Upcoming Concerts at BBC Hoddinott Hall 0800 052 1812 BBC

£1
Upcoming Concerts at
BBC Hoddinott Hall
Thursday 25 November 2010, 7pm
DISCOVERING MUSIC
BRUCKNER Mass No. 2 in E minor
BRUCKNER Locus iste
Conductor Adrian Partington
BBC National Chorus of Wales
Tickets are FREE – booking now open
Friday 26 November 2010, 7pm
BRUCKNER & BRITTEN
STRAVINSKY Mass
BRITTEN Russian Funeral
BRITTEN Hymn to St Cecilia
BRUCKNER Mass No. 2 in E minor
Conductor Adrian Partington
BBC National Chorus of Wales
Saturday 4 December 2010, 7pm
STRAVINSKY & SIBELIUS
HAYDN Symphony No. 92, ‘Oxford’
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto
STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
Conductor Thomas Søndergård
Violin Vilde Frang
Tuesday 7 December 2010, 7pm
DISCOVERING MUSIC
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
Conductor Garry Walker
Violin Jennifer Pike
Tickets are FREE – booking now open
Thursday 4 November 2010
7pm
BBC Hoddinott Hall
Cardiff Bay
Toru Takemitsu
A flock descends into the pentagonal garden (13’)
Alexander Zemlinsky
Maeterlinck Lieder (21’)
Interval 10 minutes
Richard Wagner
Siegfried Idyll (19’)
Richard Strauss
Death and Transfiguration (25’)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Conductor Kazushi Ono
Mezzo-soprano Daniela Lehner
For tickets and information contact
BBC National Orchestra
of Wales Audience Line
0800 052 1812
bbc.co.uk/now
Post-concert Coda:
A sequence of South American song
A few minutes after the concert, guest soloist
Daniela Lehner will give a short, informal recital of
Spanish and Brazilian songs, accompanied by
José Luis Gayo on the piano.
See separate hand-out for further details.
Wales Millennium Centre
029 2063 6464
wmc.org.uk
Tonight’s concert is being recorded for future broadcast on
BBC Radio 3’s Afternoon on 3
Our programme notes are also available to download at
bbc.co.uk/now
Introduction
For tonight’s concert the distinguished Japanese
conductor Kazushi Ono returns to Cardiff to direct
the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a concert
that traces a line through works by some of the
most radical Austro-German composers in the years
between 1870 and 1913. Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll
is one of his most personal works, yet the small
chamber forces used to create its tranquil surface
anticipate the chamber-like textures of Mahler,
Schoenberg and later composers. Richard Strauss’s
Death and Transfiguration used the orchestra of
the late 19th century in innovative ways while,
on the eve of the First World War, Alexander
Zemlinsky transformed the piano accompaniments
of his Maeterlinck Lieder into a glittering orchestral
tapestry. The great American innovator Morton
Feldman once described the Japanese composer
Toru Takemitsu as one of the world’s great
orchestrators. You can hear for yourself in the work
that opens this evening’s concert: A flock descends
into the pentagonal garden.
Bass Clarinet
Harps
Alison Lambert
Valerie Aldrich-Smith †
Jane Lister
Join us on Friday 26 November at 7pm for our next
BBC Hoddinott Hall concert, featuring music by
Bruckner, Britten and Stravinsky. The BBC National
Chorus of Wales joins the wind and brass of BBC
National Orchestra of Wales under conductor
Adrian Partington.
Trombones
Upcoming Concerts
at St David’s Hall
Bassoons
Amy Harman ‡
Martin Bowen
Piano/Celesta
Contrabassoon
Harmonium
David Buckland †
Robert Court †
Catherine Roe Williams †
Horns
Tim Thorpe *
Irene Williamson
Ian Fisher †
William Haskins
Neil Shewan
* Section Principal
† Principal
‡ Guest Principal
# Assistant Principal
Trumpets
Philippe Schartz *
Robert Samuel
Andy Everton †
Donal Bannister *
Arlene Macfarlane
Bass Trombone
Lewis Edney ‡
Tuba
Brian Kingsley ‡
Timpani
Matthew Hardy ‡
Percussion
Friday 12 November 2010, 7pm
SIMON HOLT’S ‘CENTAUROMACHY’
ROUSSEL Bacchus et Ariane – Suite No. 2
SIMON HOLT Centauromachy world premiere
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2
Conductor François-Xavier Roth
Clarinet Robert Plane
Flugelhorn Philippe Schartz
Chris Stock *
Mark Walker †
Philip Girling
Graham Bradley
Thursday 2 December 2010, 7.30pm
BRITS’ MUSIC
BRITTEN The Young Person’s Guide to the
Orchestra
THOMAS ADÈS Violin Concerto
BRITTEN An American Overture
ELGAR ‘Enigma’ Variations
Conductor Douglas Boyd
Violin Anthony Marwood
1
Programme produced by BBC Proms Productions
and BBC Cymru Wales Graphics.
