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Mozart: Piano Transcriptions of Orchestral Dances

Naxos

$13.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 30% May 23, 2025

The music on this recording was written between 1772 and 1782, largely during Mozart's difficult time in Salzburg employed as Konzertmeister under the regime of Prince-Archbishop Colloredo. Transcribed for keyboard from orchestral originals by Mozart himself, these dances were composed as part of his court duties and they reflect both the tastes of the day, and Mozart's facility in refining popular genres into stylish pieces with his typical grace and panache. As an exception, the March No. 1 in C major was mentioned by Mozart's widow Constanze as a piece 'my husband of blessed memory composed for me'.

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Mozart: Piano Transcriptions of Orchestral Dances
Naxos May 2025
CD
~~$19.99~~ $13.99

Franz Liszt Transcriptions

CPO

SACD

$18.99 Nov 19, 2013

LISZT Ad nos, ad salutarem undam Fantasy and Fugue for organ and orchestra (arr. Dupré). Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (orch. Weiner). Orpheus, for organ (trans. Liszt). Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H (orch. Bischof) • Martin Haselböck, cond; Christian Schmitt (org); Deutsche RP (Saarbrücken/Kaiserslautern) • CPO 777 472–2 (69:58)

During his Weimar years, Liszt’s friend, the organist Alexander Winterberger, spurred his interest in the organ, prompting the composition of two of his most ambitious works, the Ad nos… Fantasy and Fugue (1850) and the Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H (1855, revised 1870). Thereafter, Liszt experimented, transcribing a number of his own works, including the tone poem Orpheus . The Weinen, Klagen,… variations, composed for piano in 1862, were transcribed for organ the following year. Considering the metamorphoses visited upon them by their composer, the step to orchestral arrangements by other hands was small, if ambitious. Depending on venue and acoustics, the instrument, registrations, and the acumen of engineers, these organ works can come across as towering masterpieces or murky monster-pieces. One of the joys of the orchestral transcriptions is hearing details often covered in cavernous rumble or obscured by distance on the organ standing forth boldly from the orchestra, their intricacies revealed, while their climactic moments acquire major clout and transparency. Weiner’s tilt at Weinen, Klagen,… is indebted to mid-19th-century models, highlighting a Gothic, cobwebby aura clinging to Liszt’s kaleidoscopic variations. Rainer Bischof’s take on the BACH Prelude and Fugue , on the other hand, is brash, brassy, and unabashedly modern in its use of an overloaded wind and percussion contingent (in addition to the cited vibraphone, do I hear a wood block, tubular bells, and a glockenspiel, among other novelties?) to make for metallic brilliance, glittering passage work, and climactic cataclysmics. The Gothic stunner, however, is Marcel Dupré’s arrangement of the Ad nos … Fantasy and Fugue for organ and orchestra, a feat placing what many believe to be Liszt’s greatest single work in company with the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony and Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ and Orchestra.

One expected more of Christian Schmitt, whose recent go at Koechlin’s organ works (CPO 777 512–2, Fanfare 36:4) demonstrated an arresting keenness to that composer’s psychic, haunted atmospherics. His Orpheus is well-paced in the way that one thing leads to another, though having heard performances in which episodes escalate with fraught portent—e.g., Olivier Vernet’s solo rendering, or, as we’re considering transcriptions, his duo with Laurent Cabasso on piano (a six-CD intégrale , Ligia 0104226–11)—Schmitt’s dynamic range and resources of feeling are audibly constricted. The Ad nos … arrangement compels more adventurous playing, but Schmitt is disadvantaged by the recessed capture of the organ in Luxembourg’s Philharmonic Hall which allows orchestral overshadowing. That said, the upshot is still thrilling, magnificent, and magisterial. To the last point, one may feel that, in their orchestral and orchestra/organ garb, one is hearing these works for the first time. Martin Haselböck, himself an organist of exceptional prowess, who has performed the originals many times and recorded them at least twice, leads with a sweep alert to detail and, in the Ad nos … Fantasy and Fugue , manages the organ/orchestra dialogue with potent eloquence, though the recording imbalance becomes distracting in the fugue. The orchestral works come across in immediate, transparent, often walloping sound. Enthusiastically recommended.

FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis

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Franz Liszt Transcriptions
CPO Nov 2013
SACD
$18.99

WAGNER: DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN

WARNER CLASSICS

$60.04 Jul 25, 2025

This recording is of a very highly regarded production of Wagner's Ring Cycle; the four operas are completely re-staged at Bayreuth every six years. When recorded in 1991/1992 at the famous Bayreuth opera house built by Richard Wagner himself, this version, staged and directed by Harry Kupfer and conducted by Daniel Barenboim, had matured over five years and is still well remembered and much requested. "If a cycle is going as well as the Harry Kupfer/Daniel Barenboim Ring was, the super-test of Gotterdammerung brings out the best in everyone. Barenboim manipulates his orchestra with Furtwanglerian virtuosity, huge rits, pauses and all, tailor-made to the stage drama." Gramophone "All the cast work fiendishly hard. Tomlinson (and Kupfer) illustrate the glorious Prelude that Wagner called "Wotan's last ride", the lasers make a furious fire, and Evans is in streaming form as the awoken Brunnhilde. Aptly weighty, Furtwangler-ish conducting." Gramophone 2006

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WAGNER: DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN
WARNER CLASSICS Jul 2025
CD
$60.04

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WAGNER: Orchestra Opera Excerpts / Siegfried Idyll (1950 / 1
SWR Feb 2005
CD
~~$13.99~~ $6.99

Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg Acts 2 & 3 / Rother
Music and Arts Programs of America Oct 2000
CD
$18.99

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, WWV 96 (Recorded 195
Walhall Eternity Series Jan 2009
CD
$16.99

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen / van Zweden, Hong Kong Philharmonic

Naxos

$74.99 Nov 30, 2018

Wagner’s visionary Ring of the Nibelung was first performed as a cycle of four operas in 1876. Its mythic plot examines the relationship between love and earthly power through the agency of a ring which confers ultimate power on its bearer.

One of the most sustained and remarkable achievements in all of music, the tetralogy is performed by an all-star cast, conducted by the new music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Jaap van Zweden, in performances that have been critically acclaimed worldwide for their “thrilling sense of drama.” (The Sunday Times, London)

Past praise of previously released volumes included in this set:

Das Rheingold

Van Zweden’s approach is closest in memory to Herbert von Karajan’s–intimate and chamber-like. The back and forth between the fine, unexaggerated Fricka of Michelle De Young and the remarkable, surprising Wotan of Matthias Goerne is natural and familiar, and Goerne is the surprise of the performance. His experience and expertise as a Lieder singer comes in very handy in this opera.

– ClassicsToday.com

Die Walküre

This is a Walküre that reveals its treasures slowly; it’s a warm, intimate reading. The Wälsungs are stunning. Stuart Skelton's tone is big and clean, wobble-free. And his cries of “Wälse” in Act 1 have to be heard to be believed. Heidi Melton as Sieglinde is wonderfully expressive. The listener hangs on every perfectly pronounced, clear word she and Skelton sing, and thanks to Zweden, who leads their interactions as if the opera were bel canto, we feel for them. Interrupting their budding love is Falk Struckmann, surprisingly (he’s a baritone, not a bass). He is a grand, scary Hunding.

– ClassicsToday.com

Wagner: Siegfried

Van Zweden's marvelously-rehearsed orchestra play with accuracy, brilliance, and color. I commented on the beauty and sadness of the Walküre performance, and here, added to those two qualities is, by the third act, passion.

Simon O’Neill may not be the most intuitive Siegfried on disc, but he’s among the brightest-toned and most solid, showing no flatting even at the end of his bout with Brünnhilde. Heidi Melton is an excellent Brünnhilde and a marvelous singer/actress, using her half hour to transform with clarity. Everyone proves their mettle, taste, and polish here, and I suspect there will be few who are disappointed.

