Octo_Russ

Wagner - Siegfried Idyll [Haitink-Concertgebouw Orchestra]

Here's the 'filler' to the two disc box set of the Bruckner Eighth by Haitink, that i spoke about earlier this month [15th November 2010], something serene and similar i guess to the Bruckner adagio, ever since i first heard this piece, i found it beautiful and comforting, Wagner was of course an Opera Composer, and rarely wrote anything else, so a lot of his 'Orchestral' music is culled from Overtures, Preludes and Intermezzi from his Operas, and of course a lot of it stands up on its own, this is the first time i've mentioned Wagner in my Blog, not a major Composer for me, but i do like his orchestral music.

Bernard Haitink was only featured yesterday, i like him as a Conductor, he is a sound interpreter, maybe a shade slow, but that works better in certain compositions, also he can be a bit literal at times, but he has a huge back catalogue containing all sorts of Composers, he recorded this Wagner work in 1974, a full 7 years before the Bruckner on this set.

The Siegfried Idyll starts off so sweet and innocent, very happy-go-lucky, and at first sounds like it's going to be a strings only study, but after a couple of minutes the flute comes in [2:02+], and then the cor anglais [2:13+], the clarinet [2:19+] and the oboe [2:26+], there's a Mahler-esque rustic country theme that keeps comes up on the woodwinds [5:02+ & 5:59+], and near the end a coda-esque reprise [15:51+], just before the coda, there's a great string surge [13:38+], immensely beautiful, and it hits a passionate climax [13:51], the ending is very well done, and a number of themes are presented in coda, and tunes now have an autumn glow about them, the opening theme [14:33+], as seen in nostalgic glory, with the horns giving a golden burnished tone to the music, and almost at the end there's this lovely turn of phrase [16:24], where a sob of sadness / melancholy comes in, it's a lovely serenade, and reminds me very much of the Bruckner 8 Adagio that's just gone before.

Here's Orlando Alonso conducting Wagner's Siegfried Idyll on YouTube.