Welsh translation by Annes Gruffydd.
14
BBC National
Orchestra of Wales
First Violins
Cellos
Lesley Hatfield Leader
Nick Whiting
Associate Leader
Carl Darby #
Gwenllian Haf Richards
Terry Porteus
Richard Newington
Paul Mann
Gary George-Veale
Hilary Minto
Robert Bird
Marion Mattison
Carmel Barber
Emilie Godden
Anna Cleworth
Elin Edwards
John Senter *
Jacqueline Phillips
Sandy Bartai
Carolyn Hewitt
David Haime
Kathryn Harris
Magdalena Pietraszewska
Robyn Austin
Jessica Feaver
Second Violins
Jane Sinclair #
Ros Butler
Sheila Smith
Vickie Ringguth
Joseph Williams
Michael Topping
Margot Leadbeater
Katherine Miller
Beverley Wescott
Roussanka Karatchivieva
Kerry Gordon Smith
William Hillman
Elizabeth Whittam
Double Basses
Tony Alcock *
Albert Dennis
Christopher Wescott
William Graham-White
Richard Gibbons
Tim Older
Claire Whitson
Flutes
Alessandra Russo ‡
Timothy Taylorson
Elizabeth May
Piccolos
Alessandra Russo
Timothy Taylorson
Elizabeth May
Alto Flute
Elizabeth May
Violas
Oboes
Christoph Langheim ‡
Javier Reyes
Peter Taylor
David McKelvay
Sarah Chapman
James Drummond
Ania Leadbeater
Robert Gibbons
Laura Sinnerton
Linda Kidwell
Cecily Rice
David Cowley *
Maddy Aldis-Evans
Sarah-Jayne Porsmoguer
Cor Anglais
Toru Takemitsu (1930–96)
A flock descends into the pentagonal garden
(1977)
On many occasions Takemitsu drew analogies
between his music and the experience of walking
around a Japanese garden, where individual
features – be they water, rocks or a group of trees
– might in turn hold the viewer’s attention. As this
analogy suggests, Takemitsu’s is not music that
moves inexorably towards climaxes or which makes
its effect from extravagant rhetorical statements.
Instead, its surface remains gentle and meditative,
while being full of evolving detail and incident.
Takemitsu’s engagement with the natural world
operates less on a literal pictorial level than on a
deeper, more philosophical one.
A flock descends into the pentagonal garden,
completed in 1977, represented an important
refinement and simplicity of style that would
dominate Takemitsu’s later music. It has become
one of his best-known and most frequently
performed works. It arose from a dream, prompted
by a photo of the artist Marcel Duchamp with his
hair cut into ‘the shape of a star-shaped garden’.
Takemitsu described the work as a ‘shifting
panorama of scenes in which the main motif –
introduced by the oboe and representing the
so-called “flock” – descends into the harmonious
sound field called the “pentagonal garden”, created
mainly on the strings.’ These two elements are then
freely combined in a texture of delicate melodies
that are constantly on the verge of fragmentation,
punctuated by silences.
A flock descends into the pentagonal garden was
commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony
Orchestra, which gave the first performance under
Edo de Waart on 30 November 1977.
Recommended Recording
Sarah-Jayne Porsmoguer †
BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Tadaaki Otaka
(BIS CD-760)
Clarinets
Recommended Reading
Joy Farrall ‡
John Cooper
Alison Lambert
The Music of Toru Takemitsu Peter Burt (CUP)
E flat Clarinet
Website
www.schott-music.com
John Cooper †
13
2
Alexander Zemlinsky (1871–1942)
Maeterlinck Lieder, Op. 13 (1910–13; orch. 1913 &
1922)
1
2
3
4
5
6
Die drei Schwestern
Die Mädchen mit den verbundenen Augen
Lied der Jungfrau
Als ihr Geliebter schied
Und kehrt er einst heim
Sie kam zum Schloss gegangen
Daniela Lehner mezzo-soprano
In the Vienna of 1900, Alexander Zemlinsky
was widely considered to be one of the most
significant of the younger generation of composers.
