Wagner - Overture from Tannhäuser | Cristian Măcelaru | WDR Symphony Orchestra
Richard Wagner's overture from Tannhäuser, played by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of its chief conductor Cristian Măcelaru. Recorded live on 08.06.2024 in the Kölner Philharmonie.
Richard Wagner - Overture from Tannhäuser. Dresden version
WDR Symphony Orchestra
Cristian Măcelaru, conductor
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Introduction to the work:
It was Strauss' mentor Alexander Ritter who gathered a circle of young musicians around him in 1886 to carry on the legacy of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, the protagonists of the “New German School”. The Bayreuth master had died three years earlier, and Ritter still remembered exactly how he had witnessed the premiere of “Tannhäuser” under Wagner's own direction in Dresden as a twelve-year-old. No other of Wagner's operas has such a complicated history. The composer was already revising the score during the Dresden performances. For the legendary production in Paris in 1861, the text was translated into French and a bacchanal was added. This version was then also performed in Munich in a modified German retranslation and after further changes in Vienna.
Originally, “Tannhäuser” was to be entitled “Der Venusberg”, because according to German legend, Venus holds court with her nymphs and mermaids in its interior and seduces people to surrender to Eros. Tannhäuser is in this place at the beginning of the opera. However, he has decided to return to the people: to the knights, his companions - and to Elisabeth, whose heart he wants to win in the “Singers' War at Wartburg”. But during his song recital, he fatally gets carried away and alludes to his sensual pleasures in the Venusberg. As punishment for his sins, he is expelled from the country by the prince. At Elisabeth's request, he is allowed to join pilgrims with whom he travels to Rome. When he returns, he reports in his “Romerzählung” that the Pope was unable to grant him forgiveness. Elisabeth sacrifices her life to save Tannhäuser's salvation. He dies at her side.
Wagner essentially set the overture between two musical poles: the inner contemplation of those going to Rome, whose pilgrims' chorus opens the piece in an instrumental version - and the shimmering, sensual world of lust in the Venusberg.
Text: Otto Hagedorn