OehmsClassics’ presents the first complete recording of an opera conducted by Kirill Petrenko. In summer 2013, Petrenko will conduct the Ring des Nibelungen for the composer’s 200th birthday in Bayreuth. The Bavarian State Opera has appointed him its General Music Director as of the 2013/14 season.

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REVIEW:

Conductor Kirill Petrenko, leader of Bayreuth’s bicentenary Ring, matches Rudolf Kempe’s recently rediscovered 1955 Salzburg performance (Walhall): they’re both compelling story-tellers of large-scale operatic narrative who can mix and match dialogue scenes with varied tempi and dramatically appropriate orchestral balance. Frankfurt’s cast has plenty of gutsy ecclesiastical characters in the Council scene, Stallmeister and Mahnke do well by Ighino and Silla (but don’t miss young Elisabeth Söderström’s Son for Kempe), Koch is a worthy Borromeo and the whole is a triumph for British tenor Peter Bronder in the title-role.

– Gramophone

Hans Pfitzner was able to deploy his extensive musical resources in setting a variety of texts from many different periods and on a wide range of subjects. From Carl Busse’s shattering picture of life in Leierkastenmann, Op.15,No.1via one of Pfitzner’s greatest songs, a setting of Goethe’s Anden Mond, to the rare humorous gem, Rundgesang zum Neujahrsfest 1901with its choral refrain, the works on this recording represent the mature composer’s individual voice. This is the final volume in a series that restores Pfitzner’s place amongst the most important Lieder composers of the late Romantic period.