His composition pupils included both Arnold
Schoenberg (who later became his brother-in-law)
and Alma Schindler, with whom he fell in love,
before she married Gustav Mahler. Yet Zemlinsky’s
music has been largely eclipsed by his apparently
more radical contemporaries until recent years.
Four of the Maeterlinck Lieder were composed at
Bad Ischl in August 1910, with two further songs
being added three years later. At Schoenberg’s
request, the four 1910 songs were orchestrated
at great speed in March 1913 for a concert in
Vienna’s Musikverein on 31 March (the others
followed in 1922). Zemlinsky’s songs were accepted
without demur, but some of the other music – by
Schoenberg, Berg and Webern – provoked a violent
audience outburst.
The songs set translated poems by the Belgian
writer Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949), which
inhabit a twilight world between sleeping and
waking, telling of mysterious castles, virginal
maidens and illicit love. In the first, three sisters
go in search of death, while the second concerns a
captive princess. The Virgin Mary declares that both
love and tears will overcome all sin in the third
song, whereas it is a less holy love that is explored
in the final three numbers. The fourth song explores
a tragic love triangle; in the fifth a woman about to
leave her husband instructs her maid to break the
news to him. The set ends with a traditional balladlike song, in which a queen leaves her king for a
woman.
BBC National
Orchestra of Wales
BBC National Orchestra of Wales occupies a
special role as both a national and broadcasting
orchestra, acclaimed not only for the quality of its
performances but also for its importance within its
own community.
The Orchestra has won considerable critical and
audience acclaim over recent years, under its
formidable conducting team of Principal Conductor
Thierry Fischer, Principal Guest Conductor Jac van
Steen, Associate Guest Conductor François-Xavier
Roth and Conductor Laureate Tadaaki Otaka. As
well as an outstanding ability to refresh core
repertoire, the Orchestra is proud of its adventurous
programming and continuously demonstrates
artistic excellence in new or rarely performed
works. In summer 2008 Simon Holt took up the role
of Composer-in-Association, a post previously held
by Michael Berkeley, consolidating the ensemble’s
commitment to performing contemporary music.
BBC National Orchestra of Wales is Orchestrain-Residence at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, and also
presents a concert series at the Brangwyn Hall,
Swansea. As well as international touring, it is
in demand at major UK festivals and performs
every year at the BBC Proms and biennially at the
prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
Education and Community Outreach is integral to
the Orchestra’s musical life, and the department has
been challenging conventions for nearly 15 years,
extending the work of the Orchestra into schools,
workplaces and communities.
The Orchestra is based at its state-of-the-art
recording and rehearsal base, BBC Hoddinott Hall at
Wales Millennium Centre. It enjoys close working
relationships with radio and television programmemakers and records numerous soundtracks,
including BBC Wales’s Doctor Who and Torchwood
series.
Recommended Recording
Randi Stene; Trondheim Symphony Orchestra/
Muhai Tang (Simax PSC1249)
Recommended Reading
Zemlinsky Antony Beaumont (Faber)
Website
www.zemlinsky.at
3
12
Daniela Lehner mezzo-soprano
Austrian mezzo-soprano Daniela Lehner studied
in Vienna, Salzburg and at the Guildhall School
of Music & Drama. Among her many scholarships
and awards are a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and
membership of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation
Artists scheme.
Her recent concert engagements have included
Mozart and Handel arias with the Vienna Chamber
Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra, Berio’s Folk
Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Spanish
songs with the BBC Concert Orchestra and
Shostakovich songs with the Brucknerorchester,
Linz.
She is a committed recitalist and has appeared at
Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore
Hall and the Cologne Philharmonie, as well
as at many festivals, including the Aldeburgh,
Cheltenham, Chichester, City of London, Oxford
Lieder, Danube and Schleswig-Holstein. Among the
pianists with whom she has worked are Mitsuko
Uchida, Graham Johnson and Roger Vignoles. Since
2005 she has worked closely with the pianist José
Luis Gayo, exploring both standard and lesserknown repertoire.
Daniela Lehner made her Royal Opera House
debut in 2008, in the role of Hermia (Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream). She has also recently
participated in Graham Johnson’s complete
Schumann Lieder project for Hyperion.
