Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Johannes Wildner, Polish Radio and Television National Symphony Orchestra :: Wagner: Orchestral Highlights

Listenable disc for Wagner 'newbies'

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 10/14/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is Naxos' third disc with orchestral music from Wagner's immense work, and although it cannot perhaps match up to some full-price performances by top-class teams, it seems to me to be an eminently 'listenable' disc containing some of Wagner's quieter, more meditative music in acceptable sound quality (the stereo panorama is better than on some of Naxos' earlier productions). The Polish NRSO had, in December 1990, not quite reached the standards it later set under Antoni Wit, but Johannes Wildner obviously managed to spur the orchestra on to a more than respectable achievement. The overture to the 'Meistersinger von Nürnberg' is a rather noisy piece which I felt did not come over as well as the three following tracks: Isolde's 'Liebestod', the Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal and the Siegfried-Idyll. The tempi are kept very slow and deliberate here (for the Siegfried-Idyll Wildner needs a full three and a half minutes longer than Wolfgang Sawallisch with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on Philips), which can, on occasion, be a little soporific, but does make it possible to revel in every detail of the score. (Sawallisch's instruments sound rather more polished.) The disc closes with the 'Immolation of the Gods' from the 'Götterdämmerung', bringing together lots of Wagner's leitmotifs. This is definitely not a disc for Wagner buffs; it is one for 'newbies' like myself who are curious to find out why Wagner is revered and/or hated without having to listen to his massive operas all through."