Wagner: Overtures, Preludes & Orchestral Excerpts Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Marek Janowski

• 1 Act I: Prelude 12:16
• 2 Act III: Prelude 04:45
• 3 Siegfried Idyll 18:35
• 4 Siegfried, Act III: Intermezzo 06:46
• 5 Act I: Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey 09:36
• 6 Act III: Siegfried's Funeral March 05:45
• 7 Der fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman): Overture 10:37
• 8 Act I: Prelude 08:40
• 9 Act III: Prelude 03:17
• 10 Overture 13:18
• 11 Act III: Prelude 07:29
• 12 Act I: Prelude 10:34
• 13 Act III: Prelude 04:47
• 14 Act I: Prelude 08:44
• 15 Act III: Prelude 06:13
• Total Runtime 02:11:22

Info for Wagner: Overtures, Preludes & Orchestral Excerpts

Celebrating the conductor Marek Janowski’s triumphant Ring cycle at this year’s Bayreuth festival, PENTATONE rounds off his groundbreaking survey of Wagner’s operas with the release of a double album featuring orchestral highlights from the series. Recorded in PENTATONE’s state of the art multi-channel surround sound, the album contains the popular overtures and preludes from Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as orchestral excerpts from Siegfried, Götterdämmerung and Parsifal. Also included is the previously unreleased Siegfried Idyll, the symphonic poem that Wagner wrote for the birthday of his wife Cosima.

Marek Janowski is one of today’s foremost interpreters of Wagner. His recordings of the ten mature operas for PENTATONE have been universally praised, the music critic Michael Tanner hailing Janowski as “…the most reliably impressive Wagner conductor of our time.” The BBC Music Magazine described the Tannhäuser release as “…the best recording since that made in Bayreuth in 1962.” And Alex Ross, music critic of The New Yorker, rated the Tristan und Isolde release among his all time favourite Wagner recordings, evidence as he put it that “…first-rate Wagner recordings are not extinct.”

Key to the success of this ambitious series has been the collaboration with the Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Deutschlandradio Kultur. By producing concert performances of the operas in the superb acoustics of the Philharmonie Berlin (and without the distractions of staging), the nuances and subtleties in Wagner’s scores are clearly articulated to give a recording of exceptional fidelity and immediacy. “The recorded sound is sensational”, wrote Michael Tanner of the Parsifal release, “so realistic as to be almost alarming.”

The overtures, preludes and interludes in Wagner’s operas have always had broad appeal with audiences for their heady, intoxicating atmosphere and vivid orchestration. During Wagner’s lifetime, his contemporaries made arrangements and potpourris from the operas to satisfy an ever enthusiastic public, bowdlerising Wagner’s scores in the process. In these vibrant recordings, however, Janowski remains faithful to Wagner’s original vision and uses conclusions either written or authorized by Wagner himself.

This release is accompanied with notes on the music by the dramaturge and musicologist Steffen Georgi.

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Marek Janowski, conductor

Marek Janowski
From 2002 until 2015, Marek Janowski was artistic director and chief conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB). Before embarking upon his Berlin period, and also partly parallel to this, he was musical director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2005-2012), chief conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo (2000-2005), chief conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie (2001-2003), and musical director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (1984- 2000).

Marek Janowski’s consistent demands for orchestral precision and his precise knowledge of the score go hand in hand with his ingenious ideas for programmes, making him one of the most renowned orchestral conductors of our time. Wherever he is invited to conduct, be it in the United States at the San Francisco Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, in Asia with the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, or in Europe with the Orchestre de Paris and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich among others, he enjoys extraordinary prestige thanks to the effciency of his work.

Marek Janowski was born in Warsaw in 1939, but grew up and was educated in Germany. He has accepted positions as general music director in Aachen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, and Dortmund. Since the late 1970s, he has appeared regularly at all the major opera-houses world-wide, including the Metropolitan Opera New York, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, San Francisco, Hamburg, Vienna, and Paris.

Since the late 1990s, he has focused exclusively on the concert circuit, and has followed on in the great tradition of German conductors as an outstanding Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner, and Strauss interpreter: however, he is also considered an expert in the French repertoire. His leave- taking of the opera, however, was merely an institutional matter, not a musical farewell. Now more than ever, he is ranked among the most knowledgeable experts on the works of Richard Wagner, which he has demonstrated in the concertante Wagner cycle with the RSB (2010-2013).

Marek Janowski was awarded the “Ehrenpreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik” (= honorary prize of the German Critics’ Award) for his extensive life’s work.

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) dates back to the first days of music-broadcasting on the German radio in October 1923, and has since sustained its position amongst the leading orchestras in Berlin and other radio orchestras throughout Germany. From 2002 to 2015, Marek Janowski was chief conductor and artistic director of the RSB. Vladimir Jurowski has been named as his successor. Previous chief conductors (including Sergiu Celibidache, Eugen Jochum, Hermann Abendroth, Rolf Kleinert, Heinz Rogner, and Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos) have contributed to shaping the orchestra into a exible ensemble that experienced the vicissitudes of German history during the 20th century in a particular way. Since its foundation, the RSB has been particularly interested in contemporary music, inviting major composers to conduct or to perform as soloists in their own works. These have included Paul Hindemith, Sergei Proko ev, Richard Strauss, and Igor Stravinsky, as well as, more recently, Krzysztof Penderecki, Peter Ruzicka, and Jörg Widmann.

The RSB is especially attractive to young conductors on the international music scene. Already, Andris Nelsons, Kristjan Jarvi, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Vasily Petrenko, Jakub Hrůša, Alain Altinoglu and Alondra de la Parra have been invited to guest-conduct. In addition, the orchestra regularly gives special concerts featuring lm music under guest-conductor Frank Strobel.

The collaboration with Deutschlandradio, the main shareholder of the ROC GmbH Berlin to which the RSB belongs, has born rich fruit on CD. Starting in 2010, together with PENTATONE, great effort was put into the live recording of the Wagner cycle: the 10 SACDs have subsequently triggered a world-wide reaction.

Other activities in which the orchestra is involved include special concerts for family and children, in which the musicians often take a very personal interest, as well as guest performances in the major national and international concert halls, which have taken place over the past 50 years. In addition to regular tours in Asia, the orchestra also performs in European festivals and other Germany music centres.

Booklet for Wagner: Overtures, Preludes & Orchestral Excerpts