner’s music dramas are his primary artistic legacy. These can be divided chronologically into three periods. Wagner’s early stage began at age 19 with his first attempt at an opera...

James Levine's is a more recent entry in the realm of Dutchman recordings, and sonically the recording is absolutely stunning, with great attention having been paid to the recording process. The casting for this Metropolitan Opera effort is also uniformly first rate, even in the less grateful roles of the hapless Erik, sung by the impressive Ben Heppner, and the scolding nurse, Mary, sung by Birgitta Svendén. Morris's brooding Dutchman is hard to match on any other available recording, and Deborah Voigt is a ravishing Senta. The chorus work is quite good, though not quite as rich as that heard in the Solti/Chicago recording. Overall, Levine does a workmanlike job of conducting these impressive forces, though there are passages in which his tempi seem to drag. This recording is a must for anyone who needs a completely up to date version of Wagner's first major opera.

Tenor Daniel Behle and two of his favourite composers: Strauss & Wagner. Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss are the two great musical fixed stars in the musical world of tenor Daniel Behle. At the 2021 Bayreuth Festival he was heard as David in the "Meistersinger", in Dortmund and soon in Amsterdam he will be heard in the title role of "Lohengrin".