Semkow

This sequence of Wagner’s preludes and overtures ranges across his compositional output, from Rienzi, his first distinctive opera, through the stirring Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre, to his last work, Parsifal from which we hear the Good Friday Music. They are performed by the St. Louis Symphony under the Polish conductor Jerzy Semkow who was the orchestra’s music director from 1975 to 1979.

This sequence of Wagner’s preludes and overtures ranges across his compositional output, from Rienzi, his first distinctive opera, through the stirring Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre, to his last work, Parsifal from which we hear the Good Friday Music. They are performed by the St. Louis Symphony under the Polish conductor Jerzy Semkow who was the orchestra’s music director from 1975 to 1979.

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade is one of the most popular suites in the entire orchestral canon. The work’s imperishable melodies and sonorities were an influence on Stravinsky and have been referred to by innumerable cinema composers ever since. The musical narrative draws on The Arabian Nights, appealing to the imagination with its haunting beauty and enchantingly exotic atmosphere. The entire world of Bedrich Smetana’s beloved opera The Bartered Bride is captured in the Overture, the rousing nature of its dances a further celebration of Czech national resurgence in the 19th century. The Elite Recordings for Vox by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade is one of the most popular suites in the entire orchestral canon. The work’s imperishable melodies and sonorities were an influence on Stravinsky and have been referred to by innumerable cinema composers ever since. The musical narrative draws on The Arabian Nights, appealing to the imagination with its haunting beauty and enchantingly exotic atmosphere. The entire world of Bedrich Smetana’s beloved opera The Bartered Bride is captured in the Overture, the rousing nature of its dances a further celebration of Czech national resurgence in the 19th century. The Elite Recordings for Vox by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.