– ClassicsToday.com

Wagner: Götterdämmerung

This is a grand finale to the Hong Kong Philharmonic’s Ring Cycle. Both Walküre and Siegfried were marvelously conceived, excellent concert performances, each with a minor flaw or two: recording balances out of whack and unfocused mid-voice for Brünnhilde in Walküre; recording too recessed in Siegfried; lack of character delineation in the Wanderer/Mime scene in Act 1 of Siegfried. I was quite taken by the storytelling in both, finding beauty, sadness, and in the Siegfried finale, passion. This set, recorded at two concert performances (and, I suspect, a patch-up session or two—there is NO applause or audience reaction anywhere), is, in one word, majestic, which is a fitting end to the Cycle.

– ClassicsToday.com

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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen / van Zweden, Hong Kong Philharmonic
Naxos Nov 2018
CD
$74.99

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, WWV 96 (Sung in Ital

Datum

$55.99 Mar 09, 2018

An overall glance at the history of opera shows that in many ways, the growth of multinational record companies after the end of the Second World War has had far-reaching effects. Up till then the national singing schools controlled the scene and nothing could have been more logical than for Italian, German, Russian and French singers to perform mainly in their own language. The language an opera was staged in depended on where the opera was being performed. For example: Boris Godunov wasput on in Russian at the Bolshoi, in Italian at the Scala, in French at the Opera, in German at the Staatsoper in Vienna, in English at Covent Garden and in English or Italian at the Met, depending on which company was performing. This release, despite it's 1962 recording, follows that same tradition of singing the presented opera in the language of the country in which it is being performed. In this case, Italian.

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Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, WWV 96 (Sung in Ital
Datum Mar 2018
CD
$55.99

Works For Lute: Original & Transcription
Musicaphon Feb 2000
CD
$10.99

Wagner: Die Miestersinger von Nürnberg (1952-1953)
Music and Arts Programs of America Jan 1997
CD
$48.99

Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer, WWV 63 [Recorded 1956]
Walhall Eternity Series Jan 2007
CD
$10.99

Wagner: Tannhäuser, WWV 70
Walhall Eternity Series Jan 2005
CD
$13.99

Wagner: Highlights From The Operas Arranged For Two Pianos
BIS Oct 1999
CD
$21.99

Liszt: Schubert Song Transcriptions
Capriccio Jan 2000
CD
$18.99

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MOZART: Opera for Two - Late 18th Century Transcriptions (An
Analekta Sep 2008
CD
~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Wagner: Overtures & Preludes / Rosbaud, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra

SWR

$13.99 May 12, 2017

Hans Rosbaud was the chief conductor of the Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until his death in 1962. He transformed the orchestra, later renamed as the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, into a leading European ensemble. His interests lay in both contemporary music and the classical and romantic symphonic repertoire. This new series from the SWR Classic label presents largely unpublished recordings by Rosbaud of classical and romantic repertoire, starting with overtures by Richard Wagner.

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Wagner: Overtures & Preludes / Rosbaud, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra
SWR May 2017
CD
$13.99

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The Great Transcriptions
Urania Records Feb 2015
CD
~~$32.99~~ $16.49

SCHORR, Friedrich: Opera Excerpts by Wagner
Haenssler Classic Jan 2006
CD
$18.99

Wagner: Arrangements For Piano / Severin Von Eckardstein

MDG

SACD

$24.99 Apr 01, 2013

Liszt was the first, but pianists of later generations also journeyed through the gigantic cosmos of the Wagnerian music drama with paraphrases and transcriptions for the piano. Severin von Eckardstein has brought together the best of these on his latest SACD. The result is a fascinating look at the reception history of Wagner's music and a colossal, three-dimensional listening experience to remember.

-----

German pianist Severin von Eckardstein, playing a tonally atmospheric 1901 Steinway, evokes the world of Wagner in a rare way with this set of arrangements, conjuring candle-lit drawing rooms of the Romantic era. Highlights include Busoni’s rendition of the “Funeral March” from Götterdämmerung, pianist-conductor Zoltán Kocsis’s arrangement of the Prelude from Tristan und Isolde and, rather than Liszt’s more famous version, Moritz Moszkowski’s take on “Isolde’s Liebestod.” Best, though, are the arrangements from Parsifal, particularly the “Transformation Music” by August Stradal, an acolyte of Liszt. Also included is American composer Sidney Corbett’s ghostly treatment of Kundry motifs from Parsifal, fittingly dedicated to the late Hans Werner Henze.

