Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder; Siegfried Idyll, Träume; Sciarrino: Languire a Palernmo

Sciarrino, Salvatore, Wagner, Richard

Angius, Marco, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto

96119

A fascinating program: Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder in the orchestration by Henze and on Italian text, the Siegfried Idyll, Träume for violin and small orchestra and “Languire a Palermo” by Sciarrino.

Wagner wrote 5 songs for Mathilde von Wesendonck, with whom he had a passionate love affair, and who was the wife of his benefactor. With his orchestration, Hanz Werner Henze emphasizes the relationship between word and sound. In his agile and intense orchestration for ten winds, harp and a small string group, Henze seems to seek an alternative to the original piano, keeping the cycle in the realm of chamber music. The Italian translation is by the famous poet Arrigo Boito.

Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll was written for and first performed on the birthday of his wife Cosima, a testimony of his love for this daughter of Franz Liszt. “Träume” is the arrangement for violin and small orchestra of one of the Wesendonck Lieder.

Languire a Palermo by Salvatore Sciarrino is built mainly on the melody Tempo di Porazzi, a melody Wagner sketched in 1882 while visiting Palermo. Sciarrino himself speaks of the "fascination of a distant melody, without accompaniment, of one who plays for himself and relies on the wind", and hypothesizes that it corresponds "to the sonic stimuli that in Sicily amaze the ear [...]. In the throat of every street vendor springs the Mediterranean enchantment [...]. What ornamentation did those voices flourish in Wagner's years? Come and hear if the echo of the Sirens remained in the wind". The fragments of the melody Tempo di Porazzi gradually take on different instrumental colors.

The Wesendonck Lieder are sung by the famous Italian alto Sara Mingardo, Träume is played by violinist Massimo Quarta and the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto is directed by Marco Angius.

CD x 1

Brilliant Classics

9/2/21

5028421961194