Among this season’s highlights are Mendelssohn’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream under Bernard Haitink,
Mozart’s Requiem with Sir Colin Davis in Barcelona
and Juanjo Mena in Manchester and Mahler’s
Das Lied von der Erde with the Ensemble Berlin
Counterpoint.
11
Maeterlinck Lieder
1 Die drei Schwestern
The Three Sisters
Die drei Schwestern wollten
sterben,
Setzten auf die güldnen
Kronen,
Gingen sich den Tod zu
holen,
The three sisters were fain
to die,
put on their crowns of gold,
Wähnten ihn im Walde
wohnen.
‘Wald, so gib uns, dass wir
sterben,
Sollst drei güldne Kronen
erben.’
thought to find him in the
forest.
‘Forest, shouldst thou grant
us death,
thou shalt inherit three
golden crowns.’
Da begann der Wald zu
lachen
Und mit einem Dutzend
Küssen
Liess er sie die Zukunft
wissen.
At that the forest began to
laugh
and with a dozen kisses
Die drei Schwestern wollten
sterben,
Wähnten Tod im Meer zu
finden,
Pilgerten drei Jahre lang.
The three sisters were fain
to die,
thought to find death at sea,
‘Meer, so gib uns, dass wir
sterben,
Sollst drei güldne Kronen
erben.’
‘Sea, shouldst thou grant us
death,
thou shalt inherit three
golden crowns.’
Da begann das Meer zu
weinen,
Liess mit dreimal hundert
Küssen
Die Vergangenheit sie
wissen.
At that the sea began to
weep,
and with three times one
hundred kisses
let them know the past.
Die drei Schwestern wollten
sterben,
Lenkten nach der Stadt die
Schritte,
Lag auf einer Insel Mitte.
The three sisters were fain
to die,
turned their steps towards
the city
lying mid an island.
‘Stadt, so gib uns, dass wir
sterben,
Sollst drei güldne Kronen
erben.’
‘City, shouldst thou grant us
death,
thou shalt inherit three
golden crowns.’
Und die Stadt tat auf die
Tore
Und mit heissen
Liebesküssen
Liess die Gegenwart sie
wissen.
And the city opened its gates
went in search of death,
let them know the future.
journeyed three long years.
and with passionate kisses
of love,
let them know the present.
4
Kazushi Ono conductor
5
2 Die Mädchen mit den
verbundenen Augen
The Maidens with Bound
Eyes
Die Mädchen mit den
verbundenen Augen
(Tut ab die goldenen
Binden!)
Die Mädchen mit den
verbundenen Augen
Wollten ihr Schicksal finden.
The maidens with bound
eyes
(take off the golden
blindfolds!)
the maidens with bound
eyes
wished to meet their destiny.
Haben zur Mittagsstunde
(Lasst an die goldenen
Binden!)
Haben zur Mittagsstunde
Das Schloss geöffnet im
Wiesengrunde,
At stroke of noon
(leave on the golden
blindfolds!)
at stroke of noon
they opened the castle on
the grassy plain,
Haben das Leben gegrüsst,
(Zieht fester die goldenen
Binden!)
Haben das Leben gegrüsst,
Ohne hinaus zu finden.
they greeted life,
(make tighter the golden
blindfolds!)
they greeted life,
yet did not find their way
out.
Die Mädchen mit den
verbundenen Augen
Wollten ihr Schicksal finden.
The maidens with bound
eyes
wished to meet their destiny.
3 Lied der Jungfrau
The Song of the Virgin
Allen weinenden Seelen,
Aller nahenden Schuld
Öffn’ ich im Sternenkranze
Meine Hände voll Huld.
To all weeping souls,
all sinners who approach,
haloed by stars
I open my arms, full with
grace.
Alle Schuld wird zunichte
Vor der Liebe Gebet,
Keine Seele kann sterben,
Die weinend gefleht.
All sin will perish
before love’s prayer,
no soul can die
which, weeping, repents.
Verirrt sich die Liebe
Auf irdischer Flur,
So weisen die Tränen
Zu mir ihre Spur.
If love goes astray
on earthly plains,
then tears will show me
whither it has gone.
Kazushi Ono’s career has involved a number of
high-profile positions, including Principal Conductor
of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (1992–
2001), General Music Director of the Badisches
Staatstheater (1996–2002), Music Director of
La Monnaie, Brussels (2002–8) and at the Opéra de
Lyon (since 2008).
He is also in demand as a guest conductor,
and has appeared with prominent orchestras
including the BBC, Boston, City of Birmingham,
London and Vienna Radio Symphony orchestras,
Israel, London and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras,
Leipzig Gewandhaus and numerous German radio
orchestras.