– Bradley Bambarger, Listen

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Wagner: Arrangements For Piano / Severin Von Eckardstein
MDG Apr 2013
SACD
$24.99

Wagner: Siegfried / Zweden, Hong Kong Philharmonic [Blu-ray Audio]

Naxos AudioVisual

Blu-Ray

$16.99 Nov 10, 2017

Also available on CD

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) is one of the most remarkable achievements in all music, and Siegfried, the third in the cycle, contains some of the greatest moments in Wagner’s entire output. Wagner conceived Siegfried as a heroic ‘man of the future,’ and his fantastical tale is one in which the human dramas of treachery and violent struggles for power become magnified in a world of gods, dragons and magic. The previous opera in this cycle, Die Walkure, was acclaimed in The Guardian as “thrillingly vivid… easily maintains the high standard and promise of Das Rheingold.” (Naxos NBD0049).

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Wagner: Siegfried / Zweden, Hong Kong Philharmonic [Blu-ray Audio]
Naxos AudioVisual Nov 2017
Blu-Ray
$16.99

Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold

Walhall Eternity Series

$10.99 Jun 09, 2015

The Walhall Eternity label is for the first time releasing in it's entirety the legendary 1959 Covent Garden Ring cycle of Richard Wagner conducted by Franz Konwitschny, performances that feature the finest Wagnerian voices of the 1950's, including Wolfgang Windgassen, Hans Hotter, Astrid Varnay, Ramon Vinay, Amy Shuard (student of Eva Turner and Covent Garden regular), Gottlob Frick and more. Franz Konwitschny's gripping interpretations lie comfortably between those of Fürtwängler's commanding heights supremacy and Solti's fire and spontaneity. Re-mastered 24bit/96kHz.

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Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold
Walhall Eternity Series Jun 2015
CD
$10.99

Wagner: Der Ring - Symphonisch

Coviello

SACD

$32.99 Nov 18, 2014

There have been frequent attempts to get Wagner's Ring into a symphonic format. + However, the new version by Andreas Tarkmann does not only want to align the highlights, but to compress the opus to its very own orchestral drama – divided into four well-defined parts the quintessence of the Ring operas is clearer and the figures more finely depicted. + Tarkmann’s talent for concise escalation makes this version a special pleasure, lacking nothing essential in the entirely. + Despite minor compositional procedures, this symphonic "short-Ring" at any time remains 100% recognizable as Wagner.

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Wagner: Der Ring - Symphonisch
Coviello Nov 2014
SACD
$32.99

Siegfried Wagner Conducts Richard Wagner

SOMM Recordings

$37.99 Sep 19, 2025

SOMM Recordings is immensely proud to present newly restored releases of Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930) conducting the music of his father, Richard Wagner (1813-1883). These recordings of the younger Wagner leading the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra were made soon after the introduction of the electrical recording process in April 1925. The painstaking audio restoration of these recordings by long-time SOMM collaborator, Lani Spahr, has been so expertly and stunningly achieved that it is difficult to believe they come from a century ago. Siegfried Wagner was named for the young hero in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle and immortalized in the Siegfried Idyll, included on this release. He was born to Richard Wagner and his future wife, Cosima (nee Liszt), on 6 June 1869. Although Siegfried considered following a profession outside music (and, as a youth, studied architecture in Berlin and in Karlsruhe), it was inevitable that he would follow a career in music given the lineage of both his parents and his grandfather, Franz Liszt. In addition to receiving instruction in music from Liszt, the thirteen-year-old Siegfried began his advanced musical studies in Frankfurt with Engelbert Humperdinck, a true disciple of Richard Wagner. Siegfried became an assistant at Bayreuth in 1892, immersing himself in his father's music under the strong influence of Cosima Wagner and the conductor Hans Richter. In 1895, he made his debut at Bayreuth conducting a complete Ring cycle. The debut was a considerable artistic success, and Siegfried's future as the true guardian of the Wagner inheritance was assured, as he took a greater share in the direction of the Bayreuth Festival. With Cosima's full endorsement, Siegfried assumed the general directorship from his mother in 1908. Siegfried's busy professional life was devoted in the main to Bayreuth in the 1920s, but it was also during this time that he began a recording career devoted almost exclusively to his father's and his own works. Apart from his evident qualities as a conductor of his father's music-heard here in the recorded legacy he left of his performances at Bayreuth and in Berlin and London-he was equally keen to establish himself as a composer. The first of his twelve completed operas, Der Barenhauter (Bearskin) inspired by the German fairytale, met with public and critical acclaim when it was produced in 1899. The acoustic recording of the overture is heard here. Among the Richard Wagner works conducted by Siegfried Wagner on this historic release are well-known selections from Das Rheingold and Die Walkure from the Ring Cycle. Also included are a suite from Parsifal and selections from Tannhauser, Lohengrin, and Tristan und Isolde.

