Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi – Wagner: Two Symphonies, Huldigungsmarsch, Overtuer to Rienzi, Kaisermarsch (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:09 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre:
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | ©

Our series of works by Richard Wagner, performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Neeme Järvi, continues with a disc of early symphonies, later marches, an overture, and a prelude. Early on in his career, Wagner composed two symphonies, both of which are included on this disc. The Symphony in C, which he wrote when he was just nineteen years old, is heavily influenced by Beethoven in its character, mood, and instrumentation. Written two years later, in 1834, the Symphony in E was left unfinished, Wagner completing only the first movement and thirty bars of the second. The completed version recorded here was prepared by the conductor Felix Mottl more than fifty years later at the request of Wagners widow, Cosima. The two marches on this disc are the composers most obvious contributions to the genre of pomp and circumstance. The Huldigungsmarsch was written in 1864 for King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The march-like rhythms and brassy colours complement sections in which the strings provide a continuously flowing movement, all leading to a jubilant conclusion. The Kaisermarsch (1871) was a commission from the publishing firm Peters, who requested from Wagner a heroic morale booster at a time when the German countries were at war with France. Having initially composed it for military band, Wagner soon rewrote it for symphony orchestra, the version recorded on this disc. The Overture to Rienzi, Wagners third completed opera (1838 40), incorporates the melody of Rienzis prayer at the start of Act V, which became the operas best-known aria, and ends with a dazzling military march. The Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin (1845 47) has the energy, fervour, and brassy sounds of the Overture to Der fliegende Holländer, and displays Wagners lasting fascination with creating drama by symphonic means.

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Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi – Wagner: Meistersinger, an Orchestral Tribute (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:49 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos

Neeme Järvi conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the fourth album of their Wagner series. Their performances on the previous three volumes have received high critical acclaim. American Record Guide wrote of Volume 1: This is wonderful playing and sound Järvi knows exactly what to do to make the music speak. The orchestra sounds better than Ive ever heard them. This disc features a symphonic arrangement by the Dutch composer and percussionist Henk de Vlieger of Wagners only comic opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. It is the only opera by Wagner centred round a specific time and place in history, rather than a mythical or legendary past. The story takes place in Nuremberg during the middle of the sixteenth century, and revolves around the real-life guild of the Master Singers, an association of amateur poets and musicians who developed a craftsman-like approach to music-making. Wagner left the two early Entreactes tragiques unfinished, the first only partially orchestrated, and they are heard here in orchestrations completed by De Vlieger. Completing the disc are the seldom performed and recorded Overture to Columbus, and Eine Faust-Ouvertüre by Wagner. Written in 1835, when Wagner was just twenty-two years old, the Weber-influenced Columbus Overture introduces the play by Theodor Apel. His Faust-Overture followed in 1840. Taking its inspiration from Goethes famous play, this work, together with Hector Berliozs Symphonie fantastique, became the main example of nineteenth-century programme music.

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