Kazushi Ono has conducted most of Wagner’s
operas, most notably the Ring cycle at the Karlsruhe
Opera, as well as giving several world premieres,
including Luca Francesconi’s Ballata, Toshio
Hosokawa’s Hanjo and Philippe Boesmans’s Julie. He
will return to the Metropolitan Opera, New York,
this season following his successful debut in 2007,
when he conducted Aida. His recent guest opera
appearances include Elektra at the Deutsche Oper
Berlin, Verdi’s Macbeth at La Scala, Milan, Hansel
and Gretel for Glyndebourne and a new production
of Szymanowski’s King Roger at the Opéra de Paris.
He also has a strong affection for the theatre and
works not only with established opera directors
such as Luc Bondy, Peter Stein, Laurent Pelly and
David McVicar but has also enjoyed collaborations
with artists outside the traditional opera field,
including the visual artist Jan Fabre, choreographer
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and film director
François Girard.
Kazushi Ono’s discography demonstrates his broad
repertoire, and includes works by composers
ranging from Unsuk Chin, Sofia Gubaidulina,
Mark-Anthony Turnage and Wolfgang Rihm to
Britten, Shostakovich, Mahler, Richard Strauss and
Tchaikovsky. Recent recordings include DVDs of
Hansel and Gretel, Aida and The Rake’s Progress.
10
Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24 (1888–9)
The first performance of the 25-year-old Strauss’s
tone-poem Don Juan, in November 1889, instantly
confirmed his reputation as the most important
composer of his generation. Prior to its premiere,
Strauss had already set to work on a new
symphonic poem, Tod und Verklärung (‘Death and
Transfiguration’), completing the full score just days
after the premiere of Don Juan. The new tonepoem was inspired by a youthful romantic notion
of death, though Strauss expressly rejected the
idea that the work drew on his own experiences.
Its first performance was given on 21 June 1890 by
the Eisenach Tonkünstlerfest under the composer’s
direction.
In 1894 Strauss wrote that the work concerned ‘the
dying hours of a man who had striven towards the
highest idealistic aims … he wakes up; he is once
more racked with horrible agonies … his thoughts
wander through his past life; his childhood passes
before him, the time of his youth with its strivings
and passions … The hour of death approaches,
the soul leaves the body in order to find gloriously
achieved in everlasting space those things which
could not be fulfilled here below.’
When her lover went
away
Als ihr Geliebter schied
(Ich hörte die Türe gehn)
Als ihr Geliebter schied,
Da hab ich sie weinen
gesehn.
When her lover went away
(I heard the door close)
when her lover went away
I saw her weeping.
Doch als er wieder kam
(Ich hörte des Lichtes Schein)
Yet when he returned
(I heard the light of the
lamp)
yet when he returned
another was at home.
Doch als er wieder kam,
War ein anderer daheim.
Und ich sah den Tod
(Mich streifte sein Hauch)
Und ich sah den Tod,
Der erwartet ihn auch.
And I saw death
(his breath touched me
lightly)
and I saw death
awaiting him also.
5 Und kehrt er einst heim
And should he return one
day
Und kehrt er einst heim,
Was sag ich ihm dann?
Sag, ich hätte geharrt,
Bis das Leben verrann.
And should he return one
day,
what am I to tell him?
– Tell him, I waited
till my life ebbed away.
Wenn er weiter fragt
Und erkennt mich nicht
gleich?
Sprich als Schwester zu ihm;
Er leidet vielleicht.
If he asks further
without knowing me
straight?
– Speak to him as a sister;
perhaps he is suffering.
Recommended Recording
Wenn er fragt, wo du seist,
Was geb ich ihm an?
Mein’ Goldring gib
Und sieh ihn stumm an …
If he asks where you are,
how should I answer?
– Give him my golden ring
and say not a word …
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan
(DG 447 422-2)
Will er wissen, warum
Should he want to know
why
the house is so desolate?
– Show him the open door,
say the light was blown out.
Cast in a single continuous span, the music closely
follows Strauss’s scenario, ranging through the dark
irregular rhythms of the opening, the expressive
angst of the man’s suffering, the gentle bucolic
evocation of childhood and passions of youth
through to the theme of transfiguration, soaring
upwards before the work’s final evocation of
eternity. When, nearly 60 years later, Strauss lay on
his own deathbed, he remarked to a visitor, ‘Dying
is just the way I composed it in Tod und Verklärung.’