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Siegfried Wagner Conducts Richard Wagner
SOMM Recordings Sep 2025
CD
$37.99

S. Wagner: An allem ist Hütchen Schuld! / Coleman, Karlovy Vary Symphony

Marco Polo

$35.99 Aug 12, 2022

This recording of Siegfried Wagner’s An allem ist Hütchen Schuld! is of an acclaimed live performance of the Bayreuth production from the year of the composer’s 125th birthday in August 2019. The production uses a new critical edition of the score created by Ulrich Leykam. It is the first complete audio recording, recorded live at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth, Germany on 9–10 August 2020.

REVIEWS:

Siegfried Wagner (son of Richard) wrote Everything is Little-Hat’s Fault (An Allem ist Hutchen Schuld) during WWI. Although appreciated at the time, this fairytale opera has had sporadic stagings owing to its fanciful, complex plotline and scenic demands. This new release of a 2019 performance at the Margravial Opera House is a major improvement over the 2016 DVD, which includes some of the same performers. The DVD performance suffered from a terrible Eurotrash production where I couldn’t figure out what was going on or why. Even in this non-visual presentation, certain scenes and even placement of dialog shifts the level of meaning.

The problem with Wagner’s own libretto is that the composer can’t seem to decide if this is a light comedy with music like an operetta, or a horrific drama with music like Act 2 of his father’s Walkure. Regardless of the libretto, the music is truly impressive. The style is mostly late-romantic and influenced by his teacher, Humperdinck. Act I will remind you of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Act II is very much in the Richard Wagner style of monumental orchestration and sweeping, flowing music. Some arias, duets, and ensembles in this act have truly beautiful music often requiring the leads to sing full-out as if they are Siegfried and Brunhilde. Act III is altogether different: some scenes sound like Humperdinck, along with Debussy’s gossamer sounds and Stravinsky’s music from Petrouchka. It’s all very inventive and entertaining.

The recording is excellent. The singing by some of the leads is somewhat shaky in the opening scenes, but then everyone warms up, and all are outstanding for Acts II and III. I wasn’t expecting this level of performance. Conductor Coleman leads everything with the assurance of someone who is intimately involved with the score and knows how each scene should be played. The sound is generally good, though the microphones are at the edge of the stage, so you hear some stage movement and footfalls, particularly in Act I.

The earlier DVD production was so bad that I couldn’t enjoy the music. This new set has completely changed my mind. The composer’s excellent score can now be appreciated. Notes and synopsis are in English and German in Naxos’s usual tiny typeface.

-- American Record Guide (Elliot Fisch)

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S. Wagner: An allem ist Hütchen Schuld! / Coleman, Karlovy Vary Symphony
Marco Polo Aug 2022
CD
$35.99

Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg (Bayreuth, 1957)

Walhall Eternity Series

$13.99 Jul 10, 2015

Bayreuth in the 1950s was annual summer home to the greatest cast of Wagnerian singers in the opera world, as the numerous and thankfully recorded performances from that house in that decade reveal. This 1957 performance of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg has as its female lead Elisabeth Grümmer in the role of Eva, whom some argue was the character’s finest interpreter. Conducted by the fine French Wagnerian André Cluytens, other cast members include Gustav Neidlinger and Joseph Greindl. Complete on 4CDs; 24bit/96kHz re-mastered.

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Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg (Bayreuth, 1957)
Walhall Eternity Series Jul 2015
CD
$13.99