Sigfrid Karg-elert: Opern Von Richard Wagner In Bearbeitungen Fur Harmonium Und Klavier
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The idea of Wagner opera excerpts arranged for piano and harmonium may sound bizarre to modern-day music lovers. However, it made perfect sense to composer...
The idea of Wagner opera excerpts arranged for piano and harmonium may sound bizarre to modern-day music lovers. However, it made perfect sense to composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert, whose acquaintance with the Berlin publisher and leading harmonium dealer Carl Simon led him to create a prolific output of original works, transcriptions, teaching methods, and exercise books for the instrument. He eventually adapted more than 40 Wagner selections for harmonium and arranged 30 for the combination of piano and harmonium.
In general Karg-Elert assigns string and percussion parts to the piano, while the harmonium covers the woodwind and brass sections. As often was the case in regard to many 19th-century operatic keyboard adaptations, Karg-Elert deleted and cut measures as he pleased, and invented his own endings such as those in the Parsifal Flowermaidens’ Scene or the conclusion of Siegfried’s Funeral March. By contrast, the Tristan und Isolde Prelude and Liebestod stands as Wagner wrote it.
Softer music seems to suit this instrumental combination best. For example, the long, sustained harmonium sonorities in the Lohengrin Act 1 Prelude provide a lovely backdrop to the piano’s restrained arpeggios and tremolo sprinklings. The Meistersinger Act 3 Quintet features some of Karg-Elert’s most effective scoring, especially in the final pages where both instruments occupy the lower register and create textural contrasts that underline the music’s quiet harmonic clashes.
Yet when the piano steps up in louder passages, as in parts of the Meistersinger Act 3 March and the Tristan Prelude’s climaxes, you lose the harmonium’s note attacks and only perceive the residue of its sound, as if the piano had strange overtones. In the Winterstürme from Die Walküre Act 1, the harmonium seems to merely tag along rather than hold its own as an equal partner, even when it takes over the melody. Furthermore, I believe that these issues of balance have to do with the nature of the instruments, since harmonist Jan Hennig and pianist Ernst Breidenbach are extremely sensitive and well-balanced collaborators who listen to each other. Perhaps too sensitive at times; they clearly hold back and tiptoe around the Spinning Chorus from The Flying Dutchman. In sum, this is a disc that’s bound to attract keyboard fans who harbor a taste for pleasantly arcane curiosities.
-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
In general Karg-Elert assigns string and percussion parts to the piano, while the harmonium covers the woodwind and brass sections. As often was the case in regard to many 19th-century operatic keyboard adaptations, Karg-Elert deleted and cut measures as he pleased, and invented his own endings such as those in the Parsifal Flowermaidens’ Scene or the conclusion of Siegfried’s Funeral March. By contrast, the Tristan und Isolde Prelude and Liebestod stands as Wagner wrote it.
Softer music seems to suit this instrumental combination best. For example, the long, sustained harmonium sonorities in the Lohengrin Act 1 Prelude provide a lovely backdrop to the piano’s restrained arpeggios and tremolo sprinklings. The Meistersinger Act 3 Quintet features some of Karg-Elert’s most effective scoring, especially in the final pages where both instruments occupy the lower register and create textural contrasts that underline the music’s quiet harmonic clashes.
Yet when the piano steps up in louder passages, as in parts of the Meistersinger Act 3 March and the Tristan Prelude’s climaxes, you lose the harmonium’s note attacks and only perceive the residue of its sound, as if the piano had strange overtones. In the Winterstürme from Die Walküre Act 1, the harmonium seems to merely tag along rather than hold its own as an equal partner, even when it takes over the melody. Furthermore, I believe that these issues of balance have to do with the nature of the instruments, since harmonist Jan Hennig and pianist Ernst Breidenbach are extremely sensitive and well-balanced collaborators who listen to each other. Perhaps too sensitive at times; they clearly hold back and tiptoe around the Spinning Chorus from The Flying Dutchman. In sum, this is a disc that’s bound to attract keyboard fans who harbor a taste for pleasantly arcane curiosities.
-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
Product Description:
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Release Date: July 31, 2015
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UPC: 7619990103351
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Catalog Number: PC10335
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Label: Pan Classics
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Number of Discs: 1
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Composer: Sigfrid Karg-Elert
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Performer: Ernst Breidenbach, Jan Hennig