Recommended Reading
Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma
Michael Kennedy (CUP)
Website
www.richardstrauss.at
Programme notes © Peter Reynolds
9
4 Als ihr Geliebter schied
So verlassen das Haus?
Zeig die offne Tür,
Sag, das Licht ging aus.
Wenn er weiter fragt
Nach der letzten Stund’?
Sag, aus Furcht, dass er
weint,
Lächelte mein Mund.
If he asks further,
about your last moment?
– Say, for fear lest he weep,
that I smiled.
6
Richard Wagner (1813–83)
Siegfried Idyll (1870)
6 Sie kam zum Schloss
gegangen
She came towards the
castle
Sie kam zum Schloss
gegangen,
Die Sonne erhob sich kaum.
Sie kam zum Schloss
gegangen,
Die Ritter blickten mit
Bangen
Und es schwiegen die
Frauen.
She came towards the castle
Sie blieb vor der Pforte
stehen,
Die Sonne erhob sich kaum.
Sie blieb vor der Pforte
stehen,
Man hörte die Königin gehen
She stopped before the gate
Und der König fragte sie:
Wohin gehst du?
Wohin gehst du?
Gib acht in dem
Dämmerschein!
Wohin gehst du?
Wohin gehst du?
Harrt drunten jemand dein?
Sie sagten nicht ja noch
nein.
– the sun was hardly risen –
she came towards the castle,
the knights watched
uneasily
and the women grew silent.
– the sun was hardly risen –
she stopped before the gate,
the queen’s footsteps were
heard
and the king asked her:
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
– Take heed, it is not yet
quite light! –
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Does someone await you
down there?
She answered neither yes
nor no.
Sie stieg zur Fremden
hernieder,
Gib acht in dem
Dämmerschein.
Sie stieg zu der Fremden
hernieder,
Sie schloss sie in ihre Arme
ein.
Die beiden sagten nicht ein
Wort
Und gingen eilends fort.
She climbed down to the
stranger,
– take heed, it is not yet
quite light! –
She climbed down to the
stranger,
she embraced her tightly.
Translations of poems
by Maurice Maeterlinck
(1862–1949). Text reprinted
by permission of Universal
Edition (Alfred A. Kalmus Ltd)
Translations ©
Mari Prackauskas
Neither spoke a word
and they hurried away.
‘When I woke up I heard a sound, it grew ever
louder, I could no longer imagine myself in a
dream, music was sounding, and what music!
After it had died away, R. came in to me … and
put into my hands the score of his Symphonic
Birthday Greeting.’ So reads the diary entry by
Wagner’s second wife, Cosima, for Christmas Day
1870, which was also her birthday. The music
was the Siegfried Idyll, or, to give it its original
title, Tribschen Idyll with Fidi’s Bird Song and
Orange Sunrise, the homeliness of which is surely
a reflection of Wagner and Cosima’s newfound
contentment: they had finally married in August
1869, following her divorce from the conductor and
Wagner disciple, Hans von Bülow. Shortly before,
their second child, Siegfried (known as Fidi), had
been born. The ‘orange sunrise’ refers to the blazing
sun on the orange wallpaper on the morning of his
birth.
The Siegfried Idyll is unique in Wagner’s output:
a continuous movement, originally performed
by just 13 players assembled on the staircase
outside Cosima’s room in their villa at Tribschen,
overlooking Lake Lucerne. Although the Idyll
draws on the music drama Siegfried (the third part
of Wagner’s Ring cycle) it is essentially a musical
anthology of family memories.
Its intimate opening theme, sketched in 1864 in
the early days of Wagner’s romance with Cosima,
appears in the closing love duet of Siegfried, but the
secondary theme, for oboe, started life as a child’s
lullaby about sheep written in 1868. Wagner had
no intention of presenting his lovely Idyll to a larger
world and it was only through financial necessity
that, as Cosima wrote, ‘the secret treasure is to
become public property’. It was at this point that
the Idyll gained its present title, for a performance
in Meiningen on 10 March 1877. Its original
instrumentation was for flute, oboe, two clarinets,
bassoon, two horns, trumpet and five solo strings.
Wagner himself later used a larger body of strings
and it is in this form that it is heard tonight.
Recommended Recording
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan
(DG 449 725-2)
Recommended Reading
The Faber Pocket Guide to Wagner Michael Tanner
(Faber)
Website
www.wagneroperas.com
7
8