It is always a thrill to reflect on the fact that, even though the vast majority of Richard Wagner's oeuvre consists of his operas and music dramas, and the singers who perform in them on the world's top stages are exceptional artists, the most popular parts of these works, which can also be played independently, are the orchestral sequences.
Gods and Heroes
Wagner's Most Popular Melodies
BUDAPEST WAGNER DAYS
Program:
Wagner: Der fliegende Hollander - Overture
Wagner: Parsifal - Good Friday Spell
Wagner: Tannhäuser Overture
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Prelude and Isolde's Liebestod
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Overture
Wagner: Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's Funeral March
Wagner: Die Walküre - The Ride of the Valkyries
It is always a thrill to reflect on the fact that, even though the vast majority of Richard Wagner's oeuvre consists of his operas and music dramas, and the singers who perform in them on the world's top stages are exceptional artists, the most popular parts of these works, which can also be played independently, are the orchestral sequences. It is a colourful bouquet of these that the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, playing under the baton of Budapest Wagner Days artistic director Ádám Fischer, will present for the Müpa Budapest audience.
While it is indeed perplexing that most of Wagner's greatest hits are orchestral segments, it is also at the same time understandable, since Wagner, the reformer of opera as an art form, broke with the practice of composing so-called ‘closed numbers' - arias - thus greatly complicating the task of extracting vocal excerpts from his works. Not only are orchestral numbers more suitable for playing in a concert hall, they have catchy melodies too. What music lover would have trouble whistling the tunes of the overture to The Flying Dutchman or Tannhäuser or of The Ride of the Valkyries off the top of their head? All of these will be on the programme this evening, along with the Good Friday Spell from Parsifal, two excerpts from Tristan und Isolde - the Prelude and Isolde's Liebestod - as well as the overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the funeral march from Götterdämmerung. This programme was first presented as part of Budapest Wagner Days in June 2023, and now, encouraged by the enormous success of that event, we are repeating it, partly in the hope that this kind of orchestral performance can serve as an ‘inaugural concert' enticing many new listeners to get to to know Wagner. The special feature of the concert is how it will not be performed by the regular ensemble of the Wagner Days festival, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, but rather by Müpa Budapest's resident ensemble, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra.
Conductor: Ádám Fischer
Featuring: Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Presented by: Müpa Budapest
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